The mountain bike community and clubs in South Africa offer a great way to meet other mountain bikers and organise rides. Joining a club is a bit foreign to some riders who would much rather just get on the trail and ride. Many of these cycling clubs are well organised with regular weekend and some midweek rides. Belong to a club affiliated to Cycling South Africa (CSA) to get a license which is needed to ride in sanctioned events. License fees contribute to sending South African mountain bike champions overseas to compete. If you want to ride pro and rack up UCI points then you will need a UCI license too.
The mountain bike community in South Africa is an easy going bunch of people focused on riding and having fun. Less formal than its road counter part, MTB is more free spirited. That said, there are many mountain bikers who dabble on the dark side and vice versa. Those super passionate cyclists will do both, any excuse to get out and ride and mix it up a bit.
Arguably the most popular option for mountain bikers these days is to join one of the online mountain biking groups. These are groups of people associated through the internet via Facebook, Whatsapp, online forums or even a Strava group. Informal and free, its easy to link up with other like minded riders to organise rides.They are also great places for finding all sorts of other MTB information.
Mountain Bike Community
MtbOnline Facebook
Check out the MtBOnline facebook page where you can share and find information and chat to other riders about trails, rides, equipment and anything else MTB related.
The Hub
The Hub SA is the biggest cycling forum in South Africa. Although not a dedicated mountain bike forum it has a healthy number of mountain bikers on line.
Strava
Strava is like the “Facebook” for cyclists where you can record and share your ride details and routs as well as link with friends and other groups of riders.