Why are you a randonneur?
 

What motivates you to be a randonneur? For me, it is ....

Sense of Oneness with the Universe / God
Being OUT THERE in nature far beyond
Like being twelve years old again--bicycling is the only important thing in life
Fellowship and friendship with unique and accomplished people
Helps keep me healthy
Can I survive the vissisitudes of life?
Motivates me to lose weight
Going further than I think I can go
The fun of seeing things in the world I'd never otherwise have seen

Nick

PS, If you're not a randonneur &/or don't want to be a randonneur, good for you. I guess you can list your top ten reasons why you are not a randonneur :-)

Good topic for a thread.

Nick, those are all great reasons to ride, and to ride in a manner that challenges you from time to time.

I feel mostly the same as you, but I haven't really found rando much to my liking. Too heavy a dose of BS and formality that just gets in the way. Just my opinion, of course. None of the things on your list actually require that one submits to the formality of randonneuring. I suppose some folks like that structure though. Perhaps it supplies that last little bit of motivation to actually get out there and do it. So I am not saying rando is fundamentally bad in any way whatsoever, just that its not necessary for everyone.

For the pins!

I don't get your point about the bs and formality though. All it really is, is a ride you say you are going to do, then you do it. If you don't want to continue, then just stop (and call someone that you quit, it's merely good manners to). I personally don't NEED to do the series, but I want to.

I like the people in my club. They are nice folks and riding/volunteering at events lets me meet them and get to know them better.

I like the challenge of riding a brevet...it's hard, but not out of reach of my average cycling skills.

Having said all that I don't live and breathe for randonneuring. I have lots of other cycling interests that I am stoked about. I just ride brevets when I'm in the mood and they fit my schedule.

I volunteered to help out at the Texas Time Trials. A lot of the people there were from Lone Star Randonneurs, and it just seemed like they were out having fun, so that made it attractive.

And it was a personal challenge when I started, to see what I could do. I was either going to ride farther than i'd ever ridden or faster, and farther was easier.

I do it for the experience. Sleep deprivation combined with physical exhaustion can be an eye opening experience.

--Colin

+1 :)

All good points Nick, except I don't want to be one with your god nor do I think I really get to go out into nature. The rest rings true for me.

I like the weekend warrior aspect. I started more serious long distance riding by getting a taste of touring from a buddy. But that was too slow paced, not enough enduro. By slow paced I don't mean slow riding--my buddy was much faster than me--but too many stops for rest and photos.

This is as close as I can get to anything enduro like eco challenge, I figure.

For me it's several different things:

• Beating Type II diabetes
• Losing more weight
• Just how far can I go
• High speed, (relatively speaking) prayer and meditation
• Meeting new people
• The personal physical and mental challenge

Semper Fi

It's something to do.
A bunch of people in our club do it.
When I post about it on Facebook people think I'm some sort of super-athlete.

What motivates you to be a randonneur?"

A good question! After 7 years of randonneuring I am still wondering. At first it seemed to be about the challenge. Then the new areas to ride in were the reason. The new people you meet at events was always a factor. After a while it became about the fitness and then it seemed to be more about the accomplishments. Nowadays for many it seems to be about mega-miles, PR's and awards and I am less drawn to that. I am wondering again, what motivates me to be a randonneur?

because I'm too stubborn to quit

Thanks. Most of the reasons you cite for being a randonneur apply to me, and I've done a few. But I don't do them any more. Why not? Principally because I can get all the benefits without participating in organised rides. I tour long distances, I sometimes do brevet-like distances in a day, I absolutely get, and relish, the sense of self-reliance and remoteness that endurance riding gives me.

But I don't need anyone to stamp some card to tell me where I've been, and I can no longer be bothered to follow someone else's route. Others think differently, and that's fine.

A formal brevet has me ride on a course not of my choosing, on a day not of my choosing, and a start time not of my choosing. So mainly I choose not to bother very often. It doesn't help that the closest organized brevets are a 5 hour round trip drive away. This makes 5am and 6am starts difficult unless I want to sleep in my car or pay for a hotel room.

That's the down side. On the plus side, I do get to ride them with like minded cyclists - those who enjoy long distance... As long as they don't drop me. ;)

In my own personal calculation, I don't get a whole lot in return for the formality of doing a long ride as a brevet. I'd rather recruit a friend or two to go out and do a high mileage, two day tour (in lieu of a 600K), or a double century (in lieu of a 300K). This way, we pick the day, time, route, etc. as we feel like it. We change the course on the fly - do whatever makes us happy.

I get the benefits of everything Nick put in his list here. What I don't get is a little yellow book with signatures in it, nor a pin, nor a medal. I don't get formal recognition from an organizing body like RUSA or the ACP. Those things don't really concern me. The pins and medals are cool, but not worth the other stuff in order to get them.

there is an old joke the we do it for the medals. The awards do seem like an important part of it for a lot of randonneurs

I started randonneuring after riding a lot of centuries in the winter in Ohio and the RBA up there said he thought I might enjoy this randonneuring thing. I'd never heard of it, other than in skiing, where the word applies to a type of ski binding ("randonnee" bindings, known as "alpine touring" in the U.S.). I did my first brevet and was hooked. I enjoy the challenge, the camraderie, and really getting out there and going somewhere on my bicycle. I enjoy designing and riding my own routes, but I also enjoy riding routes others have designed. You can tell a lot about someone by riding a cycling route they designed.

I also enjoy a number of other cycling disciplines besides randonneuring. I have been a bicycle commuter my whole life, since I rode to first grade 35 years ago. I do USAC-sanctioned road races and criteriums. I do time trials. I race cyclocross. I do UMCA ultradistance races. I've done underground messenger races (though I have never been a courier myself and these days I just volunteer at them; they can be dangerous as hell, at least if you're trying to win the damn things). I do club rides. I do charity fundraisers, when the cause is good, the money does some good, and the ride is interesting. I've never done a multi-day tour, surprisingly, but for now what I get out of randonneuring satisfies my touring impulses.

So, oddly, I don't really consider myself a "randonneur" when I think about my cycling. I'm just a cyclist, though I don't ever see myself burning out or geting tired of randonneuring. After 8 full seasons of it, I still see so many different and interesting and new and challenging ways to participate in this sport. I've got a long "to-do" list of events and other things I'd like to do in this sport so, God willing and the creek don't rise, I'll be around here a while.

agreed. I decided to do the Vancouver Island rides this year, first for variety and then because of scheduling for the 400 and 600. The 200 and 300 were definitely a logistical challenge that isn't there for the local or 30km away starts. If all the brevets meant an extra travel day or 2, I'd probably just do my own thing.

I am doing my first brevet in a few weeks, it is on the Denali Highway and is a very beautiful area. To be with a group of like minded individuals will be great as most of my rides to date are solo. Fairbanks is a small town so almost everyone is a hard core roadie or mountain biker. If there are bears about there is strength in numbers. :) Now that I am retired and only doing woodwork my social network is small, only dingo markets one day a week. When I realized that bicycling was the only way for me to finish my medications before I have to increase the dose. Did the fireweed 100 a few years ago and it was a great sense of accomplishment. Randonneuring fits in with my age and mindset. I plan to create some local permanent rides in the 200 k range. One of them starts and finishes at a hot springs, can already feel the hot water at the end of that ride. No doubt to each his own, but for me it is a good fit.

I am not a Randoneour (Randenneur Heck i can't even spell it correctly) I am not willing to subject myself ,at my age, to the riggers of doing longer distances than 200k. But i am learning about it and like the idea of self sufficiency while riding. It is also, as far as i can tell, the cheapest form of cycling one can do and still call it a social gathering. But at this point i am not fast enough to be able to complete a brevet or have the funding to even join an organization.
A long distance rides for me 200K would be an attainable goal.
The main goal of riding again was to loose weight and enjoy riding

I believe I will try Bessies Creek, http://bessiescreek24.com/ , next year if all goes well . . . It is close enough to ride my bike to
I have two signs above the trainer "RIDE" And " Tell the Legs to SHUT UP", Shut up, Shut up!

I enjoy cycling.
I lived on a bike as a youth & randonneurring reminds me of that youthful exploration.
The rules of randonneurring make the ride an adventure.
I have a competitive nature but am not fast.
The sights, smells & sounds have re-awakened my senses.
Other randonneurs are fascinating folks.
Randonneurring offers a way to accomplish something that few others do.
The pizza is good.

I love to challenge myself and the rules of rando makes it that much more of challenge for me.

I don't go fast but I go pretty darn far and I hope to improve even more. It's a good excuse for me to combine the things I love: travel, physical activity, something that has a unique element to it, friendships that have developed as a direct result and adventure.

It's also something that we see people achieve everyday but in the general population, we are clearly the fringe element even among other cyclists.

There's something magical about being midway through a challenging brevet and suddenly taking it all in:

- Having gotten out to the middle of nowhere with nothing but a bicycle and my legs
- Seeing places that I would have never gone to otherwise, or that I would have driving past without noticing in a car.
- That lucid state of mind where endorphins meet physical exhaustion while traveling through a beautiful area.

and

- Doing something that makes 'normal' people think I'm crazy for doing. Something I sincerely love to do.

I'm not sure I'm a randonneur any more; I think probably yes but I'm still deciding. I'm a cyclist for life though.

Randonneuring for me has been about discovering that what I thought were limits, actually were not. They were self-imposed. I've found that discovery to be extremely powerful.

Some of you have said it so much better than I could word it.
Agreed.

So close to my own feelings.

That's something that I did learn from the few formal brevets and non-solo permanents& populaires I've done, whether I DNS'd, DNF'd or finished. I am in debt to those I rode with, nice people all and free with info, advice and companionship, but I'm not wedded to the group rides the local randos seem to like so much more than I.

interesting to say the least.

And finally, like Lamabb, I like It's encouraged me to find a way to make things interesting to me via my self-challenges, somewhat uniquely so it seems. I don't know another fool who decided on the spur of the moment to see if he/she could ride significant distances for him/herself (whatever that might be) for 30 or 100 consecutive days without doing what others said was the necessary preparation for such things. I know that I questioned my own sanity just before leaving on each of the first 3 rides of each self-challenge I've done. I decided that being crazy was okay.

Gives me an excuse to get away from my usual Saturday ride group.