We embarked on our first Full Sus sales trip to Gauteng in February and were pleasantly surprised to see how well Full Sus has been received, by not only the industry suppliers, but also our readers up there. Wherever we went the shops had the latest copy and were either inserting them with every purchase or they were clearly visible at the till point. To say enthusiasm for MTB in Gauteng is massive would be an understatement; the bike shops we visited certainly had the larger portion of floor space devoted to MTB and the folks we met were avid off-roaders!
There are a large number of bike parks springing up around Gauteng that offer a safe environment to not only get a proper ride in, but to also bring family along and spend some quality, healthy time together.
Arguably the premier bike park in South Africa is the PwC Bike Park in Bryanston. The PwC park was one of the first international standard bike parks in Gauteng and boasts a multi-tiered BMX track (with something for all skill levels), a pump track, a junior MTB trail and 18 kilometres of MTB trails in a variety of IMBA graded difficulties. Plus they have recently opened the Momentum Multiply Skills area, where you can go practice your technical skills in a safe, but challenging environment. Sus them out online at www.bikepark.co.za. It was great to meet with commercial manager for PwC, Mark Fourie, and to see his enthusiasm not only for the park but also for mountain biking in Gauteng. It would be great to hear about other bike parks not only in Gauteng but around the country. Please drop me a mail and let us know about your venue.
Finally I would like to offer a thought around social media, we recently learnt the hard way that no matter what the intentions once you have put something out there you there are consequences. I think that we are far too quick to pull the trigger (see: push send) on a knee jerk reaction and without any temperance or fore-thought get into a mud-slinging fest on our social network of choice. It is easy behind the anonymity of a clever profile name and cheeky avatar to become negative, malicious and downright rude but it is much more difficult to make positive suggestions, good and fair comment and useful contribution. At Full Sus we welcome the latter and while open to criticism we encourage anything that will improve not only our publication but also mountain biking as a whole. We look forward to your shares, likes, tweets, instagrams and anything else I may have missed – just keep it real! Enjoy your copy of Full Stride inside this issue and catch you on the trails!
Cheers,
Shayne
