After 4 years the BB 200 is no more.
While the heading might sound a little doom and gloom, it shouldn’t. In October you’ll still have the opportunity to abuse yourself and your bike but it will be in the form of the Bear Bones Reliability Trial (BBRT). The BBRT will differ from the BB200 in a number of ways but hopefully these changes will make the challenge more appealing not less.
The most noticeable change is the removal of any timing structure … there’ll be no set start time, instead riders will be free to set off anytime between 8.00am and 10.00am on Saturday. Besides the ‘flexible’ start time, there’ll also be no finish time designations … it’s purely about making it to the end in one piece, unsupported.
What else is going to change? Well, for some it’ll be good news and for others maybe not so much … the route distance will be increasing. The route has yet to be fully finalised but you should expect something in the region of 270km – 280km of mainly off road riding. There’ll still be the odd bit of hike-a-bike and some parts that’ll make you swear but they’ll be nowhere near the level they were on the now infamous BB200 2014 route … so some good news there then.
The changes are partly a response to the ‘powers that be’ taking an interest in bikepacking and the growing number of ITT. I won’t bore you with the details but hopefully by making some subtle changes now we can remain in everyones ‘good books’ and continue to do what we do.
So, that’s it, the BB200 is dead … long live the BBRT.
Interesting. Perhaps you should name it the "Bear Bones Robin Reliant"?
In reality, anyone riding isn't likely to notice much difference regardless of what it's called … apart from the extra kilometers ;o)
I just like the car name scheme: Ford Fiesta, Robin Reliant etc 🙂