City bike skills parks?

**Conundrum** · 03-14-2018, 06:04 PM

Can y'all give me some names of towns with cool bike parks or links to those parks? Boise is looking at building one (an expensive one) a couple blocks from my house. Normally I would be stoked but the people who are proposing it have probably never had their rubber off the dirt and have chosen a location that is completely flat-I mean about two football fields worth of dirt with zero feet of elevation change. I'm skeptical that it could be even remotely cool with no elevation change. We already have flat dirt jump lines and pump tracks in town. They are talking about berms, logs, etc. I'd like to keep an open mind if it can be cool or provide the planners with rad park examples that are on slopes. I've only been to a couple parks and they were on hills and I thought they were sweet.

I'm hoping they don't spend a ton of money on something that sucks and then always point to the lack of success as a reason they'll never do another one. About a half mile up the road from the proposed site is a place I've always thought would be cool to have a park but I'm not a park designer so I want to give some reason why they should look up the road or at least help myself get good with the spot they picked.

**evdog** · 03-14-2018, 06:23 PM

Seattle has Collonade and Duthie Hill. Both have some elevation.

North Van has Inter river bike park

Truckee has one that is supposedly pretty big. Sedona is getting one.

I'm sure there are plenty of others. You don't need a lot of elevation gain but you probably want enough that you can have a 5-7% grade, I'm guessing. That may be possible with imported dirt, maybe from construction site excavations? But always easier if you start with a spot that has just the right slope already.

**ski-wpk** · 03-14-2018, 06:25 PM

Boulder, CO: Valmont Bike Park. Not sure what was there before but total vertical now is <15-20 ft and it’s awesome.

**RTR** · 03-14-2018, 07:33 PM

Draper, Utah has one that is probably a B-effort.... Here's a link. And there is some vertical drop... almost necessary if you want any kickers, table-tops, jumps, etc... unless you're only wanting a pump track.

**Sirshredalot** · 03-14-2018, 08:11 PM

Summit County UT has Trailside Bike Park outside of Park City. It's on a hillside and is pretty well-done.

**Dantheman** · 03-14-2018, 09:18 PM

Ogden bike park is rad, also built on a hillside.

The new 9th street jumps in downtown SLC are on a totally flat site. They're actually under a I-15 overpass. There's a start ramp built up with fill followed by a jump lines of various size.

**kevin267** · 03-15-2018, 11:29 AM

Nanaimo bc- Steve Smith bike park. Hinton Alberta's park is pretty damn cool and sometimes really busy too

**Name Redacted** · 03-15-2018, 11:48 AM

Frisco, CO has a small, but nice one one a hill.

**Supermoon** · 03-15-2018, 12:29 PM

Where in Boise are they planning it? If you know of any public meetings about it I can attend and help advocate for something that will be good.

**johnnyg82** · 03-15-2018, 01:03 PM

Like a pump track? Velosolutions did this in Brooklyn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhwG9IJoCUE

**gramboh** · 03-15-2018, 01:04 PM

Originally Posted by kevin267

Nanaimo bc- Steve Smith bike park. Hinton Alberta's park is pretty damn cool and sometimes really busy too

Was gonna say, Stevie Smith is one to look at. Pumptrack by Velo Solutions then a bunch of dirt jumps and other stuff. Pretty much a flat site.

**grskier** · 03-15-2018, 01:06 PM

North 40 to the white courtesy phone.

The cool ones in CO that I know about are mentioned already... Valmont is huge and really fun.

GJ has a small one at the Tabauge Trail Head (lunch loops)

**adrenalated** · 03-15-2018, 01:11 PM

Ruby Hill in Denver
http://www.denvergov.org/content/den...ike-parks.html

**The SnowShow** · 03-15-2018, 01:21 PM

There’s also an awesome park in Denver by Federal and Rte 6.

**Name Redacted** · 03-15-2018, 01:25 PM

Originally Posted by The SnowShow

There’s also an awesome park in Denver by Federal and Rte 6.

I was on 6 the other day and looked up and saw some kid flying through the air on a bike. Looked a lot more fun than the traffic that I was stuck in.

**Conundrum** · 03-15-2018, 08:35 PM

Originally Posted by Supermoon

Where in Boise are they planning it? If you know of any public meetings about it I can attend and help advocate for something that will be good.

Here’s the FB link: https://www.facebook.com/events/200133554088504/

I’m out of town that day so I hit up the city and someone got back to me withe person to email and then that person hit me up right away for feedback which was cool. I just emailed that I haven’t seen the actual plan so I’d like to see it before I could comment. She said it would be available to the public soon and she would tell me where to find it. PM me your email and I’ll forward.

It’s planned for the Military Reserve dog park. The dog park will move to the archery range. That will be relocated to a TBD place. I’m a bow hunter two blocks from the current range so also have an interest there. I’d much have a ripping bike park that close than a range but I don’t see how the site will be ripping.

I’d still like to meet up with you so if you go to the meeting, beers on me for a summary sometime after.

**dan_pdx** · 03-16-2018, 07:03 AM

Portland is way behind on this front, but is currently working on Gateway Green: http://www.gatewaygreenpdx.org/activities/cycling

Some trails are open now, with others more to come. The design document is available online, and includes elevation gain/loss for various trails -- might be of interest for you: http://issuu.com/portlandparks/docs/...09716/58740546

**Supermoon** · 03-16-2018, 07:14 AM

Originally Posted by Conundrum

Here’s the FB link: https://www.facebook.com/events/200133554088504/

I’m out of town that day so I hit up the city and someone got back to me withe person to email and then that person hit me up right away for feedback which was cool. I just emailed that I haven’t seen the actual plan so I’d like to see it before I could comment. She said it would be available to the public soon and she would tell me where to find it. PM me your email and I’ll forward.

It’s planned for the Military Reserve dog park. The dog park will move to the archery range. That will be relocated to a TBD place. I’m a bow hunter two blocks from the current range so also have an interest there. I’d much have a ripping bike park that close than a range but I don’t see how the site will be ripping.

I’d still like to meet up with you so if you go to the meeting, beers on me for a summary sometime after.

Sounds good! I should be in town on 4/4. I’ll try to make it.

**TBS** · 03-16-2018, 07:18 AM

Our little slice of Paradise can’t be considered a town, but we will open our bike park this spring. Three jump lines, two pump tracks and a variety of skills features. Funded by the community and a grant from OR Parks.
https://www.facebook.com/bikepark242/

**forty** · 03-16-2018, 08:04 AM

as far as fear of being too flat... if the land in question is whats shown in that fb page pic then looks like 20ft at least to work with, which is plenty if you have the machines to move the dirt around, you really dont need much elevation to have some fun
its counter intuitive, but the expert lines can be done on flat easily, since the riders know how to pump and downside to keep speed, its the beginner lines that need more elevation, the riders case everything so need to get back up to speed for the next feature, they will never pedal themselves fast enough, the terrain needs to set the speed on the entry to every feature and not rely on pumping transitions, this is a mistake ive made plenty of times and tried to learn from

https://www.facebook.com/cottagegrovebp/
park ive helped run last 5 years

2 pump tracks, tot track, mtb skills area, drop zone, 4x race course, slopestyle course, green/blue/black/red djs

Originally Posted by dan_pdx

Portland is way behind on this front, but is currently working on Gateway Green: http://www.gatewaygreenpdx.org/activities/cycling

Some trails are open now, with others more to come. The design document is available online, and includes elevation gain/loss for various trails -- might be of interest for you: http://issuu.com/portlandparks/docs/...09716/58740546

have you made it to gateway yet?
i havent, so trying to stay positive... but it appears access is very limiting, really dont understand their design intentions by that... i fear usage is going to suffer which is a big bummer, hope im wrong

salem has a little park with paved pump tracks and a small dirt area as well if you ever make it south worth checking out for a bit

Originally Posted by TBS

Our little slice of Paradise can’t be considered a town, but we will open our bike park this spring. Three jump lines, two pump tracks and a variety of skills features. Funded by the community and a grant from OR Parks.
https://www.facebook.com/bikepark242/

nice progress!
im back in or... will be checking this out at some point for sure

**Conundrum** · 03-16-2018, 08:12 AM

Originally Posted by forty

as far as fear of being too flat... if the land in question is whats shown in that fb page pic then looks like 20ft at least to work with, which is plenty if you have the machines to move the dirt around, you really dont need much elevation to have some fun

The problem I see is there used to be a BMX track there and they bulldozed it because the city needed a flood spill way in that drainage. Are they allowed to fill it back up and lose the spillway? Not sure, I guess we'll find out at the meeting.

**TBS** · 03-16-2018, 08:34 AM

Originally Posted by forty

nice progress!
im back in or... will be checking this out at some point for sure

Welcome back to the land of snow capped peaks! Hopefully a large portion of your soul remains after the deployment to flatlandia. Appreciated the guidance while we were getting our act together.
Do come see us. Not sure when we officially open - will keep you posted.

**Dantheman** · 03-16-2018, 09:17 AM

Originally Posted by Conundrum

Here’s the FB link: https://www.facebook.com/events/200133554088504/

How far up those surrounding hills are you able to go? Seems like you could definitely make that work. The start ramp at the SLC 9th street jumps is 15 ft tall at most. Draper jumps have 20 ft of total elevation change tops. A lot of I Street is quite flat.

What kind of soil is there? There needs to be a fair amount of clay content or some other cementitious mineral to bind the soil together or things will just fall apart.

**Conundrum** · 03-17-2018, 09:27 AM

One side is really high but there’s an access road they can’t mess with and the project map shows them staying in the flats.

Dirt is really sandy. Similar to Fruita dirt. They’ll have to truck something in for the jumps.