Philadelphia Mountain Biking Association - Forums

There's a short write-up on the Wissahickon mentioning PMBA in the September issue of Mountain Bike:

Scan (http://www.flickr.com/photos/repoman/2735172067/sizes/o/)

Oops, sorry... I didn't see the earlier post on the same subject. Feel free to delete this topic, mods.

Well they got two things wrong:

1) Tom "Doyle"
2) The best cheesesteak is Jim's??  Blech!   :P

Sweet Press! Hunter let us know how website usage spikes... And Rico, Jim's is definitely top 3 Cheese Steaks in the city! Come on!  :-*

Now how do we get the "shop that bears the Wissahickon name" to support the club? They are the only shop to NOT sponsor the Rally in the Valley?!?!?! Not good on them in my book... 

Repo, thanks for scanning the article.  Was planning to, but you beat me to it.  Thanks.

You know, I have been wondering the same thing since I first discovered PMBA.  I went to that place when I was shopping for a bike and assumed (because of the name) they were a strong affiliate.  But I was wrong.  Interesting....

Plus Jim's is #1 in my book.

Delessandro's #1, Geno's #2, Chubbies #3, Jim's  :P

Great write up!   It looks like they found the "Doyle Trail" eh Tom?  ;)

P.S.  Dellasandros and Jim's is a toss up.   But it's been a while since I've done the taste test..  Gino's and Pat's are weak in my opinion...

"mini half pipe"!!!

Thanks for the scan!  It's always interesting reading what other people think about how lucky we are!

I'll take John's Roast Pork as having the best cheesesteak in town.

Oh yes.  John's Roast Pork has the best:
 - Cheesesteak
 - Chicken Cheesesteak
 - Roast Pork sandwich

...in the city!

Personally I think they should have mentioned Bruno's for close-by food. Burger and cheese fries... to counteract the entire ride of course.  ;D And General Lafayette for beers.

Or McMenamin's for one-stop shopping on all of the above.

AAAAHHH the General.. good call Repoman!

Guys I have to say that the magazine article did not do this place justice.   I had the pleasure of riding Wissahickon this past week while out on a buisness trip.  Grade A good stuff, really dug all of the stuff there.  Tough to come by the towering hardwoods and greenery you guys have here in Southerm California.   Great flowy singletrack goodness.  I really dug the bowl and and log ride there with plank onramp was more than a bit on the tricky side.    I'm already looking foward to when I can get back.  Next time I'm going to bring my good camera as the point and shoot I brought was just not cutting it.

Thanks for all the work you guys are putting in there.

Bill
www.MountainBikeBill.com (http://www.MountainBikeBill.com)

Hey Bill - glad you had a good ride and thanks for the props! Did you have a guide? Spread the word, and hope you can make it back soon  ;D

One of the locals with the company back here in Philly showed me around.  I'm guessing I should be able to get back every six months to a year.   

If someone wants to find out why wiss cycles does not sponsor you should go and talk to them if you have not already.  I do know that in the early meetings I saw at least one employe of the shop there.  I can't say why they dont (no secrets here).  I dont really know.  Maybe someone should engage them in a dialouge about the org., the plans, FOW's plans, IMBA's plans and make sure you give them a chance to understand the broader objectives.  Maybe you go with a triad approach of bringing one rep from imba/fow/pmba together. Maybe someone call/email the shop owner and offer to take him to lunch and share info.  There is clearly a disconnect.

Just an idea.

They might not have sponsored us directly but I think they've been supportive of our efforts. Same could be said of Erdenheim, Cadence, and a bunch of others really. I don't think we need to do anything extra to 'woo' them.

excellent point.  question is...do you want them to be more visably supportive?  or is from a distance ok?

They are not a shop that I dealt with while getting swag together, but, I believe how it went down is we ask all the local shops for swag donations to give away to all who attend the Rally and in return we support the shop including putting their name on flyers and on the site. Wiss Cyclery did not want to support us in the Rally so we did not support them with advertising. That's about it as far as I know. The reason for their lack of support is unknown by us, but it's their choice and they don't have to do it if they don't want too. Same as we don't have to shop there if we don't want too.

For the record, Ed Bush the manager has joined PMBA and made a donation. But it is the owner who is not supporting us. I personally went there last year before the first Rally and he declined. I'm not into hard selling for this club, shouldn't have too. Im a volunteer, and so are all of us. Makes no sense to me why he didn't throw us a little swag to show support and we would have plugged his shop and the bikes he makes. I mean there are a LOT of potential customers here and it's a bad decision on his part in my opinion. THen this year I sent in Heidi, thinking she would have more luck and he told her no, straight up. He gave some bad excuse and I can tell you for sure that I will not spend a dollar in his store. Really poor policy not to support the not-for-profit org that clearly supports what your business sells. But that is his choice and his right so end of story...

uh...you may want to reconsider naming paid members on the message board.  many reasons for removing his name and affiliation with the store.  not sure if individuals would appreciate that.  capiche?

also...ill leave it alone.  as you know im sometimes razzing and sometimes praising.  you can applaude my consistency of being in the middle on subjects.  but when its all said and done...im realistic about the park users and the sustainiability issue....

I don't quite "capiche" Jomissa. All members are publicly identified on the forums and in the member directory. As far as Lou telling his side, well, you asked; and there's not too many PMBA secrets that I know off. You have some good ideas for giving it a go, (though it seems we've sincerely tried, twice). But, please knock yourself out and sign them up; it'll benefit us all.

As a first time visitor to the area, I thought that the mag picking that shop for inclusion to be a little odd considering that the shop hours are pretty light if you are a visitor to town.   Closing at 6pm on weekdays (except wed) does not leave much time to finish up work and get to the shop before closing.      I generally have a problem with shops that don't support local advocacy groups.  If a shop is profitting from mountain biking, then supporting trails seems good for the bottom line. 

Here is a page I put up of some pictures and blabbage about my run through Wissahickon last week.  You will notice a few of Chris's Bowl shots.. (Thanks Chris)

http://www.mountainbikebill.com/PA-Wissahickon.htm (http://www.mountainbikebill.com/PA-Wissahickon.htm)

Thanks for all you guys are doing around Philly.

-Bill

Great shots there, Bill.  Wish I was that good.

Awesome pics and write-up Bill!

That's awesome Bill. Thank you.

Let us know next time you're in town for sure!

Those are great photos Bill!


OOOOHhh.. if some of you haven't checked out his site, there's some trail reviews on the West Coast. I'll be visiting San Diego in October. I might have to rent a ride & hook up w/Bill.

being some one who stops in to wiss cycles regularly for my emergency tube or patch kit or this or that and having talked to the about it it seems to be the fact that they discourage the whoe fat tires freeride thing soo much that they jsut want no part of it they actualy refused to order me in a freeride bike when i said i might be using it in the wiss. but thats all about that i know

Frequent Customer: " I'd like to buy a bike."

Shop Owner: "No soup for you."

 ???

Wow. Some people fear what they do not understand.

wow, that just makes me want the Lenz Behemoth that much more: http://www.lenzsport.com/behemoth.html

check out their ski bikes! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT6pDvkmtFM  Skiing while sitting down  ;D

Those ski bikes are bad ass!  That was a cool video.