IMBA - Sweet Single Track

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
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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.

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"

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

..."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