CORBA’s Board of Directors recently voted to apply to the International Mountain Bicycling Association’s (IMBA) Chapter and Grass Roots Program. Initiated a little over a year ago, the program aims to help local clubs improve their grass roots efforts and community outreach by offering assistance with administrative duties that often drain a club’s energies better suited for advocacy. The program also offers clubs IMBA’s added resources and visibility. Ultimately the goal is to create a stronger, unified voice for mountain bikers by linking local clubs’ data bases.
As an IMBA Founding Club in 1988, CORBA sees this program as coming full circle. When IMBA was first founded, local clubs had no clout when approaching bicycle companies for monetary assistance with local land access concerns. IMBA’s goal was to create a national body that could then funnel funds to local clubs and their advocacy efforts. CORBA is proud and excited to become a member of this program.
IMBA is open to other clubs becoming chapter affiliates. The more groups there are with a cohesive message working locally the better. CORBA’s efforts, while significant, have become so widespread that our effectiveness has become spread thin. Our single club covers an area that could and should be handled by several clubs. While CORBA will maintain its involvement with Los Angeles and surrounding areas including Palos Verdes and Eastern Ventura County, we hope that the IMBA Chapter Program branches out into these areas as well.
Becoming an IMBA Chapter affiliate will not change CORBA’s local efforts and relationships with other advocacy groups and land managers. In fact, it will strengthen our efforts. We believe it is the next step in furthering shared use of our open space trails.
Most trails in our local riding area don’t respond well to rain. They have a high content of clay that turns into sticky, slippery muck that binds to everything it touches. It builds up on the tires, like a snowball rolling downhill, until it jams on the frame and the wheels won’t budge. Some models of clipless pedals refuse to yield when full of this mud, resulting in the bike and the attached rider lying sideways in a puddle.
On wet trails, bikes make grooves down the middle. These grooves collect water when it rains again, turning first into little channels to move the water downhill, then into little ruts, then large ruts that destroy the trail. You’ve heard about the beat of a butterfly wing that causes a hurricane? Then remember the tire track that turns a tail into one large rut!
And the mud is particularly hard to remove. It sticks to the bike and shoes, no matter the efforts to remove it, rubbing off on the bike rack, car carpet and floor pedals. Once home, it takes the careful use of a garden hose to remove the mud but not force water into the sensitive parts of the bike.
But if the trails are soaking, all is not lost if you need to ride! There are a few trails that hold up well when wet because they have more sand and rock that doesn’t hold the water. Here are a few you should know about:
