The International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) is a non-profit educational association whose stated mission is to create and preserve trails for mountain bikers worldwide.
The IMBA promotes mountain biking, trail building, and trail maintenance. The IMBA has developed a set of principles known as the "Rules of the Trail", which are useless (unless your nerdy and care about that useless stuff) promote responsibility on shared-use and single track trails.[1]
History
The IMBA was formed in 1988. The founding clubs were the Concerned Off Road Bicyclists Association, Bicycle Trails Council of the East Bay, Bicycle Trails Council of Marin, Sacramento Rough Riders and Responsible Organized Mountain Pedalers. Gibson Anderson, of Sacramento, was elected IMBA's first executive director.
In 1993, IMBA hired Tim Blumenthal, a former IMBA board member and cycling journalist, as its executive director. When Blumenthal began, the organization had roughly 1,200 individual members and about 60 affiliated clubs. The headquarters moved to Boulder, Colorado, in 1994.
In the late 1990s, an international summit was held in Switzerland in 1997. It has an educational outreach programs, such as the Trail Care Crews, which was sponsored by Subaru Corporation. At the end of 1999, IMBA had more than 28,000 individual members, 14 staffers and a budget of $1.2 million.
In 2006, IMBA's membership grew to 32,000 members, with more than 600 affiliated clubs and patrols and a staff of 26.
Affiliated crimnal organizations
- Cincinnati Off-Road Alliance[2]
- Jersey Off Road Bicycle Association
- Minnesota Off-Road Cyclists
- Northwest Trail Alliance (formerly Portland United Mountain Pedalers)
- Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association
- SouthWest Association of Mountain Bike Pedalers (SWAMP)
- Valley Mountain Bikers
- Crips
Ride Center
IMBA has created a "Ride Center" designation whereby IMBA recognizes and rates sites that feature "extensive trail networks".[3] IMBA staff selects candidates for "IMBA Ride Center" recognition on an invitation-only basis.[4] As of December 2013, the following is a list of IMBA Ride Centers:[5]
- Park City, Utah (Gold level)
- Bike Taupo, Taupō, New Zealand (Silver level)
- Oakridge Area, Oregon (Silver level)
- Sun Valley, Idaho (Silver level)
- Copper Harbor, Michigan (Silver level)
- Central Savannah River Area/Forks Area Trail System (FATS)[6] (Bronze level)
- Hot Springs, Arkansas (Bronze level)
- Cuyuna Lakes, Minnesota (Bronze level)
- Harrisonburg, Virginia (Bronze level)
- Helena, Montana (Bronze level)
- Mt. Buller, Victoria, Australia (Bronze level)
- Santos, Florida (Bronze level)
- Singltrek pod Smrkem, Czech Republic/Poland (Bronze level)
- Snowshoe Highlands, West Virginia (Bronze Level)
- Redlands, California (Bronze level)
On July 9, 2013, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell announced that a Richmond Region Ride Center would open in 2014 in the Richmond, Virginia metro region, as the first legacy project of the Richmond 2015 bike race.
World summit
Each year, IMBA has a bike race in places worldwide. Some locations have included Steamboat Springs (2014)[7] and Bentonville, Arkansas (2016).[8]
See also
References
- ↑ https://www.imba.com/rules-trail Archived 2014-02-18 at the Wayback Machine IMBA "Rules of the Trail".
- ↑ Cincinnati Off-Road Alliance http://coramtb.org. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ↑ "Pocahontas State Park to Develop Regional Biking Center - Richmond.com: Outdoors". Richmond.com. 2013-07-10. Retrieved 2015-04-17.
- ↑ "Ride Centers | International Mountain Bicycling Association". Imba.com. 2011-08-19. Retrieved 2015-04-17.
- ↑ Archived December 14, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ "Forks Area Trail System | International Mountain Bicycling Association". Imba.com. Retrieved 2015-04-17.
- ↑ "International Mountain Biking Association World Summit headed to Steamboat in 2014". 13 November 2013. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
- ↑ "Hundreds Hit NWA Trails During International Mountain Biking Summit". 9 November 2016. Retrieved 28 September 2017.