As the 2025 calendar takes a break in August, we’ve had five events so far this year, with three more to go. I’m overwhelmed by the support and feedback I’ve had but I wanted to pause for a moment and talk about the challenges that lie ahead for me and this Gravelton thing that we really enjoy.
History
Let’s recap and explain where it all started. In November 2022. Bored, I was scraping around online looking for local gravel events to ride. Because there wasn’t much locally I decided to create my own gravel route and invite others to ride it. Inspired by a lap of the City of Birmingam I did with some mates back in 2018, I somehow cobbled together a 100 mile, predominantly offroad route and called it The Gravelton aka a ton of gravel!
That seemed to go down well and took place in May 2023 and garnered support for the concept of self-supported social rides on the same day. No entry fees, just ride the route when and how you want. Everyone seemed to like that idea and were grateful too.
After a couple more events in 2023, 2024 morphed into a calendar of events. They included The Gravelton + a few more local routes I pulled together with help from fellow riders. Numbers were low but having organised The Mad March Hare Sportive for seven editions and growing that from 150 riders to 1200 in just a few years, I knew it takes time to build an event and for word of mouth to spread. Patience was key so I kept at it.
Then at the end of 2024 at The National Forest Explorer things changed quite quickly. We had a bumper turn out, the ride was widely enjoyed and then my followers and subscribers quickly ballooned by a few hundred. Fast forward to this year and every event has been well-supported and my mailing list and followers are 700+ and growing. It’s awesome but a problem too. Costs. Hidden costs we all take for granted. I’m guilty of it too.
Costs
When I just had my personal blog, it was mine. My site, my domain name, my bills to pay for hosting etc. It didn’t cost much as my needs were very basic and simple.
However, now I’ve added Gravelton Events into the mix, the costs have gone up. I’ve soaked them up myself, for now, because I want to and it’s not currently too expensive but looking ahead, they will go up sharply and I’m asking myself if I should shoulder all that burden myself. So I need to decide what to do.
What are my costs? Let me explain what I have to or will have to pay for.
- Hosting – My website has to be hosted on a server somewhere in the world that can support a WordPress site
- Domain Name – I have to renew this occasionally like paying for an exclusive licence to use it
- Newsletter Software – To be able to email 700+ subscribers, I have to pay for a specialist bulk email sending service which gives me an archive and a design tool too. You can’t just send a bulk email via a free service like Gmail or Outlook anymore. It’s been restricted and monetised.
- Events Calendar – Specific software to create and maintain the calendar and make it easier for users to use and find my events online
- Additional Website features – Premium features, 3rd party web subcriptions, SEO & security software, forms, design elements etc all have to be paid for too.
At the moment I’ve scraped a lot of stuff together for free and I’m currently being hosted for free on a web server too but that will need to end soon. The reality is I need to be adult about it and pay for what I use.
All in I think I’m looking at potentially £600-£700 a year. That gives me everything I need to continue and grow Gravelton Events but I’m happy to continue contributing some of that myself.
Options
Firstly, I will never charge for entering a Gravelton Event. Organising ‘official’ events is just something I have no appetite or interest for nor do I ever want to make any money personally. Been there, done that and that sector is dying on it’s arse at the moment anyway. My rides will always be low-key and social but I do need to recoup some admin costs if it’s to continue in it’s current form.
I have a few options in mind so let me run through them
Option #1 – Scale it back
This would mean I probably drop the emails and calendar and go back to simple web pages and solely use the Gravelton Facebook page and Facebook events as a means of communication.
Option #2 – Ask for a contribution or donation
If all my followers stumped up £1 each, we’d be fine but that’s unrealistic. Donations are great as they give users the option to contribute whatever they want however goodwill can be unpredictable too.
Option #3 – Subscription
This would mean asking users to pay an annual subscription which would give them access to the Gravelton area of my site. It’s a more predictable income stream and would only be a nominal amount, probably the cost of a couple of coffees, but ironically I would need to invest in more software to manage it.
Option #4 – Stop and sack it all off
This is the nuclear option. Just think of all that time and money I’d get back from not looking at maps! It has crossed my mind occasionally but I’ve no intention to stop anytime soon. We ride on!
Thoughts
Be assured, nothing is going to change for the rest of 2025. It’s just something I need to realistically address for 2026. My gut instinct is to politely ask for an annual contribution, something like £5-£10 a year but set a ceiling so if the income is more than my costs less my contribution, I’d donate the excess to charity. I think given the level of effort I put in and the detail users get back that would be good value. However, it’s not something I’m keen to just implement without consultation, so I’ll be sending out further comms and requests for feedback in due course before I make a decision.
For now I just wanted to be open, transparent and give you all a heads up. I hope I’ve managed to convey the challenges at hand.
If you have any thoughts or ideas, please share them or you can contact me directly.
But for now, we just keep riding!
Adios
Paul
PS If you want to contribute to my costs this year, you can buy me a beer
Paul you’ve done a great job in organising these events. I would pay a fee of £5 to £10 for you to continue these events. Try riding any other organised gravel event and you are looking at £30 plus just for one event.
Hoping you get the support you are looking for.
Roger
Thanks Roger 👍
I think if there’s a core of riders that plan to do more than one event a year or even get value from downloading tried and trusted routes in areas that they’d never know about if it wasn’t from the group, then I’d say that’s worth at least a fiver of anyone’s money for a year. The details of the routes, information pre-event and the camaraderie it brings is a credit to you Paul, so covering your costs that riders benefit from is a small price to pay I’d suggest. Most people pay £6+ these days for a coffee and a piece of cake on rides – and that’s probably every week!
thanks Chris. I’m hoping to improve what we have now so there is even more benefit for any monies spent on becoming a patron/member
I’d ask for an annual £5 subscription to get access to all the perks you’ve listed above. Most people will pay that without question. They’ll pay more for bars/gels on one event and think nothing of it. Some people won’t pay it and will just turn up at the events by word of mouth, there’s nothing you can do about that. If you make too much money the first year then drop the subscription for repeat members the following year or donate as you say.
One thing to consider, any money paid should be for access to the website etc. only. If you say it’s to attend the events you could get into a sticky place with insurance, public liability etc as an event organiser. Over here it would be organised as a Cycling Ireland event and for CI members only so insurance is sorted by default. Not sure how you do/would do that in the UK.
Isn’t it a great problem to have though, dealing with success 😊
Thanks Niall. A fiver (couple of coffees) I think is where I’m at with it. If 100 from my 700+ subs paid that we’d be sorted.
Not interested in charging for events. That’s why I specificaly say on the events pages they are free. Organisers have legal responsibilities I don’t want so you’re right, keep it for web access only.
I’m happy to contribute, and will buy you a beer Paul. Perhaps you could encourage support by having list of those who’ve helped you out. Beyond that, some might want to go beyond a donation to become sponsors.
Sponsorship! Never thought of that!
I’d happily chip in a few quid, if you do go the subscription way, please make it clear it’s only valid for a calendar year so if someone joins in jun 26 they only get access until 31 Dec 26… I know it’s only £10 but in my experience, free or cheap stuff can create more admin issues and questions than expensive! Good luck and thanks
Probably two-ways I can do the subs model, per calendar year as you say and maybe discount after 6 months into it or join anytime and get 12 months from that date. If I can, I’d like to do the latter if I do implement a subsciption. Thanks for the input though Paul, much appreciated
I really enjoy the events (especially those I can get to easily, not having the ability to drive). Love the like minded people on the events, and would be more than happy to contibute to continue to feel part of a group!
Thanks Joe