The CTC have kindly produced recordings of each of the speakers presentations from the National Mountain Bike Conference held on the 9th of October.

If you have even the slightest interest in mountain biking development at trail level then these are a great listen:

“The CTC & IMBA-UK joint conference looked at the current state of mountain biking across the UK and beyond. The conference aimed to help everyone involved in mountain biking to learn from successful trails and to get ready for the challenges ahead.”

You can listen to them now (left click on a one of the links) or download them and listen later (right click on a link and select ’save link as’)

Mike Van Abel - Executive Director of IMBA
Mike is based in Colorado, USA. In his presentation he examined the latest trends and developments in mountain biking from an international perspective. He also shared IMBA’s thoughts on the future, the threats mountain biking faces and where IMBA stand on a range of topics from trail centre location through to the global footprint of destination mountain biking.

Kevin Mayne - Director CTC
Fresh from bringing £19.9 million worth of Big Lottery Funding into the Active Travel Consortium, with just over £5million worth of funding for CTC’s Cycle Champions, Kevin knows a thing or two about attracting funding for cycling. In his presentation he talked through how to make your project attractive to funders and how you can tailor it to fit funding criteria. 

Mike Nelson - Founder of Cascade Environmental 
Mike has worked on two of the mountain bike world’s choice destinations, Whistler and Squamish in Canada. Mike brought to the conference a wealth of knowledge on mountain biking’s environmental footprint, and information on how we can plan, build and manage
projects in the future that both complement the environment and meet the needs of mountain bikers.

Duncan Mackay - Policy Specialist at Natural England
Drawing on the latest government thinking and policy, Duncan shared his unique insight into the way forward for mountain biking. He looked at how everyone involved in mountain biking can make sure their projects will stand the test of time and ensure a sustainable and prosperous future.

Chris Ford - Director CycleActive
Chris outlined how important it is to create the right mountain bike experience and match the trails to the riders and the riders to the trail. He examined what mountain bikers are looking for and how we can make sure that we meet their expectations. Plus how we can create trails to bring new people to mountain biking and keep them coming back.

John Ireland - Forestry Commission Visitor Safety Expert
Although to many Health and Safety (H&S) might not be the sexiest of subjects, H&S’s legal and practical implications are far reaching for mountain biking. John has been working on improving visitor safety in the Forestry Commission’s forests and has developed a range of practical guidance for the MTB sector. John looked at how H&S can have a positive effect on mountain biking and how it’s in everyone’s interest to adopt a professional approach.

Julie Cartner - Mountain Bike Development Specialist
Julie examined the effect millions of pounds of investment has had on mountain biking. She discussed how successful public money has been at broadening the market and how that investment is reflected in the trails that have already been designed and built. Furthermore, she shared her experiences from across the globe. 

Dafydd Davis MBE - Trails By Dafydd Davis
Drawing on his work on trail development projects around the world, Dafydd focused on where his approach to trail design and building has really made a difference. He shared the lessons learnt from key case studies and gave a unique insight into the many mountain bike projects he has worked on. 

Vince Bartlett - London Development Agency and Ian Warby - CTC
As the capital prepares for the London 2012 Olympics, Vince and Ian explain how one of the first legacy projects was delivered – the Redbridge Cycling Centre. Their presentation focuses on the off-road trail and how the LDA, its partners and CTC put together the pieces of a complex jigsaw to create an exciting urban trail project.

15 turned out for the first BCC XC ride, 11 men and 4 women. 10 of us are BCC members and 5 who are prospective members.

The day started with a quick walk around the allotment before we all headed off around Longleat.

With a broad spread of fitness and ability we could have split up into two groups, instead we decided to keep the social element and simply stop a little more frequently to allow us all to regroup. I set the pace at the front while Ian rode at the back of the pack ensuring that nobody got lost.

Other than a puncture and some shifter confusion the day was incident free with even the weather on our side!

We stopped for lunch at the Horse and Groom where the food was hot and beer was cold; so we were all happy.

After a few (chips and beers) we meandered back to the allotment via a river crossing and one or two horse poo covered climbs.

Some pushed the last climb whilst others mashed up but everyone made it back in one piece.

The day was a great success with everyone loving the ride and enjoying the company.

Special thanks to Ian who organised and ran the day, he rode the whole route (at first light) to ensure it was all ride able given the recent bad weather. That’s dedication.

look out for more BCC rides in the not so distant future…we’ve even negotiated a deal with the Horse and Groom so that we can pre order food; we will arrange for it to be ready upon our arrival and will get 1 out of every 10 meals for free (oh and they do fish finger sandwiches)!

As versatile mountain bikers you will be aware of the fun that can be had riding Cross Country.

As such on Saturday the 25th of October, the BCC will be hosting a XC ride.

The ride will be an opportunity to ride with members of the club you haven’t met yet.

The event is open to non-members too, so please invite friends and family or if a non member yourself - just come along.

Ian will be leading the ride and will plan a route that has options for all, on the trails and paths surrounding Longleat, and he assures me the pace will not be too fast.

The Ride will start at the allotment, meeting at 10:00 and will finish around 15:00. This will include a pub stop at the Horse and Groom, West Woodlands at around midday. For those of you that don’t know the the pub, it has a beer garden, welcomes families, does a range of good food and also (more importantly) good beer.

So who is interested?

E-mail ian.crook@blackcanoncollective.co.uk for more details.

Since the formation of the BCC and in particular since we took control of the allotment we have come across a fantastic amount of support and encouragement from our fellow mountain bikers. As a result we have grown and continue to grow as people join us all with the aspiration to develop our little allotment and meet some other like minded people.

However we have also come across a very small number of people who have found it hard to grasp the concept of what we are doing.

This could be for a number of reasons; perhaps we are not communicating our motives well enough or perhaps our motives simply do not fall in line with as many people as we had imagined. Either way I feel it’s important to make a few points clear:

1. We are not charging for any reason other than to cover our costs.
2. We are not trying to sell the use of two short DH courses for £35, this is the cost of a full membership based upon our projected membership numbers and first year costs.
3. We have not placed a value on this opportunity to build a local, purpose built MTB venue, as stated above the membership fee is purely based on our costs, these will change each year based on the club’s expenses and membership numbers - the more members we have the more likely it is the cost will come down, as the big expenses would be divided between us all.

You will notice the fact that these three points are all very similar - if not the same - however they do seem to be queried (in that order) by a few people. I hope that the above answers clear up any misunderstanding.

Something else that has been said is “I would join but there’s not much there yet, so what’s the point?” Well the point is simple; it’s an opportunity to be a part of creating a local, purpose built MTB venue. Now I know that course building isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but surely the end goal is sufficiently attractive that people will be enthused to work at achieving it. The alternative is to let others (the BCC) do all the hard work and then later reap the rewards. Rather than complain that only two trails currently exist why not join up and help out? That way the rate of progress will increase and we will reach our shared goal far quicker.

For those who wish that they had a place to ride, or get tired of having their illegal work destroyed by a land owner but haven’t joined up yet because there’s not much on offer -  this is your opportunity to contribute to a solution.

Remember that our motive is simple; to create a place to legally ride our mountain bikes -  something we are moving towards nicely with the help and dedication of our current members.

Thanks to everyone for all their hard work, I’m really pleased that everyone enjoyed themselves so much - makes it all worthwhile. 

Both days had a great relaxed atmosphere with banter and conversation being just as cool as actually riding. Spoons and BBMS are like new - each riding fast and maturing nicely. Rudolph got the go ahead and will be a great addition, with work already under way on its build, and the jump spot is progressing fantastically. 

Wills riding effort was v impressive, as was his eagerness to do his fair share.
Bens commitment to ‘pinning it’ was a cut above, as always, his shear passion for the BCC, and good sportsmanship.
Staceys effort whilst carrying his son on his back and Darrens with his injured shoulder.
Garry with his kind generosity (gotta love sausages!) and tree hugging screams.
Tom for always taking pics that capture the day.
Chris for sorting out our freelap.
All the dirt jumpers for creating a monster.
Neil, Rob and Ian for their high standards and always giving their all - raking till their forearms are ready to pop.
And of course everyone else for getting involved.

Our new timing system was fantastic, allowed everyone to set personal goals and wind eachother up. Expect some club races in the near future…

Ben and Will were chosen as the joint winners of the prize draw due to their unrivaled passion and commitment. Ben won the coin toss but gave Will the tyres feeling that he deserved them more, a very kind gesture that captured the mood of the weekend; everyone pulling in the same direction, egging eachother on and giving their all.

Great weather, great people and great sausages!

Bring on the next club weekend…

Thanks to a cheeky smile and ‘don’t ask won’t get’ attitude I’ve leeched us some prizes for Sundays club ride day!

Yep, we’ll be giving away 1 x pair of Continental Rain King DH tyres, 2 x Shimano Saint beanies, 3 x cans of Monster Energy drink, 1 x bottle of Green oil chain lube and 4 x Team Animal Commencal posters signed for us by current world champs Gee and Rachael Atherton!!!

The first two prize spots will be given out specifically to people who turn up to both the dig day and ride day, with the rest given out completely randomly. The format will be the similar to a raffle with winners asked to choose their prize from the goody table - though how winners are chosen is yet to be confirmed…. biggest drift, most commitment, widest bars (please?!?!) or most earth moved. Who knows?

We’ll also be giving away a booby prize, something that I’m sure every BCC member would kill for; a (faux) leather bound 2009 diary with our club name printed in gold on the front cover. It comes complete with an unreadable London underground map and useful conversion table (1 acre - 4,046.9 square metres!). Who knows what will qualify you to receive this unique BCC branded self management aid but rest assured one of you will.

Just back from London, been a really long 24hrs but has been very productive. My experience of public transport was tainted first by a crafty bus driver who decided it’d be funny to tell me to take a bus that definitely didn’t go where I’d expected and the fact that I spent most of my journey to earls court this morning running after the 171 bus until enough people had got off it to let me on.  When finally there I was greeted by tea and biscuits and lots of people from the MTB world - I however was a panting mess. 

The conference was great with some fantastic speakers and lots to learn for even the most experienced delegates who, like me, looked hypnotised throughout. 

I’ll give a full write up over the next few days but will try and capture the main messages here and now…

It seems that the key topics were sustainability of both the physical trails, supporting infrastructure and human input. It is essential that this topic is addressed by lots of planning and foresight. Another topic was accessibility of the sport, and how retaining this element is critical to its success and ultimately its survival. This was illustrated by the fact that the vast majority of mountain bike owners don’t mountain bike, yet most probably would if suitably trails were built with them in mind, as has been proved by various case studies. Attracting these inexperienced novices into the sport is the fastest and most effective method of building it’s strength. Finally the issue of impact, and ultimately a reminder that despite the best of intentions trail projects can result in very negative impact to the surrounding area in terms of physical impact but also and social and economic. And lots lots more; all of which can be related to what we’re doing in some way.  

I was lucky enough to speak to Ian Warby (CTC), Dafydd Davies MBE (world renowned trail builder and consultant) and Paul Hawkins (Forestry & woodland renaissance), and have learnt a fantastic amount as a result. I am pleased to say that Paul Hawkins was just as enthusiastic to meet and discus our proposal of a Longleat trail development as we are. Paul was really friendly and has inspired me to work even harder for this as there is so much potential especially when you look at the bigger picture of potentially linking such a trail with sustrans networks etc (he also said that he’d seen our website and really liked it!).  

I must admit to being too tired to get my thoughts down clearly but I promise to give a full write up soon.

My eyes have been opened to what is possible and sights set higher as a result - today has been a great day.

It’s that time again…

As you are all aware this months dig day is Saturday 11th and we have quite a bit to do!

The day will start at 09:00 at the ‘Allotment’ and will run until 16:00 ish (as it’ll be getting dark and some will want to tart themselves up for the NWD9 premier in Bath).

The agenda is as follows:

1. Registration
2. Safety Talk
3. Walk and roll through the proposed ‘Rudolph’ line (vote on it’s creation)

Then we’ll all spilt up into groups to work on the following:

• Tidy existing tracks (raking, course marking etc)
• Erect the last two signs
• Collect all fallen wood and cut into usable lengths then pile near the Jump spot
• More digging at the Jump spot
• And depending on the outcome of the ‘Rudolph’ vote we’ll have a team working its creation.

Please bring your own tools, though remember - no power tools (Fin!). Park sensibly as per the club rules and try to car share wherever possible. Importantly you’ll need to bring your own food and drink as the club won’t be providing either this time. Sorry.

We look forward to meeting the new members and really hope you can all make it. If you aren’t a member yet then please also come along we’ll be pleased to meet you and show you what we’re doing.

Cheers!

Earlier today I spoke with Paul Grugeon and am pleased to say that he is very keen to learn some more about what help is on offer from the woodland renaissance and what can be achieved if we all work together.

So with all parties showing interest we’re in good shape for a meeting in a months time. 

“The South West Woodland Renaissance Partnership vision is to regenerate woodland and forestry in the South West for the benefit of the economy, society and the environment. Through the Woodland Renaissance Scheme the Partnership aims to inspire and sustain investment in woodlands, timber processing and all associated goods and services.”

When not winning the 4X races or eating pudding Neil has an uncanny ability of making very interesting and valuable contacts.  The most recent of which was Chris Revill from Bath and North East Somerset Council who Neil met at the recent Bath BMX and 4X comp, they got to talking and Chris gave Neil the contact of Paul Hawkins from the South West Woodland Renaissance Partnership. Now from the very beginning we have made it clear to the Longleat estate that we feel the area would greatly benefit from a purpose built family MTB trail, Longleat have expressed an interest in this but were keen to see how things turned out with the BCC and the allotment before jumping in. What’s exiting about the woodland renaissance is that one of their focal points will be funding bicycle trails and supporting infrastructure in woodland areas!

Although the partnership is not active for another month I’m already very excited about getting talks going and seeing what we can all achieve. There is great potential for some fantastic trails at longleat and with the many local riders and thousands of visitors I’m confident that there’s a market for such a development.

Importantly the woodland renaissance are able to help with the initial stages of conducting a full feasibility study - something that is essential if any project is to succeed - and the first step needed before we get too carried away. The partnership is set up to deal with landowners rather than clubs and so it is important to realise that this effort would be for the benefit of the whole area rather than just the club, but we are dedicated to developing local mountain biking and although just a dream at the moment the prospect of a free and permanent set of trails in longleat woods is an incredibly exciting one.

I spoke to the partnership on Friday and explained our aims, existing relationship with the estate and the location. They’ve stated that they are very eager to begin talks and will contact us in a month time when they are fully operational. In the mean time I’ll speak to Paul Grugeon on Monday to get the ball rolling, lets see what happens……