The 2017 "I'm a bike racer so I'm going to complain about everything" thread

[The Heckler]

On Whirlybird:
I know MAC charges an arm, leg and pair of tubulars to be part of the series but I think $45 is bonkers for the P/1/2 race.

Sure they pay $710 - 7 deep, and sure I finished 6th there last year and got paid but it was a 14 person field and for half those people, specifically the bottom half, $45 is a lot of money for a local race when they know there is a slim chance of making any back.

To put this into perspective the Gloucester UCI C2 reg is only $51 each day. Sure, the bigger races can pool more money to pay the bigger pro payouts from B/C/Masters fields, but as far as bang for the buck, dollars to perceived experience, there is a large disparity between the events.

I mean no disrespect to what Whirlybird has going. I really like the new course. I've been attending since I started racing in 2013 and have gritted my teeth and dealt with the pinwheel each year. They usually have a decent food/coffee vendor, a few porta johns and hoses. But damn, $45?

I'm reg'd, they have my money, bikereg got their $3.60 fee taking the total closer to $50, so my point? I don't know if I have a point. But maybe some Cat 3's aspiring to upgrade would like to chime in. Just wanted to start a conversation on the matter.

 

[mbruno]

@The Heckler, just checked Whirlybird reg fee from last year, $40. But I'd heard the course/venue is 12.5% better this year. So the extra $5 is surely worth it.

 

[MadisonDan]

In 5 years, you can race the Masters 35+. Thankfully by then I'll be in the 45+.
And whatever you do, @The Heckler DO NOT LOOK AT THE RACE PREDICTOR

 

[stb222]

So it is cheaper than Gloucester? Does Heckler not math well?

 

[The Kalmyk]

The business of amatuer athletics is real thing!!!

 

[Pearl]

I bet the numbers wont suffer with the price increase either; the fact that it is the first MAC race, everyone wants points, blah blah blah, I bet they could even charge more.

SSAP was $75 until it finally went away and I think it was the first time it didn't sell out... I'm sure @UtahJoe can confirm what the first couple of races cost.

 

[mbruno]

I bet the numbers wont suffer with the price increase either; the fact that it is the first MAC race, everyone wants points, blah blah blah, I bet they could even charge more.

SSAP was $75 until it finally went away and I think it was the first time it didn't sell out... I'm sure @UtahJoe can confirm what the first couple of races cost.

I dunno man, the non-UCI MAC events last year had a max of 25 racers in the elite fields. I can't wait/am scared to see the #s for Nittany.

 

[UtahJoe]

I have seen that kit you wear @The Heckler ....they should charge you $75 and provide the spectators with blindfolds.

I bet the numbers wont suffer with the price increase either; the fact that it is the first MAC race, everyone wants points, blah blah blah, I bet they could even charge more.

SSAP was $75 until it finally went away and I think it was the first time it didn't sell out... I'm sure @UtahJoe can confirm what the first couple of races cost.

I cant remember...$55, $65, 85...whatever George...shut up and take my money! I would have paid $100. But George gave you alot for your money...The 2 trophies I have from that race alone have about $150 worth of chainrings on them. Plus cash, plus food, shirts, swag, beer. $40-50 for a cross race seems excessive to me, but I dont know any of the details with regards to their costs. I would have to ask @Norm but I would imagine we would probably have to charge something like this if we were ever to put on another event in a morris county park.

 

[jShort]

I dunno man, the non-UCI MAC events last year had a max of 25 racers in the elite fields. I can't wait/am scared to see the #s for Nittany.

#crossisgoing away

 

[Santapez]

-SSap while $75, includes food and schwag. It's also a bigger/longer race that's standalone, not one out of many in a series. Hard to pay $50 at a cross race when next week's race is $25
-These aren't non-profits. I'm happy if people can make money (or lose less money) on these races. However I've definitely said no to registering for cross races purely because of the cost. And sometimes that cost difference is just a bit higher than the norm. When you're looking at a season of races and looking at two different races it's easy to just choose the cheaper/closer one.
-If it wasn't for a prior commitment, I was going to do the Richmond weekend festival of cross this year. $50 for two days of races in a big race format. That's basically one day at some of these races.

 

[hotsauce]

#crossisgoing away

Only if you don't register!

 

[Delish]

Not saying that $45 a race is cheap but there are several ways to look at the cost

1) Cost per minute of racing
Consider the Men's 1/2/3 race is an hour, $45/60min = $0.75/minute
Compare to the Cat3/4/masters which are $35/40min = $0.86/minute
W's 1/2/3 gets the short stick (as usual) at $45/50min = $0.90/min
Factor in the payout potential and the 1/2/3 race is looking like the deal-o-the-day

2) Compare cost of other kids of racing
Average triathlon reg fees $100-150??
5k running race $30 for 20 minutes or racing?

3) compare entry fees to the other costs of racing bikes
bike. $2000+
tubular tire $100
gas & tolls to the event $50-100
the coffee, taylor ham & egg bagels, burritos, beer you consume before and after the race? $45?

 

[Santapez]

While I don't really disagree with the math (Remember the science Pearl had with the costs of his race season)...

Cross with it being a series adds up. Maybe an an extra $10-15 really doesn't make a difference, but there's a tipping point. $30 race may be acceptable, $45 to do the same race may be too much. With a race or two almost every weekend, corners get cut.

 

[easyasballinacup]

Hippo Cross reg $30 for most and $35 for some. Come party with us at the hippo. The hippo listens to the people and gives the people what they want.

I do agree 45 bones for a race is a bit much. Even if the event venue and such are expensive there are plenty of ways to offset those fees to keep reg costs down.

 

[Steve Vai]

#crossisgoing away

Too many classes and the newly applied USAC upgrade pyramid have a lot to do with that. When I started racing there were 5 classes, total. A,B,C, Masters 35+, and Women...Now there are 14. Still the same 100 people at every race so best case is 8-10 people per field, makes the racing boring as fuck IMO. Podiums are 5 deep now too, means 60% of the field gets a medal. They have to charge so much for entry fees just to pay for all the extra participation trophies.

 

[Norm]

This is a hard discussion because everything is blown out of proportion anymore. I don't even mean a conversation. I mean the cost of anything. We were in Seattle a few weeks ago and we got ONE cup of coffee and ONE bar of chocolate and it cost $13. I won't even bother using expletives, because they just fall short. Maybe if I could say FUCK and when you read it, a light bulb in your house exploded. Maybe that would cover how insanely expensive life is these days.

Plus let's be honest - @The Heckler gets paid $50 an hour to work, and what did this post cost his company? He probably just got paid to race Whirlybird for free based on the actual work he did versus what he got paid. And it's not just him. We all get absurd salaries compared to what it used to be, or other countries and such.

Having said all that - I get it. $50 to race cross gets a little nuts. EO brings up a good points about the collateral damage your wallet takes on any given race day. But at the same time, if you just want to wake up, drive to race, race, and go home, the entry point seems to have outpaced inflation a bit.

I will now counter my own point. A long time ago I saw Guns N Roses for like $18 and we literally had front row seats. I see they are at the Garden in October for $120 plus $40 parking. I think we may have paid $5 to park, if we paid anything at all. So things are out of control, it's not just cross.

If you bring your lunch to work instead of eating out all fall, you essentially can race cross for free.

 

[Steve Vai]

I will now counter my own point. A long time ago I saw Guns N Roses for like $18 and we literally had front row seats. I see they are at the Garden in October for $120 plus $40 parking. I think we may have paid $5 to park, if we paid anything at all. So things are out of control, it's not just cross.

But Guns and Roses used to make money off selling albums, and now they rely on shows for income because no one buys albums anymore. Cross has raised they're prices for no reason, the back end is still all the same.

 

[The Kalmyk]

This is a hard discussion because everything is blown out of proportion anymore.

No doubt about this fact! The hack to that would be the one child law. Unrealistic but no doubt soften the blow.


About cross?!?!

Is it beyond reasoning that a promoter would make up cash flow by tacking on 5 buck? No volume so we make it up with price kinda thing. People are people after all.

 

[BCurry]

I don't do many organized events, so pricing is rarely an issue for me. However if you were trying to be competitive in a series, it would suck to possibly be budgeted out of the competition

I am sure insurance is a big factor for the promoters in all the events but it does seem to me costs are all over the place , over $100 for a gran fondo or an endurance race/ride seems way to much to follow markings on the road.

So other than insurance and timing chips what other indexes drive the cost of an event. Why is the Stewart 6 pack 60ish dollars vs Shenandoah 100 $200 (is that correct) - I understand the temporal and distance difference between them. But it still seems absurd that a race should charge that much.

 

[Pearl]

Those 100 mile races are a huge production. Kind of in its own world. It's pretty much a weekend event and usually covers two meals, camping and 5-6 stocked different aid stations. Marking 100 miles, granted it isn't marked like @UtahJoe and is rather light, is a huge task. Totally different than cross race setup/teardown