Philadelphia Mountain Biking Association - Forums

I don't know how many of you read Bike magazine, but the September issue arrived in my mailbox today and I was surprised to see the headline on the cover touting "America's Best New Trails" with the sub head "Fresh singletrack in New York, Santa Fe, Tucson, Philly and Salt Lake."

The article starts on page 70 and on page 74, there's a decent write up of the Wiss and mention of Belmont, some nice photos and they talk about the trail work being done.  They call the trails "truly world-class," which is a pretty nice compliment.

There's nothing to link to on the bikemag.com yet, otherwise I would post it here.

The Wiss may be getting a bit more crowded.

Awesome!! I subscribe but I didn't get the issue yet. The editor Lou Mazzante called me about 6 weeks ago and asked me a bunch of questions. He's a cool dude. I hope I didn't make any mistakes! Lou

I got mine today and was psyched to see Philly on the cover. Great timing. Even a link to this site at the end of the story.. The article was great but check out the last page of the mag for a short essay from writer Rob Story who calls Phillys riding the best urban riding bar none. We all knew that though. He should come on a city ride with the "knuckles" to fully enjoy the best urban riding bar none. Beers on me.

Just bought it today.  The articles are great - they went out with Max and rode the whole park.  Max mentioned a cave along the route, but the only one I know of is on a trail that's closed to bikers.  (I heard about it from a hiker, of course - I've never ridden on that trail :))  The editorial at the end is wonderful.  Good thing we're approaching the end of the season, because I'll bet that a lot of readers are going to venture out here - and we need the winter to get the park ready!  Too bad PMBA didn't get mentioned.

OK. WTF?!?!? Why the hell didn't get my copy yet? And did we get mentioned or not? Our site address?

I will hold off on my official analysis until I read the article...  :-X

Lou will be waiting in the bushes for the magazine and jump out at the mailman when he comes!!
 :P 8)

hadn't gotten to the last page yet, but had to skip ahead to it.  nice to see a little philly love and some good press (for a city that desperately needs it, imo).

phillymtb.com is mentioned in the info side bar along with fairmountpark.org under "for more info."

Ah - you're right about the website being listed, although the club name isn't.  Sorry, Lou - didn't mean to give you a heart attack.

And the part on the last page, the byline quote, about "poaching philly's best trails"?  >:(

seeing that made me lose some of my enthusiasim for the rest of the article- and the pics.

dont get me wrong, liked this read, but arent we working hard to do away with "poaching" and the idea that its ok???

Also- its Philadelphia.  Have some pride here people!  has more class than Philly.

I like the articles. At first glance it did seem stupid that the guy would write "poach" the trails. But I think he is talking about sneaking behind his boss and riding them without his knowledge, not riding illegal trails. That's how I read it... Bottom line is that this is Philly. Hard town. Only the strong survive. And we do things differently than anyone or anywhere else in the world..

I like the fact that they were saying that the city embraced mountain biking where other cities do not.

Unless you bring Valley Forge into the equation.  >:(

Where has he been?  He did this ride and probably mentioned us as they had our website.  It'd be cool to get his take on what went on.
Chris

Chris, you have not been paying attention!  ;D First off the ride was last fall and PMBA did not exist.  ::) Second, read my first post. The editor called me and asked a bunch of questions. He said he got my name from our site, but not sure how he found site, unless he read Dirtrag Magazine! Anyhoo, he definitely used some of the info I gave him. I'm glad he didn't quote me because some how it would have made me sound like a dork... Funny that Max never mentioned anything, but being that it was so long ago he probably forgot or thought it didn't make the cut to be in the mag...

The one thing I noticed in the article is that it said that to ride you need to obtain a permit.  Is this true?

VF is the feds, not the city, right?  The feds are a tougher bunch to please.

You're not legally required to have a permit, but you're strongly urged to do to by FPC and FOW.  Technically you're making a donation to FPC.  Any "fee" would have to go to the city's general fund, which is why it's "voluntary".

i don't think i realized it's voluntary to get a trail permit.
i've always been happy to throw some money towards fairmount park because i use it so much and i'm under the impression that the donation goes towards the fairmount park commission trail restoration fund.  here's the link to the link to the funding strategy:  http://www.fairmountpark.org/pdf/5_year_funding.pdf

here's the link to the trail permit app:
http://www.fairmountpark.org/pdf/Trail_User%20Permit%20Application.pdf

plus the permit gives you some bling to put on your bike.   ;D
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/jmkohn/bikeforum/0823072211.jpg)

I'm pretty sure it's mandatory to get a trail permit. It's just not mandatory to pay for it. You can send in the form without the payment, (at least that was the policy in the past).

Max - oh Max where are you? One of the sweetest shots is the Full 2-page picture just under Henry ave prior to the bowl. i didn't realize at first it was there but when i saw it, my heart jumped as I was so psyched to see it there. Chris, how many more hits (if any) have we had since it came out?

are you in love with max?

easy yalll.... i already got a girlfiend....  :P

i haven't even seen the bikemag article yet, hasn't come to my mailbox. the dirtrag one was nice, they even made my ramblings osund halfway coherent.

i did the ride with the bikemag guys before the club even really started (maybe it was right after that first meeting when the trailcare crew was here?) , glad they got some info in the club in there though!

i really wonder what they wrote about "poaching".... frankly i told them to leave out most of the stuff about belmont cause, well, it is still a grey area and the last thing it needs is a ton of exposure.

finally, jon, you are totally right, and i feel like an ass, that cave is on an illegal piece of trail. sorry.... i apologize to everyone for that but i had no idea that that particular rambling nonsense would make the magazine.

anyway i hope we as a club get some cash and positive exposure from the article! i am happy to put my ugly ass in some magazines if it means positive exposure for the illadelph (i am sure no one hears about much other than our murder rate any other times we make the news).

i certainly believe this is a great city to ride (and live) in and i am very proud to be here!

on another sidenote a good chunk of the dirtrag crew was at the thursday night races last week so you might not have heard the last of philly in the magazines (i saw maurice snappin pictures)...

That's awesome Max. Pretty cool to see you in DirtRag, and even cooler that those guys are cruisin our trails. Great mag.