Bikepark surfacing. How durable?

hi everyone,

I work at the new Bike Park in Northampton and I would just like to add a few things. (sorry its a bit long winded)

The park was built in the hottest and driest summer on record and as many of you know, water is needed to bed in and settle the trails. With the absence of any rain during the build, the builders had to make best guess with regards to water run off, which for the most part they did very well. There are however soft spots on Blue Nunn, A45, Jett Black and Cherry bomb, these are being addressed now with all 4 trails having extensive repairs to build back up the berms that had collapsed and to sort out the soft spots. This work is currently ongoing at the time of writing as the cold spell has delayed the completion.

The park has been a phenomenal success with literally thousands of visits since we opened about 12 weeks ago. We have been a victim of our own success with the West Trails taking a beating with the very high traffic, this has resulted with issues in places on some of the trails as detailed above. We do have a contract with the builders to fix any defects and we also have a volunteer trail crew who will fix minor repairs as they appear, which is happening now.

There is also the need to manage expectation. I have had complaints about, puddles, mud, slippy surfaces, braking bumps etc. This is an outdoor MTB park on a hill in winter!! This is not an indoor BMX track. Defects and anything that is deemed dangerous will be dealt with but puddles and mud will not!!

As I have said the park is only 12 weeks old, it is still bedding in and will not be properly done for 12 months, we are learning about where the “hot spots” are and will address them when needed. The park is managed by local charity Northamptonshire Sport and fully funded by a percentage of the car parking revenue. There are also 2 part time Bike Park Officers who look after the day to day of the park. We have just received our hand tools and are expecting our mechanical tools soon, so the park will get the TLC that it deserves.

To answer the OP question, the surface is very durable but not indestructible, even tarmac cracks eventually. But with regular inspections and maintenance it should last a fair while.

We update our website daily with trial information. https://northamptonbikepark.org/plan-your-visit/__trashed/

Can I also just say thanks to everyone that has come down, I have spoken to loads of people and I am always willing to have a chat, take some feedback, give advice, even give you a tour if you wish. Just look for the guy with a beard and wearing a Hi-Vis.

Happy Trails everyone

Good response!

Thanks for the response Paul.
It’s great to hear and you sound like you have some good people looking after things.
😊👏

Thanks for your input Paul, great to know it’s in safe hands… it’s just a shame that the bigwigs at On Track have yet to invest in a bowser to ensure a consistent and professional product; it’s a bit odd that trail builders everywhere know the necessity of water in binding trails, yet somehow, despite huge amounts of time, effort, skill, resources and investment (often into the hundreds of thousands) in importing, distributing and shaping materials, somehow, the ‘professional’ trailbuilders sidestep this requirement, repeatedly leaving clients with an unsatisfactory product.

This is no slight on the skills of the trailbuilders at On Track… the staff are some of the best digger drivers in the business, but choices made by management often hamper the quality of the end product and with it, company morale.

With a bit of luck, this will get the ball rolling and get things ‘Back on Track’

They did have a bowser that they hired I believe, but as the temperature was hitting 40 degrees the impact and effectiveness was negligible.

Well, hiring a bowser is certainly a step in the right direction; given the hundreds of thousands of pounds that these jobs with a maintenance contract tend to cost, perhaps On Track could stretch to buying one, which would help acquaint the team with using them as a routine procedure, rather than a rare and unfamiliar novelty.

That said, today I rode one of the many trails I worked on before the controversial rebrand…

And to be fair, it’s a credit to the talented trail builders who are the heart and soul of On Track and has held up well to an onslaught of skidding, schralping and general hoofage; that said, the lad who deserves the majority of credit for the wonder of that trail went to the trouble of buying his own digger to circumvent On Track management and all the guff that goes with it.

Overall, I’m sure it’ll come good in the end; the trailbuilders are generally highly talented at bringing their visions to life and are key to the majority of the creativity that combined with a healthy dose of 2 wheels, tickles your fun buttons

There is little reason to doubt the overall quality of materials used and with a bit of remedial work, it should be another brilliant facility to help bring MTB to the masses; however, this is certainly not the 1st time that a preventable situation like this has arisen… hopefully, it will provide some valuable experience that can be learnt from.

How’s Northampton holding up in the weather? Have been thinking about taking the 5yr old for a pootle on the easy stuff, worth an hour drive?

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm9XD2HMeQA/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

It’s closed for repairs

My /cat 9is doing /nothing useful soI’ll chuck it out with the pigeons.
Surely the only smart move it to bu,ilt where they can last ot where a group /ofpeople want them? A hard stone llayer close to the surface doesn’t need as much work as some artificial surface forced to fit.
Doesn’t suit the “masses ” though.

Actually surely tarmac would be good. It seems as if most people don’t want natural surfaces such as mud so why not a tight tarmac surface? (Cost aside of course)

My /cat 9is doing /nothing useful soI’ll chuck it out with the pigeons.
Surely the only smart move it to bu,ilt where they can last ot where a group /ofpeople want them?

Can anyone translate this?