CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Events, rides etc.

The Edinburgh Cycle Challenge

(53 posts)

12

  1. Claire
    Member

    Hello folks,

    I've popped up bits and bobs about this on other threads, but with only four weeks to go I wanted to highlight the Edinburgh Cycle Challenge that is coming to the city on the 1 - 21 March. I am working on this project, hence my interest in encouraging participation.

    What is it?
    A free cycle challenge to encourage more people within workplaces to try riding a bike. Employers compete against each other to see who gets the most people on bikes for just 10 minutes or more.

    How does it work?
    Sign up for free on the website. Encourage colleagues to sign up. Log a bike ride for 10 minutes or more, anywhere you want, from 1 – 21 March and win some cracking prizes. You can sync up Strava, Moves, Mapmyride etc or manually log on the site itself.

    Why sign up?
    If you're on this forum chances are you're already a keen cyclist. Be rewarded for travelling on two wheels with some excellent prizes, including a beautiful Gazelle Esprit city bike from Hart’s Cyclery, B&B stay at the Cramond Mill, lunch for four, hand-made Wee Cog saddlebag, Endura cycling glasses, tickets to the Edinburgh Festival of Cycling, bundles of Route clothing, Spokes maps, photography workshops from Rich Dyson, and plenty more still to be confirmed. See the prizes on offer.

    As well as this, the challenge is a great opportunity to get folk out on a bike who've been out of the saddle over winter or for longer. A ten minute ride is achievable for most people, and on average, around 40% of non and occasional cyclists start to ride their bikes more regularly after the challenge so it's well worth encouraging people to get involved.

    Who can do it?
    If you live or work in Edinburgh you’re eligible to sign up. You can sign up as part of a business or as an individual.

    Anything else?
    This challenge is all about participation, not miles. Whether you log one 10 minute ride for a pint of milk or a hilly century, you can win a great prize.

    I'd be delighted to see CCE-ers get involved and encourage others to participate. You can drop me a line on claire.c@lovetoride.net or via the forum for info, posters, copy, images or anything like that if you'd like to promote with your work and friends :)

    More info at http://www.lovetoride.net/edinburgh

    Posted 8 years ago #

  2. gembo
    Member

    Logged in

    Posted 8 years ago #

  3. HankChief
    Member

    I went to register and then found it was still linked to my Strava from last year. Nice.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  4. Greenroofer
    Member

    @HC so that presumably means your account already shows about a bazillion hilly miles (rather than the 10 minute ride for a pint of milk that Claire mentions above)

    Posted 8 years ago #

  5. HankChief
    Member

    5,779 miles :-)

    Some of those were getting milk.

    I assume it will start afresh from 1st March though.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  6. Arellcat
    Moderator

    I've signed up as well, and for the heck of it I've entered all my mileages for January. I think I'm up on my equivalent mileage for 2015, which is nice.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  7. fimm
    Member

    I went to register and found I already was. I have now linked to Strava...

    Posted 8 years ago #

  8. steveo
    Member

    registered.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  9. earthowned
    Member

    Likewise just registered. Delighted to find my workplace is joining in, then disappointed that there was only 2 of us out of ~500.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  10. steveo
    Member

    My workplace wasn't and I'm really not keen to be the contact for the whole building.

    I should probably find out who runs things of this ilk as there is a Doctor Bike quite regularly and we sponsor one of the larger sportifs in Scotland. Its probably the sort of thing my employer would be up for.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  11. jdanielp
    Member

    Just logged in for the first time in a while and filled in the questionnaire that came up. The subsequent email went on to inform me that I'm the first to register for Heriot-Watt and that I'm the Challenge Champion. I hope to achieve more registrations than around 3 last year.

    I have 7,469 miles logged from previous years :) Mostly following from the LEJOG challenge when I was seeing how far I could send my avatar out to sea... Bug now fixed :(

    Posted 8 years ago #

  12. jdanielp
    Member

    Hmm, well it clearly lied about me being the first to register at HW given that someone new did so yesterday.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  13. Claire
    Member

    Hi folks, sorry for my tardy response to these thread comments. I've been offline all day (unusual) and just catching up now.

    @steveo - if it's the same employer I am thinking of, yes I am already in touch with a colleague of yours and they are in the process of getting set up. In the interim you can always register as an individual and we can sync you up to your employer once they are sorted.

    @jdanielp - yes this is a bit of a glitch. I am on to support, but you are the challenge champ! You will definitely get more than 3 registrations ;)

    @earthowned - still plenty time to get folk on board, and if you would like anything to help spread the word just let me know via PM or email and I can send you on some stuff.

    Impressive mileage from CCE-ers, I am flagging with 550 to my name...

    Posted 8 years ago #

  14. SRD
    Moderator

    @earthowned I registered my bit of our employer and tried to send an email to the central area bug en outraging others, but it was nixed. Apparently it will all be set up for us and then we will be informed (as with so much else in my work life these days).

    Posted 8 years ago #

  15. wingpig
    Member

    Registered and championing for now, though I'm far from ideal.
    After getting very slack with my logging towards the end of last year I was wondering whether to be more assiduous again this year when my computer broke and I built a bike without a sensor on it. Stuff for this will have to be logged through the phone app, if I can clear space for it.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  16. HankChief
    Member

    Feels like it should link in with Start on Friday, which we should bring out of its winter hibernation soon.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  17. chdot
    Admin

    Who's this "we"(?)

    Posted 8 years ago #

  18. HankChief
    Member

    Those of us that like to spread the cycling gospel and are employed across the various workplaces of this City.

    We must have pretty good coverage amongst active CCErs and lurkers that we should be able to up the numbers of the cycling revolution a bit by sharing StartOnFriday amongst colleagues & if they join the Edinburgh Cycle Challenge they could win a new bike too.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  19. chdot
    Admin

    Good idea(s).

    Posted 8 years ago #

  20. Tulyar
    Member

    Hmm feel a bit left out but my mileage likely to be low - 1 mile to catch coach/train then 2-5 miles riding round in Edinburgh when I'm working there, as for my employer... I'll ask myself

    Posted 8 years ago #

  21. Claire
    Member

    Good idea, I can add the Start on Friday link to the LTR website.

    I forgot to add that there are 100 cinema tickets up for grabs too. If you encourage a new rider between 1 - 21 March and they log your encouragement on the website, you can win one.

    @Tulyar, it's not about mileage in order to win prizes :) But there are some fun leaderboards for organisations that shows people against each other and that helps to foster a bit of friendly competition and encourage more folk onto their bikes (and more pedalling for those already on their trusty steed!).

    Posted 8 years ago #

  22. chdot
    Admin

    "and more pedalling for those already on their trusty steed!"

    So you have to register specific bikes too...

    Posted 8 years ago #

  23. Arellcat
    Moderator

    That'll take you a while then. :-)

    Posted 8 years ago #

  24. mmaohara
    Member

    I haven't ridden to work for a month or two due to being a fair weather cyclist :-) I have signed up though and will start tomorrow anyway, thus fulfilling both the above links :-)

    Posted 8 years ago #

  25. Claire
    Member

    @mmaohara - the weather has been appalling recently. I went to a meeting last week where I espoused the benefits of cycling for occasional and non-riders whilst horizontal rain hammered into the windows. Groan. Great to hear you'll be back on the bike tomorrow :) I've put a request in for no rain or bonkers wind.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  26. mmaohara
    Member

    Cheers very much

    Posted 8 years ago #

  27. Claire
    Member

    Hello folks, with only a week to go until the Edinburgh Cycle Challenge begins I am doing a cheeky bump of this post.

    There are almost 80 organisations registered and over 500 people currently taking part, with around 80 of them new riders.

    Prizes include a Gazelle Esprit bike from Hart's Cyclery, a Revolution Courier bike from Ed Bike Coop, bike fits for the girl and guy with the highest mileage from Bike Craft, full services from Leith Cycle Co and a bunch of other stuff. Prizes here.

    Happy cycling! :)

    Posted 8 years ago #

  28. neddie
    Member

    The website works really nicely. Invokes a bit of behavioural game-theory too - rewards (high-fives), commenting on other peoples efforts and motivational/competitive messaging via cheeky images.

    Nice that you can link Strava / your fav ride logger to it as well.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  29. Claire
    Member

    @edd1e_h Yes! They have tried really hard to make the site appealing and easy to use. The mobile site is also really usable too. There's been lots of positive feedback :)

    Posted 8 years ago #

  30. neddie
    Member

    One thing a couple of lovetoride users have mentioned to me now:

    When you 'high-five' someone, there is no way to know who else has also given high-fives.

    I guess they're thinking along the lines of Strava, where when you click on the Kudos button, you see the names of all the people that gave you Kudos.

    If that is easily fixable on the lovetoride site, it might be worth doing...

    Posted 8 years ago #

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