Looking for input on creating an annual community ride/event for girls and women

Hi ladies! I'm looking to your thoughts and experience on creating an event here that will be geared toward women and girls.

Last year I joined a new women's cycling group called Team Soul (we are sponsored by the Kia dealership, thus, the reference is to the Kia Soul). We have been finding our way and figuring out who and what we are, but one thing we would like to do find a way to impact the community. Since we are not really a race team, though a few women race, but more of a club, we thought one thing we could do is develop a "signature event" that would be open to women and girls, to encourage them to get out and ride. We thought about having a short length (5-10 miles) and a moderate length (30-40) miles. We were thinking of contacting the local Girl Scout Council, YWCA etc to try get them to partner with us. I think we can get insurance through our membership with the League of American Bicyclists.

We don't yet have a firm plan- we are still looking at a possible route, date, and what kind of things we need to think about, since none of us have organized something like this. I am guessing that 100-200 participants might be our goal.

Things on the list to consider (in no particular order, off the top of my head): route, signage, aid stations, contacting local officials to arrange for any necessary permits etc, finisher medals, advertising, bike patrol or SAG, waiver forms, costs/fees....

Other thoughts: maybe we would be able to help Girl Scouts get their bicycling badge through the event, maybe have it the Saturday before Mother's Day...

That's about where we are. I don't know how much time we need to plan ahead and I'm sure there are zillions of things we haven't thought of, but any thoughts are welcome!

Thanks- Sharon

You can get the insurance you need for permits and liability from the League of American Bicyclists. The saturday before mothers day sounds like a perfect idea!!! Hoping your ride brings some good memories and fun for lots of girls!!!!

I'll pm you the name and email of the woman who’s the outreach coordinator for the Greater Az. Bicycle Association in Tucson. She may be a good source for networking in your area and the logistics of their century and shorter rides.

Great idea Sharon!!!!!....with lots of work involved

At the moment my head's still reeling from our ride falling apart ... but I'll get ahold of our task list and shoot it to you if that would be helpful. It sounds like a great idea, just be aware it will take a LOT of person-hours to pull it off, and even if you rely on a handful of people to do the groundwork, you'll still need a lot of warm bodies to do road painting and food stops. Plan on starting initial preparations a good six months ahead. Find out what the deadlines are for any annual and quarterly event calendars. Good luck!!!!

Our club just had its annual century. We had 80 volunteers. That included route marking, manning the rest stops and post-ride picnic, on-site registration and sign-in, directing cars in the parking lot before the ride, driving SAG vehicles, etc. A small group of people put a huge amount of time into managing it, including determining the route, writing and printing cue sheets, managing pre-registration, advertising, buying food and beverages, coordinating with the people at the rest stop locations and ride start/finish, coordinating volunteers, getting permits, etc.

Thanks for the suggestions - keep 'em coming. Rebecca, I had already planned to contact GABA :-)
Since we're mainly doing shorter distances, it should be easier than a century, but it is helping me to see that we will need to recruit a LOT of people to help, since we are a small organization.

Are there no other womens rides done in your area that your group can help with before re inventing the wheel? There seem to be quite a few around here. The big one here is little red, a victim of it's own success LOL, then there is goldilocks and wonder woman, these rides are also 100s though. I think if yours is just an intro for new cyclists, you don't get experienced cyclists interest which is counterintuitive really. I think you should think about your audience and if it is served already. I dunno about there you are, but here any given weekend has competing events. We have winter where I live though LOL.

In my area (Central Indiana), I can think of only one women-only "event" bike ride. It's callled The Girlfriend Ride. Now I find that name sort of cringe worthy, but the concept is for female riders--of different experience levels--to have a rid for themselves. It benefits an organization that offers supportive services for domestic violence victims. With different route lengths, I think you can make it appealing to both inexperienced and experienced riders alike.

Here's the thing with most fundraiser events in my experience: You generally have to accept that it takes several years to grow an event to the point of financial "success." That's not to say that you can't make a profit from the get-go, but your expectations, and the expectations of any of your partners, should bear that in mind. In this regard, getting sponsorship and underwriting for as many of your costs as possible is helpful, as is securing some corporate donors. But again, it often pays to take the long view.

It also pays to bring people to the planning table from a few places in addition to your cycling team, unless the members of your team are already pretty well connected within your community. You've mentioned partnering with a couple of not-for-profits. It might be possible to tap into their governing boards for assistance with some of the heavy lifting in terms of obtaining corporate sponsors, corporate donations, etc. I was a board member at a Y chapter, and it wasn't uncommon for us to be approached in this manner so that there was a sharing of resources from a fundraising perspective. Of course, when you do that, there is a price to pay in terms of control, too.

Certainly it appears you want a more structured ride and looks like you got some great advice so far.

Will you need police/municipal permit to close off certain road intersections?

If there is a musical busker (to keep it simple instead of a band that needs electrical power, speakers, etc.) or....a performing unicyclist at the end.


Just an off-question, how many women/girls currently join your existing bike rides? I did belong and was involved in organizing workshops, conference and rides for a women's cycling group in Toronto for a few years.

It would be cool for a shorter ride, that cyclists chose to ride...in costume theme.... now I don't want to get into Prom Ride...but that is a big hit where I am for guys and gals. Over 40% of the cyclists don't even dress up in prom wear/suits, they just love to join the ride of fun. This ride would have been under 15 km. No refreshments stops, etc. Much more informal.

You might want to get in touch with Janae Noble @ Noble Pursuits. She set up several ladies only California rides - I knew here from the Princess Promenade, which eventually my club helped SAG for, and she was my cycling coach (I needed a little/lot descending confidence help). I think that first year was more than a little exhausting for her - permits, vendors, lining up sponsors... and the first year it was rocky. You definitely need help from multiple clubs - road painting, route guidance, SAG (get a high school cycling club for kid ride alongs/chaperones if you do have a youth option), sweeps, clean up, set up, adverts... The ride in Sacramento uses a multi-purpose recreational trail which was open to other cyclists/users at the event day, but that also limited permit/liability woes. There was an optional time trial, which was fun!, and costume contest. However, it seems to have really taken off. My daughter also participated in the ride, and she enjoyed it. We tough girls did not so much enjoy the princess aspect - but I did half-heartedly go as a Valkyrie.

I cannot much help but offer encouragement. While my ride buddies are now mostly men, so I tend to prefer mixed gender events, I think rides like these are encouraging in building confidence. That said, I love the pre-Mothers day idea. I did used to lead a women's only ride before moving to the SF Bay Area where I still have not joined a club - my ladies group added in some skill building workshops, which was helpful - and could be useful for getting the word out if you target clubs (e.g. cycling clubs, school clubs, Girl Scouts, 4-H). I might suggest you consider contacting your local hospitals/health plans as sponsors - or even the local council. Try the education department if you go for the hospitals - very often they have money for health related activities.

We have no other women's rides in our area. We're in Tucson, Arizona, where it is possible to ride year-round but June-mid-September require very early starts, so fall and spring are better choices.

Rebecca mentioned GABA- a bike club here that does three century rides among other things, and we wouldn't want to compete with that. We want this to be very accessible to people who might not otherwise ride, and encouraging especially to girls and young women.

We had not pictured this as a fund-raiser- more of a community service to encouraging girls and women to participate in cycling. So the idea would be more to break even than raise money.

Ame, can you send me a contact for Janae Noble? We are also going to be contacting a local hospital, which one of our group works for.

We had not considered costumes or anything like that... up to now... I might prefer to keep it simple.

I hadn't thought about painting roads. For the GABA century rides, they place stand-alone signs along the road indicating the route. I was hoping we might even be able to borrow or rent their signs.

One option would be to use the ever-expanding "Loop" around Tucson, which is a paved MUP with many miles that are lightly used by pedestrian traffic- mainly used by cyclists. This would provide a safe route that would not conflict with vehicle traffic for the short distance. Thus we we wouldn't need to consider having any traffic control. Plus, I really think we are going to start small - and hope we don't need to worry about traffic control with the number of riders we'd like to have for the first year.

We have quite a few sponsors for the team: a car dealership, bike shop, several restaurants among them, so that will hopefully help. We also are doing some volunteering for other events and maybe can get support back from those organizations for this.

This is all really , really helpful

Sharon

Another thought, if it hasn't been mentioned yet -- some of the local bike advocacy groups in this area sponsor short rides that are intended to encourage new cyclists and introduce people to the local trails and bike facilities (e.g., roads with bike lanes). Perhaps you could partner with a group in your area or at least get advice from them.

As far as marking roads, planting signs won't be much, if any, quicker than painting stencils. The most time-consuming part is finding a place to pull your car over, then walking while you place three or more markers beginning 250 or so feet before each turn, then getting back in the car. Signs would be easier to do than paint with one person - because you don't need to put on and take off rubber gloves to get back into the car - but I much prefer sending road-marking teams out in pairs anyway, for safety reasons.

People move signs.

Yup, and bad weather can cause problems with painted markings. The best rides I've done use a combination of signs and paint.

We had number of folks get terribly lost on a super-hilly, quite remote century route near here a couple of years ago because of fall storms that obscured or washed away painted markings a couple of days before the ride.

That's just a matter of using the right paint. Paint formulated for road marking stays on fine, and any paint store has it.

*shrugs* I dunno what they used. My point was simply that neither option is perfect....

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Originally Posted by OakLeaf

That's just a matter of using the right paint. Paint formulated for road marking stays on fine, and any paint store has it.

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And in my experience, some of the colors available for road paint last longer than others. We've had the best luck with white, then yellow.

It is also good to recheck the markings the day before. We have had trouble with locals obscuring the markings...provide a good map with street names.

Indy will remember a ride in southern Indiana we did a couple of years back where I fell behind everyone and got very lost. I had a map, but it was poor and had very few street names. Thankfully I came across a lone cyclist who was able to get me back on track. There were enough riders that the 2 leaders had no idea I wasn't there for some time. It was an adventure... thankfully I like adventures. Provide good maps ;)

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Originally Posted by Catrin

It is also good to recheck the markings the day before. We have had trouble with locals obscuring the markings...provide a good map with street names.

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+1 on good maps. You have to zoom in pretty far to get all the road names - insets can help - also starting with a Gazetteer, if you can even find one of those any more, rather than online mapping that makes its own decisions about what level of resolution to show road names at. A link to the route ahead of time will allow those who have GPS to download it and both have the most accurate mapping, and save you some money on printing.

As far as markings getting paved over, it's a good idea to contact the County Engineers several months ahead of time in all the counties you'll be going through - and the Township Trustees if you'll be using township roads - to find out about road construction plans. Markings getting paved over, but having nice fresh reasonably cured pavement road on ride day, is one of the less disruptive things that can happen if you don't do your routing with road construction plans in mind.

If you have enough volunteers who don't have daytime jobs - either via shift work or retirement - we much prefer to mark on weekday mornings. That makes for MUCH less traffic to contend with, for one thing, but it also means club members who are not familiar with the route can pre-ride all the routes the weekend before the event, and return with feedback so you can tweak any markings and maps.

Our problem wasnt markings getting paved over, but spray painted over by vandals :(

The whole concept of the painted streets is still a bit foreign - and eye-opening. My experiences with organized rides include two big local rides: El Tour de Tucson and Tour of the Tucson Mountains, which are big enough to have police at intersections, and the rides put on by a couple of Tucson organizations- GABA (Greater Arizona Bicycling Association) which uses the roadside signs. When we get to the point of deciding the route, that might help us figure out if we need to paint streets.

Painting streets seems like a huge effort ..for 1 ride.

I've never seen a bike ride in the cities where I've lived, with painted streets just for the event. And I've lived near cycling areas where certain roads get closed off for major rides..and runs.

Every ride in our area marks the routes. And the one I did in Texas, too. How else can you let the riders know where the route goes? Not everyone has GPS, people can't be constantly checking paper maps, and it's pretty easy for someone to miss a turn and get off track if they have to check their map at every intersection.

Only the biggest rides have enough riders that there is a constant stream of riders and all you need to do is follow the person ahead of you ... unless you're the lead rider, which is not a problem I've ever had - but how do you show the lead rider where to go? And when I say "enough riders," I'm talking over 3,000 on *each* route, which obviously is not something the OP wants to attempt her first year out. Anything smaller you're going to have lags where groups of riders and single riders are separated far enough that they can't see the next group, and need to find their own guidance. And the big ones still mark their routes - even TOSRV!

I see signage posted and use of volunteers at various points, Oak. I've been on local self-guided rides myself on streets and path combination.

Most interestingly, in large guided rides for over 100 riders or more, I see high school students or older, usually paired in 2's at various points. (I know in some schools it goes towards their volunteer work efforts..especially for established non-profits.)

Use of spray on paint is incredibly rare. Just not a common practice in our neck of the woods: not surprising since municipalities have to deal with rules etc. and if some routes run through lovely looking neighbourhoods...near where I've lived, the routes do go through expensive areas.

Well, as far as places where the authorities ask for no paint, the substitute is signage. Your comment had to do with the amount of person-hours it takes to mark the routes by whatever means, and as I said before, planting signs saves a *little* time, but not very much. Signs are really easy for riders to miss, since they're clear over to the side, so they're definitely a second-best solution.

All the rides I have been on have used paint except for one. My most recent ride was a four day tour. Apparently parts of the route were popular for cycling events so there were other people's markings on the road. Our ride organizers knew that and used a different color plus the event name (BAAM) painted as well as the arrows.

The route was well marked, with the arrows both ahead of time and at the turns. Also, I understand that there were "missed turn" markings after the actual turn location.

The one ride that did not have road paint used signs. It was very, very hard to follow the course and many people made wrong turns.

Most of the rides I've done have used painted signs, as have the rides that I've actually led, but I will say that there are better and worse markings, too. I did a ride in a Ohio a few years ago called the Great Ghost Ride Ramble. That year, they used these cute little ghosts as the ,arkings. You turned based on the direction the ghoast was painted. Yeah....no. You couldn't really see the ghost's orientation until you were right on top of it. Plus, they were so small that it was easy for them to get covered up by fallen leaves. It was a cluster. Everyone got off the route except those pretty familiar with it from past years.

Last year, I did the Horsey Hundred for about the seventh or eighth time. They used color coded markings this time. They worked okay, so long as you remembered what color you were supposed to follow, which some people didn't. And since it's a two-day ride, it was easy to get the colors you were following for each of the days confused. In years past, they used the route length and arrows to mark the route, but even then, they neglect to put road markings anywhere other than directly at the intersection. I realize it's a lot of work to put a ride like that on (multiple route lengths over two days), but I think it pays off in the end to over, rather than under, mark a route.

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Originally Posted by indysteel

... I realize it's a lot of work to put a ride like that on (multiple route lengths over two days), but I think it pays off in the end to over, rather than under, mark a route.

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Hear Hear! I am someone who usually manages, somehow, to miss a turn on rides that are outside of my area. I've a good sense of direction so have been able to figure it out when it has happened but it would indeed be wonderful to see more "missed turn" markings, or at least a marking past the intersection going in the right direction so that you know before going TOO far that..."oooops, I didn't see the follow-up marker so I need to go back".

I've also been fortunate in a couple of cases that someone saw me take the "path less trodden....errrrr....ridden" and chased after me to bring me back :eek: :)

We have tons of local clubs that have arrows painted on the roads around here... sometimes there are so many arrows, it's confusing. Personally, I hate them. DH once "arrowed" a 50 mile ride for AMC and said it was an experience he will never repeat. Three hours of spray painting. I really don't get why they are needed. Even if you don't use a GPS, the Ride with GPS site allows you print a cue sheet (which I do in some cases). Generally, people here have cue sheet holders to use on big, organized rides, where, even I can read the directions while riding. I have been on 2 smaller, more local charity type rides this year, similar to what you are planning. They put up brightly colored signs with arrows at turns. The key is, to make sure they are taken down in a timely fashion. Towns don't like it when the signs stay up for days, weeks, or even months! But, from what I've heard, they dislike the road arrows even more.

Chalk might be a better solution than paint. You can get powdered chalk, put it in old water bottles (lots of them), fill up your panniers with the chalk-filled water bottles , ride the route and mark the turns. Be sure to mark the turns clearly, indicating before a turn that a turn is coming up. Also mark the straight-aheads if there's a questionable intersection.

The chalk will actually turn to a kind of glue in light rain, but a downpour will wash it away. It's a great solution because it is not permanent and therefore does not (usually) require permission from authorities. You can use different colors for different routes.

Bike Virginia uses small arrow signs that are quite effective. They have many volunteers to man intersections--typically participants who get free or reduced entry fee.

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Originally Posted by Crankin

We have tons of local clubs that have arrows painted on the roads around here... sometimes there are so many arrows, it's confusing. Personally, I hate them. DH once "arrowed" a 50 mile ride for AMC and said it was an experience he will never repeat. Three hours of spray painting. I really don't get why they are needed. Even if you don't use a GPS, the Ride with GPS site allows you print a cue sheet (which I do in some cases). Generally, people here have cue sheet holders to use on big, organized rides, where, even I can read the directions while riding. I have been on 2 smaller, more local charity type rides this year, similar to what you are planning. They put up brightly colored signs with arrows at turns. The key is, to make sure they are taken down in a timely fashion. Towns don't like it when the signs stay up for days, weeks, or even months! But, from what I've heard, they dislike the road arrows even more.

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Many people either don't know how to follow a cue sheet or have trouble riding safely while looking at a cue sheet.

There are all sorts of arrows and turn markings on the roads in southern Maryland, left over from organized rides. I assume the local government folks don't mind them, because I know the groups that hold rides in that area work closely with them.

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Originally Posted by tulip

Chalk might be a better solution than paint.

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We used spray Krylon marking chalk to mark the routes of a couple of centuries I volunteered to help with when I was in college. I assume it's the same thing surveyors/public works use. It's not permanent but lasts a few weeks even in light rains. We also thought it gave us license to write a few burma-shave type encouraging riding sayings on the roads :)

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Originally Posted by Crankin

DH once "arrowed" a 50 mile ride for AMC and said it was an experience he will never repeat. Three hours of spray painting.

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Fifty miles in three hours??? That's SUPER fast. It goes way quicker when one person drives and another paints ... and especially when sight lines are long and shoulders wide so it's easier to find a place to pull off ... and most of all when sight lines are so long that the driver can drop off the painter where the first arrow goes and pick them up after they've walked to paint the last one at each intersection ... but still. Our teams typically get about 10 "mph."

As far as printed maps ... yes, they're an invaluable backup, but I almost never see anyone with a handlebar bag on a ride in the last 15 years (except for those who are fully loaded for touring - and even then it seems to be the very last piece of luggage people put on, after they already have front and rear panniers and a tail bag - which makes sense, since they tend to throw off steering so much), so it means pulling the map out of your pocket at every single intersection. That's for someone who either has young eyes or multifocal lenses. Me, I have to pull out the map *and* my reading glasses, and that means stopping. Nope. I don't look at a map on an organized ride unless I'm pretty sure I've already missed a turn.

It may well have been more than 3 hours, but it was ugly.
I do have a plastic cue sheet holder that velcros around my bar. Not part of a handlebar bag. When I lead AMC rides, we are required to give out the sheets (although we provide a link to download to GPS, it's not required). Some people use a clothespin to hold it (?), and others just follow. We are required to keep people together, with no one left behind. That's why we screen. However, when we do the 2 annual rides we lead, it's show and go. Some of the people should not go, if you know what I mean. The cue sheet is important here; these people are not going to be using a Garmin. For a charity ride, obviously, that's not going to happen. I print my sheets in a larger font, front/back if necessary. I *never* look at the maps that have been provided on some of the rides I've done, as you can't really see anything.

It depends how this ride is handled. If the priority is to start off en masse together as a group or in manageable waves of riders, and the ride is on alot of roads vs. path, then might be more need for tighter controls and directions. Even with road barricades at certain intersections, which requires for the big cities where I've lived, a permit from the city.

As an option, each wave/group of riders have a lead rider (from the cycling organization) and at least 1-2 sweeps at the back of each group. These folks wear safety vests to be clearly identified. This might be an option especially if the ride includes children.

Such bike rides are at least, several hundred people, in the 3 cities where I've lived ...each city over 1 million people. Frequent use of spray can paint on pavement, just sends the wrong message (to me) after seeing beautiful outdoor artwork graffitied with paint, etc.

I suppose the other option, is to design a route that is in a more quiet, isolated area. If you do that, and since this is the first ride in the area of many women and girls, get your local media out to cover this one.