New Rowan Sorrell designed “pump track” (is that the right term for something nearly 400m long?) at Lordship Rec in Tottenham. There’s an opening event on Saturday which I might nip down for in the morning.

http://www.thetrax.co.uk/Events/viewevent.html?eventid=24

Hmmm, would I take my £2k + MTB into Tottenham? 😕

to Broadwater Farm?

Arse, I’m lodging at seven sisters and DON’T HAVE A BIKE!!!! ARRRRGH!

That area is fine these days, to be honest. I have quite a few friends who live around that park, it’s a popular place for people with young families to move to bigger houses who don’t have the budget for trendier areas like Crouch End. The Broadwater Farm estate is nothing like how it was in 80s, crime on there is now apparently very low indeed.

Tottenham gets a bad press but there are much worse estates in Islington, Camden and elsewhere.

less than 3 miles away! Boom! Will spin along at some point. Not sure if I’m bothered about turning up to watch Rowan et al shredding the rad then waiting 2 hours before I can have a go myself. Might find myself there after 1pm though.

I hate the Daily Mail “you’ll get stabbed and raped by the hoodies” attitude but it’s times like this I wish I had something other than a £2K trail centre car parking posing machine to nip up there with. Looking forward to checking it out though.

Hopefully one day this, plus the “mountain trails” in the Olympic Park, might add up to a nice little North London jaunt.

PUMP TRACK??

funniest looking ‘pump track’ I have ever seen?

its a BMX track basically 😉

the whole bleeding point of Pump Tracks is that they recirculate, so you can continously PUMP the damn track, and the best pump tracks offer multiple line choices, loops and directional changes

pump trail 🙂

I didn’t make it to the opening, but as it’s gorgeous weather, I’m working from home and had an early start, took an extended lunch hour ride over there. Had the place to myself.

It’s really good fun, taller than it looks from the plans and that photo above, all rollable by numpties like me or little kids but lots to challenge the more advanced. Could certainly be “pumped” all the way round if you were any good at it. The far end hairpin has a wide, flat top above the berm which is great for taking a breather or letting faster riders through. It had drained nicely from the recent rain too.

Full credit to all involved, it’s a great facility to have locally. There’s a little skatepark next door (also deserted this lunchtime). Between that and the new one in Clissold Park I’m almost tempted to get myself a BMX again 😀

Looks good, I’ll have to ride over as not too far away.

like it, and only two miles away! will spin by tomorrow i reckon. 🙂

that clissold park skate area looks excellent, i used to live a lot nearer to it, shame we moved!

I nipped over for a go this week. I was a bit disappointed but I think that can 100% be put down to how much I suck at pump tracks more than anything else. I think my expectations were raised to unrealistic levels by the photos – my brain had decided that I was looking at a track that was about 8 foot wide but it turned out I had got the scale completely wrong and it’s actually about half that.

Another place that I was completely unaware of existing before this week and is in a similar vein is Haggerston BMX track. Might be worth checking out if you weren’t already aware of it;
http://www.ibikeride.com/trails/england/haggerston-park-bmx-track.html

i went, by the way, and really enjoyed it. i preferred the first half as the return section i found the jumps a bit too large for the amount of speed you could actually get up with the tightness of the corners, but that’s probably half cos i was on an mtb and half due to lack of skills. 😆

and the best pump tracks offer multiple line choices, loops and directional changes

Very true, but sadly these are also considered dangerous and so tend to be linear-style tracks now with a defined ‘direction’, as are pretty much all the Jason Carpenter tracks I’ve ridden.

The pumptrack at Hartshill 4x in Cheshire is a good example of a multi-directional track. Good fun.

interesting was reading this

The Itinerary is a fun packed day:

12.00pm We will run two sessions to let the youth use it first (only right). First are 8 – 10 year olds and then 11 – 16 year olds.

13.00pm open to all.
The Itinerary is a fun packed day:

😯 will it survive long enough till 13:00pm lol

But in reality i think its a good idea, as there are not enough places youths and people in North London can hang out.

One issue are ofc the gangs ect and i hope they have at least some police who patrol near the park as i know from other places these great ideas can turn into hotspots for drug dealings if they arent properly looked after…..

case in point my local area, lots of grand ideas turned into hot spots with druggies using it really pissed me off.