Just check out how much it costs to camp with a few mates for a weekend at a normal campsite & the whole thing seems like very good value for money to me.
Bike Forum
mayhem, really like riding round muddy fields?
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Posted 11 months ago #
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It wasn't £67, it was £51, considering an XC race is £30 for <2hrs it seems bloody good value to me.
Posted 11 months ago # -
I wouldnt mind being a quid behind pat adams in the bank
That's possible, all you need to do is do what Pat does then.
Or would you rather just bitch?
Posted 11 months ago # -
njee, yes its the biggest, thats why i went. i'm not slagging it off at all. i was pleasnatly surprised by the course and the organisation of an event this size was very good.
Posted 11 months ago # -
ENTRY FEE
NO SA E REQUIRED.
£215 teams of four & five
£291 teams of 10
£67 solo
All prices inclusivedid i read it wrong
Posted 11 months ago # -
Well I did it this year again (this was my 5th) and I think a lot of the comments are are well wide of the mark. Its not meant to be a technical course and test your skills lap after lap, the whole idea is that its a TEAM ENDURANCE event. It's what you and your team make it. Unless your solo but thats just mad and I have no idea what they do it for
This year I managed to get the dawn and dusk lap. I'm sorry but there's nothing like cycling and watching the sun come up/go down no matter what your state you always feel better
The course this year did seem to have more climbing, but that didn't make it a bad course. We were blessed weather wise this year too! Looking at forecasts it was set for 'somme like' weather. Took far too much kit in the end.
I will be back next year, hopefully with two teams or a team of ten.
Posted 11 months ago # -
i have no problem with event organisers making a profit. why should they operate like some sort of charity?
Posted 11 months ago # -
For my first MM I thought the course was pretty good for it's intended purpose of racing on.
I was a bit disappointed by the lack of that festival feel (was expecting the rave tent in the woods but only got growled at by a tiger.) Also where were the beer tents? I saw some pumps in a SIS stand but that had packed up by the time I crossed the finish line in desperate need of refreshment (only 30 mins after the 24 was up.)
Didn't see any mountains and the only actual mayhem I saw was on the running bit. One chap in front of me turned back to pick up something that had fallen out of his back pocket only to take out three other runners.
Posted 11 months ago # -
ENTRY FEE
NO SA E REQUIRED.
£215 teams of four & five
£291 teams of 10
£67 solo
All prices inclusivedid i read it wrong
Ah, I was talking teams, which was still more than £50, so one of my team mates short changed me, bastard
I still don't think any of that's bad to be honest, you get 4 nights camping for that, plus all your entry bits, few freebies etc. As observed elsewhere, how much would camping cost, and you'd not have all the food choices on your doorstep!
Posted 11 months ago # -
I can understand that it's difficult providing something different each year, but I thought the course was far too much slog for very little reward or recovery.
Also why we had to go up and down the flat grass field so many times is beyond me. There was very rarely anyone standing by most of these parts cheering and it just feeds the trolls
The other thing was that a course like that removed the likelihood of any surprises in the results. I have been in a couple of teams which have made top 10 in categories, but having so much climbing stretches the gaps out too much between the best and the more normal teams. (maybe I will be proved wrong).
Posted 11 months ago # -
To have alcohol for sale on site would probably require a costly license. Considering the events that stopped the Malverns Classic on that site many years ago (a murder, for those that don't remember) I wouldn't expect it to be very likely that a license would be granted.
Just remember to stock up well in advance next time.
Posted 11 months ago # -
Speaking of freebies... definitely need to be a bit careful washing with that mint shower gel, bit too minty for the delicate parts I reckon!
Posted 11 months ago # -
if you think 67 quid to ride round and round and for 24 hours is good fun, might i suggest its you who has a boring life, and you buy your self a hamster wheel
How do you know it isn't good fun if:
as for the people that say you havent tried it, i havent and no intention
Posted 11 months ago # -
I got my entry fee back in shampoo.
Posted 11 months ago # -
Yes I seem to have come home with rather a lot of it! It was me who said hello just at the bottom of the long climb to the obelisk about 10:30 yesterday morning, sort of introduced myself in a choked fashion!
Posted 11 months ago # -
if you think 67 quid to ride round and round and for 24 hours is good fun
It wasn't good fun - so I gave up after 14hrs
Posted 11 months ago # -
There are some idiot comments coming out on here now, how difficult it is will always be subjective. Its meant to be difficult and has never been a technical riding based even, its an ENDURANCE event.
Its also about the experiance with your team, how you can support each other, encourage each other to get the best that you can archieve, now that might be a 50 minute lap like one of the guys on my team or a 1hr 20 minute lap for the girl but as long as they enjoy it I couldn't of cared a less! We all came away this year tired, but never the less we did the best we could and next year we'll try and do better
Posted 11 months ago # -
I did my first MM this year as part of a 4 man team.
It was great event, well organised with a friendly family type atmosphere. The riding was a great challenge and required a lot of skill and fitness to ride the course any significant speed. It's just a totally different type of riding to the spoon fed manufactured trail centre stuff.
In any case, If an event that size was held somewhere with miles of amazing singletrack by the end there would be miles of mangled doubletrack.
It's not for everyone, but I'd love to do it again.
Posted 11 months ago # -
It was my first MM. I read a few posts on here before saying it was a non-challenging course, could turn into the Somme if it rained and that I should go as part of a team if I wanted to enjoy it.
I turned up. It was a non-challenging course (apart for the amount of dull climbing that broke me). It started to turn into the Somme when it rained but fried out quite a bit. I was part of a team and enjoyed it but there wasn't much to do if you were on your own.
It did exactly what everyone described. Where is the problem?
If you want an event with loads of different stuff to do, a party atmosphere, a beer festival, live music and some racing then I think you know the event I promote. We do not promote the BBB as an endurance bike race and would be surprised if it was criticised because of that.
Look at the event you are thinking of attending. Google it to see what people say. If it sounds like what you like then go to it. If it doesn't then don't go and then complain that you don't like it.
Posted 11 months ago # -
just before I go and ride my bike,
to they guy that suggesed im tight, apparentley they were short on marshalls, how much did you get paid for being a marshall, nowt
now if you can charge some one to ride round, why cant they pay a marshall,
because they are tight and they know some mug will do it for free because they love the sport, i say bollox if you want me to do it then put your hand in your pocket, seems fair to me or do you not think there is not enough money to go round
i say agin if you had a good time that is all that matters, im not trying to fall out with folk
and yes I would like to see it run as a charity,
Posted 11 months ago # -
Do it then, whinging online about it won't make it happen. I need to go shopping, but I truly resent the fact that I'm lining Mr Tesco's pocket, should be a charity dammit!
Posted 11 months ago # -
try your local market, and i do resent tescos, so i dont go, all the other shops suffer nearby,
Posted 11 months ago # -
They still make a profit though the buggers.
Posted 11 months ago # -
Whether or not it was run for profit is neither here nor there for me. It takes a lot of talent, work, imagination etc. to put on something like MM. If the organisers make a living from it then great, good on them.
Posted 11 months ago # -
tomd +1
Posted 11 months ago # -
Might not be the toughest course to those who do these sort of events a lot
It's tougher than the others I've done tbh, because of the climbing. In the dry I love it, it's my fave - fast, open and fun when done fast.
And they make hardly any profit. Yes the entry fees are a lot, but one year Pat Adams addressed this in the pre-race speech and said that they'd spend something daft like £5k on zip ties to hand out for attaching race numbers (I forget the exact figure but it was bonkers).
So it's a lot more expensive than you'd think. People have also complained about the venue, but there are apparently only half a dozen or so venues that are suitable for a national event like this, and most of them have races on already. It has to be private land, big enough to have a decent course in it; it needs trails on it but NOT public rights of way; it needs to be central so lots of people can get there and transport links need to be good so there aren't endless traffic jams on country lanes. And the owners need to be up for it.
Posted 11 months ago # -
I love the relentless negativity on here. If the Mayhem course consisted of super rocky technical singletrack with sections of north shore, gnarly downhill runs and had alpine views the same people would be moaning that it was dangerous and too hard for normal riders. If the whole thing were a charitable event supporting, say, Small Children With Narcolepsy Aid, you'd be slagging it off as a pious, skinflint, small-scale, under-organised mess. If the marshals were paid, they'd be 'mercenaries with no love or understanding of the sport'. If the place were lined with beer tents, you'd slag it as a 'pissed-up beer fest' etc.
What's so hard about just accepting that a lot of people enjoy Mayhem as it is?
Posted 11 months ago # -
It's a smaller event but I'm personally very glad I've focussed on doing Bristol Bikefest the past few years, sounds a better event than MM, most importantly the MM course round and up & down fields @ Eastnor can't even come close to the BBF Ashton Court trails...
Posted 11 months ago # -
4 nights camping for £50? That's cheap in itself. Even if you only stay the 2 nights that's still cheap.
Plus free riding and meeting up with all your mates and watching them suffer.
Loved it. As usual.
Posted 11 months ago # -
A lot of the posts miss the point. It's not about riding the best trails in the country, it's about being at a large event, where you meet lots of interesting people. I could stay at home and listen to music or go to a gig. I could look at pictures of Rome online, or go to Rome. When there I'd be overcharged for food, jostled by crowds, but I'd have been in Rome. On the money making side, if you paid your entry, turned up and there was an empty field, then fair enough - but providing facilities costs money.
Very well put.
Like WCA, this was also my first (and possibly only) MM. I did it not beccause I wanted to, particularly, as racing and stuff isn''t really my bayg, but because Bullheart asked me to.
And I actually really enjoyed the whole weekend. I'm still buzzing from it.
At 6am, when you're cold and tired, it doesn't seem like such a great idea as you ride out of the main arena towards the first nasty little climb.
But when you're riding along, covered in sweat and mud, your legs burning from slogging uphill in the mud, and some random person shouts out your race number, your name, your forum name or your team tame, or just other general words of encouragement, then, it suddenly becomes worth it.
For me, grinding up a muddy hill, swearing and cursing, asking myself why the hell I was doing it, the answer was always 'because Bullheart won't give up, ever, and neither should I'.
We all have our own reasons for doing it, which is what makes it so good. I thought it was brilliant. I don't give a stuff about the negatives, cos they just really don't matter.
Posted 11 months ago # -
I have no idea where all this negativity comes from.
The event is called MOUNTAIN MAYHEM and this year it finally lived up to both words.
MOUNTAIN as it felt like you were climbing for hours and MAYHEM as the start was chaos and when the track got claggy saw people make some interesting lines.
The last 2 years people complained at the lack of hills and "the course is too flat" and now people are saying there was too much climbing MTFU!
As for people bitching on about entry fees. A local 2 hour XC race is £30, Chain Reaction Cycles Marathon is £30 so a 24 hour race where you can camping from Thursday to Monday with showers and toilets that get cleaned every 2 hours for just over £50 is a bargain.
If you didn't like it, don't bother next year but if you are reading these comments and it's putting you off then don't let it. I have done the last 3 years and will back next year as MY TEAM AND FRIENDS help make the event fun and enjoyable.
Posted 11 months ago # -
Barely any climbing this year I'm not even sure why they call it MOUNTAIN mayhem...
Screen shot 2011-06-20 at 13.32.46 by ben_oggles, on FlickrPosted 11 months ago # -
I had a great weekend. Total of 5 solo and 4 team appearances.
No thanks however, to matey in the Honda CRV who refused to put even one wheel of his 4x4 onto the grass as I was heading in on the ridge road in the camper, and then called me a *** as I squeezed passed.
Posted 11 months ago # -
A bit late to the party here, sorry.
I've raced every single Mayhem (so that's 14) and I've done around 20 others around the UK and the world too. I've also helped Pat organise Mayhem on and off over the years.Entry fees - I've not seen the figures, but I think that renting Eastnor Deer Park for the week is around £30K alone, then there are miles of barriers, hundreds of (regularly cleaned and serviced) loos, HOT showers that never run out of water (because a separate water tanker is driven to the top of the hill to feed the header tanks to make sure they never run dry) and not to mention around 20 acres(!) of camping.
As for the course - it's raced on by everyone from first time novices to multiple national champions. If it's too easy, then you're not going fast enough. Personally (having not had anything to do with this year's course or organising) I thought that the course was fun - I enjoyed all the singletrack bits and thought that the climbing was tough, but doable. While having a course that was nine miles of narrow singletrack would be fun to ride, it would be hell to race, given that the leaders are literally going twice the speed of the slowest and there needs to be sufficient width to overtake. Races like Dusk Til Dawn (and 24hrs in the Old Pueblo in Arizona) have huge bits of super narrow singletrack - which is great fun to ride, but if you come upon a slower rider, there's nowhere for either of you to go until you get to the next open section.
As for entry fees - I've just looked at the classic 24 Hours of Moab - seen by many to be one of the ultimate races - and entry fees are $155/£100 per person. You then have to pay to camp (even if you're a racer) and spectators/team helpers have to pay £20 or so a day to spectate. Oh, and the 13 mile course is half sandy, flat fire road.
If you're after a rugged race with rocks, then we'll see you at the Singletrack Weekender. If you want to join 2500 other like-minded racers for a fun weekend of camping, that happens to involve a bit of bike racing every now and again, then I'll see you next year...
Posted 10 months ago # -
As for people bitching on about entry fees. A local 2 hour XC race is
£30£10 with pre-entryFIFY
Posted 10 months ago #
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