Just wondering how much you’d expect to pay for a 10 minute under 8s race?

Depends on my chances of winning.

I suspect quite high if you can convince the organisers you’re under 8.

Real answer – I guess as much as the organisers think the market will stand. If it’s Islabikes as far as the eyes can see, that would be more than if it were Halfords BSOs

I’ve paid £5 for two separate “races” for a three year old this year. One was worth it (Tweedlove family day), more than 10 minutes though and a proper number board with his name and everything. Other one not so much, probably 10 minutes of riding in an hour of standing about in the cold.

I’d hope an under 8’s 10 minute race wasn’t much more…

£3-5 usually for an xc race. Number boards, decent course, couple of laps of racing and plenty more practice laps before, podium, medals, sweets… and a fun morning out mucking about in the woods too. I’m sure the adult races sub the kids races anyway.

I think £5 is too high personally.

How much are the grown ups paying and how long is their race?

£2 or £3 sounds about right to me, if you have to charge at all.

In the North West Cyclocross league it’s a whole English pound for 10-15 minutes with a £10 deposit for the transponder and number board. Typically they all get something for taking part from treats to cow bells and the top 3 get medals, although at one round they all got a little medal, which is brilliant.

Personally I think £5 is a bit much for a little kids race.

Personally I think it should be free and underwritten by the senior races, but I know nothing much of the budgets of race organisers. (don’t have kids myself either, making it free would be a good way of getting more kids involved in sport IMO)

I’d agree with blazin-saddles above, but then I’m sure some would complain about subsidising the kids event with their race fee. Need more kids involved.

How much are the grown ups paying and how long is their race?

Too much. Hence why I have not entered any events recently.

£2 -£4 seems right for kids race of 10mins. IMO it’s a ‘freebie’ all round, to encourage kids – it should cover costs only.

£1 for under 12s in Welsh League Cross races

Kids strider race was going to cost me 25 pounds for my 4 year old.

15 entry and 10 to hire one of their bikes as he wasn’t ‘allowed’ to use his own frog balance bike.

I told them it was ridiculous and to stick it

So you’d all think £10 a bit steep?

Far too much.

Thanks, just checking the calibration of my sense of perspective

Yes, too much.
Ideally they would be a nominal £1, and then a greater sub from the adult races, but I can understand why that wouldn’t be popular amongst the non-parents. On that basis, I think up to £5 is reasonable, with maybe the youngest kids, say u6 or u8s being less – £2.50 – £3

I should probably give full details in case this changes anything. Was advertised at £5 a race (which I thought was on the pricey side, but not unbearable – which seems to accord with what others were saying). However I realised when looking at details this week that it was asking for pre-entry (and it said pre-entry would be kept open as long as possible), but on going to the page for that it said races were full (I presume just the adults’ races) and to e-mail organiser – which I did, to be told £10 a race on the day. I get that they feel the need to charge more for on the day entries to encourage people to enter early, but does that need to apply to kids races where entry on the day is normal IME?

Though have now found a nearby CX race which is asking for £4 on the day, so will be voting with my feet.

That’s poor. I think a lot of race organisers don’t add an on-the-day entry premium for kids. That just discourages participation.

I personally feel that’s harsh, when I used to race as a child paying on the day was the only way.
My parents were not well off, but my races were affordable (my requests for kit maybe not so).

Today I don’t think my parents could afford to give me that opportunity over again, which is sad as cycling has given me a lot.

Kids races should be cheap to encourage grass roots, a parents wealth should not be a barrier to this(for at least an introduction and a few races)

Kids racing seems pretty reasonable in Northern England:-
NW CX is £1 – loads of races from September through to January.

Nutcracker races are £6 Juvenille (13 yrs plus – usually 20-30 mins full lap of the adult course). Some of them have short round-the-field Sweatmonster races for younger kids which are free including Haribo prizes.

Dean Barwick school in the Lakes has an annual mtb challenge of 25km or 40km – that is £6 for u16s including a hot meal and a medal.

I remember John North telling me the Karrimor NEMBA sprogs races were more hassle and grief than every other race combined (more related to the parents than the kids).

“My club” held one of a series today. They are aimed at kids(Go Ride clubs)but an adult “fun” section was added to get local racers who don’t want to travel or those who want a bit of fun.
https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/events/details/138741/Santa-Cross

Categories – under 8, under 10, under 12, under 14, under 16 and the adults race.
Starts at 10am –
U 8’s & U10’s (10 mins plus a lap) then U12& U14 ( 20 mins plus a lap) and U16 and adults ( 30 mins plus a lap). This is a guide and could change on the day depending on numbers. Can enter on line through SC website- kids £3 & adults £12 ( SC charge £1 admin fee) or enter on the day kids – £5 & adults £15. Registration will be open till 10.30 but the younger categories must be entered by 10am.

Some results and photos from one of the other co promoters;
https://www.facebook.com/cyclinginSWScotland/

IMO kids races should be paid for from the adult races.

I would certainly have no problem knowing my entry fee was going to encourage youngsters take up the sport.

£2 for under 8 Cx races my lad has done around west York’s, think that basically pays for the bag of sweets that the kids afterwards.

All been pay on the day as well.

I’d expect the kids entry to cover the cost of the levies, not sure what the current BC levy for kids though, so this may be well off.

Our local kids dirt crit series is £6.50 pre entry online + £1 admin fee, or £10 on the day. £5 for under 6.

I’ve not organised a race for a couple of years, but the BC levy for kids was £1 and probably still is. We used to charge £2 to enter the races for others with club members getting free entry.

Every event had 2 races of 5-10 mins each for U8/10s. U16s would pay the same but end up racing for longer.

Central CX is £2.50 in advance.

I agree it should be free. Based on the number of adults that race they would have to increase their race entry fee by less than 50p each to cover the costs.

Well we went to the CX today, £4 each kid, which included a lucky dip and a mince pie – not too bad. They got very muddy.

Still wondering whether I should e-mail the other organiser back (I didn’t reply to their e-mail back to my original query which quoted £10) and if so what I should say – thinking maybe apologising for not replying, but that I decided £10 was a bit steep and found another cheaper race instead. Not rude, but a hint that their pricing is off.

I’m not sure kids races need to be free – just not feel like a rip off. £4 feels OK to me.

The non-point scoring under 16 races I’ve organised have always been either free or nominal (to cover any sort of levy from NGB) think the most expensive was 2€, 1€ for the NGB and 1€ per rider for the land owner. He ended up adding 1000€ to the overall prize fund, so the race day actually ended up costing him about 600€……. not a bad days work really.

£10 far far too much – are we talking for CX here? As they have a mandated max of £5 for U12s races.

NDCXL is £3.50 for U9 and U12s, £2.50 of which pays for the chip timing (which the parents demanded) and the other quid pays for all the goody bags that each rider receives. They pay nothing towards the general event costs which are all borne by the older cats (mainly the over-16s as most Youth entry fees not taken up in costs have to go out in prizes).

No, a privately organised (ie not by a club) MTB event. The CX we went to had chip timing – hadn’t realised it cost that much, which makes the price of that seem even more reasonable.

That would be pretty much profiteering then.

I think that the local Go-ride races are good value in that it normally includes an off-road time trial, a skills course and a handicap race, all for about a fiver.

However, I was staggered at the level of cheating. 🙁 The girl who won the final race was pushed up all the hills by the marshall (the only child who was aided). The races were taken seriously with a podium presentation and some decent prizes (musettes, mitts etc). Thankfully, my son enjoyed it as a bit of fun and thought the cheats a bit sad.

The childrens races before the Gorrick 12:12 were also a reasonable price, were great fun and free from obvious cheating. 😀

At the SouthernXC we charge £5 for small kids racing and this year we are working with BC to offer coaching for them after their races so that their parents get time to ride, this will be included in the price as will sweets and medals for at least the first 3 – there will also be a deposit for the timing chip, the cost of that is TBC but it’ll probably be £5 and returned when the chip comes back.