What's the Cost?
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One of the number one questions people have is how much will this cost? This page provides a brief overview of the standard costs to give you the general idea. If cost is what is keeping you from joining us, please talk to us. Our awesome sponsors help make things possible, and we'd love to have you join us. There are always options, but you'll never know unless you ask.
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Registration and Racing Fees
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To get registered with the league, you have to go through an online registration process (parents need to sign electronically) and pay the NICA and NorCal fees.
If you're not sure yet if you want to join the team, you can e-sign a one-day waiver join us once to check things out. For every race you attend, you pay the racing fee when you register online. If you miss the deadline and have to register on-site, it's an extra $10. There are usually 5 regular season races plus championships. Fees during a normal year are $75 to register, and $50 per race. This year, due to COVID, there may not be any races. So to stay financially viable NorCal is charging $150 to register, and $25 per race. Team Kit (Jersey & Shorts)To race with us, NICA requires that you have a team jersey. Voler is sponsoring us and giving us a great deal on the kits, so the jersey and shorts will each be around $80. If parents or relatives want one too, we intend to have them available at our cost. Check our Kit Info page for details..
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Race Travel
Driving times to races varies between 1:20 to 3:30. So there are gas costs of course, double if you come to pre-ride and don't stay overnight. However, carpools can make gas costs very reasonable and we love to carpool to races. For sure, the further away the race, the more likely you'll want to stay overnight nearby.
Many race venues, particularly the ones further away from us, have good options for camping. Not only is camping very economical, it's a fun way to hang with the team! Coach Ben loves to camp, and plans to camp even if you don't.
For those who don't camp, you can always stay in hotels, a rental house, or similar. There is no real limit on how much that could cost you if you start surfing AirBNB, but you can realistically figure on around $125 per race if you stay in a regular hotel.
Many race venues, particularly the ones further away from us, have good options for camping. Not only is camping very economical, it's a fun way to hang with the team! Coach Ben loves to camp, and plans to camp even if you don't.
For those who don't camp, you can always stay in hotels, a rental house, or similar. There is no real limit on how much that could cost you if you start surfing AirBNB, but you can realistically figure on around $125 per race if you stay in a regular hotel.
Equipment
Obviously, the main equipment cost is the bike, but don't forget to think about the helmet, gloves, shoes, tool kit, etc. The main bike question is how much do you really need? You can spend between $100 and $10,000 on a mountain bike. Yes, $10,000! Does it even matter? It can. There are very real functional differences between the bikes, and if you don't have enough bike for the job it can be frustrating and even dangerous on tricky terrain. Most racers are well served by bikes that, when they were new, retailed for $1500 to $2000. Below $800 retail, and you're solidly in the racer frustration zone. Above $2500 is only truly needed if you're pretty hot stuff and you want to compete with the state's best. But those are retail numbers, and we have better options than that. One of the most common options is to take advantage of the discounts offered to NICA racers by Specialized, Santa Cruz, and others. Several people on our team have already taken advantage of the Specialized program, which is why we list them as one of our sponsors. If you're patient on Craigslist, you can find something race-worthy for as low as $800. There are still more options of course, to explore them you just need to talk to us.
