I'll try keep this brief, but feel free to cue sad violin music when I'm talking about "The Past." I remember when I was around 13 (2000/2001) I used to ride around Tokai as often as I could manage. My bike was crap, no suspensions WHATSOEVER but I was young and simply being able to ride was all I needed. Destroyed fore-arms were a small price to pay. I don't recall any of the single tracks having names back then, but I remember hitting what is now known as Vasbyt was one of the best things I had ever experienced. Life happened and I didn't ride as much as I would have liked to. Bike stolen here, other interests there and at the end of the day I no longer mountain biked. Jump to present day, mid twenties. I bought a Game issue a steel-framed lump of death recently. It's heavy as all hell, but at least I'm back in the saddle. Living in the CBD means I ride Deer Park more than anything. Although it has no real continuous single tracks it does have two advantages: a) It's free, which means I can ride it as much as I want to. B) Ok there's no real B but hey, beats riding the tar. I decided to load up the bike and hit Tokai for the first time in almost a decade today. Being an unfit youth I got shuttled up to Silvermine and entered Tokai via the top. Tokai has changed guys. Changed a lot. Firstly, I don't think I've ever seen so much Spandex in my life. Ever. How long ago did Tokai become so popular, I know it's a great trail, but when did it become so over saturated with riders? Can anyone tell me around what year did it start to boom at Tokai. I estimated that there were easily 200 riders up there today. Secondly, I found many of the riders to be quite cold and hostile. Is that just me? *cue Violins* Back in the day, I'm 25 and talk about back in the day , although there weren't tons of riders, there was at least some kind of camaraderie. I stopped to help some guy replace a link on a snapped chain, and he said most people didn't even slow down to ask if he's ok. Seriously, that's not cool. Thirdly, I had to convince myself that people weren't judging me by my bike and what I was wearing, They were, but I'm going to convince myself that they weren't. I don't know what a ninja has to do with anything, but it looked pretty cool. However, I was pleasantly surprised to note that most of the single tracks were in really great condition despite the fact that they must be severely over used(?). The Boulders trail was particularly stunning and fun to ride. I encountered hoardes of Spandex on the jeep trails, but few riders on the single tracks. Is that just me? In conclusion, I'd just like to remind people that we all there to have fun, enjoy nature and get/keep fit. So lets have a bit of compassion for our fellow riders and keep the judgments and aggression for the rest of society...
