Take a Kid Mountain Bike Day Success Stories

IMBA’s 10th Anniversary of the ‘Take a Kid Mountain Bike Day’ generated some great stories from Europe. Read the stories of Silvano Busolli  of the Bike Tribe MTB Team from Italy and Sjef Eijmael of mountain bike club Trailz 043 from the Netherlands.”Dear IMBA, I’m proud to communicate that our IMBA KIDS DAY that has been hold in Salgareda (Treviso) Italy today, October 19th, has been a success. Two weeks ago we had  a raining day and so we decided to postpone the event. Today  the sun was fantastic and we had more than 30 children with all their parents for our beautiful IMBA KIDS DAY. A great success for our mtb trail who is growing every year thanks to the Bike Tribe MTB Team volunteers. But all was good: your gadgets, with stickers, number plates and Cliff Bars; our gadgets and the perfect party with cakes and soft drink for all the participants! We saw proud dads, smiling mummies and happy children! This is mountain biking, this is what we like!” – Silvano Busolli -Chairman Sjef Eijmael from Trailz 043, Maastricht : ” For years, I wondered about the fact that many children have real expensive phones, while their bikes are wrecks. Too big or too small, bad brakes, no lights, fenders etc. Many children crash by defective material, little insight and experience with other traffic and in the end, they don’t have fun on the bike. That’s something we want to change as  a mountain biking club . By encouraging children to grab their bike, ride with others and hit the trails to enjoy some adventure in nature. This has many positive aspects. More exercise , more often outdoors , better bike control , knowledge of nature and landscape , better orientation ability , socializing with your friends , cycling technique. Trailz 043 works closely  with the Sports Department of the city of Maastricht and nature conservation organisations  to align the routes and guide or train  the children. This approach has many advantages. A much higher fun factor , kids who are going to appreciate their bike and maintain it better and the skills they’ve learned lead to safer traffic behavior. And who knows, you might discover one of the new talents  in the sport!”[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_responsive”,”fid”:”240″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”style”:”max-width: 680px;”,”width”:”100%”}}]]