OBRA: OBRA Chat: Race attendance

John Sorlie

2000-10-04

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I made it to about 10 races this year, including both mountain bike and =

road races, and thought that was pretty good. The only way I could go =

to more is if there were more weekend or midweek events near where I =

live--which is Bend. Unfortunately I can't convince my wife and kids =

that I need to go to more bike races. Any ideas?

John Sorlie

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<DIV><FONT size=3D2>I made it to about 10 races this year, including =

both mountain=20

bike and road races, and thought that was pretty good. The only =

way I=20

could go to more is if there were more weekend or midweek events near =

where I=20

live--which is Bend. Unfortunately I can't convince my wife and =

kids that=20

I need to go to more bike races. Any ideas?</FONT></DIV>

<DIV><FONT size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>

<DIV><FONT size=3D2>John Sorlie</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>

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Julie Wose, Thane Jennings

2000-10-04

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Childcare is the biggest issue for me. It's one thing to hire a sitter =

so I can dash off to a mountain bike race here in Bend. Hiring someone =

from 7am to 4pm so I can drive to Portland for a 45 minute cyclocross =

race is cost prohibitive.

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<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2>Childcare is the biggest issue for =

me. It's one=20

thing to hire a sitter so I can dash off to a mountain bike race here in =

Bend.=20

Hiring someone from 7am to 4pm so I can drive to Portland for a 45 =

minute=20

cyclocross race is cost prohibitive.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>

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Mark Greenwood

2000-10-04

I think I attended about a dozen races this year. Part of the reason I

didn't do more was that this was my first year in racing and I was just

trying to figure out what goes on. What I'm really attracted to are the

road races, time trials, and races like the PIR series, so the more

opportunities for those, the better.

One thing that might have gotten me to a few more races was better

advance notification of the details. Sometimes the "online flyer"

wasn't posted until within a week or two of the event, which is OK for

local stuff but too late to plan a trip to Eugene or Medford. Of

course, now that I know more people in this group, I'll probably hear

more by word-of-mouth, but... just a suggestion. I like the web site

best for receiving information, versus mailed flyers, etc.

Right now, I'm just looking forward to racing again next year. Perhaps

after that, I'll have more creative suggestions. I'm just grateful for

this fine organization that allowed me to give this a go.

Steven Mullen

2000-10-03

I have to agree with Shane. Sort of. In my case, my wife isn't

particularly interested in attending races, but she'd

be a lot more interested in seeing me go if I took the kids with me. Some

sort of organized daycare at the races would be great. I tried bringing a

babysitter with me a few times this year, but unless the babysitter is sort

of familiar with the whole scene, it's kind of hard. Anybody else out there

in the same boat?

<< What would make you go to more races? Bigger prize lists? Lower entry

fees? More categories or less categories? Bigger or smaller fields? More

road races, crits, TTs, etc? More publicity? More or less "festival"

atmosphere at events? Results publication? Organized training sessions?

Let me know your thoughts.

Mike Murray >>

EMia-@aol.com

2000-10-03

Coming from Trigeekdom where the cost of races usually exceed $30, but are

usually more like $55 (AA Sports) or $75 (Xterra) just to name a few, the

cost of OBRA races are very reasonable I think. And I don't mind paying a

little extra for well-organized events. There's nothing worse than racing at

a disjuncted and unprofessionally run race. And I like the coffee idea.

Emily

Shane M. Young

2000-10-02

This was my first year racing. I raced five races in beginning senior

mountain bike class. Two of the races my wife attended as a spectator. I

also got four other new riders to race this year in a total of 6 races. I

tell you all of this so that you understand where I am coming from. I

thoroughly enjoyed racing and plan on competing next season.

I think that people would race more if their significant other attended.

Less guilt for leaving them behind or not having fun. Three things can

help to achieve this.

1. Sobe was an awesome sponsor supplying drinks for the racers. On the

flip side, many of the race days were cold for people not riding. Maybe

selling coffee or finding a coffee company to be a sponsor would be a good

idea. I road Seattle to Portland this year and I believe that Milestone

was a sponsor, they had coffee at most stops.

It seems that cross-country riders like courses not tracks. Although this

is great for the rider, it is very uneventful for the spectator. They see

people leave and come back with at least a hour break in-between. To

satisfy both spectator and participate, where possible, courses could be

clover shape or traverse back and fourth to one central point. This makes

it easier for spectators so see the action.

Provide activities during the race for the spectator. Music or other

biking events like trials competition.

I really didn't find that the cost of racing was too bad, though it would

have been a different story if I had raced the whole season. It is good

that juniors have reduced cost for many of the races. Maybe charge

beginners a lower cost also, to make sure that the price isn't keeping them

away. Get them hooked on racing and then charge them later. Hate to say

it, but it works.

Publicity for riders that had year licenses was good. Fliers were sent out

and everyone was informed. I didn't see much other publicity about Oregon

races. It would be good to have our events posted in the calendar sections

of MTBR.com and in the mountain biking magazines, that way people that

don't know about ORBA can find out.

When it comes to the races, I liked the large field size. The more the

marrier. It makes you feel apart of something, being out there with all

the other people that enjoy riding.

There was one piece that would have been nice to see some consistency in

and that was the placement posting via e-mail. Everyone seemed to send out

times and places in a different manner. If a format could be developed at

the beginning of the year and everyone could follow it, it would be a lot

easier to follow.

-----Original Message-----

From: Mike Murray [SMTP:mmur-@teleport.com]

Sent: Monday, October 02, 2000 4:33 PM

To: OBRA Remailer

Subject: [OBRA Chat] Race attendance

In going through the statistics for OBRA races this year I noticed that the

total number of rider-days divided by the total membership, i.e. the number

of races the average OBRA member attended this year, was considerably below

10. It should be noted that this does NOT include single day memberships

and the number is actually inflated by the single day and out-of-state

members.

I find it hard to believe that this number is so small since most people I

know are going to many more races than that. Just by myself I offset about

15 members that didn't go to ANY races. Jamie Mikami offsets about 20 no

race members.

I can only assume that there is a fairly large number of OBRA members that

are only going to a few races each year. This would indicate to me that

the

best way to increase the number of riders at events is not trying to

attract

new OBRA members but rather to try to get the existing members to turn out

more frequently. If every current member to went to just 5 more races it

would increase the number of riders at any given event by 50-100%.

What would make you go to more races? Bigger prize lists? Lower entry

fees? More categories or less categories? Bigger or smaller fields? More

road races, crits, TTs, etc? More publicity? More or less "festival"

atmosphere at events? Results publication? Organized training sessions?

Let me know your thoughts.

Mike Murray

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Pat OBrien

2000-10-02

I would go to more races if Norrene Valenti would let me win more

often......... and that's just when I get to race the women.

In the masters, may be I'd be more inclined to race if Ted Forgeron would

stop lapping me all the time.

Pat

On Mon, 02 Oct 2000 16:33:12 -0700 Mike Murray <mmur-@teleport.com>

writes:

In going through the statistics for OBRA races this year I noticed

that the

total number of rider-days divided by the total membership, i.e. the

number

of races the average OBRA member attended this year, was

considerably below

10. It should be noted that this does NOT include single day

memberships

and the number is actually inflated by the single day and

out-of-state

members.

I find it hard to believe that this number is so small since most

people I

know are going to many more races than that. Just by myself I

offset about

15 members that didn't go to ANY races. Jamie Mikami offsets about

20 no

race members.

I can only assume that there is a fairly large number of OBRA

members that

are only going to a few races each year. This would indicate to me

that the

best way to increase the number of riders at events is not trying to

attract

new OBRA members but rather to try to get the existing members to

turn out

more frequently. If every current member to went to just 5 more

races it

would increase the number of riders at any given event by 50-100%.

What would make you go to more races? Bigger prize lists? Lower

entry

fees? More categories or less categories? Bigger or smaller fields?

More

road races, crits, TTs, etc? More publicity? More or less

"festival"

atmosphere at events? Results publication? Organized training

sessions?

Let me know your thoughts.

Mike Murray

To respond to the whole group send to ob-@topica.com.

To respond to the list manager send to ob-@teleport.com

To unsubscribe send to obra-uns-@topica.com

___________________________________________________________

T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16

Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics

Mike Murray

2000-10-02

In going through the statistics for OBRA races this year I noticed that the

total number of rider-days divided by the total membership, i.e. the number

of races the average OBRA member attended this year, was considerably below

10. It should be noted that this does NOT include single day memberships

and the number is actually inflated by the single day and out-of-state

members.

I find it hard to believe that this number is so small since most people I

know are going to many more races than that. Just by myself I offset about

15 members that didn't go to ANY races. Jamie Mikami offsets about 20 no

race members.

I can only assume that there is a fairly large number of OBRA members that

are only going to a few races each year. This would indicate to me that the

best way to increase the number of riders at events is not trying to attract

new OBRA members but rather to try to get the existing members to turn out

more frequently. If every current member to went to just 5 more races it

would increase the number of riders at any given event by 50-100%.

What would make you go to more races? Bigger prize lists? Lower entry

fees? More categories or less categories? Bigger or smaller fields? More

road races, crits, TTs, etc? More publicity? More or less "festival"

atmosphere at events? Results publication? Organized training sessions?

Let me know your thoughts.

Mike Murray