HKMBA en-us http://hkmba.server208.com/en http://hkmba.server208.com/en/images/topics/topicphpslash.gif 100 40 ALT_TEXT http://hkmba.server208.com/en/article.php3?story_id=376 Submission by Gillis Heller Mass ride on HK Island to press Government to build cycling path on the Hong Kong Island waterfront. The ride is on Sunday, April 6. Meet at 10am at Cadogan Street Temporary Garden, Kennedy Town. There will be a short stop for lunch at HK Convention Centre. (Food not provided.) You can also join the ride here -- meet at Golden Bauhinia at 11.45am. It should all wrap up around 3pm. From the 'end' of the ride at Shau Kei Wan, we'll all ride to the Planning Dept offices in North Point, to deliver a detailed letter in support of the cycle path proposal. It's organised by Hong Kong Cyclist Information Net and the Hong Kong Cycling Alliance. So - tell all the cyclists you know. Last time, we had around 100 riders. It would be great to have even more on April 6. Spread the word! We need to show the government that this plan has lots of support. Philip Heung http://hkmba.server208.com/en/article.php3?story_id=377 Submission by Kevin I just moved to Hong Kong (live in the mid levels) from the US. How do I get my bike from Mid Levels to dragons back? Are there any trails that I can ride to get there? Are there any riders in the area? Thanks, Kevin http://hkmba.server208.com/en/article.php3?story_id=375 Submission by Bob Smith Dear fellow mountainbikers, As some of you may already know the Hong Kong Mountain Biking Association is preparing once again to take a leading role in mountainbike advocacy. Efforts to promote the sport have been going on for the last 10 years but for the last several years the efforts have fallen onto the shoulders of a few selfless individuals. As a result of these efforts, the growing interest in the sport and the number of new riders, the time is right to once again organize ourselves in mass. We will organize and move forward with common goals, all for the purposes of promoting mountainbiking as a viable and safe sport within Hong Kong for Chinese and Westerners alike. The Hong Kong Mountain Biking Association seeks to be the voice of all mountainbikers in Hong Kong, not just a select few. Specifically, we will promote: the interests of mountainbikers in Hong Kong the opening of new trails and improvement of existing trails access to public transportation a limit on concreting of trails a support organization for mountain biking events, both competitive and non competitive What’s ahead? We will: Re-apply to become an official Hong Kong Association Become an official member of the International Mountain Biking Association Redesign our website and will offer it both in Chinese and English Continue to meet with as many organizations as we can, both private and public, to promote our cause and let the community know who we are and what we are doing What we need: We need officers for the association. We have 3 already and need 2 more. The task will be to take an active role in the advocacy efforts and decisionmaking--one monthly meeting as a group as well as your own time spent promoting the cause. We need board members. The board will be less active but still will have input into the running of the organization. We envision these individuals offering their insights and advice but not having to attend meetings. We would even like local figure heads to be apart of this group. No limit on this group. Members. This is easy. We are all potential members. We will have a membership aspect to the organization that can be accessed via the webpage. This will allow for easy communication and distribution of information. What’s next? We are going to send out several examples of web designs in the next few weeks and ask that anyone who is interested to vote on your favorite. The one with the most votes will get the node as the official site of HKMBA.ORG. For all of you picture takers we need good photos of Hong Kong mountain biking to include in the embedded design of the webpage. So send them over. Limit your submission to 10 shots. If you are interested in taking an active role in the organization please contact me. Even if you don’t want to take on an executive or board role, but want to help please contact us. In Closing Kenneth Lam will be our main point of contact for Chinese speaking members. If you have any questions, comments, ideas or thoughts please do not hesitate to contact me or Kenneth. We have set up a temporary user group (until the new website is complete) that we will use for information distribution. You can sign up for this on Yahoo! The user group is HKMTB. Thanks for your time and look forward to working with you, and more importantly riding with you. Kind regards Bob Smith Chairman HKMBA 9440-0154 http://hkmba.server208.com/en/article.php3?story_id=277 A project officer at GreenPower.org.hk sent us the following, to warn us about possible conflicts during their annual hiking competition next month. It'd probably be best for us to just avoid the HK Trail (i.e., the Dragon's Back) on March 1! "We are writing to draw your attention to our coming annual large-scale charitable hiking competition—Green Power Hike. The event will mark its 15th anniversary this year and is expected to attract more than 3,000 participants. "Details of 15th Green Power Hike are listed below: Date: 1 March 2007 Time: 07:30 (1 Mar) – 03:45 (2 Mar) Venue: Hong Kong Trail from The Peak to Big Wave Bay "Since a certain section of the Hong Kong Trail within the Shek O Country Park (from Tai Tam Gap to To Tei Wan) has been designated as Mountain Bike Trail, in order to ensure the safety of the participants and the bikers, we would like to inform the potential users of the trail about our event in advance. As we know that your association unites all mountain bike lovers in Hong Kong by providing the most updated news and relevant information, therefore we would like to see if your association can help us by posting a special notice on your organization’s website or sending out emails to all members, informing them to kindly avoid using the specified route on the aforementioned date. http://hkmba.server208.com/en/article.php3?story_id=373 Submission by Denis Soudant Hello, I'll be living as an expat in Hk for at least 2 years to come (starting March 08). My bike is coming along. Few questions related to that: (1) Is it easy to get your bike serviced in HK? (2) How is it to go to the trails: can bike come along in public transportation/taxi/ferry? (3) What's the ground like? More sandy or rocky? Thanks for helping me out!! Denis http://hkmba.server208.com/en/article.php3?story_id=372 Submission by Gillis Heller Last Saturday Morgan Acker, Ian Bruton and I, together with new rider Ben Shakespeare, participated in a roundtable discussion with officers from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department concerning mountainbiking. Other invitees of the AFCD included MTB committee members from the HK Cycling Association, some guys from the Business Environment Council (BEC) but acting in the individual capacity only, and various reporters from the adventure press. Topics discussed included: the permit system, usage of existing legal trails, usage on other trails in the Country Parks, suggestions for new trails to be opened for riding, access to trailheads and parking, difficulty-rating of trails, the need for overseas expertise in bike trail building, racing venues, nightriding, downhillers, and of course relations with hikers. AFCD will host another round table in February 2008, mainly for hiker groups but also including mountainbikers. http://hkmba.server208.com/en/article.php3?story_id=371 Submission by daniel davidson Is it possible to hire an international trail building company to come and build a good freeride trail in Hong Kong from scratch? Would AFCD disapprove this? http://hkmba.server208.com/en/article.php3?story_id=370 HKMBA doesn't organize rides in Hong Kong. However, here (with no warranties) are some ways of joining some interesting rides: 1. Discovery Bay. A group in DB maintains a web forum on Yahoo called Fat Monkey for mountainbiking on Lantau. It is fairly quiet during Summer (due to the heat) but very active during Winter. You need to register first, then whenever someone posts a ride, it will email you to tell you the details. There are more than 100 members on it now, covering all levels and ages. Another forum has just started on Action Asia's website too for mountainbiking all over Hong Kong. 2. Mui Wo. Less formally, every Saturday and Sunday random riders gather around the Friendly Bike shop in Mui Wo and proceed from there onto the Chi Ma Wan trail. http://hkmba.server208.com/en/article.php3?story_id=369 Submission by Matt Hi, Looking for people to ride with around HK area. New to HK and want to get out on the bike. Unsure of trails, so if anyone wants to go riding anywhere give me a shout! Cheers Matt http://hkmba.server208.com/en/article.php3?story_id=368 Submission by John I am going to practise the Tai Lam Biking trail to prepare for the Action Asia Off Race 2, is there any shop at Tuen Mun for me to hire a mountain bike ? http://hkmba.server208.com/en/article.php3?story_id=367 Submission by Ted E Greetings from Japan. I'm an American naval officer and mountain biker who will be visiting Hong Kong in November. While I've visited several times, I've never brought a bike along. I'd love to get out and do some riding while I'm there. Is there anyone interested in showing me some of the trails? Is there a schedule of group rides posted that I could join? I'm looking forward to the visit and hope to ride with any of you. http://hkmba.server208.com/en/article.php3?story_id=365 Submission by ELSA SWIETLIK I would be grateful if you could mention the number of kilometres for each track pointed on the map. I would like to organise a biking tour for my UK clients and provide them with sample tracks for ideas. Thank you very much for your help. Best regards Elsa Swietlik Account Executive TOPTOUR EUROPE LIMITED 295 Regent Street, London W1B 2HL United Kingdom Tel:+44 (0)20 7580-5223 Fax:+44 (0)20 7409-2456 E-mail: Web: www.tteuk.com http://hkmba.server208.com/en/article.php3?story_id=364 Submission by Fung Wai Ip I attended the 26th Country Park Visitor Liaison Group Meeting on 9 June 07 and raised the issue about lifting the ban on riding bikes in Country Parks. First, I asked the official what is the reason behind the existing ordinance that prohibits any vehicle, including bikes, in Country Parks. The official stated that the ordinance was drafted long ago and no affirmative answer can be given. However, he guessed the ordinance was established to safeguard hikers. Then, I asked if the argument can be supported by any figures of hiker injury caused by MTB especially the long-opened bike trail in Tai Lam Country Park. The official answered that they do not have such figures, and injury reports are hardly ever recorded by AFCD. It seems that the above argument is not thoroughly justified. Hence, I requested AFCD to review the ordinance and lift the ban on riding bikes in Country Park based on the fact that reported hiker injuries caused by MTB are rare on existing bike trails. Besides, many of the open bike trails are paved road and not good for MTB. One of the participants complained about an unhappy experience with the rude attitude of MTB riders. I consider that is just an isolated case. In fact, most MTB riders get along well with hikers and give them way on narrow trail sections. http://hkmba.server208.com/en/article.php3?story_id=363 Submission by John Greetings, I will be in Hong Kong next week and I am hoping to do some mountain biking. Are there any bike shops near any of the trailheads that rent decent equipment? If so, would you please let me know? (Also, what should I expect to pay to rent a bike for a day?) http://hkmba.server208.com/en/article.php3?story_id=362 Earlier this month one of us participated in a meeting organized by the HK Civil Engineering and Development Department (CEDD). Check out below his report.