Breaking News: Revolution Bike Park CLOSING Indefinitely

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Revolution Bike Park has just announced the news that it is closing indefinitely due to larch disease. The disease is phytophthora ramorum., which effects Japanese larch and makes up 2/3 of the forrest.

The announcement has been made by park Co-Founders Tim and James:

revolution bike park closing

Announcement:

We have an important announcement to make. Please take the time to watch the video.

It is with great sadness and heavy hearts that we have to announce the following news.

Revolution Bike Park will be closing indefinitely at the end of the day on Monday, January 2nd 2023.

Unfortunately, in the last week, we have been notified that the larch trees in the forest have a disease called phytophthora ramorum. This is a disease that affects large quantities of Japanese Larch in the UK and abroad and more than 2/3 of the forest that contains the bike park is made up of this species of tree. We have been managing this alongside the running of the bike park for many years and there has been no evidence of the disease, so it has come as a massive shock to us to be notified that the disease has reached us.

As such, by law, all of the larch trees at the bike park will need to be clear felled, and as a result, we have had to make the impossible decision that we will need to close the bike park indefinitely.

This felling, subsequent clear up and replanting, will obviously have a massive impact on the park, and the level of riding that we have always strived to offer and whilst we’re not sure yet if the closure will be permanent, it will certainly be a matter of years, not months, before we could make any decisions as to the next steps, if there are any.

We intend to remain open and running our normal uplifts from now until the last day, which will be 2nd January 2023. This will be the last day to ride Revs as we all know and love it. Any previously held bookings, or open gift vouchers will need to be redeemed by this date.


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We (James, Sush and Finn, Tim and Jo and Linda – The Foster family) are absolutely devastated as I’m sure you can all imagine. When we all set out just over 10 years ago with a dream to build a bike park, we never in a million years thought that we would end up being players on a world stage and that people from all over the UK and the world would come to Revolution Bike Park in Llangynog to ride our wild creations on the side of our little hill. Although it has been hard at times, we have loved creating this place for people to come and ride and we hope that you have loved it too.

Needless to say, there are a lot of people that we owe thanks to:

The staff over the years, there’s no way we could’ve done any of this without you all. You all worked hard in every condition that the Welsh weather gods threw at us to help us to build and run Revolution and offer our customers not only some of the best trails in the UK to ride, but a friendly face in the uplift trucks, some delicious burgers to eat and help to patch up the injured.

The brands and industry folk that have helped us and become our friends over the years, there are too many to mention by name and we would hate to leave anyone out but I’m sure you know who you are.

You guys, the riders, our customers, some of which have become good friends, YOU ARE the ones that really we do it all for. Without your unwavering support we simply wouldn’t be here. From the early days of 10 spaces in the back of the pick-up truck, no shelter and at times sideways rain and knee-deep mud to now. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you. We know that lots of you will be gutted to read this news and we really hope that you can continue to support us right up to the end.

And last but definitely not least, the people of the village of Llangynog. Thank you for welcoming us with open arms. We are lucky to have ended up here and your support of us has always been greatly appreciated and has been instrumental to us making it this far. #revs4evs

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Amanda Wishart

Art Director

Amanda is our resident pedaller, who loves the climbs as much as the descents. No genre of biking is turned down, though she is happiest when at the top of a mountain with a wild descent ahead of her. If you ever want a chat about concussion recovery, dealing with a Womb of Doom or how best to fuel an endurance XC race, she's the one to email.

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Home Forums Breaking News: Revolution Bike Park CLOSING Indefinitely

  • This topic has 54 replies, 35 voices, and was last updated 1 year ago by 5lab.
Viewing 14 posts - 41 through 54 (of 54 total)
  • Breaking News: Revolution Bike Park CLOSING Indefinitely
  • kayak23
    Full Member

    😭😭😭

    There’s a photo report on Pinkbike, sad times indeed.

    But being grateful for small mercies, Dyfi is there to scratch that itch until they return.

    colp
    Full Member

    I went a couple of days before Christmas.
    Had a good chat to Tim. They’re trying to stay positive and talking about preserving 50:01 and Vision, the most expensive lines to build.
    He was also looking at organising some jam days and things. If they do manage to sort any events, we all need to get behind it. Learned a lot riding Revs and my lad grew up riding there.

    My last run on Freeride

    kayak23
    Full Member

    Post-felling tour

    chvck
    Free Member

    Good video, which puts into perspective that it’s not “just” “clear and rebuild the lines and then reopen” but there’s also having to clear around the lines for access too.

    Northwind
    Full Member

    Good vid that, ending on a tease though!

    FunkyDunc
    Free Member

    I still don’t see how they all had to be felled, yet right next door you can continue to hold DH mtb events through forestry

    Anyhow. Would love them to build some XC / Trail / beginner jump lines. Massive lack of this type of stuff in the area, and would be logical with the lack of trees and lack of this type of riding in the area

    Northwind
    Full Member

    TBH biosecurity stuff is just really difficult, and stuff like “closing a bike park” is basically small stuff in the grand scheme of “trying to save forests and species”, they’re painting frantically and fast with a very big brush so it will always make a mess. Ramorum is a bastard of a thing, because it infects so many species so if clearfelling superspreader larch can save other stuff, it’s almost certainly worth it.

    The question is just whether it’s going to work. I’m no expert but it seems there’s a really good chance that in 20 years they look back on this response and go “yeah that didn’t just fail, it was pointless to try”, in the face of a disease that can affect 100+ species including some of the most common in the country.

    (equally it’s possible that it fails, but on a long enough timescale it works out positive anyway as we regrow with more diverse species, who can tell. Plenty of massive variables for UK plantlife coming up in our lifetimes…)

    The other thing is, there always more infected trees to cut than there are machines and people available to cut them. So at some point, if there’s going to be a infected forests <somewhere> you need to get smart about which ones you prioritise and which you leave alone. Perhaps that’s already happened, probably the bike park made revo a potential super-spreader… But equally, maybe there’s an argument for avoiding the ones with the highest human value or rolling a dice on those.

    (I still look at the start of this and think it looks wrong. If it was about spreading and closure was essential, then the period after the closure was announced, but before it closed, just seems mad. Like sending an infectious plague victim out clubbing before they quarantine.)

    TheBrick
    Free Member

    Biggest issue seems to be that they don’t feel they can boot strap it again. Understandable but just make the financial commitment massive

    steveh
    Full Member

    @funkydunc different tree types as I understand. Rhyd Y Felin just down the road hasn’t had the same issues.

    poly
    Free Member

    I still look at the start of this and think it looks wrong. If it was about spreading and closure was essential, then the period after the closure was announced, but before it closed, just seems mad. Like sending an infectious plague victim out clubbing before they quarantine.

    or delaying a lockdown whilst the grand national and major football events went on!  The “right” decisions are always easy in hindsight.

    DickBarton
    Full Member

    Are they replanting with a wider range of species/variants of tree? I thought it was just going to be the same stuff after a period of time that was determined to make the area disease free…

    1
    PrinceJohn
    Full Member

    or delaying a lockdown whilst the grand national and major football events went on!  The “right” decisions are always easy in hindsight.

    That’s an entirely different argument as with foresight it was easy to see that not stopping those was a super dumb idea.

    5lab
    Free Member

    I wonder if they have some kinda insurance paying out whilst their shut – they certainly don’t feel like a small company desperately trying to re-open and resume revenue as quickly as they possibly can

Viewing 14 posts - 41 through 54 (of 54 total)

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