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IMBA - Sweet Single Track


ChopStiR's picture

By ChopStiR - Posted on 05 August 2011

NB: Originally posted elsewhere on the Global Riders Network and appears via syndication.

IMBA is not a standard and we need to stop calling it that. I too have made this mistake

IMBA is a guideline with 22 years of experiance.

hawkeye's picture

I may be wrong, but it seems to me the IMBA guidelines have become - de facto - the mark by which best practice trails are judged.

I believe the IMBA guidelines therefore qualify as a standard, by falling under all of the meanings below, but most fully under option 3.

From: http://www.google.com.au/#hl=en&q=standard&tbs=d...

Dictionary
Search Results
stand·ard
noun /ˈstandərd/ 
standards, plural

1: A level of quality or attainment
- their restaurant offers a high standard of service
- the governor's ambition to raise standards in schools

2: A required or agreed level of quality or attainment
- half of the beaches fail to comply with EPA standards
- their tap water was not up to standard

3: An idea or thing used as a measure, norm, or model in comparative evaluations
- the wages are low by today's standards
- the system had become an industry standard

So it seems to me to be quite appropriate to talk of things meeting the IMBA (guidelines) standard, or not meeting it as the case may be. Smiling

ChopStiR's picture

Thats very true, What I think IMBA dont like is when people associate thier guide lines as Australian Standard for example or ISO (International Standardization Organization).

More than once I have seen IMBA state they are not a standard.

Flynny's picture

Agree, we tend to refer to it as "best practice as outlined in the IMBA guidelines."

They aren't the be all and end all and some tracks, especially DH, need to dip outside their fall line and max grade guidelines so claiming them as "Standards" puts serious limits on the design implementation.

A guideline isn't enforceable. A standard is. You don't want to get lawyers starting to argue about trails that go 5/5s of freak all outside the "standard"

hawkeye's picture

Although my vaguely remembered recollection of those guidelines is they can be exceeded if the appropriate measures are put in place eg rock armouring and drainage works

Macr's picture

IIRC, that would be correct. I may even get up to find the book and quote it.

Noel's picture

It's a 'guideline' document.

Pratters's picture

..."based on the Greek word isos, meaning equal" Source Wikipedia (or any textbook on manufacturing).

The group you're referring to is called the International Organization for Standardization (http://www.iso.org/iso/home.html)

Andrew

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