There are great prizes on offer at some events .
Beers at the finish of Endurance / Enduros is a nice touch .
Tea mugs would be better than some plastic chinese bike reflectors that cost 72p and the shop would sell for £1.59.
Big Bike Bash has the best prizes, but there is a ‘hands-full’ rule, so if you win everything you only get 2 prizes, but you can sort of swap/ trade as you go. There was a Lezyne anodised track pump for pumping up an inner tube fastsest, thy are the wrong side of £70 usually.
At work we rarely get asked for donations , although Hargroves wanted a custom run of bottles for the QECP day/night bikefest but we couldnt get the pricepoint low enough as it was a small volume run of labels that would have needed hand applying.
I reckon there is enough money left over at most events of a better selection of prizes, but profit takes priority.

Lucozade? I was thinking Ventolin

I’d race for free Paxil.

Were you the obnoxious rider who upset everyone one year at Mountain Mayhem? Still won’t touch the brand because of him

Not that quick. It was a 24/12 or similar, in mixed, and we won mixed by miles out of three teams 🙂

Don’t tar the brand though. Matt of Torq drilled it home to everyone with a Torq shirt how important it was to be nice, he said it was far more important than winning. He worked very hard to promote a positive brand image. On the other hand, the rider in question IIRC was a short notice stand-in who only rode once. So if you want a good nice brand, Torq is it. It’s not really far to boycott it for a cock-up when they are* in fact what you want of a company. The bad behaviour was not in any way endorsed or encouraged by the company, and the rider was not supported.

* or were – this was some time ago.

No Fuss used to be a real pain – you’d grind around for 24 hours and win a trophy, then they’d chuck out actual useful bike parts to all and sundry. Even the guys winning at this sort of race aren’t sponsored to the level where a half decent bike part or tool will be sniffed at. The first year we got 2nd in Pairs though the trophy was excellent – a beautiful slate thing with a cast metal relief of some hills and “24”.

The guys doing the Strathpuffer, on the other hand, are great at it. I’ve had a nice crystal glass and some mugs from the Dawn Raid, but with it a Haglofs waterproof, lights and so on. The waterproof I still wear now, 7 years on.

When I organised a race we got a mix of stuff in for prizes, all donated by sponsors. We tried to go after a lot of lifestyle brands for prizes and so people won clothing from the likes of Howies, which went down well.

I daresay that if you spoke with prize donater you could swap it out for something.

Does always seems strange though, especially when riders are sponsored elsewhere.

Some of the stuff they get at DJ events is hilarious in terms of colours and styles.

I enjoyed the irony of my gear cable prize from sponsor Clarks for making it onto the singlespeed podium at Sleepless in the Saddle one year.

I enjoyed the irony of my gear cable prize from sponsor Clarks for making it onto the singlespeed podium at Sleepless in the Saddle one year.

I won stancion spray and a chain cleaner using a rigid singlespeed. Both got used/ but not on that bike! 😯

A mate won a complete group set for finishing dead last at Mountain Mayhem in the single speed solo category. It’s still a source of piss taking to this day.

Whistler bike park do ladies only and men only coaching sessions a few nights a week in the summer. Each night has a raffle with names drawn out of the hat for prizes. It’s usually everything from tires to helmets and usually a big prize each week, drive train, brakes, full face helmet etc. It’s a pretty sweet thing for the entrants and the sponsors get a good reputation too. Problem is that anything size specific was always large, XL or XXL. So a bunch of this stuff ended up on the local buy and sell page and the sponsors took the huff. I can see why, but maybe don’t donate prizes that can only be used by people 6 ft and 200 lbs?