Since opening BBMS on the 16th we’ve all been riding it quite a bit, by doing so we’ve come up with some ideas for site content that would be useful and or just nice to have. So I’ve added three new pages;

Tracks

Details which tracks are open and ride able to avoid confusion

Track Times

Where members best run times are logged so that they can track their progress

Videos

Where we’ll dump riding videos taken at the allotment

That’s not all either… we have plans to create a building/allotment blog where we’ll document everything that goes on to do with it’s renovation, course building and re-design, and a photo album page where members can upload their pics from the allotment.

If you have any suggestions of anything else you’d like to see added please just drop us an e-mail.

Wow

Saturdays dig day was a massive success with the entire barbed wire fence being built and BBMS given a complete overhaul.

We had great participation with well over 90 man hours of work completed in one day alone.

The girls culinary efforts received a warm reception with not an ounce of cake left over by the end of the day.

BBMS has now been opened (to members only) and already we’ve had some fast times being set, 40.82s is the benchmark courtesy of Tom R.

Planning of the next full dig day is underway with the aim being to work on another line and extend the existing BBMS taking it closer to the 1 min mark.

Full write up and photos to follow on the Allotment blog….(which we’ll launch soon).

The dig day is almost upon us, and things are all falling into place….

The PPE has arrived, as has the litter picking kit and signs (Al is making up the sign back boards and posts as I type)

We’ve now got a scythe and a proper wheelbarrow to call our own

Rodney’s coming to meet us on site in the morning to give us some fence related pointers

The girls are going to be cooking up a treat this evening

Our stigs are primed and ready to rip

Builders are eager to create new and resurrect old

Tools are stacked up in the garage

and day dreams are just itching to be realised

We’ve been apart for 112 days and have missed the place for every single one

It’s been hard work getting here but we’re back, and with so much catching up to do

Tomorrow morning can’t come quickly enough

Not long until our first BCC dig day (Sat 14th June) and things are starting to fall into place; we’ve got the rigger gloves, permanent signs and a litter picking kit on order. Maria and Helen have been talking scram and have come up with a selection of home made cakes, sandwiches and pasties that should keep all of us content; the latest line up is chocolate brownies, banana cakes, Cornish pasties and cheese and pickle/BLT rolls. Lush.

I spoke to Rodney Garton today and have arranged the delivery of the fence posts and barbed wire to fence off the derelict building at the bottom of the Allotment. Rodney has been very helpful - offering to lend us all the tools we’ll need to do the job and even helping us out with some paint to mark up persistent stumps.

The weather forecast isn’t looking as happy as it could but to be fair it does look like perfect building weather; light showers (with sunny spells), 15deg C and light winds.

So we’re on track for a great day, if you’d like to help out just send us an e-mail at committee@BlackCanonCollective.co.uk

Cheers

It seems that getting across the nature of what we are doing, our motives and the details of how we operate may be the difference between this project succeeding or failing. Before the website existed we came across some hostility from those who had assumed that we were trying to exclude others, con or turn a profit - the lack of public information lead to people filling in the gaps themselves; offering us little benefit where they had doubt.

So over the past week and a half we’ve done our best to create an informative website where people can learn all there is to know about this project. It’ll be an ongoing effort as we will have more to say and will hopefully learn how to convey it more effectively but is a good start I think.

Unfortunately this will amount to little if the websites existence is not publicised effectively: So I have sent an e-mail to every British Cycling affiliated MTB club in the South and Southwest regions to let them know. We can’t cater for everyone joining up, but then that isn’t the intention, we simply want to make as many people aware of the situation as possible to avoid misunderstanding or wasted journeys.

We must remind ourselves that it is our responsibility to inform others, ensuring clarity and transparency at all times, but also that it will be beneficial to the success of the project. It is natural to be protective over things, especially when they are as special as this project, but such an approach simply leads to confusion, rumor and ultimately failure. Already since erecting the signs around the allotment and placing the website address in a few key places we’ve had three new (full) members, and that’s just today!

Communication is our friend.

This afternoon the BCC were made aware of yet more uninvited visitors by a friend of the club, Clare. Thankfully we were able to send some members (Ben and Ben) to politely explain the current situation and ask them to leave. The visitors left but not before making a valid point; although they had seen the existing signs (explaining that the site was for BCC members only) none of the signs explained that the area was in fact closed. A mute point perhaps as these were not members, but not an irrelevant one. So Maria, Ian and I set off this evening to put up some additional signs along side the existing signs (see earlier post), we hope that together these will give sufficient information.

It has become clear that despite our best efforts to inform people of the closure of the site and the reasons behind this they keep on riding. This simply isn’t tolerable given our obligations and so has forced us to take quite drastic measures: We have unmarked every course, and pulled up every single feature rendering the entire site un-rideable. This is not a knee jerk reaction but rather a considered solution to something that could jeopardise everything we are working towards. 90 % of the trails that exist at the allotment are based upon the lie of the land with the odd man made feature thrown in to spice up the trail - however it is the features that get the most attention from newbies and non-regular riders, and so by removing these and making the rest of the trails un-rideable we are removing the very thing that is attracting those with no desire to contribute in a constructive manner.

The good news is that we can look forward to re-building these trails (as planned) one by one to full IMBA standards without the fear that we will have lost the site before getting started. Thankfully the Longleat estate are even further into the felling of phase one, and so are also preventing large sections of trails from being ridden by default.

Our goal is to safeguard the future of the area not to prevent people from riding for the sake of it, but given some peoples lack of respect (when clearly informed) we have had no alternative but to take this approach.

Longleat trails are dead, long live Longleat trails!