An ode to the heartland

Tokai is the heart and soul of the community of riders from the greater Cape Town area.

Tokai is not a suburb. At least not to mountain bikers. Tokai is not a peaceful, leafy backwater on the foothills of the Constantiaberg in Cape Town. It’s not a mountain and nature area. It is all those things and more. To the mountain bikers who regularly frequent Tokai, it is the very heart and soul of the bike community.

Woven together by a network of trails crafted to cater for all manner of bike choice and grounded by years of rich history, a tiny bit of the spirit of the place glows inside every Cape Town mountain biker. It has been that way since the early 90s, when a triangular portion of singletrack at the top of the saddle was the only trail ridden. Back then nobody was quite sure if it was legal, but that singletrack lap remains etched into the annals of SA mountain-biking.

The Tokai mountain bike trails
The trails are forever a work in progress.

REWIND

Since that original loop on the top of the saddle and some singletrack (near what is now Vasbyt) started to take shape, the trail-building history is much storied among the inner circles. In fact, most of the original singletrack that has since played host to World Champion riders, events big and small, was built by a crew of downhill riders for some of the very early races dating back into the mid 90’s. In those early years, the trails were developed and maintained purely by volunteers who had advocated for access.

Year after year more singletrack opened up and the park became a major riding destination for the Western Cape and something of an icon for SA mountain biking. Somewhere in those years, as legend has it, the proverbial trail elves armed with spades snuck in to sculpt and maintain the magic of the trails. In fact, the story goes that there are still spades and shaping tools hiding on the slopes that date back to those early pioneers.

As disciplines became more defined some tension rose over the use of certain trails, especially with regards to which direction they may be ridden in. Fortunately, things became more organised as the years went on and in 2014, TokaiMTB was formed. The founders behind the NGO have been active in various forms since the mid-1990s, but only later finally gained a SANParks permit for TokaiMTB to build and maintain a world-class network of mountain bike trails.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Credits: Gary Perkin & Various

  • Dale Barnard – early 90’s.
  • Adriano Silver at SAMBA Nationals 2003 Tokai.
  • August 2004 – Jonty Neethling on the Roots
  • May 2004 – Looking back from Silvermine to Tokai.
  • May 2004 – Trevor Swart heading back from Silvermine to Tokai.
  • Mark Hopkins, Myles Kelsey, Tim Goodwin circa 1997
  • Vasbyt / The Roots / circa 1999
  • Meurant Botha & Myles Kelsey circa 1999
  • Dominic Bright, Mark Hopkins, Oliver Munnik and co. DH1
  • June 2011 – Karen Dallimore on Meurants Masterpiece.
  • July 2011 – Andrew Savage, Tom Southwood & Karen Dallimore above Bridle Path.
  • July 2011 – moody Tokai morning with Tim Brink.
  • July 2011 – Trailbuilding in Tokai with Dan Dobinson, Dave Mercer and others.
  • October 2011 – Tom Southwood takes the alternative exit from Boulders/Link Trail
  • November 2011 – Tom Southwood and Andre van Aarde crash on the first Cobra switchback
  • September 2011 – Molly Perkin on Vasbyt.
  • April 2012 – Molly Perkin on the entry to My Roots.
  • November 2012 – traffic jam on Boulders/Link Trail Tokai.
  • September 2013 – trail building in Tokai with Deon de Villiers and crew.
  • December 2013 – On the climb to the Mast
  • February 2013 – the end of the trees
  • February 2013 – Karen Dallimore on the Bridle Path
  • February 2013 – Molly Perkin on the entry to My Roots
  • November 2014 – Tom Southwood on Bridle Path
  • June 2014 – Fun in the winter rains in Tokai with Deon de Villiers and Tom Southwood.
  • August 2014 – Karen Dallimore at the old entrance to Vasbyt
  • September 2017 – the mast climb in Tokai is a right of passage.
  • January 2018 – Molly Perkin & Karen Dallimore on Vasbyt
  • February 2020 – Audience at the entrance to Vasbyt
  • No dig no ride with Devon Katzen
  • Trail build days.
  • The fire of 2015
  • Rebuilding Vasbyt & DH3
  • Boomslang trail. 2020
  • Kai von During on Vasbyt.
  • 6 March 2020 Sunrise over False Bay from Tokai.
  • May 2004 – Mike de Klerk and Trevor Swart On the single track down from the Mast tar road.
  • 2009 Vernon Barendilla of Strandfontein
  • December 2009, Karen Dallimore
  • 2009 – Trevor Swart
  • 2011 – Jasper Southwood
  • 2012 – Gary Barnard testing the new Morewood Sukuma.
  • November 2009
  • Scenics and textures
  • 2014 – DH2
  • Volunteers working on DH3
  • Devon Katzen and co
  • 2014: DH2 with Johann Potgieter & Myles Kelsey
  • Mark Hopkins circa 2014. The Mega.
  • Thomas Rood circa 2019
  • Gary Barnard. My Roots.

WHAT THEY SAY

The Tokai mountain bike trails
Rika Olivier: “The back yard. Where you know every pebble, root and rock. And some of them know you more intimately than you might like… Days of hiking up the DH three times for 30min, to get a 3min run – cheap at the price. Ramp camp repeats. Not to mention laps of the ‘Trails That Shall Not Be Named.” But then, the day of the fire. Like death in the family. We got through it though and the best thing that ever happened to our favorite spot was when a certain young man got to exchange an illicit hidden shovel for a big boy digger. Long live Tokai.” | *Image not from Tokai

stirling kotze at the tokai mtb trails
Stirling Kotze: “My early memories riding in Tokai are of lots of trees, shade and Jeep tracks and a huge population of Baboons. A big one stole my apple and my wallet as I was unloading my Defender. Also sneaked a few (probably illegal) hiking-trail rides. Some of which were barely rideable. I don’t remember there being any sanctioned or purpose-built single-track in the early Tokai MTBing days. Other than the exhilaration of being off the tar roads and speeding ‘downhill’ on a hardtail on gravel with a polymer sprung fork there was the Tokai tea shop for scones and cream and filter coffee. Tokai, for many of us early adopters, was and is the birthplace of mountain biking.”
renata bossi at The Tokai mountain bike trails
Renata Bossi: “Tokai forest was actually the very first trail I ever tackled on the mountain bike. Looking back, I have no idea how I made my way to the top contour on that very first ride. There was lots of hike-a-biking, and ‘oh f*ck, please stay upright’. I stuck to the jeep tracks (which felt more than challenging enough). It has been wonderful to finally return just over a year later and see the improvement in my skill, and explore the plethora of downhill lines. I’m now loving the challenge of a long climb followed by an even more taxing descent. I’m a sucker for the Full Snakes Trail down, followed by an almost too fearless Vasbyt flow. The rocks on the first three segments give me the thrills, while the fast, sandy and slidey Vasbyt segment aligns perfectly with my preferences. Tokai will be seeing a lot more of me this year.”

TODAY

It is thanks largely to the rallying of the community around the Tokai MTB NGO that the trails could reopen after the destructive fire of 2015. In more recent times the trails were closed again during lockdown but since restrictions were lifted there are more people than ever plugged into this beautiful community of riders. The spirit of the place lives on, and indeed is perhaps stronger than ever, as the playground today features trails for all skills levels and rider types including Gravel, eMTB, XC, Trail and DH. Trail maintenance is largely still community funded through annual club membership, donations and corporate support. The money raised is also used to strengthen everyone’s safety in the Park through visible patrols.

Cheers to everyone who contributes to and cherishes what the Tokai MTB Trails offer.

More: tokaimtb.co.za

Credit: capecycles

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