Flagstaff's new bike park

[kidwoo]

It's funny - up here we're kind of the opposite. We have a city sanctioned dirt jump park with 4 lines in it, from very small to decently large. But everyone who likes to ride dirt jumps has their own private set of jumps in their backyard, so no one uses the city jumps. The city would probably be willing to throw a nominal sum of money at the park, but whenever we fix the jumps up, they fall apart within a month or so due to non-use. I think that can be classified as a first world problem.

Every pile of dirt needs a psychotic trail boss with OCD.

Or if you guys really have that many spots on private land, maybe not.....

That video you put a few years ago of you riding behind someone's house. That's one of them I guess (or is that yours?)

[jamal]

Well, those jumps had been there for years and the "complaints" did happen to coincide with an article about Alex that mentioned the jumps.

[creaky fossil]

As a time based thing maybe........
But just based on that article, I don't. Things change.

There are many plausible reasons why No in 00s could be Yes now. Having relatively straight-shooting responses from city govt when they discuss things with you makes it easier to pin down which of the plausible reasons are the real ones. That's the rough seas thing I was talking about. Current MTB Missoula gang seem to get city to bend somewhat, but I'm not privy to their direction, strategy, etc. Honestly it can easily be as simple as a matter of lucky timing, I've seen that enough in dealings with govt throughout my life. Current gang in place when city finally decided it wanted to build a trail on city land, rather than city deciding to build trail because it likes current gang better than previous incarnations.

In all these talks about Missoula, it helps to remember that it inspired Lynch's Blue Velvet. Dirty/spooky at granular level oddly tranquil up top. Maybe that's why the new yuppie transplants are trying so hard to "clean the place up" while sloganeering KEEP MISSOULA WEIRD or MISSOULA

There was a BoomTime period, back when Don Carroll let us build wicked new sections on Dead Man's, and we built a new trail in lower rattlesnake. So the 00s didn't exactly suck for Missoula riders -- but back then the city didn't like us much though.

Well, those jumps had been there for years and the "complaints" did happen to coincide with an article about Alex that mentioned the jumps.

in the Missoulian? The same paper that ran a story in the early 00s about Killer MTB Riders at Blue Mountain Trying to Mortally Wound Hiker? Missoulian is Engen's voice. May as well write all the stuff himself.

I'd suspect Jen Bardsley's self- and family-promotion efforts had a lot to do with the bulldozing, ironically.

[kidwoo]

Well, those jumps had been there for years and the "complaints" did happen to coincide with an article about Alex that mentioned the jumps.

I think I rode there in 2000. I can only imagine the decapitations, pregnant teens, and malignant tumors those jumps have caused in all these years. Real problems.

[zion zig zag]

The Ogden bike park continues to evolve and grow. https://www.facebook.com/ogdenbikepark/photos_stream

Three separate flow trails with black, blue and green, a pump track section, and a large dirt jump area. All tied into the shoreline trails.

[forty]

I'm curious about the one in Park City. Pics of that place genuinely blew me away. It looked like something you'd see hidden in the woods.

funny you mention pc, i was just there a few weeks ago and took a peek myself...


hard to get much of a sense of things, but i really liked the use of berms around the trees for the drop in and it looked well filled in with lots of transfer options to keep people entertained
its right next to the fire station, which cracked me up, and the playground, restrooms, changing area, were all nicely done as well as the signage and fencing, cool spot for sure, have to get back in riding season for a proper tour

The Flowline guys seem to be doing a great job of just building things well the first time through. Shea was a landscape architect before he started traveling the world and digging, and he makes awesome drawings of the proposed parks and his presentations are super pro...I think that helps too.

yep, he seemed to play the game nicely and kept the powers that be happy while still getting results into the dirt...
friend of his? tell him the only hippy in MN says hello and give us a holler if in the midwest this season

Too many times I see "proposals made by 2 guys with truckers hats", and no other backing besides their ambition. Ambition is great, but bike parks take a huge amount of work, and 2 guys aren't going to cut it. A real, local, coalition is important, and getting those folks to show up, even more so.
So there it is, Real money and people.

what exactly are you implying?


hours spend riding last year: maybe 15
hours spent digging: 400+


ok ok, the 6k in other volunteer hours for the park may not have hurt

That's not the first time. There used to be a full BMX track (with a starting hill and everything) that had a bunch of dirt jumps next to it. It was in Spurgin Park out west of reserve. It had a parking lot and I think they even had the area plumbed so the jumps could be watered. They leveled the whole thing about 7 years ago and it's now a vacant field that's probably a really nice place to do meth.

It's funny - up here we're kind of the opposite. We have a city sanctioned dirt jump park with 4 lines in it, from very small to decently large. But everyone who likes to ride dirt jumps has their own private set of jumps in their backyard, so no one uses the city jumps. The city would probably be willing to throw a nominal sum of money at the park, but whenever we fix the jumps up, they fall apart within a month or so due to non-use. I think that can be classified as a first world problem.

areas with bmx culture seem way more receptive to these types of parks, its almost easier to phrase them as "adult bmx" rather than "mtb dirtjump" when trying to get policy approval, people just tend to think of bmx as fun and not dangerous, and mtb as scary and injury prone, i was really surprised how receptive the general population is to these types of parks here in MN, but bmx has deep roots here and lots of people grew up familiar with bmx tracks
back in OR i didnt know anyone who rode bmx, we all had geared bikes to ride through the hills, the culture just isnt the same, so bike parks make no sense to them out of lack of familiarity more than anything else imo

[raisingarizona13]

sweet!
how did it ride? condition?
can definitely tell it was done by the flowride kids, same folk who came and worked with us at our park, rad guys, they hit flagstaff right after leaving here, felt bad working them to the bone and sending them off to another big project haha

That's funny, I actually thought they looked really tired when I met some of them on their last day. It's really good and riding well. The dirt was real soft for a while but it's getting packed in now. There might need to be some minor adjusting, I'm not sure about that though. Overall I'm really impressed with how well they put it together in such a short window, it's pretty freaking cool.

[TBS]

Interesting thread. I'm working with a group in Sisters OR to put in a park on land owned by the local parks/rec district. Will go next to their skate park - tot track, pump lines, three jump lines and a rock/wood/whatever skills line.

To that end, anybody got any rules of thumb for volunteer labor requirements? Seems directly related to amount of imported dirt but I haven't yet figured out the ratios. I've poured over the budget for the Cottage Grove MN park (thanks again Forty!) and a couple of others but could still use guidance. We get credit for matching funds at the rate of $22/hr on a big grant, so I would like to get it right

The Parks/Rec district is providing the insurance - they are comfortable with a concrete skate park so a dirt bike park was easy. Virtually no resistance at our town hall presentation - the biggest PAVEr in town expressed support! Some of the BMX kids in the skate park were disappointed when we nixed their idea of a jump over the pump track, but that's about it.

And KidWoo, I suggested we fold in iDig to our town hall presentation. The other steering committee members loved the jump footage but didn't think the joint lighting at the start and the beer can crushing/throwing at the end "sent the right message"

[kidwoo]

And KidWoo, I suggested we fold in iDig to our town hall presentation. The other steering committee members loved the jump footage but didn't think the joint lighting at the start and the beer can crushing/throwing at the end "sent the right message"

Nah, that was definitely the message those guys wanted to send. It was done well.


Believe it or not that's actually not a joint he's smoking at the beginning. That's what chronic weed smoking does for you. He had a test coming up and was actually smoking cigarettes he was jonesing so hard. Now THAT is a much worse message IMO.

Christ, I can't believe anyone even remembers that vid. If you want to get a handle on some budgets for park/confined space stuff like that, I can get some numbers from some other parks. I can even do a family friendly edit of that vid if you want. Get in touch if so.

[TBS]

Woo - Check your PMs. Muchos Gracias

For those of you who have not seen iDig...



Original thread http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...highlight=iDig

[CS]

Interesting reading. Like toast2266 we have a city sanctioned jump park that is, for the most part, ignored. I used to ride and maintain it all the time but have been spending my time and energy in my back yard. I was going a couple times a week and rarely saw anyone there. I went a couple weeks ago to check them out and and of the three lines initially built, one that was never finished is overgrown with weeds, the other line is crumbling and the main line is still in decent shape but could use some tlc. I don't know if anyone actually rides their anymore, which is a shame. They were popular when first built, then a really nice bike-only cement park was built and I'm guessing that's where all the bmxers go now.

I would probably ride there more often but it's a 20 minute drive away, costs 5 bucks to get in the park and well, my backyard is getting fun, if not quite as big.