What You’ve Missed About Charity Bike Rides

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On the road in Oman

There’s a backlash happening against charity bike rides. I’m not sure why. For me, it’s a way of trying to give in a time when you often feel like you’re doing an awful lot of taking.

Every couple of months sees the announcement of yet another heroic long-distance solo bicycle odyssey, pitting man against the elements across the world’s great landmasses for months or years on end. Each of these projects is a noble one. Undoubtedly they will involve huge personal challenges — mental far more than physical. These riders are often setting themselves targets they don’t understand themselves. Three years ago, I was in exactly the same situation myself!

But as far as their audience is concerned — the liberal, intellectual, active, environmentally-aware crowd to whom they reach out for support — it’s old news. It’s been done before. Even this demographic reacts to whimsical trends, and charity rides are on the way out. A default response emerges, usually criticising one aspect or another of the idea, almost as if the mission was nothing more than fashionable posturing.

But no two journeys are ever the same, and the real motivation — usually a deep and personal one — is often upstaged by what is supposed to be media-friendly spin for the purpose of attracting the audience in the first place. This is difficult for the non-cycling, non-travelling audience to grasp.

I think Mark Beaumont unwittingly implanted a false notion of a long bike journey into the minds of a very large audience through his 4‑part BBC documentary. He set out to plough through the miles and break the world record for cycling the world, and he did so by fulfilling all of the Guinness criteria — on the planet’s highways; an impressive feat that deserves due credit.

But his objective differed to practically every other cycle tourist out there. I no longer expect the public to understand that. Someone said to me that I should expect my homecoming to be a huge disappointment. I’d arrive back in England after years on the road, full of enthusiasm to tell people all about the adventures, only to find that nobody would understand what I’d been through in that time, despite all of my best efforts.

Maybe the human mind is ill-equipped to imagine concepts on the scale of a trans-continental bicycle journey. In an evolutionary sense, why would we have needed to develop such a capacity? Primitive humanoid individuals who expended their mental energies on understanding and exploiting their local surroundings would undoubtedly have fared better than those who stopped to perch on a rock and contemplate the stars.

Nowadays we have to make do with this limited equipment when trying to comprehend things on a global scale, and often we fail. I still find it difficult to comprehend the scale of a bicycle journey of several years, even though I’m kind of in the middle of one, but at least I now know how it feels to live a day of that life — and, indeed, it’s a life that should be lived day by day, as a target the size of Planet Earth hanging overhead is simply too monumental to live with.

The point that is missed more than ever, though, does not relate to the fundraising targets of a given ride, or any of the messages that the rider hopes to communicate through the trip. Yes, these may succeed to some degree, but I believe that the more important benefit of such a ride lies in the future, long after the brakes have been applied for the last time. A lone, ground-level journey of several years cannot fail to change something in the journeyman — in the way he sees the world, with all its beauty and imperfection — and inspire him to live life more responsibly in the knowledge of all he has seen.

This is a life-long gift, and it will rub off on those around him — maybe only gradually, and maybe not in any immediately-visible way, but in the course of a lifetime, more good will emerge from this than from any one-off charity fundraising effort.

(Of course, if you do wish to donate a small amount towards helping vulnerable inner-city kids get their lives back on track, I’m sure they’d thank you very kindly for doing so!)

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5 responses to “What You’ve Missed About Charity Bike Rides”

  1. I commend any person, whether cycling or not, whether on the highways or not, that does anything for somebody else.

    Just because every journey is different, does not mean that they are better or worse. Too many criticise charity- or other travellers for helping out, while vegetating away behind their screens, doing nothing themselves. If mark or anybody else raises one penny for somebody else, he is good in my book. If he can inspire somebody to drop the car and ride some asphalt far away? Perfect. if he only does it for personal enrichment? Wonderful.

    It’s a sad thing that indifference is often valued higher than giving a damn about yourself or the world around you.

    Oh and I have no doubts that when/if I ever return to the regular world, that many people will not have missed me, nor will understand it. But I have touched enough people along the way (and they have touched me), so make it more than worthwhile.…

    Cheers, Harry

    1.  avatar
      Anonymous

      To Harry: Good point, mate! It’s funny how all world cyclists seem to agree that cycling is all about ‘being free’ and yet so many of them are willing to loose their freedom by becoming so damn judgmental regarding how someone else has financed their world cycling tour. Oh, what a waste of time to express these opinions we people seem to have so plenty in our heads! Maybe I’ll take my bike out for a ride now… 😉 Turo

  2. […] What you’ve missed about charity bike rides – Ride Earth […] 

  3. Really excellent post — thanks very much. Think you’ve nailed it pretty well.
    Al 

  4. Liz Allen avatar
    Liz Allen

    I will simply say your journey, and the related blogs, have certainly enriched and enlightened our lives beyond any expectations we might have had when you set off in 2007 . 

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