I cannot believe the lack of commitment that cyclists have towards their sport

[big_h]

Hi Guys

I am angry....where in the world will you get sportspeople who are willing to spend thousands of Rand on their equipment, spend even more to visit Cape Town for the ARGUS and other races.......complain about race organisation, chip timing......costs , cost of club membership and cyclo sport licenses and the multitude of other things discussed regularly on this forum than in South Africa. Did any of you knew there is a website now up and running where you can rate events. the website is http://www.eventrating.co.za . Please support this as it can become a very valuable tool for organisers, timing chip suppliers, sponsors and cyclists. I COULD NOT BELIEVE THAT I WAS THE SECOND .......... YES SECOND PERSON, TO RATE THE HYPER TO HYPER. Come-on guys make use of this feature and show your commitment in our sport. This can become a very valuable tool.

Keep those wheels spinning!!!!!

Big H

 

[easyrider]

Catch more flies with honey than vinegar...

Explain to people how this can be a valuable resource and how the information gathered will be transmitted to race directors in an effort to improve the sport.

Asserting that declining to fill out an online form rating an event is tantamount to "lack of commitment" to the sport is heavy handed at best and offensive to many.

Cyclists tend to be brighter-than-average people and can understand why they should use this service if you simply explain it to them in a legitimate fashion. Attempting to badger them into doing something by questioning their commitment can't get the desired results.

Let's try this:

What do you say you post the Top 5 reasons that people should visit that site and rate an event that they participated in?

 

[big_h]

Hi easyrider

I apologize if I offended. please read this as a South African thing. I might have overreacted in some of the statements I made. There is so many underlying things in our sport at this stage that I do not want to embellish too much about it. Cycling has a different nature here (I think and correct me if I am wrongif it diffeerent or the same Stateside). Races even small club races can easily draw up to 1000 funride competitors. This is combined with a Elite race. The larger races can draw up to 35 000 entrants - read funriders (like the ARGUS Cycle Race www.cycletour.co.za ) This is again combined with a Elite race. The old adage of where you get people you will always have the detractors certainly rules rampant here. The detractors can consist of quite a large amount of the competitors and the discussion is quite lively at times. A multitude of issues and problem desist as well as previous history makes our sport quite volatile at times.

All is not as bad as it sounds though!!!!! The sport is grwing with leaps and bounds and a lot of people partake.

Keep those wheels spinning!!!!

Big H

 

[easyrider]

No worries!

But seriously, you can see that people do read these posts (about 50 have read this one so far) and you can motivate people to act through your posts.

So, sincerely, how can filling out the form at the above mentioned site help cycling in your area? Will the results be used to select suppliers to the events? To get more port-a-potties? To help directors do their job more efficiently?

Sounds like you have some HUGE events and there are certainly going to be unique problems associated with that. Like putting on a large marathon. A nightmare job that I never want!

Growth is good, but if the infrastructure isn't in place to support it, headaches abound.

 

[roKeMS]

this is the problem we're currently having in Brisbane Queensland Australia.
We're trying to start a mtb park up here (or down depending on your hemisphere )
In so few arenas in life be it sport, lifestyle or lesuire will you find such a cross section of "occupation" as you will in mtb.
I've ridden with high class lawyers, sheep shearers and nobodies. Once you're on a mtb you're an equal.
(Bugger waving to Roadies haha....)
We're trying to start a MTB Park but the problem we're having is non-unification. that surprises us but considering the cross section....it doesn't.
It's such an individual sport but overall it doesn't need to be. Why is it that way? It's like guys who get around in dresses. You may know one but you'll never know until you thro your mums frock on and the neighbour sez "and how you doin'??"

www.mountainbikepark.com/

is the site.

I'm done I guess....