One caped crusader will be among the more than 100 mountain bikers expected to start the Kiwi Crusade in Tauranga next week, from February 28, when the seven-day mountain biking stage race starts from The Strand.

The crusade's 580km over gravel roads, dirt tracks and tarmac will be tough enough, but caped crusader Ian Viljoen is doing the crusade as a challenge to raise money for the children's charity The Variety Club.

As a mountain biker of about 16 years' experience, Ian knows just what to do to make the week-long crusade as difficult as possible. He's riding a single-speed fat bike – that's one gear for all those Coromandel hills, and big fat tyres that create a lot of drag, or rolling resistance – and no suspension.

A suspended bike would be easier on the body, gears would be much easier on the legs and thinner tyres would not have as much rolling resistance, admits Ian.

'I converted the tyres to tubeless to be able to run the tyres on as little air as possible,” says Ian. Which makes pedalling them up hills even more difficult and makes the exhilarating free ride rolling down hills, a bit of a memory.

'It's a point of difference. If I went on a normal bike I would be just another rider. By making it just ridiculously challenging for myself, it creates more interest. It's a lot harder to ride that thing than a normal bike.”

Ian's been training at Papamoa, where he says riding the bike on the beach is worth about four hours of normal mountain biking. Putting two children in the buggy just adds to the workout.

'So I'm entering the world champs next weekend – the WEMBO 2016 24-hour world champs mountain biking in Rotorua. Twenty-four hours of riding with the one gear to see how many laps I can do, and hopefully not die in the process.”

He's wearing the cape because it was presented by a sponsor who's emblazoned it with Ian's campaign war cry: ‘One man, one gear, one cause'.

He's doing it for variety because of what the charity does for children, says Ian.

Variety helps New Zealand's sick, disabled and disadvantaged children reach their full potential. Any support would be awesome. The funds raised on Every Day Hero will go to the Variety charity that will distribute the funds to kids that need medical or physical support.