Lysterfield

[smitho]

Any locals able to give an unofficial update about the trails at Lysterfield?

Haven't been out there for some time since the big wet and associated trail closures. It's not that enticing to ride a one-way loop where half the trails are closed.

From what I can gather from the Facebook chatter, most of the closed trails are back to their usual dry, dusty selves and the only reason they remain closed is that it's PV policy. Seems like there's an awful lot of people riding them anyway and there's no real reason for them to be closed other than PV bureaucracy. Even LDTR put closed in quotation marks in their posts...

Understand there's a bit of work been done on Lower Buckle that's still settling in, so would certainly stay off that.

 

[Plankosaurus]

It's all perfectly ridable, has been since mid December. (With the exception of a few trees that weren't removed till January)

Couple of trees down in follow me still, but old-school builders have put logs in front for jumpy goodness.

Ride around the gates, you will not damage any of the trails in their current state.

Lower buckle had work but is officially open now. Whether it's been improved by putting big humps and rollers on a flat trail is debatable, but it's open.


...fwiw, I usually don't condone talk of ignoring the closures. Fine if you're going to do it, but encouraging others is a bit of a dick move normally I think. They're flat out taking the piss now though, I did a full assessment of all the trails back in December and found there to be next to nothing remotely dangerous or that would cause further damage once the trees were removed. The fact that they've still got a large portion of trail closed off flies in the face of any goodwill the club had left with the community after all the feature removals of years gone by and the last set of closures that had aneurysm closed for 9 months. PV seemingly have little regard for MTB riders at lysty, I feel like reciprocating is more than fair at this stage

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

 

[mike14]

Can only comment on Comm Games from 2 weeks ago but it was running fine. Slightly rutty in places on the last climb but no issues at all.
I didn't bother with the other parts of the park due to all the trail closures

 

[The Reverend]

So I was there this weekend and hit a few open trails.

The more XC side is open, the trails like Follow Me, Middle, Buckle are closed. They actually have temp fencing at the start of closed trails instead of that red netting / webbing.

On Sunday I got talking to a guy I know who has been on all the recent trail build / maintenance days and it appears the closures are due to them claiming on VIC state insurance due to the storm damage. They can't open the trails that have been damaged until this is determined / decided upon.

Who knows how long that might take.

 

[Plankosaurus]

So I was there this weekend and hit a few open trails.

The more XC side is open, the trails like Follow Me, Middle, Buckle are closed. They actually have temp fencing at the start of closed trails instead of that red netting / webbing.

On Sunday I got talking to a guy I know who has been on all the recent trail build / maintenance days and it appears the closures are due to them claiming on VIC state insurance due to the storm damage. They can't open the trails that have been damaged until this is determined / decided upon.

Who knows how long that might take.

As far as I know, it's just upper buckle that's waiting on insurance.
Lower buckle is open.
Dogpound is closed only because they don't want to open it with upper buckle closed.
Middle I believe is in the same boat as dogpound, though there is some ruts at the rooty climb that *might* be a part of this insurance scam...I mean...claim.
Follow me / imba / bermacide is part of that sector of trails so hasn't had any love to get it up to scratch for opening.
The rest is open and good to go.

I'm pretty sure we're not even allowed to work on upper buckle because of this claim thing. I kinda understand where they're coming from, insurance means monies which means ability to do things. I'd hazard a guess they'd get a lot more compliance out of people though if they:
*Were transparent about this
*Opened the trails that aren't waiting on assessment
*Dangled a carrot in front of the community by telling us we can expect some new works done on the trail once it's all finalized.

But again, after waiting 3/4 of a year for aneurysm to re-open last time, and after the amount of sanitizing we've had to endure over the last decade (but especially the last few years), I'm about done listening to anything they have to say.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

 

[smitho]

...fwiw, I usually don't condone talk of ignoring the closures. Fine if you're going to do it, but encouraging others is a bit of a dick move normally I think. They're flat out taking the piss now though, I did a full assessment of all the trails back in December and found there to be next to nothing remotely dangerous or that would cause further damage once the trees were removed. The fact that they've still got a large portion of trail closed off flies in the face of any goodwill the club had left with the community after all the feature removals of years gone by and the last set of closures that had aneurysm closed for 9 months. PV seemingly have little regard for MTB riders at lysty, I feel like reciprocating is more than fair at this stage

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

I'd usually agree about ignoring closures - had a go at some poor bloke at the You Yangs for riding Cressy's about half an hour before they announced it was open on Instagram. He was pretty good humored about it. But in this case, I think my distaste for bureaucracy will win out.