Conditions are good at the moment! Hard pack and frozen ground. The rocks aren’t slippery at all.

Just got back from the meeting with the council and legacy as well as architrail which will be revamping the course.

This is the the truthful trustworthy plan of hadleigh and no rumour. Everything will be staying apart from monument as this is built over a protected heritage site. All of the hard lines will be made so there is an obstacle for you to tackle before you get to it, so if you can’t do the obstacle you can’t get onto the line, say an awkward step of rocks at slow speed as an example. The rocks are are awkwardly placed, and are there to take you out which actually make no difference in riding the course will either be replaced or changed so they don’t cause huge accidents.

The track will flow into the easy c lines at all times and those riders that wish to ride the harder lines will be forced to tackle the awkward line or obstacle into the more series of lines, A or B.
The easier lines which are in place now will be more bermed and smoother and generally a lot more fun to ride as it as built as a race track now and less of a trail centre.

So everyone can chill out with the fact that all of the awkward technical sections are staying. They might be a bit more challenging to get to but this should hopefully make it a bit safer for the riders that aren’t up to those sections. It also means a lot more of an enjoyable ride if you just want to bomb round some flowy berms and stuff. All in all I’m very very excited for this, I’ll hopefully be building with architrail too in my days off so expect some updates when building starts. It should hopefully be starting May time with all the paperwork that needs sorting.

There is also going to be black (current A lines), red, blue and even some green trails and extra sections added on to the loop. Also a pump track with tarmac berms, skills area etc as well as the cafe, toilets, showers, bike shop etc.

Finally a trail centre close to london and over the east side of the country!

Here are some pictures from this mornings walk on the trust iphone. And they haven’t been edited through instagram before you ask haha

Glad to hear, all sounds eminantly sensible

Great news – thanks for sharing. Are you still going to be running coached sessions next year?

Which bit is monument?

robbo – Member
Great news – thanks for sharing. Are you still going to be running coached sessions next year?

Yep we will be running the coaching sessions on the course up until the building starts. Booking is available for January on the essex legacy site.

mtbmatt – Member
Which bit is monument?

Monument is the section after triple trouble and before deans drop, don’t think it was on tv. Shame its an interesting rock section.

Sounds like great news, thanks for sharing

Excellent result! Really pleased for both you and all of us. Can’t wait to ride/race it.

great photos btw

Excellent news. When is all the work due to be completed?

chiefgrooveguru – Member
Excellent news. When is all the work due to be completed?

Hoping before 2014

Can someone link some pics to the names? Be nice to know what people were actually referencing.
Cheers.

Thank you for posting. Good info and Great pics

I’ll have a dig through, I should have a picture of at least every section.

Cheers. much appreciated.

That sounds great.My only fear is that there will still be injuries on the A and B lines which will lead to the Salvation Army losing interest. You have had more than your fair share on your guided rides and that is with professional guides and reasonably skilled riders.

I hope Im wrong

pmc00per – Member
That sounds great.My only fear is that there will still be injuries on the A and B lines which will lead to the Salvation Army losing interest. You have had more than your fair share on your guided rides and that is with professional guides and reasonably skilled riders.

I hope Im wrong

Well hopefully the way Phil is designing it should eliminate risk. The flow of the trail will be directed away from the more technical lines and other obstacles you have to tackle to get onto the a and b lines. Also he is putting in safety rocks and re doing the rock garden to make easy and hard routes but the risks are being taken away in the a and b lines by filling in the gaps in rocks etc. 🙂

C lines the fastest? Suits me, may not embarrass myself at the Nationals there next year!

Here are a few of the major features in the course with names for the people that requested them.

Triple Trouble

Monument, this is going as it is built over a national heritage site.

Deans drop into the wallride

North Shore Jump

Oak tree drop

Leap of faith

Rock garden

Rock berm Jump

cheers

What’s with all the rails?

Have these sections not been used in the guided rides?

Cheers Tom. Those fences across the lines look like they add to the challenge though.

theyre removable fences to stop people sneaking onto the site and riding / moving stuff / hurting themselves whilst theres no one about – obviously taken out when Tom does the rides

One thing that puzzles me (as we didnt get onto it at the time) – why is it called leap of faith – I always though that looked quite ‘easy’?!

bigdawg – Member
theyre removable fences to stop people sneaking onto the site and riding / moving stuff / hurting themselves whilst theres no one about – obviously taken out when Tom does the rides

One thing that puzzles me (as we didnt get onto it at the time) – why is it called leap of faith – I always though that looked quite ‘easy’?!

Those pesky fences. I have nightmares about those things most days. In and out all day every day :(.

I’m not quite sure either, I now say to everyone “this is the leap of faith, not so much a leap of faith mind, more a rocky roll down” haha

Hoping before 2014

😯

You’ve not got footflaps original brickie doing the work have you?

Great photos – they make it look a lot harder than it did on the TV. I soiled myself just looking at them.

Great photos – they make it look a lot harder than it did on the TV

+1 but you can seee where they have created obvious lines a la trail centre.Little margin for error though in some places.
Should have had the cameras set up with several angles at some of these obstacles at the Olympics,would have made much better viewing.

Here is a video one of the riders put up of monument section.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAlWXEEhAOs&feature=em-share_video_user[/video]

^^^^ looks fun!

(I’m going to assume the recommended technique wasn’t “Pedal forward tentatively, make sure all your weight is over the front wheel, then shove that front wheel nice and hard down into that large gap between those rocks at the top………….” 😉

maxtorque – Member
^^^^ looks fun!

(I’m going to assume the recommended technique wasn’t “Pedal forward tentatively, make sure all your weight is over the front wheel, then shove that front wheel nice and hard down into that large gap between those rocks at the top………….”

Nope we talk everyone through it all. Most people were ok, its just that its completely blind from the top so can its sometimes hard for people to commit on their first go. He was fine though, got up and done it properly 😀

Now I hope everyone that crashed dusted themselves off and said “I was right- this track really IS a featureless, flat gravel path that bears no resemblance to mountain biking”

Also- wouldn’t it be lovely if those big rocks could be moved somewhere off the national heritage site and put back to work hurting people elsewhere?

Are you still thinking of doing 2hr sessions for people who have donethe longer course. I really want to have another go .

pmc00per – Member
Are you still thinking of doing 2hr sessions for people who have donethe longer course. I really want to have another go .

beginning of feb we are looking at. you’ll get an email when the date is set 🙂

With or without coaching, i’m pretty sure i could manage to fall off on most of those obsticles………………..

maxtorque – Member
With or without coaching, i’m pretty sure i could manage to fall off on most of those obsticles………………..

Still with coaching 🙂

Everything will be staying apart from monument as this is built over a protected heritage site.

What kinda ‘heritage’?

We asked this. Apparently, it’s a lump of concrete from WWII.

Thanks for taking us round yesterday Tom – I had an excellent day

The ‘good’ news is that I didn’t break anything (nothing that showed on x-ray)

Can’t wait to go back to fall off later than the second section

m0rk – Member
Thanks for taking us round yesterday Tom – I had an excellent day

The ‘good’ news is that I didn’t break anything (nothing that showed on x-ray)

Can’t wait to go back to fall off later than the second section

No worries, my pleasure. We’ll get you round next time. catch you soon 😀

[video]http://vimeo.com/55732019[/video] here’s a few shots of the old gopro.. Had a laugh broke no bones or bike.. Cheers Tom!

That looks cracking- some bits look way tougher than they did on telly..
Lots of it has bedded in really well by the looks of it too.

Fantastic day out at Hadleigh yesterday. Rode all the features, no offs (thankfully) and well worth the trip! It should be a very good place to ride when opened fully.

Many thanks to the instructors!

You need to get down to Warley Tom!

Cheers,

Dan (intense slopestyle)