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About BucksMTB
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Welcome to BucksMTB the Home of
Buckinghamshire Mountain Biking.
BucksMTB caters for everything Mountain Biking in Buckinghamshire,
Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and beyond.
BucksMTB is an officially registered Mountain Bike Club and is
affiliated to the CTC and BikeClub. |
The Early Years
The first humble offering of the BucksMTB brand was originally set
up and founded back in 2002 by three local riders. To this day the three of us
that setup the website are still here and working hard to keep improving the
website and Club facilities.
The website has grown both in size and in quality over
the years, with various website versions coming and going in various colour
schemes and disguises. Each time a new facelift website is installed its to keep
the website fresh but to keep improving on content and make the website easier
to use.
Our original ideas and aims for the website were purely
to just showcase our personal mountain biking photos and local XC route guides.
Over time and with a lot of interest from local riders and local shops we
started to develop the website, into what we wanted to be the ultimate
Buckinghamshire
MTB
Club and riding directory website. To do this day we are still the only
website dedicated to Mountain Biking in Buckinghamshire and surrounding counties
(including Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, and Oxfordshire).
Our XC influence was soon broken, but not forgotten, when
we dispersed into the fast world of Downhill Mountain Biking, both in racing and
photography. Since then, over the years, we have developed the site with
multiple galleries, a huge route guide directory, a large tech tips database, a
very busy forum, various kit and bike reviews, pro rider interviews, a bike shop
listing directory, a great database of website links and much more, and Scott
still amazes us with his regular gallery entries.
Club
Status, a new beginning
In January of 2011 BucksMTB went one step further by
becoming a fully setup, registered and affiliated Mountain Bike Club.
We
received help and funding from BikeClub and Club affiliation to the
CTC to register
and set the website and organisation into a fully insured and affiliated Mountain Bike Club. This really was a very
exciting new beginning for BucksMTB.
BucksMTB is now a professionally run Mountain Bike Club utilizing highly skilled
and qualified Mountain Bike Trail Leaders and coaches. All staff and ride
leaders are CRB checked and hold valid first aid certificates. Our staff work to
the rules and conditions of our Club Constitution and we have very strict
approved policies for working with young people and vulnerable adults plus a
strict code of conduct for staff working with minors. All these documents are
enforced 24/7 and are regular reviewed by both us and the CTC and BikeCLub, and
updated when necessary.
To this day we still try to meet our original aims, to
showcase and build the ultimate index for Mountain Biking in Buckinghamshire and
surrounding counties, and to cater for all
MTB disciplines
(DH, XC, 4X etc). We regularly update the site with new articles, local race
news, new galleries, new local route guides, and things for you to get involved
with - and when were not doing that, were just improving the content we have
currently. We also still attend as many race events as possible, especially
local events.
BucksMTB
Race Team
Over the years we have also organised and ran a Junior
development race team. Every year the riders on the BucksMTB Junior Development Race
Team have made us extremely proud, with all riders getting superb results all
over the
UK
and getting us positive National recognition. Several of our ex team riders have moved
onto much bigger and better teams in the
MTB
racing scene too, and are doing really well - we are extremely proud to have been part of that and to
help some really talented youngsters to progress with their riding careers.
For the past
couple of years we have scaled our Race Team down due to financial costs and
restrictions, instead we have supported our Senior XC Team Riders in various
National XC Race Series, however we are keen to get our Junior Development Race
Team back up and running as soon as we are able to.
You can find
out more about the History of our Race Team
here
To the
Trails...
Its all still about the riding. Our Open Group rides are still a regular appearance on the
calendar with at least one or two group ride being organised each month. Our
Group Rides are open to visitor riders and Club members. Visiting riders (non
members) may join us twice before having to join the club, this is because of
our Club Constitution and Club Insurance. Keep checking
back to site or sign up for our regular email updates newsletter (via the home
page) to be kept up to date with our regular monthly group ride dates and
locations.
Not only do we hold local Chilterns XC rides we also organise rides
elsewhere in Buckinghamshire and surrounding Counties along with various other
locations throughout the
UK.
Locations include areas such as Woburn, Swinley Forest, Afan and Cannock
Chase to name just a few. Because of our regular group rides we are also always
on the look out for volunteer Mountain Bike Trail Leaders - if you are a
qualified
MTB Trail Leader and you are interested
in helping us out with rides then please get in touch.
Along with our open events we also
hold as many Club Member rides per calendar month as possible, for 2012 we are
aiming to hold four per month. This is alongside our Club Trips that happen
throughout the year and throughout the UK, and beyond...
You can find out more about our Group Ride Events
here,
and more about the Club
here.
Going Green
BucksMTB strives to be a green organisation.
Emails are not printed unless entirely necessary and we strive to be a paperless
organisation as much as possible. When printing is required we only use recycled
paper and stationary and ink cartridges get recycled. Your club information and
membership packs even arrive in recycled envelopes!
Speech time, who we'd like to
thank...
A big thank you has to go out to
all of you, the local riders, for all your help and support over the years.
Without your support BucksMTB wouldn't still be here to this day. We would also
personally like to thank all our Club members for stepping up their level or
help and support towards the organisation and Club and for all their support,
feedback and suggestions.
A big thank you also goes out to
all of our supporting Local Bike Shops, other local Clubs, local Mountain Bike
Areas, website/club sponsors, Race Team sponsors and all the other individuals
that have donated time or expense into helping BucksMTB expand to what it is
today.
BucksMTB has grown so much since
its first appearance in 2002 and we are still growing and going from strength to
strength! We can now offer so much more than we did back in the early years and
there are still plenty more new plans on the horizon for us so please watch this
space!
Happy Riding....
The BucksMTB Team
Buckinghamshire Mountain Biking
BucksMTB Mountain Bike Club
The bucksmtb.co.uk Team
Scott Mark Kris Michael
Pollyanna
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