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IMBA World Summit: Day 2

Today began the real meat of the what makes up the summit which is the learning sessions on subjects such as Bike Park Maintenance, Funding Trail Projects and All Weather Trails.

Dave Wiens and I sat in on the Keynote Address from SRAM's Mike Mercuri. He covered some of the history and current direction of his company and then detailed the advocacy efforts SRAM has invested in including IMBA and Peopleforbikes.org.

From there Wiens headed off to a session on IMBA's Public Lands Initiative and I went off to capture some pictures and do some networking. First stop was out to the expo area to see what there was to see. Many of the well known brands were in attendance with a number of demo bikes available. This really helps the summit participants (allowing them to leave their personal bikes at home) as some have traveled from as far away as Hong Kong and Australia.

Ellijay, GA, the mountain biking capitol of Georgia, was well represented in the expo area with the folks from Cartecay Bike Shop, Mulberry Gap and members of EMBA in attendance.

I met Dave again after lunch and we built up our bikes so we could attend the group ride at the Forks Area Trail System, aka F.A.T.S. Thinking ahead I brought a Prep Stand Race and some Tool Sticks, we were rolling quickly.

These trails are a big reason why the summit is being held here in Augusta, GA. They are the "flow" trails that the IMBA personnel keep talking about and they are simply fun! Swoopy turns with berms to help you keep your momentum and little rhythm sections that are more pump track than single track. It was easy to be giddy as you bobbed and weaved through the woods with so little effort.

I was testing out my new Topeak-Ergon team bike and with a few more shake down rides I'll have it sorted out. Fortunately the tweaks it needed gave me a chance to field test some of the new Team Issue product like our new RaceRocket MasterBlaster mini pump.

We still have another day and half, so stay tuned.