Snappy Comebacks...

This past week there has been a lively discussion on the cyclist forum about "Why A Bike Ride". Discussing sort of the meta- question as to why are we going on a bike ride, and how does that help, and why not just raise some money and so on.

There was a lot of good and heartfelt discussion about how to address people when they ask that very valid question.

This post is not about that.

No, this post is about the very nice snappy comeback that my friend passed along to me today. I wonder if I'd have the nerve to use this, when next I get asked this question.

It goes something like this: "Look: I could go on umpteen different vacations this summer, and spend about the same amount of money (or more, even) that I'm spending on my bike and gear and so on... and it wouldn't make a lick of difference to anyone in the world."

Okay, maybe I do need to get a bit serious. Sure, all the cyclists are raising a bunch of money each as part of this bike tour. But the critic would suggest that we could still donate more, if we didn't spend all this other money on our bikes and gear, and the tour itself. So wouldn't that make more sense?

We say no, because Raising Awareness, is also very important. Some have argued that it is even more important. We've already seen cyclists being profiled in the media, which is having a wider impact. And when the tour itself goes on, you can bet that we're going to see lots of local media checking out what the heck all these cyclists are doing. And that, again, will have a wider ranging public impact.

I believe that doing the bike tour, is going to have a lot more impact than if we had all just gone out quietly and donated $4000 (or $10,000 for the full-distance cyclists) to charity.