01 Jul 2011 What are the PPA membership benefits?
Earlier this week, we received an email from a cyclist wanting to know what benefits there are to joining the Pedal Power Association. This is part of our reply…
PPA membership fees work out to R22 per month per main member per year. With the discounts that PPA members receive on event entries and not having to pay for CSA day licenses, your PPA subs are pretty much paid for if you do five events per year. If you do more than five events, you start scoring.
Benefits and savings include:
PPA members get a 50% discount when riding the new Schapenberg MTB trails near Somerset West. We have just allocated more funding for new trails towards Grabouw/Houwhoek, additional trails near Somerset West and new trails near Hermanus, and PPA members will also get a 50% discount when riding any of these trails. We are also in the process of negotiating similar discounts at other trails.
On the event side, you need to be a member of Cycling South Africa in order to participate in any timed event in SA (like the Cycle Tour, Burger Tour, Stellenbosch MTB etc). PPA has absorbed the cost of the annual CSA licenses (R75 per member) for all our members – having said that, you can of course also take out a CSA membership or full license yourself through your Cycling Club, but then you carry all the costs. Without a CSA license, you’ll be required to take out a R35 CSA day license for every event you participate in – both road and MTB events, including the Cycle Tour and Burger Fietstoer.
What else is your membership fees used for, or what else do you get for your PPA membership?
Apart from PPA paying for its members to be timed at events and for providing seeded numbers to use at events, any remaining funds are used to fund worthwhile cycling projects, from lobbying for cycle paths to assisting riders from previously disadvantaged areas and creating new MTB paths, so in a small way every member assists the Association to ‘put back’ into cycling.
PPA members also receive a weekly email with event information, and qualify for discounts from Cape Storm, ICE-ID and the like (see the membership benefits page for more information).