The cost of Century Rides

Frank Krygowski

radonneur, grand fondo riders ride the Ohio Century ?

was your C 100 miles ? what was the finishing rate ?

exlax in the cookies ?

Frank

radonneur, grand fondo riders ride the Ohio Century ?

was your C 100 miles ? what was the finishing rate ?

exlax in the cookies ?



live near Olmstead Falls ?

http://www.cleveland19.com/story/317...in-pike-county

http://goo.gl/ss5ePv

On Thursday, April 21, 2016 at 8:18:57 PM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 4/21/2016 8:42 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Thursday, April 21, 2016 at 2:27:24 PM UTC-7, sms wrote:
On 4/21/2016 8:54 AM, Doc O'Leary wrote:
For your reference, records indicate that
Frank Krygowski wrote:

Normal economic theory always said that when prices rise, fewer sales
will occur

Not if the product was underpriced for the market in the first place.

Also, in the case of many century rides, they limit the number of
riders. So if they are trying to maximize revenue they would keep
raising the price until the demand is about equal to the supply.

Has anyone here organized a century? I really do wonder how they set the price.

Well, I ran our club's century ride for 7 or 8 years. (Got an award
from LAB for having one of the top three best LAB-sanctioned centuries
one year, although I don't know how they could possibly determine that.
But I was happy to accept the award, a pretty nice Blackburn folding
work stand.)

As I recall, when I took over the century, I kept the price whatever it
had been - probably in the $15 to $20 range. We never raised it much.
We always made at least a moderate profit, which was all we wanted. As
I recall, the big cost was food, but we negotiated discounts for that.
Club volunteers handled everything, including baking lots of homemade
cookies for the 25, 50 and 75 rest stops. Other minor expenses were
things like rental of facilities for registration and lunch, printing
forms and maps, advertising, mileage costs for volunteers (sags and road
markers do lots of driving), road marking paint, signs, and other
miscellaneous stuff.


We interrupt this regularly scheduled broadcast to announce that my son was hired as a wrangler of some sort for the Tour of Utah. It will be a lot of grunt work setting up and taking down tents, but part of his job will be corralling the podium finishers at the end of the race and otherwise organizing the racers. He's getting paid, plus lodging and meals and tons of swag. He's totally thrilled and can't wait to meet Tyler Phinney -- his tall-guy homeboy. Richie Porte, Rohan Dennis -- a lot of good guys on the BMC team. My son has gone nuts with cycling, although he still needs to develop some mechanic skills. He's getting tech bootcamp when he comes home this summer, and I'm hoping he also learns a few things from the race mechanics (and not that he needs a flashy CF bike, because the hand-me-down CAAD 9 is good enough).

-- Jay Beattie.

On 4/22/2016 10:33 AM, jbeattie wrote:

snip

We interrupt this regularly scheduled broadcast to announce that my son was hired as a wrangler of some sort for the Tour of Utah. It will be a lot of grunt work setting up and taking down tents, but part of his job will be corralling the podium finishers at the end of the race and otherwise organizing the racers. He's getting paid, plus lodging and meals and tons of swag. He's totally thrilled and can't wait to meet Tyler Phinney -- his tall-guy homeboy. Richie Porte, Rohan Dennis -- a lot of good guys on the BMC team. My son has gone nuts with cycling, although he still needs to develop some mechanic skills. He's getting tech bootcamp when he comes home this summer, and I'm hoping he also learns a few things from the race mechanics (and not that he needs a flashy CF bike, because the hand-me-down CAAD 9 is good enough).

He should enjoy himself.

I went down to watch one leg of the Amgen Tour 'de California one year
and it was pretty cool. This was before the doping scandal and their
were women kissing the pavement where Lance Armstrong's tires had rolled
(though I get that kind of thing all the time). One woman shouted at him
"I want to have your baby," then turned to her husband and said, "oh
wait, I'm supposed to have your baby."

On Wednesday, April 20, 2016 at 3:01:54 PM UTC-7, sms wrote:
I was at the Sea Otter Classic last Saturday and visited a booth of a
California cycling magazine which had information on a bunch of upcoming
century rides.

I looked at the one for my old bicycle club, where in the 1980's we
argued about raising the entry cost to $12 from $10 (or maybe it was $8
to $10). Our century was never intended to be a fund-raiser, so we set
the price to just break even.

I saw that the registration for that ride is now $80 ($70 for early
registration) and that a tee shirt is another $20.

Are there enough people paying $70-100 to ride on public roads to keep
all these century rides in business?

Of course the smartest cyclist guys of all time were the ones that began
the Cinderalla Classic http://www.valleyspokesmen.org/cinderellaclassic

I also notice that the clubs no longer require or perform any bicycle
inspections. Way too much liability if they allow an unsafe bicycle on
the ride. At least that ride is a slightly more reasonable $58.

Most of these clubs no longer use their Century rides to finance their clubs. Instead they use dues to finance the club and use the income from Centuries for various charities. Because of the drive for ever more increasing amounts to charities I simply ride only one or two Centuries a year now.

On Wednesday, April 20, 2016 at 5:43:23 PM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 4/20/2016 7:34 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Wednesday, April 20, 2016 at 3:01:54 PM UTC-7, sms wrote:
I was at the Sea Otter Classic last Saturday and visited a booth of a
California cycling magazine which had information on a bunch of upcoming
century rides.

I looked at the one for my old bicycle club, where in the 1980's we
argued about raising the entry cost to $12 from $10 (or maybe it was $8
to $10). Our century was never intended to be a fund-raiser, so we set
the price to just break even.

I saw that the registration for that ride is now $80 ($70 for early
registration) and that a tee shirt is another $20.

Are there enough people paying $70-100 to ride on public roads to keep
all these century rides in business?

Of course the smartest cyclist guys of all time were the ones that began
the Cinderalla Classic http://www.valleyspokesmen.org/cinderellaclassic

I also notice that the clubs no longer require or perform any bicycle
inspections. Way too much liability if they allow an unsafe bicycle on
the ride. At least that ride is a slightly more reasonable $58.


$30-40 up here for a standard century. $70-80 for the deluxe free beer/wine good food ride -- with a crappy route. http://www.portlandcentury.com/ I don't typically ride organized centuries -- and there are not that many up here. I think the SCV has way more of them -- and more people with money.

I did a super-expensive century last year in Washington -- which was $135, but I got in free because my sister-in-law was working support. That fee also included an O.K. jersey and a shuttle bus ride. You could get the ride only for $60 (along with admission to the "festival"): http://giganticbicyclefestival.org/#...r_registration.

Interesting point-to-point ride -- you had to shuttle to the start or from the end back to the start. I got a shuttle ride to the start and then did the ride back to Snoqualmie.

Wow. Seems to me it's another example proving that there's no upper
limit to what some people will pay.

Normal economic theory always said that when prices rise, fewer sales
will occur (a phenomenon known as "elasticity"), so maximum profit can
be visualized as the intersection between the profit-per-sale curve and
the sale-vs-price curve. Or something vaguely like that. (Hey, it's
been years.) But there are buyers that defy the logic, and pay very
high prices for products that most consumers would reject. Which is
_not_ to deliberately slag custom lugged steel frames...

One of the _Freakonomics_ books had another example of that. A very
intelligent woman, maybe (I forget) with degrees in economics, liked sex
very much. She turned professional and did quite well, with "johns" who
were upper-income and generally pleasant.

But it got to be just too tiring, or something, so she decided to apply
elementary economics and raise her prices sky high. She found to her
surprise that she had about as much business as before; but she was
raking in a lot more money.

So in economic terms, the demand for a good whore is inelastic. Maybe
the same can be said of a "luxury" century ride.

--
- Frank Krygowski

Frank - people no longer know the meaning of the worth of money and they pull out a credit card. This was built into them by the banks and it is unlikely to leave any time soon.

On 4/22/2016 4:02 PM, wrote:
On Wednesday, April 20, 2016 at 5:43:23 PM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 4/20/2016 7:34 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Wednesday, April 20, 2016 at 3:01:54 PM UTC-7, sms wrote:
I was at the Sea Otter Classic last Saturday and visited a booth of a
California cycling magazine which had information on a bunch of upcoming
century rides.

I looked at the one for my old bicycle club, where in the 1980's we
argued about raising the entry cost to $12 from $10 (or maybe it was $8
to $10). Our century was never intended to be a fund-raiser, so we set
the price to just break even.

I saw that the registration for that ride is now $80 ($70 for early
registration) and that a tee shirt is another $20.

Are there enough people paying $70-100 to ride on public roads to keep
all these century rides in business?

Of course the smartest cyclist guys of all time were the ones that began
the Cinderalla Classic http://www.valleyspokesmen.org/cinderellaclassic

I also notice that the clubs no longer require or perform any bicycle
inspections. Way too much liability if they allow an unsafe bicycle on
the ride. At least that ride is a slightly more reasonable $58.


$30-40 up here for a standard century. $70-80 for the deluxe free beer/wine good food ride -- with a crappy route. http://www.portlandcentury.com/ I don't typically ride organized centuries -- and there are not that many up here. I think the SCV has way more of them -- and more people with money.

I did a super-expensive century last year in Washington -- which was $135, but I got in free because my sister-in-law was working support. That fee also included an O.K. jersey and a shuttle bus ride. You could get the ride only for $60 (along with admission to the "festival"): http://giganticbicyclefestival.org/#...r_registration.

Interesting point-to-point ride -- you had to shuttle to the start or from the end back to the start. I got a shuttle ride to the start and then did the ride back to Snoqualmie.

Wow. Seems to me it's another example proving that there's no upper
limit to what some people will pay.

Normal economic theory always said that when prices rise, fewer sales
will occur (a phenomenon known as "elasticity"), so maximum profit can
be visualized as the intersection between the profit-per-sale curve and
the sale-vs-price curve. Or something vaguely like that. (Hey, it's
been years.) But there are buyers that defy the logic, and pay very
high prices for products that most consumers would reject. Which is
_not_ to deliberately slag custom lugged steel frames...

One of the _Freakonomics_ books had another example of that. A very
intelligent woman, maybe (I forget) with degrees in economics, liked sex
very much. She turned professional and did quite well, with "johns" who
were upper-income and generally pleasant.

But it got to be just too tiring, or something, so she decided to apply
elementary economics and raise her prices sky high. She found to her
surprise that she had about as much business as before; but she was
raking in a lot more money.

So in economic terms, the demand for a good whore is inelastic. Maybe
the same can be said of a "luxury" century ride.

--
- Frank Krygowski

Frank - people no longer know the meaning of the worth of money and they pull out a credit card. This was built into them by the banks and it is unlikely to leave any time soon.

The Sequoia Century used to sell out very quickly. Not any more. Maybe
they priced it so it will fill up just before the ride. So either people
are reluctant to pay that much or there are less riders for other
reasons, such as too many such rides.

The Sequoia is a very nice route, and quite difficult for the 100 mile
ride. Not so bad for the 100 Kilometer ride.

On 4/22/2016 4:00 PM, wrote:
On Wednesday, April 20, 2016 at 3:01:54 PM UTC-7, sms wrote:
I was at the Sea Otter Classic last Saturday and visited a booth of a
California cycling magazine which had information on a bunch of upcoming
century rides.

I looked at the one for my old bicycle club, where in the 1980's we
argued about raising the entry cost to $12 from $10 (or maybe it was $8
to $10). Our century was never intended to be a fund-raiser, so we set
the price to just break even.

I saw that the registration for that ride is now $80 ($70 for early
registration) and that a tee shirt is another $20.

Are there enough people paying $70-100 to ride on public roads to keep
all these century rides in business?

Of course the smartest cyclist guys of all time were the ones that began
the Cinderalla Classic http://www.valleyspokesmen.org/cinderellaclassic

I also notice that the clubs no longer require or perform any bicycle
inspections. Way too much liability if they allow an unsafe bicycle on
the ride. At least that ride is a slightly more reasonable $58.

Most of these clubs no longer use their Century rides to finance their clubs. Instead they use dues to finance the club and use the income from Centuries for various charities. Because of the drive for ever more increasing amounts to charities I simply ride only one or two Centuries a year now.

There must be some weird insurance thing with these rides. The
registration for the ride I mentioned states: "The Sequoia Century is a
private event for Members Only. Registration includes membership in the
Western Wheelers Bicycle Club through June 15, 2016."

On Friday, April 22, 2016 at 6:11:34 PM UTC-7, sms wrote:
On 4/22/2016 4:02 PM, wrote:
On Wednesday, April 20, 2016 at 5:43:23 PM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 4/20/2016 7:34 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Wednesday, April 20, 2016 at 3:01:54 PM UTC-7, sms wrote:
I was at the Sea Otter Classic last Saturday and visited a booth of a
California cycling magazine which had information on a bunch of upcoming
century rides.

I looked at the one for my old bicycle club, where in the 1980's we
argued about raising the entry cost to $12 from $10 (or maybe it was $8
to $10). Our century was never intended to be a fund-raiser, so we set
the price to just break even.

I saw that the registration for that ride is now $80 ($70 for early
registration) and that a tee shirt is another $20.

Are there enough people paying $70-100 to ride on public roads to keep
all these century rides in business?

Of course the smartest cyclist guys of all time were the ones that began
the Cinderalla Classic http://www.valleyspokesmen.org/cinderellaclassic

I also notice that the clubs no longer require or perform any bicycle
inspections. Way too much liability if they allow an unsafe bicycle on
the ride. At least that ride is a slightly more reasonable $58.


$30-40 up here for a standard century. $70-80 for the deluxe free beer/wine good food ride -- with a crappy route. http://www.portlandcentury.com/ I don't typically ride organized centuries -- and there are not that many up here. I think the SCV has way more of them -- and more people with money.

I did a super-expensive century last year in Washington -- which was $135, but I got in free because my sister-in-law was working support. That fee also included an O.K. jersey and a shuttle bus ride. You could get the ride only for $60 (along with admission to the "festival"): http://giganticbicyclefestival.org/#...r_registration.

Interesting point-to-point ride -- you had to shuttle to the start or from the end back to the start. I got a shuttle ride to the start and then did the ride back to Snoqualmie.

Wow. Seems to me it's another example proving that there's no upper
limit to what some people will pay.

Normal economic theory always said that when prices rise, fewer sales
will occur (a phenomenon known as "elasticity"), so maximum profit can
be visualized as the intersection between the profit-per-sale curve and
the sale-vs-price curve. Or something vaguely like that. (Hey, it's
been years.) But there are buyers that defy the logic, and pay very
high prices for products that most consumers would reject. Which is
_not_ to deliberately slag custom lugged steel frames...

One of the _Freakonomics_ books had another example of that. A very
intelligent woman, maybe (I forget) with degrees in economics, liked sex
very much. She turned professional and did quite well, with "johns" who
were upper-income and generally pleasant.

But it got to be just too tiring, or something, so she decided to apply
elementary economics and raise her prices sky high. She found to her
surprise that she had about as much business as before; but she was
raking in a lot more money.

So in economic terms, the demand for a good whore is inelastic. Maybe
the same can be said of a "luxury" century ride.

--
- Frank Krygowski

Frank - people no longer know the meaning of the worth of money and they pull out a credit card. This was built into them by the banks and it is unlikely to leave any time soon.

The Sequoia Century used to sell out very quickly. Not any more. Maybe
they priced it so it will fill up just before the ride. So either people
are reluctant to pay that much or there are less riders for other
reasons, such as too many such rides.

The Sequoia is a very nice route, and quite difficult for the 100 mile
ride. Not so bad for the 100 Kilometer ride.

That was a great ride. SCV had a lot of good to great centuries. Primavera, Big Basin Mini-Challenge, Mt. Hamilton Challenge, Tierra Bella and so on. The Mt. Hamilton Challenge was such a racket -- you paid an entry fee and then provided your own food which was delivered to the rest stops. I think the organizers provided water and a delivery van. Great route, though, and that was the selling point -- not the food, obviously.

-- Jay Beattie.