[Event] Sedgefield 500

[Skubarra]

2 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

I don't believe either of this nor IM are 'good value'. 

I'm pointing out the irony that just because this isn't your proverbial cup of tea, you question it's value, yet are happy to overlook the glorious rip off that is Iron Man because it's part of your narrative. 

IMHO event 'value' is like anything, it is worth nothing until people buy in. Some events, IM, Epic etc are massively overvalued and over subscribed. Things like this are far more niche and offer those who don't like red carpet heroism for average feats of physical exertion the chance to do a rad event, be a part of a race, without having to plan a route, sort out logistics and get some mates to commit.

This gets like minded people together in one place to go and have some fun. To some that is most definitely worth some money

This is the hub- you post a new type of event and people will comment, not all of them will be praising your ideas...

I am kind of with @Gr3mlin131 - the appeal of this type of event is not immediately obvious to me, but if they can get 20 riders for this kind of niche event with seemingly no event costs then good on the organisers for trying something new and pulling it off.

Hopefully peeps share some of their warstories on here to convert skeptics like me

[betaboy]

..20 okes, so then this is just a group ride for those wanting to do the high mileage club thingy. Maybe it’s not a True event but an out ride gathering of two wheel adventurers. Someone needs to do a report on this and let us know how it goes? Bicycling  Mag take notes.👍🏻

[Skubarra]

24 minutes ago, betaboy said:

..20 okes, so then this is just a group ride for those wanting to do the high mileage club thingy. Maybe it’s not a True event but an out ride gathering of two wheel adventurers. Someone needs to do a report on this and let us know how it goes? Bicycling  Mag take notes.👍🏻

Not to be facetious but then you move back into the territory of audax or normal bike touring for which you don't need to pay an extra R2K? The R2K makes sense to me if you going to treat this as a race or maybe I just don't understand 🤣

[Robin]

I did the event Burra500 back in 2021 during lockdown.

Initially I was skeptical on paying the entry for the race. In the end I looked at it being more of a challenge and journey.

I DNFed at 325km, hands down it’s been one of the most epic times I have had on a bike. I learnt so much about myself and experiences that I took away from the event were so worth the entry fee!

This year I plan to return to the event and get that box ticked!

[Gr3mlin131]

2 hours ago, Jewbacca said:

This gets like minded people together in one place to go and have some fun. To some that is most definitely worth some money

 

1 hour ago, Robin said:

I did the event Burra500 back in 2021 during lockdown.

Initially I was skeptical on paying the entry for the race. In the end I looked at it being more of a challenge and journey.

I DNFed at 325km, hands down it’s been one of the most epic times I have had on a bike. I learnt so much about myself and experiences that I took away from the event were so worth the entry fee!

This year I plan to return to the event and get that box ticked!

Okay thanks Jewbacca and Robin for getting me closer to the answer. I though I understood that the Gravel and Bikepacking scene was built around not having to plan around "Events" and being able to do this with getting an organization involved.

But it looks like this is viewed the same way I viewed my Half Ironman (still planning to do a full eventually), motivation. So if this is an event to drive a stake in the ground and commit to the challenge, that I can understand. 

So apologies if I was coming across as attacking the event, or the lifestyle or whatever. That was not my intention, I was just curious. And I am looking forward to read some war stories from these events. 

Not my cup of tea, I`ll be sipping my coffee in the other corner ☕.

[thijsrm]

I’ve done both the Sedge500 and Burra500 and found them both great experiences. I only got 300km into sedge. I wish there were more events like these, low cost for plenty riding and plenty stories on the finish line. Could you do it yourself on a Tuesday, yes. Have you? No. Would I have if it wasn’t an event…No. That’s the big difference, enter and pay and you in the chute, sitting at home and saying you could do it for free, you’ll probably never do it. 

[letsride]

 

[Jewbacca]

10 hours ago, thijsrm said:

I’ve done both the Sedge500 and Burra500 and found them both great experiences. I only got 300km into sedge. I wish there were more events like these, low cost for plenty riding and plenty stories on the finish line. Could you do it yourself on a Tuesday, yes. Have you? No. Would I have if it wasn’t an event…No. That’s the big difference, enter and pay and you in the chute, sitting at home and saying you could do it for free, you’ll probably never do it. 

This

Trying to get 3 people together to do a big social ride is like herding kittens.

An event? Boom, where do they sign.

For some strange reason it's a lot easier for most people to convince themselves it's a good idea when the word 'race' or 'event' is involved and there is a set date and commitment fee

[capediver]

3 hours ago, letsride said:

 

Niccceee, very excellent video! Also featuring Tegan Phillips?

[betaboy]

On 3/6/2023 at 6:35 PM, Robin said:

I did the event Burra500 back in 2021 during lockdown.

Initially I was skeptical on paying the entry for the race. In the end I looked at it being more of a challenge and journey.

I DNFed at 325km, hands down it’s been one of the most epic times I have had on a bike. I learnt so much about myself and experiences that I took away from the event were so worth the entry fee!

This year I plan to return to the event and get that box ticked!

Boet you go get it! Hats off to you for tackling that distance. You know back in the day. The real TDF had proper stages like that. Hence the name.. Tour. A few guys started taking stuff and it became a race at all costs. All this so a company could sell more newspapers! We live in a crazy world.

[betaboy]

7 hours ago, capediver said:

Niccceee, very excellent video! Also featuring Tegan Phillips?

Yeah seen this, great footage! Epic adventure.

[Shebeen]

On 3/6/2023 at 4:22 PM, Gr3mlin131 said:

Asumptions are dangerous, especially on the internet. I am just saying I do not understand what makes people value this highly enough to justify the entry fee. From the website I cannot see that the roads are anything but publicly availble routes. A medal, start and finish lines can be done at a lot more events. The distance with recording, start and finish without support is pretty much Audax. So what part am I missing that makes this worthwhile for the 20 odd people that do it? I do not understand, 

ok I see this has already maybe been answered for you already but here goes anyway.

 

The guys who put this on have put TIME into putting it on.

There is value in them WORKING out a route, getting the word out and having some proper racers on the line. They pay for the tracking backend and declare a winner. It's not explicitly stated, because then people would take advantage of it, but if you had a major mechanical/medical stuff up in the gamadoelas I hope they would pitch in some way to help in the logisitcs of sorting it out.

They are now charging R2000 for this privilige, I think this is the third such iteration of the Sedge500, i am not even sure if there was a cost for the previous ones. you are going to spend WAAY more than R2k to do actually do this race, depending on transport it could be anything from R4k to R10k.

But let's put it back to you, knowing full well that you consider the Argus a ripoff at R720 but are keen to do a full Ironman at R7700. What do you want them to charge for the Sedge500?

*If you make it R200, then you'll get 100 w@nkers entering and only 10 rocking up

*If you make it R2000 then you get 20 committed racers

*If you make it R12000 then you get instagrammers who are there for their whatevs and just to show off.

 

 

[Shebeen]

On 3/6/2023 at 10:19 PM, thijsrm said:

I’ve done both the Sedge500 and Burra500 and found them both great experiences. I only got 300km into sedge. I wish there were more events like these, low cost for plenty riding and plenty stories on the finish line. Could you do it yourself on a Tuesday, yes. Have you? No. Would I have if it wasn’t an event…No. That’s the big difference, enter and pay and you in the chute, sitting at home and saying you could do it for free, you’ll probably never do it. 

hundred percent.

I am actually glad there is push back on this. If it takes off there could be plenty of johnny comelatelies launching events with a great social media game but not a clue what they are actually doing ridewise. that would be crap.

THERE is massive value in someone putting a good route together, hence the huge amount of people riding CrossCape (which was used for the RhinoRun warmup FYI). Anyone can go explore on komoot but actually riding and linking sections together takes money, sweat and time. I know this because I have done it. 

 

You are all welcome to go ride the Shebeen270 for free

https://bicyclesouth.co.za/2022/08/flora-fauna-merryweather-tour/

[Gr3mlin131]

9 minutes ago, Shebeen said:

ok I see this has already maybe been answered for you already but here goes anyway.

 

The guys who put this on have put TIME into putting it on.

There is value in them WORKING out a route, getting the word out and having some proper racers on the line. They pay for the tracking backend and declare a winner. It's not explicitly stated, because then people would take advantage of it, but if you had a major mechanical/medical stuff up in the gamadoelas I hope they would pitch in some way to help in the logisitcs of sorting it out.

They are now charging R2000 for this privilige, I think this is the third such iteration of the Sedge500, i am not even sure if there was a cost for the previous ones. you are going to spend WAAY more than R2k to do actually do this race, depending on transport it could be anything from R4k to R10k.

But let's put it back to you, knowing full well that you consider the Argus a ripoff at R720 but are keen to do a full Ironman at R7700. What do you want them to charge for the Sedge500?

*If you make it R200, then you'll get 100 w@nkers entering and only 10 rocking up

*If you make it R2000 then you get 20 committed racers

*If you make it R12000 then you get instagrammers who are there for their whatevs and just to show off.

 

 

Thanks for the extra viewpoint. As I said, my wrong assumption was that the kind of people that do these distances, especially gravel and bikepacking, do not need an event to go out and ride with a group of mates without getting an org involved. I have since been educated that is not always the case.

So having something official on the calender as a goal makes perfect sense to me, that is part of the reason I got my (half) Ironman entry as well, so can fully understand it. Getting friends to commit to something unofficial is like herding cats, so an event makes it official for everyone.

And lastly this caught my eye as it was in the scammers thread, but there is clearly a lot of value for the people that do line up on the day, so happy that there is not some ripoff going on. Not my cup of tea, but all the best to the ones lining up.

I will not be lining up as I just do not have the time or motivation to train for such distances currently, but I have the biggest respect for anyone that takes this on, if you could complete it or not. 

[Gravalist]

On 3/6/2023 at 8:12 AM, Spinnekop said:

Some feedback.

I go to the page.  Links are copied wrong.  
Eventually get web page open.  Mix between tours and racing and etc.  Confusing.  What is what?  
5min later I see it costs R2k.
Now I want to see the route and climbing.  I get to a map with two routes on it.  Is the third route not showing?  No idea how long each stage is.  Route profile?  How to get between stages?  Do you have to pedal to the next stage seeing it is unsupported?    etc. etc.  etc.  Further confused.

10 min later I just give up because I am not in the mood to forensically go search how to do this event.  
That coupled with the fact that I can go ride this route unsupported for free makes the R2k kinda stupid in my books.

Maybe its just me.

Good luck with the event.

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback on our event. We appreciate your input and apologize for any confusion caused by the website, I can assure you that we have since done updates (& Continue to do so) to the site and you will find it easily navigable.

We understand that the mix of tours and racing may have been unclear, and we will work on providing clearer descriptions of each aspect of the event. We will also make sure that the routes and stages are more clearly labeled and that information on distance, elevation, and route profile is readily available.

Regarding the cost, we understand that it may not be for everyone, but we believe that the value of the event justifies the cost. Additionally, while it is possible to ride the route unsupported for free, our event offers a unique experience and community that cannot be replicated. Many find traditional MTB events where you pay thousands more to be more their thing, but I can assure you that our Gravelist events and bike-packing, in general, is a truly unique experience.

 

[Shebeen]

On 3/8/2023 at 3:48 PM, Gravalist said:

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback on our event. We appreciate your input and apologize for any confusion caused by the website, I can assure you that we have since done updates (& Continue to do so) to the site and you will find it easily navigable.

We understand that the mix of tours and racing may have been unclear, and we will work on providing clearer descriptions of each aspect of the event. We will also make sure that the routes and stages are more clearly labeled and that information on distance, elevation, and route profile is readily available.

Regarding the cost, we understand that it may not be for everyone, but we believe that the value of the event justifies the cost. Additionally, while it is possible to ride the route unsupported for free, our event offers a unique experience and community that cannot be replicated. Many find traditional MTB events where you pay thousands more to be more their thing, but I can assure you that our Gravelist events and bike-packing, in general, is a truly unique experience.

 

hey whilst we have the bearded one here, I have a question?!

Did the October 2022 one actually happen?

uh mean i know it did, the tracking doesn't lie

but the news/updates/reporting alles on it seemed to disappear like a fart in the wind once it kicked off, (maybe I'm on the wrong whatsapp group). 

I know the jan 2022 one took place, because it is here https://bikepacking.com/plog/2022-sedgefield500-event-recap/

 

 

Hope i can get the schedule to work to do it this year in september,lekker!