WELCOME to the off-road section of the Pedal Power Association website!
The PPA has been instrumental in off-road cycling since the early eighties, when ROMP (Responsible Organised Mountain Pedallers) was incorporated into PPA as the Association's mountain bike arm.
Those days - as is still the case - the following code of conduct was adhered to:
>> Ride on open trails only
>> Yield to pedestrians and horseriders
>> Never, ever litter - leave only your prints behind
>> Ride responsibly and do not destroy trails
>> Keep left!
>> Yield to riders coming down the trail
>> Follow the acknowledged trail direction, if specified
Over the years the mountain bike section of the PPA has grown in leaps and bounds, and today PPA has over 40 off-road funrides listedon our annual calendar, while the Association spends in excess of R100 000 annually to build and/or repair MTB trails.
In fact, one of the projects sponsored by PPA in 2008 was the creation and upgrading of a national MTB trails Master Plan, adding trails in Kwazulu-Natal and Gauteng to the ones already supported in the Western Cape. In this regard we work closely with Amarider 's Meurant Botha, who also holds a position on the PPA Executive Committee.
MTB FUNRIDES & SEEDED NUMBERS
More than 30 MTB events are annually accepted onto the PPA calendar. These events all conform to certain minimum safety standards, and we have several meetings with the event organisers in order to ensure that their route marking and other logistical issues are up to scratch.
Following numerous requests from PPA members, from April 2009, the MTB starts are seeded. At this stage, four combined groups are used, with eg A-G seeded riders in the first start batch.
This means that you need to remember to bring your PPA seeded number to funrides, to allow you to start in one of the seeded start groups. If you forget your seeded number at home, you'll have to buy a temporary number at the event. You can either choose to ride in the seeded groups and purchase a temp seeded number according to what has been issued to you (R30), or purchase an unseeded start number (R5) and start in the temp groups at the back.
What if you are not a PPA member, but a member of a club or other CSA affiliate: Where will you start? Seeding is a specific benefit of PPA membership, so PPA members will be allowed to start in the seeded groups in front of non-members. If you want to start in the seeded groups, you'll have to become a PPA member.