BOSTON (AP) — Biking enthusiasts set out to prove that biking fund-raisers for AIDS can be done right after the massive, annual Boston-to-New York AIDS bike ride shut down last year amid controversy.

About 60 cyclists biked 125 miles from Boston’s South End neighborhood to Provincetown, raising about $125,000 for AIDS/HIV research and outreach.

“People didn’t think we could do it, but we did it,” Frank Ribaudo, one of the organizers, told the Boston Sunday Globe. He added that donations were still pouring in.

In recent years, critics lambasted Pallotta TeamWorks, the Los Angeles fund-raising company that organized the Boston-to-New York AIDS ride, saying only a small percentage of the proceeds actually went to AIDS and cancer research, with the rest going toward high overhead costs.

“People riding in the ride felt like ‘Why are they raising thousands of dollars, when only 30 percent goes to where they intended it to go,” Ribaudo said.

After raising hundreds of millions of dollars for AIDS and cancer groups, last year nearly all of Pallotta’s clients, including the Avon walk for breast cancer and the Fenway Community Health Center, pulled out. Facing several lawsuits, Pallotta closed down in August 2002, ending the Boston-to-New York ride and other fund-raising efforts.

Now, the organizers of the first Boston-to-Provincetown bike ride for AIDS say 80 percent of their proceeds will go directly to the Fenway Community Health Center, which provides direct care to more than 1,300 AIDS patients. The rest will go to the Cape Cod AIDS support group.

This year’s ride was dedicated to the late Michael Tye, a former Fenway Community Health Center board member, who had challenged his friends to revive the AIDS fund-raiser ride. A faithful AIDS ride participant, Tye, 49, died in June of bone cancer.

“During last year’s ride, (Tye) had cancer and could barely walk, but he said it’s easier to ride than walk, so last year he rode from New York to Boston,” Ribaudo said.

Thomas Leavitt, past president of the Fenway board of directors and ride organizer, said next year’s Boston-to-Provincetown ride is already being planned, but major corporate organizations would never take control.

“If they want to send a check, that’s fine, we will send it right along to the beneficiaries,” he said. “This ride is about respecting the donors’ dollar and letting them know that every dollar will help support HIV and AIDS research.”