Extended Calendar Events; A Marriage made in Heaven?

[Hillbilly]

Although a niche within a niche, they are a useful addition to the range of validated rides. And they do encourage further distances to be ridden, which chimes with what I think AUK is here to help facilitate.

[bikey-mikey]

I have done several this year and my thanks to Martin for excellent administration in record setting times.

They are extremely useful, for example, earlier this year to see if I had built enough fitness to ride a 400 without sleep, I did a 200 ECE either side of a 200 calendar on 17th March.

As the ECE was split between before and after the calendar, it would not have been possible to use a conventional DIY, paper or otherwise...

As that experiment was successful, I rode four more 400s :- Buckingham Blinder, Brevet Cymru, Severn Across, and The Old 240 - all superb!!

I also use ECEs when I can't get a cheap hotel near enough, choosing a cheaper one further away, and then ECEing...

The admin is pretty minimal, and easy enough, but simplification from the 'other' thread still relevant....

[PloddinPedro]

Please, please continue Martin, if you are able and willing.

I know I haven't used the facility much of late, but real life has materially curtailed all my Audaxing this season. I'm hoping for better things next season!

[Martin]

I am not withdrawing from ECEs  all the time they exist. If they mushroom though it might be an idea to regionalise them like DIYs but there's no sign of that yet

[Somnolent]

Excellent system, well administered.
Can't fault it.

Childcare & other factors conspire to mean Mrs PpP and I often have to ride on separate events for our RRTY, and we have to plan carefully to fit them both in the month. The ability to use a local-ish 100km calendar event (that otherwise we wouldn't have time available to support) and make it up to 200 via the ECE process is very much appreciated by us.  Hopefully the calendar event orgs get a small boost in numbers as a result.

Please, please continue Martin, if you are able and willing.

+1

[The Seldom Killer]

Another vote for ECE. Although I have only used them once, they should prove very useful in the coming year. I don't need to depend on them, but they will make my life a lot easier.

[Martin]

OK sorry I'll tidy it up  but the fundamental concept works very well. Most people just email me a question about it and I forward the answer

actually most people enter online forward me a gpx and job done 

[Bairn Again]

It looks complicated, but in reality is quite easy with paypal + e-mail -ts job done even without a GPS and it doesn't add anything by way of admin to the calendar event organiser either.

I'm in for an ECE of the 3 Glens this Sunday into a 200, which would not have been possible as a 200 DIY sans GPS. 

G.

[mmmmartin]

what do people think of the concept?

I find it difficult to believe this question was even asked: it has been a brilliant success, and life without it would be hard to contemplate. I now consider doing an ECE to every single event I enter. I often do not ECE it, but have done so occasionally. My first 300 was an ECE, with a 100 added to a 200. A fantastic idea and with A) petrol at six quid a gallon and B) redundancy likely, riding to the start and getting a point for it is an attractive option. The whole thing is. great idea, well administered. Bravo!

[Martin]

It looks complicated

actually just realised why it may appear so complicated;

1. The AUK website does not support online entry of perms; this is fine for the normal paper based version as peeps can post off their entries in bulk and weeks / months in advance, but for something time critical like an ECE I needed online Paypal entry and IanH very kindly set it up for me. And to re-iterate one of the FAQ as long as you are confident of the minimum distance and don't need me to check you can enter an ECE online right up until you are about to roll out of the door.

2. I put the FAQ here so I can amend it as I go without having to bother Ian, and the reason you have to go via this link to enter is because the perm page only allows one web link

http://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=46498.msg919168#msg919168

as you were...

[Martin]

Thanks Andy 

[PeeJay]

Another thumbs up from me.

It's a great system that I make plenty of use of, very slickly administered by Martin.  I enter online, pay with paypal & email a gpx track of the completed ride, all very easy.

Very useful to me as I've only ever done 2 calendar events where I've not ridden to the start (not always ECE'd though). 

Very useful in winter to convert local 100's into 200's for RRTY purposes too.

Keep up the good work, your efforts are very much appreciated.

[Martin]

as some of you may know online Paypal entry for perms direct from the AUK website is being rolled out as we speak;

however because of the special nature of ECE's (needing specific start points and intermediate controls) please use the ukcyclist link for the time being thanks 

[321up]

ECE's are great, particually for those of us that ride to events anyway.  Pity I did not discover them earlier.

[Hillbilly]

Presumably it is possible to ECE the AGM dinner dart despite it being a "free" route? (pondering an RRTY based on 300s and as I'll be heading Yorkwards in any case....)

[marcusjb]

I believe the mechanism is there to nominate a dart of 300km (or more)  - check the results from last year, I think there were 1 or 2 people who did 300km darts.

Edit - http://aukweb.net/results/detail/this/listevent/?Ride=DARROW3

[Hillbilly]

Aha.  Looks like problem solved (now just need to decide on whether to man up for a Novembrrrr 300).

[marcusjb]

Aha.  Looks like problem solved (now just need to decide on whether to man up for a Novembrrrr 300).

Subject to minimum notice that Sheila needs for a route, yes, I will leave my decision on distance a while yet - getting a train to somewhere more 200km away worked well last year.  November is rarely the time for these 300km shenanigans! 

[Hillbilly]

November is rarely the time for these 300km shenanigans!

Precisely the reason why it appeals.

Suffering, pain, misery and a little bit of drudgery.  All at a minimum average speed of 14.3kph.  (AUK can feel free to use that as their advertising slogan).

[Chris S]

November is rarely the time for these 300km shenanigans!

Quite. I think we got all of about 20km before we got off and walked because of an untreated, very icy A-road, on the way back last year  .

[HK]

For the sake of completeness, there is more than one offender who has ridden a dinner dart in excess of 200km.  Some idiots rode a very wet 250km down the A4 to the dinner on one occasion simply because that was the distance between A and the dinner hotel.  HK

[teethgrinder]

November is rarely the time for these 300km shenanigans!

Heresay!

[marcusjb]

Just before I get thrown out of AUK, I am not ruling out a 300 dart! Though I will probably make it a 200. This winter had enough misery with early 300s and 400s.

[Martin]

Presumably it is possible to ECE the AGM dinner dart despite it being a "free" route? (pondering an RRTY based on 300s and as I'll be heading Yorkwards in any case....)

Sorry just spotted this; was in sunnier climes (and even climbs) at the time;

yes it's perfectly possible to ECE a dart (as it's a calendar event) although you might as well just DIY the whole thing and save having to do 2 entries

[Martin]

PLEASE NOTE I AM UNABLE TO ANSWER ANY QUERIES UNTIL FRI 4.10.13 AS I AM AN HOLIDAY, PLEASE ENTER AS USUAL AND I WILL ANALYSE YOUR TRACK OR FORWARD A CARD ON MY RETURN, IF USING CARD VALIDATION SIMPLY COLLECT RECEIPTS AS NORMAL