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Need a bit of advice please.
We've got a bit of money at our village school to spend on a v small cycle track with little jumps on it. Not talking Innerleithen, this is for 8+ yr olds. My question is whether this is buildable by parent power or do we need professionals? If we can do it, what surfaces should we use and how is it best constructed?
Kielder is 30 min away and I could seek advice from them but it seems to me that their initial trails were not as well made as some given the way they've washed out. There does seem to be good and less good ways of building these things. (I'm not trying to start a row about the state of Kielder trails or knock the work they've done there, just trying to get our little bit as right as possible)
Thanks
It might not be a bad idea to come along to a trail building session and see it in action, glentress trailfairies meet every second saturday morning, no session next week but we'll be out again the week after and definately doing some surfacing... I'm new to it so no expert at all but you'd probably learn a lot. We just use hardcore- crushed stone and, well, dirt 🙂 Dig down to the mineral soil layer, then build back up with hardcore and squash back down.
But then again these are trails built for thousands of bikes, it'd maybe be overkill for kids. If I was doing it, I'd be inclined to just clear and compact the soil and leave it completely natural, and see how it evolves. Kids skid all the time of course so anything will cut up but it's more drainage that's the biggest hassle.
It's all definately doable with just parent power though, if you've ridden Mushroom Pie at Glentress that's all volunteer and hand-built and it's mint.
Sometimes it's more about drainage than surface. I've never ridden at Kielder, but you can put the best surface in the world on, and lose it immediately. Depending on the sort of track you're building (A BMX / pump track thing, I'm guessing) different materials will do different stuff.
Try asking the CTC - really, they are very, very good at this stuff, and can probably help out on a bunch of things, from selecting the surface to helping you raise a bit of dosh to build it. If you have volunteer labour (ie, parents and kids) you can get match funding from all sorts of places. Ian Warby, who ran Firecrest MTB for years, is now over there and doing some great work.
Drop me a line if you want more info / help.
Wahtever you do, dont build it with the sort of stuff they use at Carron Valley - its like slickrock in the damp without very good tyres:
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The surface at llandegla seems to withstand being wet without being mentally slippy - anyone know their trail materials?
That's great, thanks very much, sounds like a goer. 🙂
How long are you hoping the trail will be and what's the ground like on the plot you're looking at building on?
You may find that below the topsoil you can find a decent material (you may not though) if you do find something decent then consider whether you can dig borrow pits on site for surfacing the trail. You will need to take care of the holes left behind though. Is there scope for "landscaping" the area as a whole?
There is too much to discuss in a simple reply to a thread but the key is to get the design, including drainage, right. No matter what surface you use poor drainage will cause it to wear prematurely.
A decent sand & gravel mix can work as can imported crushed stone such as limestone. The possibilities are varied hence suggesting checking out what you have on the ground.
IMBA Trail Solutions (pictured on the link posted above)is a good guide which covers all the basics plus more. Buy the book and have a read.
In answer to your questions of who can build the trail your parents will be able to build the trail with decent tools and some guidance. As a rough guide we are building new trail with big groups of volunteers for our latest trail and are getting up to 500 metres a day from a group of 70 people. That is digging the trail from scratch (excluding planning) including all digging off and going down to a decent material which becomes the trail surface.
You can turn this into a great community activity by throwing in a barbeque, especially when the weather is as this last weekend.
If you can get a group of 10 or so enthusiastic volunteers willing to put time into the project then you have the potential for a successful, engaging and cost effective solution.
If you're talking about a jumpy type track (like a small BMX track) then Dolomite is the best surface. It's worth getting in touch with a track builder such as Steve Taylor, Phil Charnley, Groundwork, www.biketrack.org or similar.
There's been a little one built by groundwork at Harthill (near Rotherham) and I think it was fairly cheap...
There's another one at Wincobank near Meadowhall, one built by biketrack.org in north sheffield and various others too.
Paul. Not wanting to put a downer on a great idea but have the LEA/council etc passed your plans(HSE?risk assessments etc)Sad fact of life but they will all want a say in this.
Then if you are in Scotland and intending to work with kids you will need a Disclosure Scotland cert, the Lea will want some form of SMBLA/SC/BC qualification, first aid and access to toilets etc, etc, etc. Parent power is a great thing until councils get involved and want insurance and all the other guff. Been there, done it etc.
Someone you may like to try for info is Andy Hopkins, 7Stanes trail builder. He does all of the above risk assessing and trail specs.
@forestry.gsi.gov.uk
Oh and beware, a tale.
Young friend of mine and his mates have a jump spot.
He had`nt been down for a while.
Drops off and into what used to be a roll-out only to find someone had dug a pit(to clear when jumping)
Falls head first onto deck and puts teeth through lower lip.
Moto being some control of site will be required!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The money is coming from 'Playbuilder' funds which is specifically to provide 'risk and challenge' for children but I know it needs planning/HSE approval etc. It's actually a community project but on the school land (owned by the county council)- I'm Chair of Governors so involved but at a distance. As a response to being asked what they wanted some of the children (girls actually - good because we need to target girls) asked for a 'bike jump'. One of the 'consultant' type people who came and looked at the site suggested a possible location for a small bike track - maybe 3-400m long so small BMX type track really. As the total pot of money is limited I'm just exploring how feasible it is to save money on this bit.
We've had some very strong support from parents - last year a group put up a load of Playdale stuff, admittedly under the guidance of a very committed and clued up volunteer. I'm not sure his wife would allow him to help again though!
Anyway, thanks again, I'll go do some reading!
[url= http://www.singletraction.org.uk ]SingletrAction[/url]
SingletrAction are the group overseeing trail building at FC Yorkshires Dalby, Stainburn and Warncliffe. It might be worth asking on their forum or emailing Cheeky Monkey (chairman) for some additional advice. They have been officially trail building on FC land for many years and have lots of experience of volunteer building and contractor building and the pros and cons of both.