donate to get Gnar bike park up and running

Gnar bike park

Terrible name!

But good luck to him!

It’s full face helmets only, I’m oot.

I really hope this works out for Ben,you can tell he has a passion for this, but the whole project is going need some serious backing, and area/ facility good enough to sway riders from nearby Whinllater or the Lake-district, when they are both ridden free of charge, or am i missing the point?

is it just me that thinks his map a looks like a limbless sheep?

Either way, good luck to you Ben, and I’ll put my dollar in.

£20 in. Hopefully this will take off. Good luck!

If he can save me the drive to Merthyr Tydfil it’ll be worth £20.

I’m in for £20.
Agree that the name is a bit dodgy, but it probably wont really matter.

facility good enough to sway riders from nearby Whinllater or the Lake-district

But it’s offering something different, there isn’t anywhere in the north doing lift assisted trail riding.

His bike park plan looks like prize bull to me.

No, really, it does. 🙂

Have bunged in £20 and wish them well. My only concern would be whether that’s just not enough vertical to make it worthwhile.

It looks good and I wish him well, but I can’t help thinking that planning consent for that might be challenging.

That map looks really random. It looks like he’s just drawn as many squiggly lines as absolutely possible on that square of land. 😕

It looks good and I wish him well, but I can’t help thinking that planning consent for that might be challenging.

I thought he’d already met with the planners:

———- GNAR MAJOR NEWS UPDATE ——————–
GNAR Bike Park has been passed as a legal development by our local planning authority ! We still have to submit plans for the actual trail head building itself but the rest of the business has been passed. I imagine there’ll be a little bit of push/pull over the design of the trail head but it shouldn’t be any major issue and there’s one or two pieces of solicitor stuff I’m waiting for but again, no major issue.
The big cause for celebration is that the bike park itself has been passed and to be fair, that’s the bit I was most worried about……………not any more though..WooHoo!!!!!!!!!

From the FB Page

he’s got the planning consent and the full support of the locals.
last time i spoke to him he told me he’s now got a digger onsite and building the first trail is under way.
the lines for the tracks on the map are relatively accurate although when he’s been doing the walk through for each of the tracks he has been making a number of modifications to make some of the runs more flowy.

I wish them all the best. I like the idea of building big features and technical trails because that’s what I enjoy riding.

Trail centres are a bit tame but ideal for getting the girlfriend into it. I’m not into slogging around soggy moorland. I just want to go somewhere on my DH bike and huck my meat.

Ben, if you’re listening, build some of these

EDIT: p.s. I also hate the name ‘gnar’. Can’t say it without thinking of cheesey extreme sports types.

I just want to go somewhere on my DH bike and huck my meat.

I also hate the name ‘gnar’. Can’t say it without thinking of cheesey extreme sports types.

Agreed, Bike Park Cumbria is maybe better but we won’t care what it’s called if he pulls it off.

I love the natural stuff for most of my riding but I loved my day at BPW last year. We do two away days a year, one natural (Lakes), one trail centre, it’s all good but it’s hard to compare the technical battlezone of the Lakes to the speed of BPW. Thank god, or Daffyd, or Rowan, or …. that these places exist.

Agreed, Bike Park Cumbria is maybe better but we won’t care what it’s called if he pulls it off.

the name and logo are registered so Ben wont be looking to change it.
it stands for Go North And Ride

What elevation does it have?

What elevation does it have?

About 80m

Seriously?

Yup, though in fairness Descend Hamsterley only has about 110m and they do a huge amount with theirs.

Torn here
I really want to support it for what it wants to achieve but the name is awful/dreadful/terrible. 80 m is not massive for a MTB course and I worry it will just be a bit MLEH [ and packed as its so compact

That’s about 1/3 of BPW then, and comparable to many of the Surrey Hills trails 😕

I thought the location was supposed to be under wraps for now? 😯

I thought the location was supposed to be under wraps for now?

Is it? Whoops, if that’s the case could a mod delete my link? I grew up nearby and recognised the trail map.

Seems like it will be a bigger and paid for version of Stainburn.

Is it? Whoops, if that’s the case could a mod delete my link? I grew up nearby and recognised the trail map.

Reported – they don’t tend to read every post just in case!

Seems like it will be a bigger and paid for version of Stainburn.

Much bigger if all those trails come about but that sounds reasonably fair in terms of height. If Stainburn had 20+ runs and an uplift I’d probably pay to ride there from time to time.

80m is 25 less than the Laggan Orange (105). Not massive, but enough to work with.

Hi Folks,
A little bit late to the party here but, as you can imagine, it’s a fairly hectic time at the moment. I just wanted to jump in and give a “from the horses mouth” view point on a couple of things…
1) GNAR Bike Park. True, it will never win any awards for coolest venue name.
Go North And Ride Privately Owned Progressive Mountain Bike Training Facility would have been a much more descriptive name but, alas, it’s a bit long.
2) Again, I’m unlikely to be remembered as a graphic artist. However, the trail map is accurate. All of the lines have been walked, marked out and checked. I’ve started work on the first ones now. The planning is a done deal and yes, it was challenging.
3) The issue of comparison – I could right a book on this subject so I’ll keep it as short as poss. Firstly, I’m extremely grateful for what The Forestry Commission have done over the years to provide an absolute wealth of MTB trails throughout the UK. If Whinlatter, Grizedale and The 7stanes are your riding places of choice and you enjoy them, then, this is great news! You’re very lucky to be catered for so well. I’m flattered that GNAR would be mentioned in the same sentence as a £1.6m European funded, Forestry Commission owned (I presume it’s FC owned land?)giant that is BPW. But, again, the comparisons are unfair to BPW and somewhat misplaced. Whilst I concede that “Enter The Dragon” at BPW is 900m in length and therefore (for the subject of trail length) is directly comparable to the average length of GNAR’s trails, that is as far as like for like goes. The only real fair comparison for GNAR Bike Park would be a place called Coast Gravity Park over in B.C. (as that’s a park I’m greatly influenced by).

I’ll tell you the story of a secret test day I did a couple of weeks ago that I originally had no intentions of telling anyone about. Rightly or wrongly, I almost feel as though I’m being asked by some to justify my existence. So, here goes….

Two weeks ago I put together a “test bike” to go for a sneaky ride out to Whinlatter. It’s on my doorstep, I hadn’t ridden there for over almost two years so, it seemed like a good idea. The purpose of my test was to investigate how the advances in bike technology and riding destinations had changed over the last 25yrs. I built up a seven speed, rigid framed, rigid forked, V-brake equipped bike that could best as possible match my old Specialized Hard Rock Comp I rode in 1990. Whilst pulling it from the boot in the car park, I had to endure the most uncomfortable situation I’ve ever found myself in whilst participating in cycling. The guys in the car park around me were openingly laughing and making whispered comments to each other about my bike. I felt myself repeating “It’s ok Ben, they don’t know that you have a nice bike at home”. I’m not messing around when I say that I really considered just getting back in the car and coming home. Those boys were riding beautiful , modern bikes but, frankly, they were behaving like complete Dicks!
There were further lessons to be gained from that day too. It is my opinion (and I stress, my opinion alone. I do not say this to state a matter of fact that encompases all riders) that, my 1990 spec bike was more than ample for the South loop at Whinlatter. Once I’d bunny hopped rocks, roots and logs and landed on the smooth downslope transition of the jumps, the rest of my time was spend with tyres on “smooth”, hard packed UK trail centre surfacing. At no time did I long for any assistance from modern suspension other than some forks would have been more comfortable for my wrists.

And, if you require it from, that is my justification for the existence of GNAR. I firmly believe that there are riders who want to challenge themselves and their machines. Riders who want to increase the progress of their skill sets. Riders who would like to start off with the very smallest of rollers and berms and watch themselves grow to the point of tackling features that cannot be found anywhere else in the UK.

Some of you are focused on comparisons. Some of you think the name is “a bit crap”. Some of you are completely happy with the trail network we already have. If you’d like to visit GNAR when we open, you’ll all be warmly welcomed. However, those of you who do insist on comparing everything, please, please do not bring that to GNAR’s car park.

Very best wishes to you all and huge thanks to those of you who have donated to the cause.

Ben Eggleston

As I said above, I wish you all the best and have donated – plus I’ll definitely pop down when I’m visiting my parents. I’ve also passed the link on to my old riding mates in the area.

Sorry for bringing up the height thing and for letting the location out the bag.

I’ve bunged you a pound Ben, all the best!

Tom

Having ridden coast gravity park I wish you luck. What I will say about CGP is that it got boring quickly apart from surface to air. So make sure you have some dirty great jumps. Something nowhere really caters for in the UK.

Well I’ve bunged £20 in, even though I’ll probably be too big a pussy to ride any proper features!

Ben, have you checked out Cock Hill near Todmorden? They seem intent on building features you wouldn’t find at a trail centre.

I too wish you well.

I would question that this is not near big city / train / bus access it seems – and FC and funders are now firmly in the ‘local to population’ approach to trail centres. I may be wrong….How are folk to get there (apart from Audi, natch)

I would question that this is not near big city / train / bus access it seems

It’s only three miles from a station on quiet back roads – there might even be a cheeky short cut.

Nice bit of woodland, The local pub should benefit and great access to the M6. Good luck Just bunged some cash on kickstarter.

I must say I don’t think you have done yourself many favours with your response on the previous page. It feels like you are just coming across as a bit arrogant and forceful.

There is a new bike park on the cards and what? We are not allowed to speculate and compare it to other places? Alright sorry, we will keep our mouths closed.

Good luck with the project but just be careful not to get too one minded and not be able to take criticism, be it constructive or negative, about your project, I don’t think you will win any extra support like that.