What kind of biking challenge would keep you motivated?

We have a fair bunch of cycle-happy people here at my workplace, but I'm always trying to recruit more. I have a special thing for winter cycling - not because it's always the best mode of transport OR exercise in winter - but because winter cycling in Oslo is in general a lot easier than people think. And if you find that it's possible and even comfortable to bike to work many days in winter, you're bound to find summer biking an absolute breeze.

Anyway. I'm about to start up our annual winter-bike-to-work challenge. There are a lot of new youngish people here now, and I aim to recruit many of them. We register our commutes every day in a joint spreadsheet and tally two categories - no. of times biked, and distance biked.

So - what would YOU appreciate, to keep your motivation up to bike as often as reasonably possible, even when the weather is less than balmy?

We have a few prizes, but not many and they're usually awarded way after the challenge is over. Some people like finding someone they know to compete with. I was given a neat idea - as soon as someone passes a certain distance, they get an automatic email telling them that they've virtually biked to a certain place (the next county, Sweden, Copenhagen, etc.). Last year I emailed summaries of the results every month to everybody - but not everybody finds statistics that interesting ;). I was thinking of maybe starting a blog this year, that other people could write in to as well, post photos from their commutes, neat tips, the latest narrow escape, celebrate milestones.

Maintenance: I'm trying to get a mechanic to come here and do a simple pre-winter tune-up for us, but people will have to pay themselves. Am also trying to fix bike wash possibilities a couple of times this winter (we share the garage with a car-wash, but they go ballistic if we try to borrow anything).

So - what kind of things would really make you want to bike yet another dreary day? Competition? Signing up for a specific challenge like a certain number of commutes? Being mentioned by name in a blog? Invited along on a joint ride? One big prize, many small prizes?

sorry, this got lengthy, but all answers appreciated :)

what keeps me motivated is the way my body shape changes when I don't ride. =8-0

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Originally Posted by lph

So - what kind of things would really make you want to bike yet another dreary day? Competition? Signing up for a specific challenge like a certain number of commutes? Being mentioned by name in a blog? Invited along on a joint ride? One big prize, many small prizes?

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I can't really answer for myself, because I'm (almost) always motivated to bike but I can help brainstorm some ideas.

Everyone who rode in that day, or brought their bike, go for a short ride at lunch or after work. You could make a point of biking in work clothes for the short lunch ride.

A prominently displayed chart with names down one side and days across the top, and gold stars every day each person biked.

"Who biked the most days" with a billion different categories so that pretty much everyone can win in something. Categories: <2 miles, 2-5 miles, 5-10 miles, etc. Novice cyclist category. Age categories. Type of bike category. Why limit it to bikes? Scooter category. Walkers category. As long as it is active transportation!

Prizes work for me, especially really cheap, kitschy ones. I'd probably commute all winter for a Cupie doll.

How about a hot drink when they got to work? Maybe set up a some type of group discount at a local place or a coffee/hot chocolate area at your office just for bike commuters (with pastries or something once a week).

I admit it, I bike for food. :)

body shape, lunch ride, gold stars and fame, prizes, hot drinks and pastries. Terrific ideas! :)

I think your blog idea is great. I would bike for a chance to talk about myself, and I suspect I'm not alone in that.

Oh yeah, not just a blog that lists who biked how far today, but a blog that anyone who commuted can post to. They did that for the No Car Diet, and that was the best part. It really built a sense of community among the participants.

ooh.. i wanna play.

bouncing off of your "this is how far you biked today" idea.. what if you were all one team or maybe just create two teams and add up the mileage of the team to see who reaches <pick a sunny place> first. and then serve up some drinks w/ umbrellas and sunglasses or something when they reach it. maybe it doens't have to be a race but just whenever the team reaches their destination then have a small ceremony.

or.. a similar idea is to bike for charity. you can even just sign up like plus3network and see which team raises the most money..

sounds like fun.. but brrrr.. biking in oslo in winter... wow must be a good cross bike for that!

We raise money for chairity at work and we have contests to see who can raise $500 -$1000 in a month. Some things we do to motivate eachother charts with our names and amounts raised,free lunch for a weekly winner,free coffee for a weekend winner,$50 gift cert for monthly winner,having the boss wear something silly if we raised $300 in one day (he rocked that pink feather boa). It seems competion and bragging rights sometimess go along way

These ideas are just amazing, wow!

I have to decide who to tailor the motivation to. This is the fifth year we're doing this winter challenge, so I have a pretty good idea of how much who is going to bike. The hard-core distance and everyday riders deserve pats on the back and a hot drink or whatever every now and then, but they'll ride no matter what. There's a large contigent who will ride late autumn and early spring, but don't "do" studded tires and specialized winter gear. They always drop out in mid-winter. And there's the newbies, who for a large part are fit young people who bike in summer, but maybe find biking in winter to be inefficient exercise.

What I really want to do is get more people over from driving cars to riding bikes, but I suspect that winter riding is not the time to do so. Most of them either live a fair distance away, or insist that they have to drive their car to have the freedom to arrange their day the way they need to. (...which involves getting up early to avoid traffic, fighting over parking spots in the garage, not being able to leave work between 3 and 5 because of traffic... :rolleyes:).

Secondary I want to get more people who don't exercise a lot into commuting by bike. Oslo has a fairly decent system of public transport, so this an argument for exercise, not eco-friendly transport. I think these people should be my main focus, getting everybody who lives within a reasonable distance to at least consider biking a few times a week. So I think that attainable goals, a sense of community (maybe even a weight-loss challenge, but I'm stepping very carefully around that one), joint rides every now and then, help to find good routes and of course help to figure out the right gear is good for this group. I'm leaning towards a blog for this purpose. Mass emails are just annoying to those who aren't interested.

Typical example: I have a co-worker who is trying to lose some weight. He bikes to work in summer, and loves it, but he often gets derailed by family "stuff" - errands, sick kids, pregnant wife, this that and the other - and ends up driving instead. He would love to try winter riding though, and is looking at buying a used winter bike. I have to get people like him to not think "oh well, dropped off this one, better try again next year", but still try riding next week, or next month again. We have some pretty hardcore long-distance cyclists (*ahem*), so a spot among the top ten is unattainable for most people. A little friendly competition at every level is what I should be shooting for.

Love the ideas, people!

I like the collective distance idea, like our total mileage has reached Next Door, New York, The Moon, Mars...etc. And now, we are collectively so strong that we can pull ourselves out of a black hole!

I want to work where you work! Do you need a speech therapist there? I even speak Norwegian a little bit.

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Originally Posted by malkin

I like the collective distance idea, like our total mileage has reached Next Door, New York, The Moon, Mars...etc. And now, we are collectively so strong that we can pull ourselves out of a black hole!

I want to work where you work! Do you need a speech therapist there? I even speak Norwegian a little bit.

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Really? Cool, how come?

I was suddenly reminded of the cute English guy I met at a course on Spitsbergen. Before the evening was out I had taught him some "essential Norwegian" to say to any pretty girl.... it was "will you take me home?" :D

The winter challenge is progressing thusly:
I've recruited a "bike guide" for each major bike route/direction in to work, seven altogether, so anyone who wants to can join in on a joint bike ride to work on the first day of the challenge (Nov 1st). We have to post details of each route and timing in advance. We should reach our workplace roughly at the same time, where I'll fix some fruit and cookies waiting, maybe hot spiced apple juice (tasted it the other day, it was amazing).

I'm planning to challenge the bosses and middle-leaders especially - I'm thinking of making a semi-personal card that says something like "if you're going to ride to work one day this winter, make it Nov. 1st", and then something like "your closest bike guide is <insert name> and he/she'll be riding from XX at YY. Join us for the ride!" I'd like to make the challenge to them more visible so that they'll get props from their employees, but unsure as how to do this. And of course I have to challenge our Big Boss, and tell everyone I've done so ;)

Haven't got the mechanic yet, but ideally we should have him over a few days before the challenge, so that nobody can wimp out because of mechanical problems. And am definitely going for the blog idea, with ample coverage from the first day of the challenge. I think people will like seeing pictures of themselves and being mentioned by name in a positive group setting.

And definitely going for the group distance thing! "As far as the moon", wonderful :D I'm going to ask the guy who gave me the idea to pick out some suitably exotic locations as virtual destinatuions.

Is there any way the boss would give the winners time off with pay??? Like an afternoon or even a couple of hours. That would be good motivation for me!

We already have 15 paid minutes a day for exercise or recreation like a walk in the park (yeah, we're really spoilt :D), so most of the cyclists use it to back-date their log-in time with 15 minutes.

This is going to be fun!