EDITORIAL
Mountain Biking's Best Black Friday Deal
I wish I could claim credit for this idea, but my muse is Trevor May from Pinkbike who pointed out what we all already know deep down: RAD trails are the best value in Mountain Biking.
Multi-Tools
The best multi-tool I'll ever buy is a membership to my local trail association(s). On the one hand my local trail networks - all of them - are in amazing shape and contain everything from wicked old-school Shore tech trails to grom-friendly green runs, new school flow trails, and some interesting lines that seem to mix all the above.
On the other hand, a litany of paying members gives these volunteer associations more weight than a Pulaski when it comes times to knock on the doors of elected and appointed officials who manage our public lands.
Even as a supporter, labour & financial, of independent builders I recognize the greater association's ability to raise all ships with land managers.
Many trail associations now rely on a mix of heavily volunteer labour, paid administration, and professional lead builders. Photo: Sean Gerke
Riders without the time to lift a shovel can open their wallet and purchase a trail karma indulgence that supports pro builders doing it For A Living. Photo: Pat Podolski
No Dig, No Ride is a good rule but for those who have precious few hours to ride there are many avenues to appease the trail gods. Buy a membership to your local association(s), buy a Trail Pass to places you visit to ride, donate directly to your favourite trails via Trailforks, or track down the gnome who's been maintaining your favourite trail that totally doesn't exist and slip them $20 for trail snacks. Gnomes need to eat too.
Whatever your favourite part of mountain biking - the adrenaline, the community, the bikes, the fashion, feeling like a kid, your local shop, stress relief, the nicknames - none of it exists without the trails.
I know it's cold and wet and that makes it hard to turn down that deal on a new carbon whatchamajig but first check out Digger's bold new acting career, complete with fresh knees, and then please give a thought to kicking a few bucks out to where you ride. It's the best deal you'll get.
Comments
Cooper Quinn
5 years, 4 months ago
Thanks 'Drew - your friendly, local, trail association needs you, pretty much wherever you are. And there's about a million ways you can help, depending on your skillset and personal time. If you reach out with ideas, be prepared to give your comments, but also listen to the organization. Try and come prepared to contribute in some way, and to have a conversation. Odds are, they aren't short on ideas. They're short on capacity, funds, and volunteers to deliver on all the great ideas.
And off the back of last night's AGM, a big thanks to all the past, current, and future NSMBA members, as well. We couldn't do what we do without each and every one of you. There was 32% more people at this year's meeting than last - thank you for being engaged, and caring about our communities trails.
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earle.b
5 years, 4 months ago
Fresh NEW Product article...53 comments.
Support your local trail org so that you actually have trails to ride...3 comments (well 4 now I added this one).
Hopefully the article has inspired people to donate.
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Andrew Major
5 years, 4 months ago
To be fair, other than “My local trail association ROCKS, thank you volunteers, I bought membership(s), etc” there isn’t much to comment on - certainly nothing debatable in this piece!
The For A Living : Trail Builders piece I linked to in the photo of Pat only had two comments but it was very well read and enjoyed (I seem to recall Pat’s mom even said on Facebook how cool he is!). Comments don’t necessarily correlate with eyeballs.
I’d love to think this reminded a few people to pick up their memberships / trail passes (I mean - I know they were all going to get around to it eventually).
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IslandLife
5 years, 4 months ago
Also... that video was a pretty long watch for the current state of attention spans. I'm interested in this kind of thing, but even I skipped through some and once I got the jist, moved on... through twelve and half minutes I'd definitely have too many staff and/or my boss coming in a seeing the work I'm not doing :-).
Would be interesting to see the bounce rate and/or time spent on this page and how that correlates to the length of the video...
And yes, it did remind me to go buy my membership. Not sure how often PSA's about memberships go out... bu think this should happen more often.
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Todd Hellinga
5 years, 4 months ago
YES!
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IslandLife
5 years, 4 months ago
Yes!! Just re-bought my family membership to SIMBS (South Island Mountain Bike Society)... best Black Friday deal ever!
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ZigaK
5 years, 4 months ago
As a part time trail gnome: you put a couple of hours into a problem spot, and the next day riding over it you yourself can't figure it out why it took so much time for such a negligible amendment.
So I kind of understand people going on how "natural" trails do not need maintenance.
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