Prices

How much is all this luxury and fun going to cost?  Less than a trip to your cousin’s wedding.  Less than that awful weekend that your ex-sweetie insisted on.


The price varies a bit because depending on the options you pick, but here’s a ROUGH guide. Remember that there is NO fundraising required for this ride.


You can pick only the pieces of the weekend that you want!  Saturday AND Sunday?  Saturday only?  Transportation?  Lodging?  It’s all up to you.


Farm Ride Registration

Price:
$87 until July 17

After July 17: $107

 

Kids 12 and Under: Free


Volunteers: Free


Your ride fee includes:


  1. •Beautiful riding in the country on bike paths and low-traffic roads -- marked routes, route sheets, the best S.A.G. support anywhere...  We offer four routes on Saturday: 100 miles, 70 miles, 35 miles and 15-mile route.


  1. •Early arrival on Friday.  We’ll have an optional escorted ride to lovely Northampton on Friday afternoon.  In the evening we’ll have an optional very short ride to Amherst for dinner.


  1. •Fantastic rest stops on Saturday with too much food.


  1. •Light breakfast at the start line on Saturday


  1. •Optional escorted rides with trained leaders on Saturday


  1. •Spectacular post-ride meal at a local farm on Saturday.


  1. •Free hot tub rental at nearby Elements Hot • Tub • Spa


  1. •Free post-ride massage on Saturday.


  1. •Free ice cream stop at Herrel’s -- the best ice cream store in the U.S.


  1. •Free racing socks for the first 150 people to sign up


  1. •All the ugly stuff you never see ($3 million worth of insurance, permits, UMass’s administrative fees...)


  1. •Free outdoor parking for your car at UMass (indoor parking available for $5 per day).


(CONTINUED BELOW)



Photo by Bruce Cranston


OPTIONS -- buy them only if you wish:


  1. •After the Ride Saturday & Riding on Sunday!  After the ride on Saturday is when the REAL fun begins.  We’ll have our Saturday Night Dorm Party with Harpoon beer, margaritas, pizza, more dessert, stupid fun... I think this party is a blast, if it’s not for you it’s easily avoided. 


  1. On Sunday we’ll sleep just a bit later and then have start line breakfast -- fresh local fruit, whole grain breads, local pastry, bagels, coffee, granola, milk from cows that live about a half-mile away...  We’ll offer several marked routes plus S.A.G. service (bike rescue). An escorted 40-mile ride.  A place to stash your luggage and grab a shower if you have to check-out early.  Help with boating on the calm and lovely Connecticut River.  Free hot tubs until 6 p.m. Sunday.


Price for Post-Ride Saturday AND Sunday Fun: $25.00 total


  1. •Lodging at UMass.  (Most cyclists will stay on campus, but we understand that you may have other places to stay off-campus, and that’s fine).


  1. Price: $40 - $133 per night, depending on your choice of accommodations. Details here. We don’t get any of that money -- we just give it to UMass.


  1. •Transportation. Some people get themselves to the ride; some take our optional transportation from Manhattan.


  1. We offer two departures from Manhattan:

  2. 8:00 a.m. Friday

  3. 6:30 p.m. Friday


  5. We serve a light meal en route. Your bike travels in our private trucks; you travel by 15-passenger van (except that we don’t put more than 10 people in to a 15-passenger van so you have room to spread out). 


  7. Return transportation from The Farm Ride back to Manhattan:

  8. 7:00 p.m. Saturday

  9. 3:00 p.m. Sunday

  10. 6:00 p.m. Sunday


  12. Price: $35 each way.  (Compare this to taking the public transit bus -- $40.50 each way, and your bike travels SIDEWAYS under the bus along with the luggage.  Yikes!)


  1. •Lovely Farm Ride T-shirts.  Why do we charge for T-shirts?  Because ours are 100% cotton Haines Beefy T (their top-of-the-line model) and they are lovely, especially compared to that cheesy thing you got at some ride for “free” (English translation of Free T-Shirt: “We raised the price of the ride to cover the T-shirt, so you paid for a shirt whether you wanted it or not.”)  THAT “free” shirt from some other ride came with Fred’s Muffler Shop printed on the back, along with 20 other corporate logos!  Ours does not. What can I say? We are T-shirt snobs.


  3. Price: $12


  1. •Extra pairs of custom-made CUSHY Farm Ride racing socks by SockGuy.  The first 150 people to register get a FREE pair, but you may wish to buy more. 


  3. Price: $8 each; two pairs for $14


  1. •The Express Lane. Some of our friends hate to wait in line, so we offer the Express Lane. We will mail you all of your ride materials to your home or office a week before the ride. On ride day, do NOT get in line -- just grab a route sheet and go!  At lodging check-in your room key will be ready for you to grab and run!


  3. Price: $8.50 for registration materials only

  4. $15.50 for souvenir clothing AND registration materials.



Complete details on the Express Lane can be found during on-line registration -- just click here.




How to Register

The Short Version: On-line is the best way to register.  In fact, it's pretty much the only way to register! Just click here and it will take you to a secure on-line registration site. You will need a credit card to register.  (Yes, you can use a friend's credit card... with their permission!) 


The Full Story: We do all of our registration on-line -- there is no mail-in, fax-in, or walk-in registration. We use a private company called Active.com to handle registration. When you click here to register, you will be taken to the Active.com web site.


Active.com uses a secure internet site to collect your registration information, so your privacy is safe.


You will be asked for your name and address, plus information on your ride preferences: what distance you want to pedal, where you want to stay, if you want the optional transportation from NYC... At the end of registration you will be asked for your credit card information. Yes, you can use a friend’s credit card (with their permission, of course!) By the way, we receive your name and ride preferences from Active but we never see your credit card information.


You have NOT spent ANY money, and you have NOT registered until you click the OK button and see a confirmation message on your computer screen. Be sure to look for that on-screen registration confirmation -- if you don’t see it, you ain’t registered! (Every year a few people get 90 percent of the way through registration, bail out for some reason, and then can’t figure out why they aren’t on the check-in list on ride day!)


After you register you will ALSO receive a confirmation via email, sent to the email address you gave us during registration.


Note that you will not receive ANYTHING from us in the U.S. mail before the ride.  In your registration confirmation you will be instructed to come back to this web site to read the info on where to show up on ride day, when, what to bring...


If you are having trouble registering on-line, it MIGHT be because you are trying to register from your office. Many corporations set up computer firewalls, to protect you from fun at work. Try another computer outside the office. If you get stuck, you can call Active.com customer service at 888-543-7223. Have your credit card ready.


Our Incredibly Unfair Refund Policy


Once you register, there are no refunds.


Of any kind.


For ANY reason.


Ever.


You CAN often get a credit that you can use for another ride.  See below.


How to Transfer Your Registration to Another Ride

If it turns out that you can’t make it to the ride for ANY reason, you can often receive a credit from us that you can use for another of our rides. Just email us as soon as you can and let us know you can’t attend the ride.


Your credit will be valid through whatever the last event is that we run in 2013, but after that your credit is GONE and NOTHING can bring it back.


Your credit is not for One Free Ride -- it is for a dollar amount. How much credit will you receive?  That has NOTHING to do with the reason WHY you are canceling -- it ONLY depends on how much notice you give us that you can’t make it:


15 Days or More Notice Before Event Day:    100% credit


10-14 Days Notice:                                             50% credit


5-9 Days Notice:                                                 25% credit


Less than 5 days notice:                                   No credit


We can not provide any credit for the Active.com on-line service fees.  Active.com will not give that money back to us so we can not give it back to you.


Obscure Trivia Note

I’ve been putting on swell rides for more than a dozen years now -- it’s my full-time job, and I expect to do this for another 200 years. But if my poor little company ever goes under or I die in a horrible ice-cream-and-pie related accident, all ride credits will have zero value, OK?  OK.


A Brief Word About Illness, Accidents, Death, and Cake

We get lots of emails right before the ride: "Even though you state that you have a no-refund policy, I need a refund. I can’t attend the ride because I am terribly ill and I have a note from my doctor to prove it -- would you like a copy of the note?"


No.


No I would not.


We believe you (and your doctor) but it's like this:




Suppose I'm a baker and you order a 10-foot tall cake that states Happy Birthday Melvin on it.


Then something terrible happens.  Melvin gets the flu. Melvin gets drunk and cracks a tooth on a coffee table. Melvin catches whooping cough.


Horrible.


Sad.


We understand why you no longer want the cake.


But since you told me you wanted a cake, I purchased perishable ingredients.  I added extra staff.  I obtained Cake Insurance (OK... just go along with me here...)


I don't need a note from Melvin's doctor. 


I believe you. 


Fate has dealt you a completely unfair hand for no good reason at all. 


But one of us is about to lose the price of the cake, and it's going to be you or me.


And me being the poor and cranky guy I am... it's going to be you. (There must be a MUCH nicer way to say that, but nothing comes to mind just at this moment...)


Now imagine that I have 2,000 people who EACH order a cake that states Happy Birthday Melvin on it and you get the idea.


Thanks for understanding.


Sell or Give Your Ride Registration to Someone Else

All you need to do to transfer your spot in the ride to another person is give your name to the new rider. The new rider MUST stop by one of our check-in desks, even if you bought the don’t-wait-in-line Express Lane pre-mail service.


Why?


Because if they get smooshed by a truck and they are wearing a numbered wristband that our records show belongs to you, we won’t know the difference (because them smooshed and you smooshed look pretty much the same...) and we will call YOUR family and tell them that YOU are DEAD, DEAD, DEAD! (Try explaining THAT ONE at Thanksgiving dinner!)


When the new rider checks in, they simply say, “I’m riding for Jim Smith, but my name is...”  They can pick any distance or check-in location, no matter what you specified when you signed up. They get whatever extra-goodies you signed up for -- if you registered for transportation back home, they get it. If you bought a Medium racing jersey, they get a Medium (only) racing jersey.


Craig’s List - NY


Craig’s List - Boston


The New York Cycle Club Message Board


Please note that re-selling your ride registration is completely legal, but we do not get involved in any way with these transactions. It is up to you to work out payment with the buyer/seller.


(Continued below)




Photo by Brian Wagner


Registration Deadlines


Early-bird discount registration: Ends at 11:59 p.m. on July 17, 2012 -- prices go UP after that! That’s not to be mean; that discount is a reward for those who sign up early, since early registration makes our jobs easier.


Advance registration: Ends on July 24, 2012 at noon.  (Why do we end registration “early”?  We need time to print out all the registration info and make copies so it can be waiting at morning check-in, and that takes serious time!)



Last-Minute Registration: If it’s the last-minute and you want to join us, we’ll find a way.  If you are getting to the ride on your own just meet us at UMass -- driving directions to the Deluxe Dorms, which is also where are start/finish line is, are here. 


If you DO need our transport please drop us an email first -- we’re happy to take you last-minute but we want to make sure that we have a seat for you.




I Hate Computers! I Don't Have A Credit Card! Why Do I Have To Register On-Line? Why Are You So Mean?


When we did mail-in registration, a bunch of us volunteers would wind up sitting around until midnight every night for about two weeks, opening mail and stuffing envelopes. By the time the actual ride rolled around, we were burned out and cranky and having no fun, and I happen to be pro-fun. 


My number-one goal is to take better care of the cyclists AND our volunteers. On-line registration makes life much easier for the volunteers, and that's important. On-line is also more accurate for you – if you fill out the registration form yourself, there’s little chance of typos or lost paperwork!


Nowadays, most people either own a computer or know someone who owns a computer (and public libraries have internet access you can use for free).


Most people either have a credit card or know someone who has a credit card.


If you want more details, click here to go to the next page, or use the navigation menu at the top of your screen.


Glen

Your tour director and humble servant

glen @ the farm ride . com


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Prices & How to Register

Photo by Brian Wagner

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