just getting funding for the development of a new skills park at the site we manage in the Highlnads. we have a 5000m2 area available and i would really appreciate any pics of skills areas near you to check out other options / challenges.

also any ideas of whats good and whats not would be cool.

the park will be intentded for all ability of riders and will also be used for runing TCL courses

pics and opinions can be sent to me at:
simon.harryATforest-education.org

thanks for the help in advance…

Keep it real:
stony off-camber s-bends.
12″ deep, 6″ wide ruts.
a hungry yorkshire terrier on a 20′ piece of string.
a greasy curbstone that you have to bunny-hop right in front of a pretty lady.

Genius suggestions by Stoner there! 🙂

I’d have:

Some jumps.
Drop-offs of various heights.
Low level North Shore.
Big slabs of rock that link together into a trail.
A pump track.

and as a facetious suggestion – a burger van at the btoom of a really steep climb. Riding after a heavy meal without being sick is an essential life skill.

we’ll have £30K to play with so we can incorporate all of the above!!

wall rides are fun

no north shore, its got its place, but i fail to see the apeal of riding on a 4″ wide wet plank when theres perfectly good dry dirt just below?

blue bits;
big fast berms, getti progressively smaller/tighter down the hill, so the first few you are just rolling through, the last few should require a big heavve on thebars to get th bike into the next corner and allow a lot of pump.

red bits:
tabletops, and make them progressive, building up to anything upto 6ft tal takeoffs and log landing ramps.

Drop-offs, again some progresivity, start with next to no drop and a long downslope (so faster riders get some air) and move upto a few feet. Then some step downs which require you to lok for the landig a bit more.

Step-ups, lots of fun, very very hard to mess up on as if you come up short your already going fairly slow.

steep roll ins, geting steeper and slippier, teach newbies not to rely on the brakes and get their weight back.

Black bits;
jerms, contrajerms and hip jumps, Phill Saxtena (sp? the 4x track builder) coined the frst two of those. Basicly various combinations of berms/jumps/takeoffs/lanings that force you into shifting the bike arround mid air rather than being a passenger.

Pump track
Pump track
Pump track.

Did I mention a pump track?

They are superb for developing balance and handling. Really good fun too.

why not just copy the GT one?
The one at Mabie seems to be causing a number of serious injuries!!!!!!!

You will also need a big flat area to do the basic skills
eg SC/BC Go-Ride and Cycling Scotland stuff(google cyc scot/education)

Are you FE? There is a dirty great manual available apparently with guidelines and risk assessment info. Available from Andy Hopkin in Dumfries

Just remember that whatever you do there needs to be progression
something a lot of designers builders seem to overlook.
They get carried away with making things bigger and better(a challenge)than other sites.

Base it on whoever you see as your “clients/customer base)

Take a look at this website… Jay Hoots

He specializes in building madd skillz parks. I don’t know if he’d travel that far, but I’m sure he could give you some good advice.

Have a look for the one at Hamsterley forest. I rate that. I can have fun playing on the jumps and black bits while still being able to coach my GF into some harder red bits.

This is the Inter-River skills park in North Vancouver, which I think Jay Hoots designed:

http://www.nsmba.bc.ca/pictures/traildays/interriver2007/

All the North Shore is graded green to black. Far right of the picture on the bank are 3 drop-offs, again green to black (1ft > 4ft). Behind the North Shore are the dirt jumps, again easy to big. What you can’t see is that behind the camera is a full size BMX track.

A few miles away in Burnaby is another Hoots-designed course.
http://www.bmba.ca/node/412

That’s got a dirt pumptrack and a wooden one!

thisisnotaspoon – Member
no north shore, its got its place, but i fail to see the apeal of riding on a 4″ wide wet plank when theres perfectly good dry dirt just below?

if the woods wet the ground is!

Wouldn’t this money be better off feeding starving children in Africa?

Or buying a load of bikes / vans so that less fortunate city dwelling kids can get out into the countryside that they’ve probably never seen?

Furryboots in the highlands? You know about Balnain aready right? Oh, and pump track!!

Pieface………NO!

don’t want the unwashed sprogs polluting the countryside. the first one is bono’s department.

awesome job you’ve got there. quite like something i want to set up here in germany/austria.

here’s the plan for the burnaby park and a few pics of it during construction, shamefully i live 5 minutes from it and have never used it since it opened last summer, prefer my general trail riding and all the kids are so much better.

thanks folks,

Pieface….we have a fleet of bikes which we use to run skills courses for groups of all abilities and challenges in and around the Highlands. We work closely with active schools and with pupil support to provide opportunities to disadvantaged groups to get outdoors. You may have not ever been to the Highlands but we are 9 miles from our nearest (and only) city and work with many groups from there. I understand your sentiments but we are ‘doing our bit’ so to speak – (we have a group of children ((expected lifespan 35yrs!)) visiting us from chernobyl in june to do mtbing, this is their 7th visit) I hope you ride a recycled 10yr old mtb?