IMBA Australia

2010 IMBA World Summit Wrap Up

Day 2: check this out, a great summary by Mark Eller
http://www.imba.com/news/news_releases/05_10/05_7_world_summit_day_2.html

And yes I was at the IMBA Congress instead of trying out a demo bike on purpose built single track. Call me crazy but that’s the call when you are paid by Aussie MTB riders to gain access in our homeland. It was worth going nonetheless, to get some insight into the inner workings of IMBA in the US.

Friday night in Augusta was a hoot. All the locals really turn on a show once a month and it seemed like the whole region had converged to party and show their wares “out on the street”. Dancing, bands, Harley displays, night clubs and general frivolity – the place was going off! Knowing that I wanted to make the most of the IMBA Epic Ride on Saturday, after dinner we made a bee line for the hotel. But what an experience, I loved it!

Day 3: IMBA Epic Ride at FATS
Well today we decided to take out Giants, so I grabbed a Trance. I very nice bike, light responsive and best of all, not too expensive. You could ride these trails on a fully rigid MTB or 29er, because they are so smooth, but yeah, it’s always nice to have some travel to get you out of tricky situations when riding new trails. I think we rode about 30 miles of single trail, Deep Steep, and then Big Rock and on to Tower. We rode with the IMBA Canada crew. What a lovely bunch of people they are and ever so keen to get to Oz to ride some of our trails. IMBA Canada now has 6 or 7 staff including a full time Subaru Trail Care Crew on the road. Sweet! IMBA Oz can follow in their footsteps and hopefully learn from their experiences in setting up IMBA in a fellow commonwealth country!

As for the trails, these guys have the drainage totally sorted. Part of this is due to regular maintenance by the local riders and a sound MTB Patrol Program. It is great to see that the rolling contour trail has booth similarities and differences in different parts of the world. One thing is clear, you can never have too many grade reversals! Riding the FATS trails was like being on a roller coaster. What a blast.

After the ride we were treated to a BBQ at Bill’s house complete with spa, beer (on tap Fat Tire Ale from the Belgium Beer Co in Colorado) and sweet southern tunes by some local musicians. Man, gotta get me a mandolin. Anyway, Bill is the main man behind Long cane Trails and the master mind behind the Forks Area Trails. This guy now owns a house five minutes ride from the main trail head. How cool is that! Anyway, no time to get too carried away, back on the bus to recover and get ready for a full day of travel to Boulder Colorado

The most important thing I will be bringing home from the summit is all the stats on the financial contributions from the bike industry to trail advocacy and sustainable trails. Corporate IMBA membership now exceeds individual membership in the US. Major sponsorship is also coming from various companies too. To see current partners go to
http://www.imba.com/contacts/sponsors.html

Clearly IMBA Australia need to engage with the bicycle industry so that is something we will be working on for the rest of this year. The other aspect we need to replicate down under is more “Flow Trails” so that everyone can have fun!