Richard Beswick

Who is joining us for Joburg's oldest race, the 19th edition this year taking place on the 7th of September. 45km, 20km and 10km options. Venue: Ridefree Bikepark at Avianto Trails Entries close on Wednesday night or when we hit the 1200 cap.

Sell your entries for D2D MTB always takes preference :-)

I might be biased, but choose the spring classic you will enjoy it, challenging yet rewarding route

Sections of the route are the same, but it is basically the reverse of the USN cup with some new sections added in.

Online entries close on Wednesday, don't miss out on a cool new race at Central Parks

Venue: RideFree Bike Park, Central Parks Trails,Modderfontein ​Events: 50km mtb 25km mtb 10km mtb ​Date: Saturday 23rd August 2013 Time:7h00 Start Race will be timed and results available after the event. Medals for all finishers. First 300 entrants will receive VC TrailBlazer mtb socks Ample Food and drink selection will be sold at the venue Trappers are offering the usual R100 voucher for entries choosing the trappers payment option, however if you enter in store with a donation blanket to giveaway they will up your voucher to R150. (this needs to be physically paid in store at either Trappers Fourways, Northgate of Boksburg. You need to enter online first, select the Trappers payment option and bring your confirmation (print screen) into the store and pay. you will receive a till receipt and a R100 Gift card for your efforts.

Close but not really still lots of property owners in between

We have a 24hr reception, so no excuse not to pay. 500m ride from the trail head to reception, think of it as a warm-up.

Trails are up to 22km as on this weekend thanks to Tracker RideFree. A great new section into Syringa Spa has been added, with some building sections and more river singletrack. Annual memberships will be available from 1st June 2014. It will run from June to June. At the moment the price is set for R700 and will be a limited offering, It will include R350 worth of Avianto food and drink vouchers and 500mb of data per day at Avianto, so i you want to catch up on some admin after a ride. We are still working on a few more value adds. Tracker is also providing medics every Sunday from 7am-1pm as well as a free bike wash and hydration station. Drinks and food at the clubhouse are also coming down in price so colddrinks will be R12 for a 340ml

Yes we have, i stop a lot of people when i am out on the trails and recently have yet to catch someone without a valid band. We are opening the trails this weekend with the new Tracker signage and new trails being finished as we speak. We will also launch the multi visit cards in the next week. our annual membership will take another 2 weeks as we are negotiating value adds, such as vouchers for food and drinks at avianto, Trapper vouchers and possibly some partner products.

We started off with boards, but we canned the idea as the guys didn't like to have to have them on their bikes all the time or the forget it etc. i don't think there is a perfect solution. perhaps we can offer the board to people who want the option. and use the card system for the rest.

That is the idea we are planning to go with, as the band system is the only real way for us to check on riders have paid to use the trails. So you would need to get your card clipped at reception or at the clubhouse and get a band to ride that day. the 20 ride and 10 ride would be the two options we would look at.

What price would you be prepared to pay for that yearly pass?

Dorpie, i can see your route also comes through the Waterworx area, which is also not for general riding (i am sure you have noticed the large fence they have put up around the facility). We negotiate a single day in the year with the managers for use in the Eqstra Spring Classic, but it takes lots of meetings, route drives etc to get it right. I have asked if we could include the land in our trails, however they have declined due to the risks of riders falling or being hit by a construction vehicle etc. So i am sure if security has not stopped you already they will in time. So my suggestion is to change your route, ride on the road reserves etc, the area from Clinic road to end of the paved road is Avianto land, it is not a general thoroughfare road and all the properties off the road are owned by the Avianto land owners and rented out. You might see it as just riding through but where do we draw the line.

Yes we are in the process of putting into place, we have a new sponosr coming on board which is allowing us to open up more trails so a multi use card is on the cards as well. You can always buy and extra band for another day for the meantime if you don't want to pass reception just be sure to put the date on it that you ride.

Especially if the trails are marked, maintained and there are lots of signs saying you have to pay to use them and there is a 24hr place to purchase trail bands. If guys don't want to pay there will always be some excuse as why they feel it is their right to use the trails for free.

Hi guys, im not sure what happened on the weekend, i'll look into it, but we always have back up bands at main Avianto reception which is 600m away from the clubhouse and is open 24hrs. We are probably the only park that can take payments, by card, cash etc 24hrs a day. It is not fool proof but we always have the back up and my number is on the trail boards at the start.

We have had some reports of riders using our trails without paying the R30 entrance fee and then riding the trails in the wrong direction to boot. We have informed our security managers to be very harsh with riders caught on the trails with a valid daily trail band (taken to Muldersdrift police station trespassing charges laid against them) The manager lives on the trail network and patrols regularly on motorbikes and bicycle. Understand, the R30 goes to paying our 2 trail builders salaries if i can't cover their salaries eventually the trails will be shut down and overgrown in a month, trails are not your right to ride just because they are there they take a lot of effort to maintain, you are stealing by riding trails illegally, there is no such thing as just passing through, touch a wheel to our landowners land and pay the fee simple as that!

Event Name: Eqstra Spring Classic 2014 When: 7 September 2014 Where: Avianto Clubhouse- Muldersdrift, Gauteng Category: MTB Joburg's oldest MTB race 19yrs old this year! 45km, 20km and 10km distances. www.springclassic.co.za Go to Event Page

Our trails at Avianto are open during the week. you just need to sign up and get you riding band at the Avianto reception instead of the clubhouse.

Great to see Eqstra getting more involved in cycling, putting some of those great products in their stable to good use to benefit all cyclists using the cradle.

2 weeks left to go till the 2013 Eqstra Spring Classic. Only a few entries left for the 45km event. The course is looking amazing with a few new additions for 2013. Come an join us for Joburg's Oldest mountain bike race. www.springclassic.co.za

Thanks to everyone that joined us yesterday for the event. The pics are up on our facebook page, tag away www.facebook.com/ilumin8events

R150 per rider, and the chance to win a Suunto Ambit courtesy of Trappers, also if you pay in store at Trappers (Fourways, Northgate or Boksburg) you will get a R100 gift card. Entries are still online but you need to select the Trappers payment option at the end. www.regonline.com/mtbenduro

Come and warm up for Wendells 24hr with the Varsity College MTB Enduro 12hr or 6hr event, good idea to get the team tactics sorted before hitting the big one!