I’ve already made the jaws scene, don’t think I’ll bother getting the kit ;-)

https://ibb.co/R0cmc3h

Shralp

Cassette

Slack

Mullet

Tubeless

Presta

Schrader

One by

Rider

Bike names are ok, I’ve always liked boring human names for pets, like Colin or Margaret.

My favourite toilet euphemisms are french and Spanish.

In France, if you’re touching cloth, you apparently say “j’ai un taupe au guichet” pour i have a mole at the cash desk.

In Spain if you need to go you can say:

Tengo que rezar – I have to go and pray

Tengo que tirar un topo al remolino – I have to go toss a mole into the whirlpool

Or

Tengo que ir a Chicago – I have to go to Chicago.  (Cago is “I shit” )

V7,

I was there yesterday with my ebike, wearing t shirt and shorts.  Miss me? Heard of confirmation bias?

Has anyone tried a Skoda Yeti? It looks like you could put the centre arm rest down, and mount forks on the boot floor.

I’m thinking of getting one…

I wouldn’t characterise it as terrible at all. Convenient, fun, ‘agricultural’, amateur, good spirit of helping out between riders, erratic speed needed, un-rideable in bad weather.

I’m feel positive about the place, just not this new business model.  If he’s really comparing himself to other pro-run parks, I might as well spend less and go to rogate.

Based on the past few years, trail building has consisted of:

1. owner occasionally and randomly decided to re-design something / burn a wooden drop that customers had built him.  It usually makes the run worse.

2. Letting some teenagers use a digger to build their own new lines.

3. Customers organising their own dig days

Comparing it to Rogate, twisted, windhill etc there is no building.

If they are doing maintainance, no-one can see it.

Oh, it’s been ages since I bought a day ticket, thought it was £10.

That should make a membership £120.

It might not seem like a big difference, but if it was £120 AND they did trail repair I’d probably swallow the premium.

@bmxrad. If that 20% premium for day tickets was replicated in the membership price, it would be £100 not £150.

@Worldclassaccident. Thanks for the insight from the parks perspective, interesting.

How does liability insurance work for a free trip ride place then? Or is it not relevant?

How often would you say you dig/maintain the trails?

@mark88. I only posted here because I was interested in hearing mountain bikers’ opinions on the pricing. This is about the only ‘social media’ I haven’t deleted.  I got tired of all the weird arguments…

@Bruce I don’t have a problem per se, just think the price difference is a bit much.  If they planned on 20% premium, like BPW pedal passes it would make more sense.

@alpin. I was after opinions, not drama.  Was hoping for some more grown up debate than my friends are seeing on Facebook, but never mind.

As many many people have pointed out, I can ride elsewhere. Based on the zero maintainance, I probably will, even at the lower price for my normal bike.

@Cougar. Apparently it’s got worse on Facebook.  After the gay comments, the owner has gone for the “DM abuse” route of public relations.

@Aidy. Not an impression I meant to give, genuinely interested to hear what other people think.  The ” well don’t go then” contents don’t really add anything of value do they?

@mark88. The only major building that’s happened in the last four years were done in partnership with Whyte bikes who briefly linked up with the place. They built a line. Completely rebuilt is a stretch. The is no maintainance from the owners.

I don’t use Facebook, just reporting what I’ve been shown via friends who do use it via WhatsApp.

@Aidy: yes, thanks. I am aware of my choices. Not really on here for advice. Just interested to hear everyone’s opinion of the pricing.

@d42dom. That comment is pretty funny from Facebook. There is no progression.  Begins with small tables, then the next thing is big gaps with consequences. The ‘discussion’ on Facebook gets interesting later when the owner calls one of his customers “gay” for asking why there is a price increase.

@funkydunc. I’ve never really understood the “you spent X, so you can be fleeced for y” argument.

@owenp. Yes people session sections, and no there is no uplift.

To put things into perspective, the trail maintainance I’ve seen so far in about four years of membership is:

1. Letting a few pre teens use the digger to make up their own runs

2. Occasionally burning / burying features other people have made without asking anyone.

3. Err

4. That’s it.

I don’t buy the ebike = more erosion due to weight / power thing.  It only really becomes a thing when you’re pedalling up, and no-one at Bull track maintains the push-up, let alone the runs themselves.

I’ve only just got an ebike, spent 3 seasons riding this on a normal bike.  I nearly didn’t renew when it went from 50 to 80 as there seemed to be little progression without taking big risks.

Ebikes definitely let you get more runs in, and if they regularly maintained the trails, this could justify a premium.  but double?

Most of the people defending the price on the facebook group are comparing it to other proper bike parks like Twisted which are maintained, staffed, open all year etc.

Seems bizarre to me.  Not sure I’ll even renew with my normal bike at £80

The dog is saying:  “Can someone get him to stop blowing that whistle?”

FFS, I thought my son’s school had dodged this, they spotted the problem before the summer break and got the work done before term started.

But DfE won’t say the work is satisfactory and as I’m putting him to bed getting excited for the start of year 2, the email arrives saying it’s shut. Letter arrives to school sometime today, email from school at 7pm.

Absolute trusterfuck.

I’ve seen a frankly unbelievable 67km/h on one of the reds at BPW, not sure how accurate the GPS is.

Have a search on Facebook for something like pembury builds / digs. I’m afraid I haven’t got an account so can’t find the links. Local builder I spoke to yesterday said all are welcome.

Another update, I’ve finally seen the destruction first hand. First ride after my crash. I bumped into the locals who originally made the trails and are re-building. And for those locals who spotted, it is the Pembury trails near Tunbridge Wells Kent.

Walkers V riders: One old local has been identified with trap cams, walks one big white dog and another brown one (who chase people and don’t seem to be under control). White hair, 60-70. He drags logs over trails almost every morning apparently…
The trails were freshly cut up to 20 years ago in between the walking routes (fire roads) deliberately for riding. But some people think they are walking trails still.

Bulldozer guy: Was identified and someone even managed to speak to him about it. He got aggressive apparently. But, he was working with the permission of the land management company Till Hill (or something like that). KCC still deny any knowledge though. The story of him breaking in, may have just been that the gate wasn’t wide enough. As far as anyone can tell, no-one complained or crashed.

TLDR: An ancient agreement with KCC to build trails that are “rollable” cannot be located. A guy working for a forestry management company sees the trails, decides they’re dangerous and rips them up. KCC deny any knowledge, no aggrieved complainer or crash victim involved. Locals incensed, start re-building and building up evidence against other low-level saboteurs (including wire traps), the place is a mixture of new-ish trails that are ok, and a scene out of Platoon.

Here’s a once healthy pushed over so he could access and destroy a feature:

He even removed the bridges over the stream, that formed the “chicken option” if you didn’t fancy hopping a metre over the water:

More carnage: https://ibb.co/TW6kVQ8

These are mostly eating recommendations:

Churros – very good one, and most famous in Madrid is : chocolatería San Ginés, pasadizo de San Ginés, 5.

This Asturian place was so cheap I didn’t think I’d heard the price right! El Ñeru, c/ de bordadores, 5. Great blue cheese and cider.

Bar la ideal – does ‘the dish’ of Madrid.  Calamares in a sandwich.  C/ botoneras, just off the SE corner of plaza mayor.

There is some mountain biking out in the parque casa de campo… I saw some riders whilst on the way to the zoo and theme park.

Latest update from the facebook group:

Local group have already re-cleared a few of the trails and set up some remote cameras. They’ve caught an old fella with a dog dragging branches across trails but nothing more than that.

They think they have identified the culprit, who appears to be linked to the company that runs the forest management for the land owner. The land owner definitely said though, that he was not aware of the destruction and didn’t order it.

I’m reluctant to go back, especially after finding out about the wire trap that was set. Plus “digger guy” is still out there waiting to f*** it all up again..

It’s kind of a moot point at the moment, I can’t ride while I wait for ribs to heal. When I get back on the bike, looks like I’ll have to drive somewhere first…

They should buy a second hand ski lift at bow, it would save a load of hassle and money. Put it in up the left hand side of the map.

I literally feel your pain. I currently have four fractured ribs and spine after Bike park Wales… I’ve also cracked a few sparring.

Hang in there. I’m about 20 days in, and I can manage a whole day without pain killers finally.

Rotate ibuprofen and paracetamol, get some stronger stuff if you can. Sleeping will get better. I managed only thanks to cocodomol.

Try to breathe deeply even though it hurts, and try not to get a cough!

It sounds like you’re just at the practise and input stage. You need to find a French person to chat with and some French audio input.

The input is easy, just find some radio, netflix etc in a topic that you’re interested in.

Finding a French chatting partner should be much easier now with zoom etc. Cheapest is to find a French person in the same position as you, but with English. You can take it in turns to practise.

Another update:

I’ve been away crashing at BPW, when I got back there’s been some action. Local riders got organised and started to clear up the destruction. I was saying to buddies on the Wales trip what’s the point, it’ll just get destroyed again…

Looks like that happened, all the clearing has already been trashed. Which points to a regular visitor or neighbour who is motivated to stop fun. I don’t want to go back, especially after the wire threat.

Bloody hell this is painful… I had a pin inserted in a hand bone last year, they sent me home with loads of painkillers I didn’t even use. Now I’m chomping through. co-codomol and it’s still taking my breath away…

Some impressive crashes here everyone. stay safe out there…

All these replies and nobody’s asked the OP the most important question of all.

How’s your bike?

Fine thanks for asking. I rode (well, rolled down) sixtapod to get out. Mildly off centre bars that I’ll fix later. Everything else seemed fine.

One of the nurses just said “bike park? All the youngsters we get are from there…”. I’m 47.

Wallet bled out in the cafe BPW

Okay, you win.

Update:

Lots of people on Facebook organising to re-build, can’t view it myself as I have no account…

Definitely no permission or involvement of the land owner. They’re in the process of re-negotiating building rules. Flow, no exposed holes or logs. Some clearing up has already started and some organised build days in the calendar, plus a nominated point of contact between council and builders.

My money is either on a really angry neighbour/walker, or a parent of someone who had a crash. I used to see plenty of teenagers out there with no helmets…

Oooh, it gets more interesting. A local trail builder contacted the land owners, who knew nothing about it. Someone was seen accessing the site on Wednesday with a digger, and they removed the post instead of unlocking a gate…

Looks like it was not land-owner sanctioned. Would certainly explain the level of destruction.

You’re right, although I don’t agree with the idea of someone else being responsible if you can’t clear something and didn’t take the chicken option, ultimately it was against the agreement.

It just smacks of schadenfreude, the destruction of trees. They’ve turned something that used to be enjoyed by loads of people, into a scene from hamburger hill and killed a load of trees. For what? They could have flattened two gaps in under an hour. Instead they spent what looks like a day destroying the entire site.

Perhaps someone did have a massive off and is threatening action. That liability needs changing

Perhaps the story of the wire strung across a trail recently was true…

It goes over a stream, you can’t roll it. Ever. Two metres to the left of the pic is the original stream jump which existed for years and has a bridge next to it if you want to roll it

I can’t work out why that tree has been snapped, seems wanton, and nothing to do with the stream gap.

Before

This was the stream gap

It’s a weird situation we have in the UK with land owners responsibility isn’t it? Despite having permission or even liability waivers the land owner is ultimately responsible for injuries in their land.

I don’t think anything built there was unsafe, I would have taken my five year old down it. Everything has a chicken option, even the stream gap has a wooden bridge.

People just dug and rode for themselves. A really well built double over the stream was made, with wood retainers to keep it the right length and stop it eroding into the stream. Every week someone would pull out the logs and throw them in the stream. Then case the jump until it was longer than it needed to be.

Following on from the eighties tip of No way out on All4… The witches of Eastwick is on iPlayer. It has aged well, great film.

My Bruges top to is: ‘t Bruges Beertje, kemelstraat 5, 8000 Brugge.

Tiny little pub, with an enormous list of beers. It’s brilliant.