rBoTM RBotM October 2023 -Poll Now Up - Vote Now!!!!!

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

Any guarantees that the roll over has the required number? Jamie has made the effort to organise it and the 3 of us have made the effort to put in entries.

Agreed, I was slow and missed it or there would have been four. I enjoy looking at both road and mtb botm.

 

[Psimpson]

Agreed, I was slow and missed it or there would have been four. I enjoy looking at both road and mtb botm.

Novembers RbotM is up, worth stripping down a bike to enter? Only joshing.

 

[Jamiedyer]

Hi all
Good to see a bit of discourse or discussion over the competition.
This has been an issue a few times over the last few years. It has also been the reason where in the past couple of years the competition has skipped the odd month, maybe it looked a bit random or as though it had been forgotten but it wasn't. Have been doing it a few years now and you can see the pattern where there is a boom month or two and then it tails off which is where I would think, OK lets rest it for a month and then see where we are.
This year I have tried to do as I said earlier in the year and run it each month regardless. It has been a great year with only one or two months that have low entry numbers but high quality entries like this month. My opinion is it's the quality not the numbers.
MY thoughts on it are that if avoidable, I wouldn't want to carry over entries as those that have entered have made the effort, also to enter on time.
I have tried various themes and always really grateful for ideas, we have tried to do every second month a theme but when numbers start declining, themes don't always help because we are then reducing the pool to draw from, though most entries still came from the small pool of supporters.
I tried prizes for a while and we had some really cool prizes for a short while but a change in work at the time meant I really didn't have the time to devote to it. I have thought of doing it again and maybe trying to find someone who might sponsor it, but very hard to do for a prize for such a varied background of cycling interest. I thought about maybe a Chain Reaction type voucher each month and see how that goes and then maybe ask them for help with it. I once thought of an Amazon voucher but was told that some people may be against that, to be honest when we did put the prizes from Bob on here like the Huret T shirt etc and when Reynolds sponsored the Reynolds Tubing month and Mike Jane won their T shirt it certainly helped those months, as I think the Reynolds one was huge from memory, but overall a lot of those supporters drifted away. Maybe it is time to look at that again, but it is hard to keep that fresh and I much prefer to do it with something cycling related rather than a voucher, though a cycling book. I did once have the idea that I would buy a stack of interesting, good condition second hand cycling books, diverse range from touring to marque specific to technical and then each month the winner would get a random, unknown until it arrived, book. If you didn't like it or already had it, then pass it on
So after that long ramble which doesn't really help with anything other than distract from this months competition, so apologies, it is to say that I do try and think of ways to keep it fresh and interesting but have been doing it for many years and am aware that I may be missing something fresh and obvious. It is Retrobike members competition so it goes in the direction you want. So any ideas for themes etc just drop me a message.
I think we keep going each monthly until the end of the year and then see where we are when we review for bike of the year. Maybe I will dig up some prize or such for that one
Thanks for the support

Jamie

 

[Psimpson]

Hi all
Good to see a bit of discourse or discussion over the competition.
This has been an issue a few times over the last few years. It has also been the reason where in the past couple of years the competition has skipped the odd month, maybe it looked a bit random or as though it had been forgotten but it wasn't. Have been doing it a few years now and you can see the pattern where there is a boom month or two and then it tails off which is where I would think, OK lets rest it for a month and then see where we are.
This year I have tried to do as I said earlier in the year and run it each month regardless. It has been a great year with only one or two months that have low entry numbers but high quality entries like this month. My opinion is it's the quality not the numbers.
MY thoughts on it are that if avoidable, I wouldn't want to carry over entries as those that have entered have made the effort, also to enter on time.
I have tried various themes and always really grateful for ideas, we have tried to do every second month a theme but when numbers start declining, themes don't always help because we are then reducing the pool to draw from, though most entries still came from the small pool of supporters.
I tried prizes for a while and we had some really cool prizes for a short while but a change in work at the time meant I really didn't have the time to devote to it. I have thought of doing it again and maybe trying to find someone who might sponsor it, but very hard to do for a prize for such a varied background of cycling interest. I thought about maybe a Chain Reaction type voucher each month and see how that goes and then maybe ask them for help with it. I once thought of an Amazon voucher but was told that some people may be against that, to be honest when we did put the prizes from Bob on here like the Huret T shirt etc and when Reynolds sponsored the Reynolds Tubing month and Mike Jane won their T shirt it certainly helped those months, as I think the Reynolds one was huge from memory, but overall a lot of those supporters drifted away. Maybe it is time to look at that again, but it is hard to keep that fresh and I much prefer to do it with something cycling related rather than a voucher, though a cycling book. I did once have the idea that I would buy a stack of interesting, good condition second hand cycling books, diverse range from touring to marque specific to technical and then each month the winner would get a random, unknown until it arrived, book. If you didn't like it or already had it, then pass it on
So after that long ramble which doesn't really help with anything other than distract from this months competition, so apologies, it is to say that I do try and think of ways to keep it fresh and interesting but have been doing it for many years and am aware that I may be missing something fresh and obvious. It is Retrobike members competition so it goes in the direction you want. So any ideas for themes etc just drop me a message.
I think we keep going each monthly until the end of the year and then see where we are when we review for bike of the year. Maybe I will dig up some prize or such for that one
Thanks for the support

Jamie

Thanks for taking the time to organise them, having spent 10 years as Secretary of our Cycle Club organising social events I know how hard it can be. I gave up in the end but you have kept going, good on you.

 

[The History Man]

Any guarantees that the roll over has the required number? Jamie has made the effort to organise it and the 3 of us have made the effort to put in entries.

That’s why I said I appreciate the effort.

My opinion remains unchanged. I’d say at least six bikes for a vote.

 

[Woz]

- Personally not sure prizes are the answer to make someone have the incentive to enter. Lots of build threads and no shortage of readers' bikes, but lack of entries suggests something is a miss. I think more advertising and promotion of the road section, reminders of entry dates, voting dates, etc. would help awareness and more people show case their bikes. The RB homepage appears woefully "bicycle genre undemocratic" to me.

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

How about a big header in each relevant section? Not everyone is building all the time.

 

[Psimpson]

- Personally not sure prizes are the answer to make someone have the incentive to enter. Lots of build threads and no shortage of readers' bikes, but lack of entries suggests something is a miss. I think more advertising and promotion of the road section, reminders of entry dates, voting dates, etc. would help awareness and more people show case their bikes. The RB homepage appears woefully "bicycle genre undemocratic" to me.

Agreed regarding prizes it would just make even more work for someone to do.

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

Agreed regarding prizes it would just make even more work for someone to do.

Agreed, I think it should be just for fun.

 

[Jamiedyer]

Thanks for the replies, really helpful.
So for now we will run as is and seen as how there is only this months and December to go we will run these months regardless how many entries, my own opinion is that those who enter shouldn’t be penalised by those who don’t. Though I do hear what people are saying so for 2024 we will carry over the entries from one month to the following month if we have less than 5 entries?? Does that sound fair?
I think if everybody knows that before you enter then that’s fair.
I agree with Woz in that the prizes issue is problematic and were for specific themes and while they were good, I don’t think people entered because of them.
I also think everyone knows about the competition by now and I do sometimes go and mention it elsewhere, but everyone knows it finishes the last day of the month.
There is more than enough bikes/frames here but most aren’t bothered and that’s fine, we are all different, I have also been told it’s not concourse enough but the that would probably exclude people like myself who build riders. Hard to please everyone but maybe it’s not at the right level, judging by the numbers, but my own thought is if aimed at the collection side of things, that the interest would wane and be back where we are.
It is about boosting interest as the bike numbers are there. As an example, go to readers ride section, have a rough count how many threads per page, now go to the bottom of the page and see how many pages
We only need a tiny percentage of that to be interested for it to be huge each month
Jamie