07.20.2011 | 4:17 pm
A Note from Fatty: If you already know how this contest works and just want to go donate, click here to see the official rules, and then click here to go to the donation page.
Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that I have started posting there pretty often. Perhaps more often than I ought. And it’s (almost) always a lot of fun when someone posts a tweet with my handle included.
And then, yesterday afternoon, I saw this one from Johan Bruyneel:
As you might expect, I was just a little bit intrigued. And then early this afternoon, while I was having some Twitter-free time, Johan posted this:
Yeah, as you can imagine, I didn’t waste a lot of time jumping over to the link, which I highly recommend you read, too.
No, it’s not an invitation to fill in for Chris Horner in the Tour de France, even though I’m roughly his height and have an identical hair style.
It’s an invitation for The Hammer and me to visit Africa to witness the good World Bicycle Relief (WBR) has done and is doing for children there — to watch how a bike can change a person’s life in very important ways.
And it’s also a challenge (Johan Bruyneel evidently loves to challenge people) to Team Fatty to raise enough money to buy 1000 bikes for kids there, with some amazing incentives to give you extra reasons to get on board.
I have to say: I’m amazed by this opportunity and challenge, and humbled, and very inspired.
And if we do this right, I’ll get to take one of you with me, and together we’ll put stickers on 1000 bikes, letting 1000 kids know that Team Fatty stepped up to help them.
Let’s go into some details, OK?
Why This Matters
Before we talk about how the contest works and what you might win (and there is definitely some cool stuff to win!) by donating, let’s talk about why this contest is important to me, and why it should be important to you, too.
$134 is not a lot of money, but it will buy a good bicycle for a kid in Zambia. That bike will make it possible for the kid to make what would otherwise be a prohibitively long commute to school. Which means a kid that couldn’t otherwise stay in school, now can.
And that means new opportunities. And a better life.
Think about that for a sec: $134 can change a person’s life. Permanently, and in a big way.
Wow.
And Johan Bruyneel, along with his friends at WBR, are giving us the opportunity to change a thousand lives.
And to make it fun, he’s made it into a cool game: the more we raise, the more awesome prizes go into the drawing.
Let’s look at those for a minute.
Prize-ageddon
Those of you who know my contests know that I like to give away some cool stuff. In this case, though, the coolness level and quantity has gone so far through the roof that it’s in danger of passing out due to lack of oxygen.
Really.
The thing is, though, the more we raise, the more prizes there will be.
So, no matter what, we’ll be giving away WBR casual clothing and bike kits, Team RadioShack kits, a Team RadioShack jersey, cycling cap, and botttle signed by everyone still in the Tour, Road ID gift certificates, Giro Aeon helmets, Strider no-pedal bikes, and a set of HED Ardennes SL Wheels.
But as we raise enough money to buy certain numbers of bikes, increasingly mind-blowing prizes get added to the pot. Like this:
- 100 Bikes ($13,400): SRAM Red Pro Gruppo – SRAM’s top-of-the-top road group. And — if I may say so — darn near close to a work of art, appearance-wise. Win this and you’ll want to get a new frame, just to be worthy of the components. [UPDATE: We've already hit this goal!]
- 250 Bikes ($33,500): A Team RadioShack Trek Madone Bike (Race Ridden). You can’t look more pro than riding on a pro’s bike. Who’s bike will you get? Well, that depends on what size of bike you need. One thing’s for sure, though: it’s gonna be as light and sweet as UCI will allow. Oh, and the saddle will be nice and level, too. Ha.
500 Bikes ($67,000): A yellow jersey, worn on the podium by Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France. Holy smokes, do you have any idea how much this thing is worth? Hint: enough that you might want to take good care of it.- 750 Bikes ($100,500): Trek Travel 2012 Tour de France Paris Trip, with airfare and accommodations included. You haven’t ever wanted to go Paris and see the finish of the Tour de France, have you? No? Me either. Why would anyone want to do that? But you know what? If you win you can give the prize to me and I’ll go anyway, just so you won’t have to. That would be really nice of me.
- 1000 Bikes ($134,000): 1000 bikes. 1000 lives changed. When (not if!) we achieve this Grand Slam for Zambia, one of you will get to join The Hammer and me on a trip to Africa, where we’ll report back on how the work we’ve done together has changed lives. We’ll put “Grand Slam for Zambia” stickers on a thousand bikes. I’m told it’s going to be the experience of a lifetime, and I don’t doubt it.
Check Johan’s blog for more details on and photos of all these prizes, and I’ll be describing them in more detail soon, too.
And you know what? These aren’t even all the prizes there will be. I’ve got more good stuff lined up, and will be announcing them soon.
How the Contest Works
You can find the full version of the rules here, though if you have done my contests before you already understand how this one works. So if you want, just click on over and donate.
Anyway, here are the basics:
- Click here to go to the donation page.
- Donate any amount, but at least $5.00.
- For every $5.00 you donate, you get a chance at a prize.
- If you donate $134 — enough to buy a bike — you get a bonus 3 chances. (If you donate in multiples of $134, you get a bonus 3 chances for each 134 you donate).
- You have between now and August 27, Midnight (MT) to donate.
- We’ll notify the winners by email and phone.
Questions and Wrapup
Got any questions? Post them in comments. Don’t email me questions; I won’t see them. I’m currently so far behind on email I’m thinking of just deleting the whole 650+ (really) unread messages and starting over.
And a huge “thanks” goes out to Johan and the WBR folks for giving us this challenge. I am still trying to wrap my brain around it, but I am incredibly excited to do something so big and good with Team Fatty. And to have one of you come along to Africa with me to help tell the story of what Team Fatty is capable of accomplishing.
Comments (75)
07.7.2011 | 11:51 am
A Note from Fatty: A lot of you donate frequently and generously in the contests I have where I give away bikes. All too often, though, once the winner has gotten word they’ve won a bike, that’s the end of the story. Well, Yann — the winner of a custom-built Sycip bike in in one of last year’s contests — is going to correct that problem right here, right now.
I won!!!
On June 28 of last year, Fatty notified me by email that I had won a custom fitted Sycip bike for my fundraising efforts for the San Jose Livestrong challenge. I had raised $2300 at the time. I immediately called him to confirm I had gotten the email and to find out what the next steps were in terms of starting the process of getting the bike.
One big question was unanswered: “what should I get, a road bike or a cruiser?” The rest of the day at work was not very productive as I kept going back to the Sycip web site and looking at the different pictures of the bikes that had been built. I already had a nice 2004 Trek 5200 road bike that I truly enjoyed riding. Also, I kept thinking “what would I do with 2 road bikes?” But at the same time, I didn’t really see myself riding a cruiser bike.
I called my girlfriend to tell her the good news, she was thrilled for me and said I deserved it for all the fundraising I had done in support of our friend Lisa, her husband Lloyd and her dad. I was more determined than ever to raise more money for the cause.
The reason for joining team fatty
At the time, Lisa was undergoing chemo treatment after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Her dad was undergoing treatment for leukemia. Lloyd, who in a strange twist of fate, is an oncologist, was diagnosed with a disc problem (not cancer) that was causing him to experience numbness and tingling in his neck, shoulders, arms and hands. Lloyd is a good friend that I have ridden with numerous times. This meant no riding for him until he underwent surgery to fix the discs. He couldn’t undergo the surgery until Lisa was out of the woods with her chemo and her dad was better since he needed to help take care of them.
I’m an idiot
After a very sleepless night agonizing over what to choose, I decided to go for the road bike. I figured I would get more use out of it. I emailed Elden, Jeremy at Sycip and Dustin at Shimano notifying them of my decision. A week later I hadn’t heard from anyone, so I emailed them again.
To my embarrassment, Elden told me about Dustin’s fiancé passing away after battling cancer for a couple of years. Dustin contacted me as well letting me know that he was dealing with some personal stuff.
The fitting
A month or so went by, I contacted Jeremy at Sycip to find out what was next. Unfortunately, he was buried deep in preparations for Interbike and wouldn’t have time to do anything until after the show. In October we arranged for me to come up to his shop for a fitting.
He showed me around the shop where there were numerous bikes in various states of build and assembly. There were also numerous types of completed bikes throughout the shop. Jeremy and I went through the process of measuring my old bike and transferring the measurements to a bike fitting machine. We tweaked some settings here and there to make the bike fit me perfectly.
At the end, one crucial decision had to be made: “what color to paint the frame?” while Jeremy took a phone call, I pondered the question and walked around the shop. Then I saw it, there on a stand, was a partially assembled, metallic-grey-with-orange-Sycip lettering, bike. As Jeremy got off the phone, I walked him back to the partially assembled bike and pointed it out: “I want that color combo, that looks really nice”. With that I thanked Jeremy for his time and I left the shop more excited than when I was when I got there.
I got home that afternoon and kept thinking about the color of the bike. I thought it needed something more. I did a mock up of the frame in Autodesk Inventor, a 3d mechanical design program I used to work on. I placed the Sycip logo on it. I thought the Fat Cyclist logo should also go on as well as Shimano and Livestrong logos. After playing around with the logo placements, I sent the mock ups to Jeremy, Elden and Dustin for approval. The frame was then sent to be powder coated at Spectrum Powderworks.
The delivery
On a Friday in February, Dustin emailed to tell me the bike had been shipped and that I should expect the bike to arrive at my house the following Tuesday. I of course decided to work from home that day as I didn’t want to miss the UPS truck showing up and not being able to deliver the bike.
By late evening, it arrived. I pulled it out of the box with pure excitement. It was mostly put together, wrapped in bubble wrap. As I stripped off the bubble wrap, the frame color looked great, I inspected every part of it and admired the craftsmanship of the bike, the beautiful, barely-perceptible welds, the Sycip logo on the rear dropouts, the Fat Cyclist logo on the seat tube, the Livestrong logo on the top tube and the Shimano logo on the chain stay and fork. I almost missed the Fight Like Susan words on the inside of the fork. I was ecstatic, I had a beautiful new bike.
The first ride
The first ride was unfortunately not to be had till a few weeks later due to bad weather. I took it out on a short 20 mile loop by my house with a friend of mine who complimented me on the beautiful bike.
After a few more rides on it, I felt like I was climbing stronger and riding faster than before, even my riding friends were noticing. Below is part of an email I sent to Elden, Dustin and Jeremy thanking them.
“I have gotten lots of compliments from my riding friends on how beautiful the frame looks in the chosen color and with the logos. Of course they are super jealous of the full Dura-Ace group and carbon tubeless wheels. Btw, I swear I feel a difference in the acceleration with these wheels compared to my 1 year old Bontrager Race X Lite wheels on my 7 year old Trek 5200. I think I could out-sprint the best of the Tour de France sprinters now with these new wheels (just kidding). I’d probably have to lose 40 lbs to get 1/10 of their acceleration. “
To which Dustin replied: “the wheels are awesome and faster! “
Then Jeremy: “I think it’s the frame that makes you go faster. Not the wheels. “
Lastly Elden: “I think it’s the FatCyclist logo that makes you faster.”
Finally me: “It’s a combination of the three actually. Add the Fat Cyclist jersey and I can beat anyone. It’s my secret weapon“
Unfortunately, the bike only has about 500 miles on it now. We’ve had some bad weather around here. 82 of those were ridden in the rain for the 100 miles of Nowhere ride on June 4th.
That’s me on the left.
Thank You!!!
Finally, to all who donated to my Livestrong page, I thank you. And of course, thank you to Elden for putting the contest together, Dustin for donating the parts and bike and Jeremy for the beautifully crafted bike. I thoroughly enjoy riding this bike every single time.
Looking forward to l meeting you all in Davis for the Livestrong Challenge in July on my Sycip.
Yann
PS: My friend Lisa is now fully recovered. Her husband, Lloyd had his surgery around Christmas 2010. Unfortunately, Lisa’s dad passed away last year. My dad is currently undergoing radiation treatment for prostate cancer. Doctors expect a full recovery.
Comments (25)
06.29.2011 | 4:32 pm
A Note from Fatty About This Contest’s Timing: In the contest I describe below, I’m very probably giving away two very nice road bikes and a very plush trip to Austin. Here’s the thing: this contest ends at the beginning of the day this Tuesday. And since traffic’s always low on this site Friday – Sunday, and Monday’s a holiday, today is really the main and only day anyone’s going to see or enter this contest. That’s not very long.
Which means I honestly don’t think as many people are going to enter this contest as usual.
And there are possibly three grand prizes I’ll be giving away.
So you do the math: a contest that won’t have as many people entering as usual, with three times as many big prizes as usual. Is it possible, then, that your chances with this contest are better than usual?
I kinda think so.
So maybe — just maybe – this might be a good contest for you to enter. You know, maybe just $5 or $10 or $25 or so.
At the very least, you’ll have helped LiveStrong in their mission to fight cancer. And it’s possible — perhaps more possible than usual — that you’ll win something really cool. So please: go donate now.
The Davis LiveStrong Challenge is soon. Really soon. As in, a week from Friday we’ll be hanging out at the Cycling Hall of Fame (RSVP if you haven’t already: please email me with the subject line “Hall of Fame” with how many total will be in your party!).
And then a week from Sunday, we’ll be riding together. And those of you who will be there will get an opportunity to see whether you can hang with The Hammer. (Good luck with that!)
I love these LiveStrong Challenges. They’re an awesome time to get together and celebrate the good work we’ve done in the fight against cancer so far this year.
And because we have in fact done some really good work (Team Fatty – Davis has raised nearly $88,000 so far!), I’m hoping I’m going to be able to give away some really cool stuff this next Tuesday.
But I’m going to need you to help me out in order for me to be able to give away everything I want to.
Team Fatty and the Implications of the Coveted Fundraising Awards Sweep
Take a moment and look at the Fundraising Award categories for the LiveStrong Davis Challenge:
There are, as you can see, four fundraising awards. And you know what’s cool? Team Fatty is in the running for all four of them. Yes, it’s entirely possible (but by no means guaranteed) that we will win the Individual Champion Award, the Individual Messenger Award, the Team Champion Award, and the Team Time Trial Award.
We could totally sweep this thing. The competitive part of me loves this.
Why Our Award (Or Lack Thereof) Status Should Matter to You
Now, you may (or may not) have noticed that for both the Individual Champion and Individual Messenger awards, the winner gets a Trek Madone. Specifically, a Madone 5.2, like this:
That right there is a fine bicycle. A very fine (MSRP $3249) bicycle indeed. With a 5 Series TCT Carbon frame, a Shimano Ultegra drivetrain and Brake setup, as well as Bontrager Race wheels, that is not just a beautiful bike (and make no mistake, that is a beautiful bike), that is a well-equipped bike.
And right now, I’m pretty sure that I’m the frontrunner to win two of them.
The thing is, I’d feel weird getting a bike (and doubly weird getting two bikes) because so many of you have been so generous in donating money in the fight against cancer.
So how about this, instead.
If I win either (or both) of these bikes, I’m going to do a drawing and give it (or both of them) away to a person (or people) who donates to my LiveStrong Challenge page between now and Tuesday July 5, at 9:00am Central Time.
Let me be clear on this: In order for me to be able to give these bikes away, I need to be the guy in the Davis LiveStrong Challenge who raises the most money, and be the guy in the Davis LiveStrong Challenge who has the most individual people donate.
I’ll go into details on the rules, but if you already know how this works, you might want to go to my LiveStrong Challenge Page and donate now.
To wrap up and restate and recap and all that: If I win a bike, I’m giving it away to someone who donates to my LiveStrong Challenge between now and July 5, 9am CT. If I win both bikes, I’m giving them both away.
Or Hey, Maybe You’ll Win a Trip Instead
For the past two years, I’ve gotten to be a part of the amazingly awesome Ride for the Roses in Austin, TX. This year, though, I want to share the experience with one of you. And since my fundraising has already past the “yellow jersey” level (the highest level there is), I get to give away this “Yellow Jersey” trip to someone.
What does that include? Check it out:
That’s a lotta schwag. So much, in fact, that it’s worth calling out the big-ticket items in case you missed them:
- Participant airfare
- 3-night hotel stay
- Sunday ride front starting line position
- Sunday Hospitality tent entry (that’s the VIP tent)
It’s a pretty deluxe way to enjoy the Ride for the Roses weekend. And do win it, you’ve got to be the person I randomly selected who donates to my LIveStrong Challenge between now and July 5 at 9am CT.
How It Works
To participate in this contest, just go to my LiveStrong Challenge page and donate any multiple of $5.00. For each $5.00 you donate, you will be given a row in my contest spreadsheet. You must donate between now and Tuesday, July 5, at 9:00am CT.
Once I have heard from LiveStrong whether I have won any (or both) Madones, I will go to random.org and generate three random numbers between 1 and the number of rows in my spreadsheet (inclusive, natch). The order the winning numbers will be assigned to prizes is:
- Yellow Jersey Trip
- Madone (if I win one)
- 2nd Madone (if I win two)
I will immediately notify the winner(s) by email. However, because it’s become nearly freaking impossible to notify someone by email that they’ve genuinely won something, the subject line will be something innocuous (like, “Followup to the 6/29 FatCyclist.com blog post”), and the message will tell you that I need to talk with you, and will include my phone number so you can call me back.
So watch for that, OK?
Stipulations and Stuff
- The contest starts now, ends at July 5, 9am CT
- Make sure when you donate, you use an email address that you actually check, for crying out loud.
- Donations made for prior contests don’t apply toward this contest.
- You have to promise to keep and ride this bike, or at least to give it away to someone who will keep it, love it, and ride it. No re-prizing or ebaying (even though that’s what I’m doing, but I got special permission from LiveStrong)
- Contest only available to residents of the U.S. Sorry, international readers! I swear I’ll do a contest soon that you can participate in!
- Winning one of the prizes does not exclude you from winning one of the other prizes (if there is more than one prize). It’s not probable, but it’s not impossible.
If you have questions, post them in comments; I’ll do my best to answer them either inline, or to edit this post to contain the answer.
Thanks for playing; I’m excited to find out who wins!
Comments (47)
06.20.2011 | 11:51 am
A Note from Fatty About the Superfly 100: Remember I was giving away a Superfly 100? But then I never mentioned who it would be going to?
There’s a story behind that.
The winner of the Superfly is Greg, of Utah — a guy I have never met. Still, I was excited to have the winner be a fellow Utahu (we call ourselves Utahues, although “Utahlooians” is also acceptable). I figured I could meet up with him after he got his bike and we could go for a ride on our matching bikes. Neato.
Except for Greg didn’t answer his email. Not the first time. Not the second time.
In desperation, I did a Google search on Greg’s full name, and found there was a person by that name who is an active tweeter. I went to that Twitter account, found out it’s a guy who loves mountain biking, and asked him to get ahold of me.
The problem is, it was the wrong guy. Yes, an identical name (and not an especially common last name), loves biking…but lives in Australia.
I began to despair.
Then, last Friday, I was out riding with a group of guys and was telling of my frustration. I mentioned the winner’s full name, and one of the riders said, “Wait. That guy’s my brother-in-law.”
Wow. Small world. Or small state, anyway. Except that Utah’s quite big. Oh well, it was just a figure of speech anyway.
So I got Greg’s phone and contact info and — finally — on Saturday, we reached each other. We talked a bunch, I found out that my email had been caught by the Greg’s spam filter (you have no idea how hard it is to tell someone they’ve won a prize via email without it being caught by a spam filter).
So here’s what Greg had to say in an email he sent to me last night, along with an awesome photo of him and his kids.
Wow! I never thought I would actually win one of the bikes. I am thrilled, as I have had bike envy for the Superfly 100 since I first saw it at the Leadville 100 last summer.
Thanks to you and Trek for the opportunity given to all of us and I look forward to many miles of riding knowing that this bike represents a commitment by many to beat this disease called cancer that has or will affect us all.
It sounds very cliche but to me it’s really “not about the bike.” In March of 2006 my wife Sharon was diagnosed with an Anaplastic Astrocytoma (Brain Cancer). This was just three months after the birth of our second son Cody. For the next 20 months our lives were a whirlwind of Hospital, Surgeries, Chemo, Radiation and clinical trials. In November of 2007 cancer took her from us but it never beat her. Our boys Wyatt and Cody were almost two and almost four at the time. Sharon was 31.
While my wife was fighting her battle my mother was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma (Bone Marrow Cancer) and succumbed to her disease late January of 2007. She was 73.
I know that my stories are no different from many of the people who read and have found support through your blog. These are the reasons we contribute what we can. Thanks again to all those who have provided incentives to keep it fun and to Elden for using his talents to keep us focused.
I have included a picture taken today on “Fathers day,” the day after finding out that I had won! The tie and crown were made and accessorized by my boys, now five and seven. Note that the crown says “king for the day.” That pretty much sums it up.
Thanks,
Greg
Greg and I agreed we definitely need to go on a ride once his bike is built.
Do What You’re Doing Anyway, Change a Life (For Free)
You remember how, as a kid (or maybe as an adult), you’d go door-to-door trying to get people to sign up to sponsor you for a walk-a-thon? Or ride-a-thon? Or rock-a-thon?
You know, where you’d get people to sponsor you to the tune of a certain amount per mile or hour, so that the longer / further you went, the more they donated?
Well, consider this.
What if the cause you were doing a ride-a-thon for were really awesome: one that changes lives for poor kids in Africa by giving them bikes. You know, like World Bicycle Relief.
And what if, instead of you having to go door-to-door to find a sponsor, that sponsor was already in place and ready to pay out if you’re willing to do the riding? (Or running. Or a bunch of other sports stuff that maybe turns your crank.) You know, like SRAM.
And what if, instead of you having to do all this riding or running or walking or yoga-ing on a certain day, you raised money for World Bicycle Relief every day, just by doing the ride / run / walk / yoga you were going to do anyway?
That would be kind of awesome, wouldn’t it? Yes, indeed. It would in fact be awesome.
And that’s what we’re going to do. Together. Starting right now.
Meet +3 Network
+3 Network is a social network site that connects sponsors who want to do the right thing with worthwhile causes with people — like us — who like to stay active, and would also like to make our rides count for something. (Learn more about them on their “About” page)
And they’ve been working with me to create a special “Team Fatty” group, where we can track our rides / runs / walks / whatevers. And whenever any of us uploads a workout, SRAM donates money to World Bicycle Relief, the organization that makes a huge impact in Zambian children’s lives by providing them with bicycles — and hence, a way to get to and finish school.
I love the idea of that: making a difference in a person’s life with a bike.
And just in case you’re getting the “sounds too good to be true” klaxons going off in your head (I did when I first talked with them about this), let me be really clear:
You don’t pay anything. You don’t give up a credit card number. You just keep track of your exercise, and SRAM rewards you for your awesomeness by making a donation to World Bicycle Relief.
Pretty cool.
Hey, how about I walk you through how you sign up?
How to Get Signed Up
Here’s an extremely exciting piece of trivia from my past: I started my career as a technical writer. Mostly, I wrote macro programming documentation and tutorials for WordPerfect.
And now I’m going to use all that skill and experience in writing clear and friendly steps by guiding you through signing up with +3 Network and joining the Team Fatty group.
It’ll be awesome. Ish.
- Get started by heading to the +3 Network Signup page, and entering your name, email and password info. Then click the “Choose Your Cause and Sponsor” button.
- For your cause, choose World Bicycle Relief, Funded by SRAM.
- Click Done. (It’s toward the top-right of the page)
- Check the email account you entered when registering, and click the link provided, to finish getting you registered.
Join Team Fatty
Once you’re registered, you need to join Team Fatty, so you can help us rule the world and impress everyone with our might and power and stuff.
- Go to the +3 Network home page and sign in with the username and password you entered earlier.
- Click the Groups tab in the big orange toolbar. Don’t be freaked out that this takes you to a page saying “We couldn’t find any groups matching your search.”
- In the “Find Groups” input field, type team fatty and click Go.
- Scroll down to Team Fatty and click the Join Group button.
Start Recording / Uploading Your Workouts
Once you’ve signed up, it’s pretty easy to start recording your rides / runs / other stuff. Here’s what you do.
- Go to the +3 Network home page and sign in with the username and password you entered earlier. Find the “Did you make it count today” box in the top-right area of the page.
- If you’ve got a Garmin GPS (supported devices listed on the +3 Network FAQ page), like the Garmin Edge 500 I love) that you’ve been recording your rides on, make sure you’ve got it plugged into a USB port, then click the “Upload GPS Activity” button.
If you aren’t using a GPS, click the “Hand Enter Activity” button.
- If you’re using a GPS, you’ll need to select the device. If it isn’t auto-detected, you may need to download the Garmin Communicator Plugin first.
- Once you’ve selected your GPS, you should see a list of activities recorded. You just need to specify what kind of sport you were doing (road biking, mountain biking, running, etc.), and give it a name, then click Upload Activity.
If you’re hand-entering an activity, set the sport, activity name, date, start time, total time, and distance (if distance applies). Note: You don’t earn as much for hand-entered activities as you do for GPS activities, because hand-entered activities are easier to fudge.
- Repeat step 4 for as many activities as you’ve done since you last uploaded stuff.
I generally upload stuff once every week or so — you don’t have to do it the same day you did the activity, unless that’s your way.
Then, check it out: you’ve just earned a buncha money for World Bicycle Relief. Here’s some stuff The Hammer uploaded this morning, for example:
“Kudos,” by the way, is sort of the currency of +3 Networks. You earn different rates of “kudos” for different activities (a mile of mountain biking earns you more kudos than a mile of road biking, for example. A mile of running earns you still more.) And then the sponsor donates a certain amount of money per “kudo” earned. SRAM is a generous sponsor, paying out $0.015 per kudo earned.
Which means that your basic training ride or run is likely to earn a dollar or more for World Bicycle Relief. Your big events earn even more. The Hammer’s RAGNAR experience last weekend, for example, earned about 8.52 for World Bicycle Relief. Her part in the Rockwell Relay earned $8.56.
By themselves, those may not seem like huge numbers. But I’d like you to keep the following in mind:
- You’re not by yourself. You’re one member of Team Fatty. And while none of us, alone, make a big difference, we’ve shown over and over that together we make a huge impact.
- You’re doing the exercise anyway. Remember, this program is gravy. You’re doing the workouts anyway. It doesn’t cost you anything to upload and get credit for the work you’re doing.
And frankly, I’ve started getting excited about this, because the goals I can set are really practical. One bike for a kid in Zambia costs $120. I figure that, with +3 Network’s program, I can earn that much every other month.
That’s six bikes a year. Not bad at all.
And if 100 of us do this — not exactly a crazy dream, I don’t think — I bet we can raise enough to buy 500 bikes a year.
That’s a lot of bikes, and a lot of awesomeness, at exactly no cost to you.
So. Get started. Join up with Team Fatty. Let’s track our rides and runs and stuff, and make those rides do some good.
PS: You can check out who’s joined Team Fatty on +3 Network, as well as how much we’ve raised, by going to http://www.plus3network.com/group/Team-Fatty.
PPS: If you don’t have a Garmin GPS, but you do have an iPhone, you can use the free +3 Network iPhone app to track your workouts and then upload them directly, which is pretty cool, too! I’ve only experimented with this app once, but it worked fine. iPhone-ers, give it a try and let me know what you think.
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06.1.2011 | 10:37 am
As of this morning’s weigh-in, I weigh 156.6 pounds. Check me out:
After you’re done wigging out over my hairy toes and awful toenails, you’ll see that I lost 2.8 pounds yesterday, blowing right by my goal of the 158.0 I needed to reach by this Friday. Honestly, though, that big one-day loss is mostly attributable to being at the back end of the weight spike I always get after doing big efforts (a fast-paced 6+ hour road ride on Saturday, a hard downhill 11-mile run on Sunday). I’ve been working hard on my weight loss.
The thing to focus on here, though, is the number. So let’s say it again: 156. 6.
That’s an important number, because it means I’m going to get to keep that Superfly 100.
Sorry, folks. (And also, thank you for giving me the motivation I needed in order to finally lose that weight.)
You must be wondering how I’ve done it. And tomorrow I’m going to tell you all about it, probably at much greater length than you’d care to know.
But today, I’ve got something else to tell you. Something that I think is going to take the sting out of the fact that I’m keeping (and, early next week, building up) the Superfly 100.
As of right this second, you can still win one.
Win My (Other) Superfly 100
Back in 2010, I got a chance to go to the Gary Fisher Ride Camp in Park City. There, I got a chance to ride the just-announced Superfly 100.
I fell in love with it.
In fact, I fell in love with this bike enough that eventually I bought one. And it was the threat of losing this bike that finally got me motivated to get down to the racing weight I wanted to be at.
But now I feel kinda bad. A lot of you donated money to my LiveStrong Challenge page, and of course you all realized that your chances of winning were slim.
But for none of you to get a prize? That just sucks, man. Sucks hard. That’s not the way I want my contests to end.
So, this morning I called the good folks at Trek. I just got off the phone with them, really. I told them my story, and I’ve bought another Superfly 100 (don’t worry, they gave me a screamin’ deal).
And this one, I’m giving away for sure.
Here’s how it’s gonna work.
The Rules
Here’s how the rules to my Superfly 100 Contest work. It’s pretty easy (and for those of you who know the drill, you can skip straight over to my LiveStrong Challenge page to donate now).
- Donate at my LiveStrong Challenge page in multiples of $5.00.
- For every $5.00 you donate, you automatically get a number on my spreadsheet.
- The contest begins right now, and ends at Noon, Pacific Time, on Thursday, June 9.
- If you donated as part of the contest to win my first Superfly (the one I get to keep), those donations count in this contest, too. ‘Course, it’d be really cool if you donated some more.
- The bike will be delivered only within the U.S. Which means international Team Fatty folk aren’t eligible unless they’ve got a way to pick up the bike in the U.S. Sorry!
- I will mail a certificate to the winner, who can take it to their local Trek dealer to get their Superfly.
- The winner has until July 31 to redeem their prize at their Trek dealer.
- The winner must agree to ride, cherish, and keep this bike (or give it to a friend or relative who will). No ebaying it or trying to sell it or use it in another fundraiser or anything like that. I never thought I’d have to say this, but I guess I do: I want the bikes I give away in these contests to be ridden, not treated as fungibles. Got it?
If you have questions, ask them in the comments. I’ll answer as best as I can.
Why I’m Doing This Contest
I’m doing this contest for a lot of reasons, but it comes down to this:
I hate cancer, and I love the way LiveStrong helps people as they fight cancer. They do a fantastic job and they deserve my support and your support.
And this is a fun way to do it.
Also, I’m doing this particular contest because I thought it’s time I put a little skin in this game. I’ve given away a lot of bikes on this blog, but this is the first time I’m giving away one I bought.
Why this bike at this time? Well, because I’m really, really excited about my own Superfly 100, and I love the idea of someone else getting an awesome bike like this, too.
This isn’t just another bike I’m giving away. This is me giving away a bike I’ve been wanting for myself. This is the mountain bike I want. This is the bike I’m pretty sure will carry me across the finish line at the Leadville 100 in under 9 hours (after 14 unsuccessful prior attempts).
So yeah, I’m confident that you are going to love this bike.
And I didn’t like the idea of me having a contest, and then me being the (only) winner.
So do me — and LiveStrong, and the people LiveStrong helps — a favor: go donate now. And maybe later this Summer, we’ll swap stories about our cool new bikes.
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