Danie

Yes - Kenilworth Cape Town

I live in Kenilworth and I am looking for a group of mountain bikers in the Southern Suburbs to join every so often.

DJR - thanks for a nice introduction. I agree with you on the safety issue, however its important to note that we shouldn't mix up issues here. One issue is safety another is trail access/illegal trails. I will be happiest to have more access to trails on table mountain without impeding on my ability to enjoy them without access control. That is what freedom is about. (I am a liberal and idealist just so we are clear here). A further issue that seems to creeping up especially from posters like Pain and Shine, is this belief that some people's actions and ideas will be good for all mountain bikers using the mountain. As I said in my post (be it sarcastically), if your aim in life is to ride a 100k mountain bike up and down on jeep track to the block house and back and get fist bumps and high fives, well then this new arrangement is perfect! Basically nothing changes you can just shout at the okes on the illegal trails now. If however you view mountain biking as a pursuit of single track with friends after work, well then it's not so great now is it?

I think the issue that MPRider is raising is valid. On the one hand one can argue that if the trails are illegal and under the radar then there is a status quo that can be respected. However now we will have a situation where literally only the legal trails will signposted, but not only that, the illegal trails will be signposted too. The reality of the matter is that hikers and dog walkers can now point to the sign when the illegal trail is used. Hence we now have a situation where the status quo has been disrupted but the only thing that's been gained from a mountain biker point of view is that it’s now very clear that everyone is riding illegal trails, which in my view isn't a gain at all. (Maybe not everyone, as there seems to be a big group of people with expensive mountain bikes that don’t actually ride single track and think that a 100k bike is good for marathon races only…) So personally I am not sure (as I said above) what’s been gained? Some important considerations: Table Mountain is used by a massive amount of walkers, thus an agreement with walkers is very important. Table Mountain is public land, doesn’t really matter what SANParks thinks or says, its public (every time I hear a hubber or someone say that the place should be privatised I get the creeps! What is it with people with money and privatising of land?!) and it should stay public. The last thing anyone wants (again maybe not everyone, this country seems to be divided into those that make the rules and those that can pay to break them) is access control to the mountain, its really completely erodes the concept of public access and public land and just reinforces the stereotype that South African is free as long as you have money… So I think it’s important that the users (that’s US, even the okes using table mountain only to train for the Epic) buys into the mission of the Table Mountain Bikers and that Table Mountain Bikers stick to the mission. Now I am not sure exactly what the mission is or what the values are that Table Mountain Bikers are trying to adhere to, I do think that it’s important to understand and debate them.