Topic: Bike: MTB Advocacy

: World Trail Roll Into Glenrock

By: fat-lenny | May 2nd, 2011 | No Comments » |

Mondays don’t usually bring too much excitement. The weekend is done and dusted and off you go to work. To make today worse, after a weekend of rain, the sun decided to show its face.

Despite this, there was an air of excitement today for me. The World Trail Crew were due in town to start a few weeks of intensive trail love on my local trails in Glenrock.

The NPWS have gone all out on the next bits of trail to be worked on Shaft, Snakes and Ladders and possibly Seuss Land and have enlisted the World Trail Crew to do the works for us. We knew for a while they were coming, but when you see this parked next to some of your favorite single trail, well its hard not to get carried away.

Hopefully for us in NSW where until recently the NPWS have largely ignored mountainbikes and legitimate single trail, this is a sign of things to come and more and more parks will see there trails transformed.

But you can all wait until we are done.

More info at the Glenrock Trail Alliance website.

: From Jumping the Gun to Double Barrel

By: schacksta | April 30th, 2011 | No Comments » |

Its been a little bit since the last update in the world of Glenrock. To recap for those unfamiliar with the happenings in Glenrock, great things are in progress with the local advocacy group The Glenrock Trail Alliance and the NPWS working hand in hand to not only legalise the trail network, but also tweak and improve upon whats there. I’ve said it before and will continue to blow the trumpet……this is how land manager like the NPWS should be working with usergroups such as mtb riders.

I thought I would take the time to show the transformation of a relatively sedate, straight section of trail near the trail head (Upper Jumping the Gun) into what is now setting the standard in glenrock as a bit of a showpiece (renamed as Double Barrel). Essentially the original alignment  was located within the corridor of an old access road dating back to Glenrocks mining history. The road is long gone with vehicular access now on the more appropriate Gun Club Road. The jumping the gun trail was generally flat and straight. In fact probably too flat and too straight. The original road had been maintained in the past so as the corridor was lower than the flattish surrounds so water slowly drained in and couldn’t get out. It didn’t take much rain for this trail to get wet and boggy and then stay wet and boggy. Over the years many covert quick bandaid fixes were applied, largely due to trail maintenance in a National Park being frowned upon at the time, but they quickly failed and the trail corridor widened.

Fast forward to 2011, the trails are legal and maintenance is happening. This allowed the GTA to step back, look at the real issues and solve them. It was clear that drainage was the key and moving to a higher point was the easy solution. The mandate had been given however that the trail was to remain in the trail corridor. More chin scratching and a solution was devised. Through the use of rocks from the quarry in glenrock, some excavation with the NPWS mini excavator a system of billabongs, weirs and raised trail was constructed. Going up the hill the trail twists and flows allowing the rider to pump additional speed out of the banked turns, but the fun begins then the trail starts its decent.

The descending section of trail contained several jumps and trail features and these were always intended for retention. Unfortunately this section of trail channeled water for a few 100m so again water flow was the key issue to keeping things dry. The NPWS saw the merrit in this and alternate lines within the corridor became the order of the day. Old water bars that were not working were repaired however turned into functional jumps or artificial rock gardens.

The final piece in the puzzle was to install a trail feature at the trail junction into Twisties and Dip (one of my favorite Glenrock Trails), in order to filter riders who may not really want to be on the trail and to ensure water stayed flowing away from  the track a filter was devised and constructed. The filter is essentially an artificial rock garden that can be negotiated, or if your game, jumped. To the novice rider it looks intimidating and the soon to be installed signage will direct towards the Gun Club Road trail exit.

The truly great thing with this section of trail is more than just the transformation of the trail from a degraded and somewhat boring link trail into a trail that really is special. It is the way in which a group of dedicated volunteers has worked hand in hand with the NPWS to create something that we wouldn’t have dreamed of a few years back.

With the World Trail crew due back for three weeks in may, things in Glenrock are looking up.

: Hornsby Shire Trails – Support Needed

By: schacksta | February 27th, 2011 | No Comments » |

Some advocacy news from the Hornsby Area. It seems the proposed trails to be provided by the Council are now threatened. If you live in the area, or are likely to ride these trails, the email below from the Hornsby Shire Mountainbike Alliance is worth a read with a view to sending an email of support to the relevant parties.

Hi Fellow Singletrack Activists,

Happy New Year and we trust you had a relaxing festive season since our last update.

Sadly we have some terrible news.

As many of you might know Ku-ring-gai Council have hit a hurdle with their mtb trail project – the dreaded Nimby.

Stage one – dirt jumps and flow track are approved.
Stage two – cross country loops and XC based skills track are yet to be approved.

An anonymous person spread leaflets around the area stating that Council have approved a dirt bike arena of International renown, din and noise 7 days a weeks, wide spread drug use and vandalism. For crying out loud!

A petition of over 800 people has been raised against it and they are enlisting green groups and even Barry O’Farrell (the local MP). Barry has written letters to residents stating that he was concerned that Council had not really established the need for the facility.

In a surprise move Council have done a backflip and reversed the decision to build all of stage one (they removed the dirt jump park). They have also put on hold indefinitely any cross country trails. So the Nimby has won because they made a lot of noise.

This will be REALLY sad and WRONG.

So we ask that you write to Councilors. Here are some ideas;

- Thank them for taking steps to provide a facility for us.
- Ask that they do not to remove the cross country components and skills park as the majority of riders are cross country riders needing these facilities.
- Although the proposed trails are a sorely needed facility and great, they do not provide a long enough ride to attract people from that far afield and most users would be from the local area.
- Tell them who you are, do you have kids?, the good things about riding, and that you support a healthy lifestyle etc.

For some reason we have a bad image of being a bunch of hoodlems so PLEASE PLEASE write a positive email to Ian the Mayor and copy the Councilors sometime over the next couple of weeks.

As before lets unleash the emails and show them that we need to be considered!

Mayor – Ian Cross

icross@kmc.nsw.gov.au

Other councilors

janderson@kmc.nsw.gov.au
sholland@kmc.nsw.gov.au
rduncombe@kmc.nsw.gov.au
emalicki@kmc.nsw.gov.au
dmcdonald@kmc.nsw.gov.au
thall@kmc.nsw.gov.au
chardwick@kmc.nsw.gov.au
ekeays@kmc.nsw.gov.au
cszatow@kmc.nsw.gov.au

And if you want;

barry.ofarrell@nsw.liberal.org.au

But be nice and positive and just demonstrate the need.

All the best for 2011 and lets hope we can keep the opposition at bay
and start building this year.

HSMBA

A quick email only takes a few minutes of your time. The result could mean a venue to ride.

: Too Hot to Ride, Do Some Trail Work.

By: schacksta | February 5th, 2011 | No Comments » |

Maybe not the best advice to be honest, but that’s just what 10 foolish members of the Glenrock Trail Alliance did today. As temperatures went up and over the 40 degree mark and some poor souls took part in an adventure race around us (whats the fun in adventure on a day like this?), we got in and hand finished some new trail in the park.

The section of trail we were working  on (Upper Jumping the Gun) is a heavily used section of trail that was flat and straight. Funnily enough, the lack of grades and lack of curves were precisely the issue on this trail and when it rained it got wet, stayed wet and the high level of traffic led to the inevitable bog and trail widening. The widening ultimately led to a bigger bog and so the wonderful cycle continued.

Well, after a lot of planning, walking, more planning, talking with the NPWS and even more planning, the NPWS started the heavy machinery work earlier in the week on the first section of the trail to be rebuilt. Today in the heat we hand finished the first section of the trail.

As the trail was actually the lowest point of land in this area we needed to raise the trail, but stay within the corridor. The corridor was actually an old road likely dating back to Glenrocks mining days. It was apparent when the road wa built that they cut it in (or it cut down over time and grading) which meant that drainage of water to the side was going to be problematic.

The solution, raise the trail and twist up the corridor creating artificial waterholes to the side for the water to drain into and gradually find its way to a number of drainage points away from the trail that we could put in.

Rain isn’t forecast for a while, but it all looks like its going to work.

So here is the finished product, minus some vegetation (and water) for the ponds.

Just after the section entrance and on the first raised section. Armored crossover ahead.

Looking back into the second raised section.

Armored stream crossing into the second section.

Trail entrance.

: Mainstream success or corporate pilaging?

By: schacksta | January 27th, 2011 | 4 Comments » |

What I’m about to type (or you’re about to read depending on how you look at it) may seem more than a little hypocritical coming from the website of an event promoter. That said, I need to vent/rant/whatever so up it goes. Read it if you want or pass it off as the rantings of a mad man.

Some issues came up today that left me pondering what some promoters actually bring to the sport. To be clear, I’m not talking all promoters here as there are a number of good guys out there, people like Martin at Rocky Trail spring to mind as people who put easily as much back into the sport as they take. I hope that we at twosix also make a positive contribution through raising money for trail works and through putting on an event that is more about the fun factor than the actual racing. Sure our races aren’t as big and don’t have all the bells and whistles, but those that come know that’s not what they are about. As I said, there are a number of good guys out there, but there seems to be an increase in people in it for the $$$$. This worries me a lot.

Lately though I’ve witnessed first hand how small a figure per rider some entities pay to clubs for the privilege of “hosting” an event or renting their trail. This seems to be decreasing in relation to what I saw clubs being offered 6 years ago. Unfortunately for most clubs the harsh reality is that they need the money and they need to get it anyway they can so they will accept pitiful payments (down to $3 per rider being the stingiest I have witnessed). Standard club races just don’t cover the costs of running a club for a season and the ongoing upkeep of trails and assets. In a sense given the number of clubs around, the clubs  have to accept the low fees on offer or risk seeing the events going to a more desperate club that will accept the low figure. Unfortunately in this situation money talks and the clubs take what they can get as anything is better than nothing. You could argue that the clubs accept the deal and its their issue, but the reality is they have to if they want the injection of funds to keep things running. The sad thing is, without these clubs and their investment in developing areas to ride, these race promoters would not have a venue to race on. This is where it disappoints me that clubs are so much taken advantage of.

To an extent, while I don’t like that scenario, I can see how it comes about and I’ve lived with it and not argued the cause.

Unfortunately, today I came to the realisation that some promoters don’t seem to be into the sport for the sport, they are there purely and simply to make some coin and they really couldn’t give a f@#k for the sport or the trails they use. I’ve heard stories previously about races by big promoters being run in conditions when they shouldn’t have but have never really weighed into the argument or given it much thought as I hadn’t been involved in anyway shape or form. Previously for me its all been about trying to get a fair deal for the club and just hoping the promotor will do the right thing by the trails in times of inclement weather.

Today that all changed.

Many of you would know I have been heavily involved in the legalising of the single trail within the Glenrock State Conservation Area and the formation of the Glenrock Trail Alliance (GTA). Without blowing the GTA’s trumpet too much, what we have achieved with the NPWS has been massive. We’ve finally seen the POM adopted with mtb facilities that go way beyond the scope of the state cycling policy. We have seen the creation of a very successful trail maintenance/construction volunteer base that have worked tirelessly with the NPWS to improve the trails. With this success though has come interest from people previously locked out of the park due to the illegitimate status of the trail system.

Its important to note that the GTA is not a club, it is a collective of volunteers and riders who cared enough about their patch of dirt that they fought tooth and nail to keep it. They achieved what they thought was not possible and now they have been granted access to keep it in good condition.

In two weeks a promoter is bringing an “Adventure Race” to the park. A major draw card for this event is the Glenrock Single trail, the very trails the GTA fought to preserve. While the GTA should never be the consent authority for the use of the park, it has become a very strong user group that works with the park for the benefit of mountainbiking. When this even was first floated late last year, a donation to trail building was floated by the promoter to both the GTA and to the NPWS,  in addition to the usual NPWS fees that go straight in the coffers of the NPWS machine, never to be seen again at the local level. Well, today the GTA was informed that the promoter was reneging on the “donation” as the event with 700 entries wasn’t set to make as much as other races.

Never mind the damage that 700 sets of wheels will have on trails that really aren’t ready for the event

Never mind the fact these promoters have never done any works to the trails to prepare it for a race,

Never mind the fact that the people who do the work for free on these trails fought for seven years so they had a local riding venue.

No, the promoter sees it fitting that only the nominal NPWS fee of $2.20 per rider is adequate for the usage of a trail system so many fought so hard to legitimise and continue to work on to bring to a sustainable level. I’d actually like to suggest here that if the race is has such a fine margin that $2.20 a rider is the only way to turn a profit then perhaps the event needs to be revisited.

While these events are evidence of the sports mainstream acceptance (and that is a great thing), in chasing the almighty dollar the people putting on these events shouldn’t step on and crush on the grass roots of the sport. Its not a club being screwed over here, it is the mtb community and the trails it rides. Its screwing over the NPWS, the very entity we need to be courting for increased access.

For you the participant out there competing in these events, stop to have a short ponder about where your cash is going. I’m not advocating that these events shouldn’t be profitable for the organisers, far from it, if you run a good event you should make money. I’m just asking that the grassroots of the sport be supported rather than screwed over by people from out of town with no real interest in a venue of 51 weeks of the year.

The trails are there to be ridden not raped and pillaged and conquered in order to put on an event.