building an MTB/freeride park...idea's welcome..

[pyley]

MOUNTAIN BIKE PARK SITE SECURED!!


hey guy's.. looks like i'm gonna be building a mountain bike/freeride park! I spoke with the owner of said site on saturday and secured the site for mtb use. the site is 32 acres of hill and has a rope tow set up which we can use for the bikes .. i am going to be working on this site full time and would love the help of some creative minded freeriders and dirt jumpers to get the site planned right... we will also be putting in a dual slalom course and some slopestyle type d/h trails with plenty of woodwork. this park is intended to be used for competitions/ training and general use...

questions:
1. what events are required in a freeride comp?

2. what levels of riders should a freeride event cater to?

3. if you had one stunt you could build, what would it be?

4. is a park like this really required?

here's something i whipped up for myself for inspiration... i like flat out gaps...
http://pylet.com/ftp uploads/UBER KICKER 2.wmv

more to come

IF YOUR INTERESTED IN HELPING OUT WITH DESIGN OR BUILDING, PM ME. IF YOU HAVE A UNIQUE IDEA FOR A STUNT DRAW IT AND SEND IT TO CONERJONES AT HOTMAIL DOT COM.

peace

[AdrenalineJunkie]

hey mate, sounds like a wicked project... where is it exactly?

I'm not sure what scale you're looking at, but i think you should use the land you have most creatively, because unless you have heaps of vertical and an easy way to get to the top, the trails will be too short to get a good range of riders in. Variation is also super important for smaller scale parks. Something liek whistler is so good because you can be a rider of any level and spend a weekend there and not have to ride at your level trail twice simply because of size... of course you will anyway because the trails are so good. I doubt you'll be making anything on the scale of whistler, so progression, creativity and variety are key... linking up several trails of a similar difficulty but different style is always cool. Getting to the top is always imortant, what is this rope thing you mentioned? No one likes pushing a 40lb ride up a hill.

I think providing safe, high-quality north shore would be a draw card is it is hard in aus to get decent stuff. I think it has it's place but don't get carried away - sweet trails are always better than ns, but sweet trails and sweet ns together is pretty cool.

Look at the smaller-scale freeride parks in north america and europe, i remember and issue of bike magazine that had a special on a small park in colorado that looked sweet, but don't remember the name sorry.

I guess search around on other forums, pink bike, nsmb, and other forums from around north america/europe.

Location is also important, you havn't mentioned where this is. For instance if you're an hour from melbourne your going to do well, but if your a 7 hour drive from anywhere... well you'll be lucky to get enough business to keep in viable.

Also i think you'd benifit from having the involvment on MTBA and it's trail crew, as then the mtb community knows that your trails are designed and built to an international standard.

in direct answer to your questions:
1. what events are required in a freeride comp? race/slope style/best trick

2. what levels of riders should a freeride event cater to? ALL

3. if you had one stunt you could build, what would it be? It'd be a section that went like this...... Massive teeter-totter to roller coaster to 5ft drop to nice tranny into double table top set with massive berm at the bottom which spits you into high speed section with big tables (three lines on each table which cater to different skill levels)

4. is a park like this really required? I think if run successfully with what i mentioned above it could fill a niche, but proximity to major cities and cost would determine it's viability.

[edit] Looking at your rank, i see your NSWMTB, this means club??? Given the closure of the state comp dh track (lithgow? sorry i don't keep up with nsw news), perhaps this land could also be used to get a lasting and secure state/national dh track. Putting the dh and freeride together will help in diversifying. [/edit]

Perhaps this should be moved to general discussion to get a wider audience....

my 2 c.

[daddyrat]

the park is definatly required and will be frequented as often as possible.

with regards to stunts.
whatever goes will be fine as long as one can work up to it

looking forward to riding it

[fatass]

questions:
1. what events are required in a freeride comp? as above

2. what levels of riders should a freeride event cater to? as many as possible, alternate lines are ACE! Like 3 lines that crisscross all the way down the hill would make for heaps of fun and a whole day of riding would still not satisfy all the possible lines down.

3. if you had one stunt you could build, what would it be? oooh, double see-saw to roller coaster to flat section, kicker and wallride (4 ft up in the air) to awesome tranny to some nice floating aired jumps............ orgasmic...

4. is a park like this really required? YES!!! I would come from adelaide to pretty much anywhere in aus. if all 32 acres are built with trails!!!!!!! you could make a nice bit of cash on the side with day-passes (make them cheap though, people dont want to pay $500 for 9 hours of riding) and we really need some freeride parks and comps in Australia

[GRIM]

1. what events are required in a freeride comp?

Similar to a Slopestyle Event

2. what levels of riders should a freeride event cater to?

All levels, multiple lines

3. if you had one stunt you could build, what would it be?

I would go for a variety of stunts but the main thing would be building the wooden structures nice and solid and plenty wide. Also connecting them together with plenty of dirt slopes and berms so you could maintain speed.

4. is a park like this really required?

Most definitely, I think the demand would be huge.

I would be happy to help out just let me know some details (when / where)

[christopher riding]

Ah.......where is it?

[Alec McJo]

Are you going to be building a Freeride style DH track? As in a DH track, but pretty much completely covered in jumps, drops, NS and etc...

Would be pretty sick to hold a Downhill race on a track like that, would be one of the more fun events of the Club Calendar for the year.

[mpdowling]

This is ausom ill pm you soon about my dream line I'm keen to come out for a build with a few creative friends of mine.
1. what events are required in a freeride comp? - Race. Best trick, slopestyles, and a combination of them all. Best run down the hill with most style ect.

2. what levels of riders should a freeride event cater to? Alll would be great, but try and work it to the better riders becuase they will be putting in the effort to travel such a distance because stunts like that would be diffiuclt to build while lower catered riders can build a 2 ft drop anywhere.

3. if you had one stunt you could build, what would it be? Basically A - line. i dream about it, constant berms to massive table tops.

4. is a park like this really required? YES! Freeriding needs to take of, we dominate the dh scene so lets dominate something else!!!

oh also where is it? i'm keen!

[AdrenalineJunkie]

Basically A - line. i dream about it, constant berms to massive table tops.

i think i will need some tissues if anything even close to aline gets built in aus... that and a fat wallet because i'd be going there all the time... ahh aline...

[Mojo]

ahh finally someone has got something, where abouts is this dream of mine??? i hope there is gonna be some sweet northshore out there. i think we should have a good look at whistler slopestyle events if you want to know what to build. otherwise (i'm not sure what you already have in mind) just some sweet tracks with easy access would be something new for all of us. sounds like its going to be awsome hope you keep us all upto date