Black Canon Collective

Category: The Allotment

  • Dig Day Weather

    The Met office have issued an advisory warning for Sunday’s weather:

    “There is a moderate risk of severe weather affecting parts of the south of the UK on Sunday morning. There is a risk of widespread ice on untreated surfaces following a band of rain, sleet and snow which is expected to clear south overnight.”

    With this in mind we’d like to ask that everyone checks the front page of this website on Sunday morning to see if the Dig Day is still going ahead. It is currently, but this may have to change.

    The ground is likely to be very hard so could people please bring rakes so that we can clear all of the trails ready for the next TickerTape, and help with the XC project.

    Also, please remember to wear breathable layers, warm socks and a hat – that’s right, for the duration of this post I’m behaving like your mum.

    Fingers crossed the weather is better than expected.

  • Building trails 9-5

    First FeatureSam and Jack Wells (who many of you will have read about here: https://www.blackcanoncollective.co.uk/2009/11/19/brothers-wells/) have begun their trail building project for us at the Allotment.

    With the type of lifestyle that many of us can only dream of both are able to build trails and go riding all day almost every day. The brothers approached us recently, asking if they could get involved with the club and build some trails with us. Given the quality of the other trails that they’ve built and their pretty awesome riding ability we jumped at the opportunity.

    The trail that they’re building (to be named) will be a fast open freeride trail with big features in it. It’ll run down the east side of the Allotment, starting at the top plateau and will finish just short of the skills area. They scoped out the trail route for us, and explained the placement of all the features too before we agreed and gave them the go ahead.

    They’ll be building the trail over the next few months, mostly during the week, but will also be working on it at some dig days and weekends. If you’d like to help out please get in contact, they’d be glad of the extra man power.

    As with all our trails it’ll be built with the weather in mind, so drainage, side cambers, and raking back to the soil will be key. We’ve got the rest of the winter and most of the spring to get this trail up and running, so there’s no rush – it’s all about getting it right.

    Sam will be updating the website frequently with news of progress and pictures too, so check back to see how they’re getting on.

  • Ruddy bloody hard work

    Sunday’s Dig Day saw a fantastic turn out; 20 people showed up and they worked flipping hard.

    Puppets has been transformed, with two separate start sections  ‘Punch’ and ‘Judy’ each offering a slightly different flavour: Punch will be the hardest taking its inspiration from Schaldming, tight rooty with steep drops, and Judy will be fast and swoopy but still include ‘battery hill’ the steep stepped chute that many will remember. You’ll notice that a few got carried away sculpting what can only be described as a tobogan run, but it looks awesome and should be ace to ride. We’ve yet to build any of the berms or drops but will tackle these over the next few dig days. It won’t be long before Puppets is up and running at this rate so lets hope we get a similar turn out at the next Dig Day (20/12/2009) when we’ll also be holding an XC Dig Day to work on ‘East-17’.

    We also did a hell of a lot of drainage work which should help keep all the trails open through out the winter

    Cheers to everyone for showing up and working so hard, it’s pretty clear what’s been achieved….

    Dec Dig Day 3
    Dec Dig Day
    Dec Dig Day

  • East 17

    At the moment I think about raking on the train.

    I plan how some artful mattock use will provide the perfect drainage solution while on the toilet.

    I spend my lunch hour calculating how many trees I will have to saw to finish the marking.

    I use my headphone cables to illustrate my trail ideas to work colleagues.

    But I haven’t had the time to actually work on the new singletrack (“East 17”).

    (Please keep an eye on the forum for the next singletrack dig day).

  • Battles

    Picture 031

    I have heard it said that the reason downhill is such a great sport is because it’s social and friendly – you’re only racing against the clock. This cannot be said of today’s Tickertape:

    Firstly we were all battling against the rain, sloppy mud, and mechanicals. Bird was against Jim, Neil against Denham, Denham against a tree, Dave against himself, our shoes against traction, Sam (Wells) refusing to compete against anyone.

    Sam and James were competing – to be muddier or crash better than the other while Will & Ben Batt were against full runs, preferring not to not finish each run rather than go any less than 168%.

    Highlights of the day included very vocal support (or abuse), shouts of “PEDAL” to those with no chain, Ben’s MC Hammer trousers, everybody going on everyone else’s bikes, Will “sending” the biggest of the Spork drops and finally the Cobble Wobble King surprising himself by enjoying the wet – and snatching the fastest time of the day right at the death.

  • First Stage Complete

    Milk No Sugar 001_002

    First Stage: Tuesday 17th November – Route confirmed and first rake complete.

    Second Stage: Sunday 22nd November 13:30 – More raking, bench cutting, log cutting. Volunteers very welcome!

    (Feedback and suggestions for the name welcome)

  • Trail Designing

    Over the next few months we’ll be working to design and build three new trails / trail areas; project Groovy Blue, project Skills Area and project Spine.

    Chris Sheppard, Chris Smith and Ian Crook will be leading each of these projects respectively, with the full support of the rest of the committee.

    These projects have been the topic of discussed for some time, but with so many things going on in the club we’ve been unable to fully commit to any of them up until now.

    We will be following the existing industry best practice so that we can ensure we achieve high quality sustainable trails. The Forestry Commission highlight 7 stages of Planning, Constructing and Monitoring Mountainbike Trails:

    1. Information gathering
    2. Concept planning
    3. Creating a specification
    4. Construction of the trail
    5. Interpretation and signs
    6. Completing the work
    7. Monitoring and maintenance

    All three projects are currently hovering around stages 1-3, but we’re aiming to get to the end of stage 4 and start of stage 5 by April 2010. This won’t be easy, and will require a lot of fund raising, so we’d really appreciate your help. Keep checking the website for progress and please contact any of the project leaders if you have any questions.

    Thank you!

  • Plumbers needed!

    With all the wind and rain we’re having the Allotment is going to be in a bit of a state by the morning. So if you’re thinking of riding it over the weekend please make some time to clear existing drainage and tidy fallen branches etc.
    Weather like this is great for the DH trails as it helps them mature, but puddles just create a boggy mess, so with a bit of crafty forest plumbing we’ll be able to enjoy the trails through out the winter and look forward to even more roots by spring time.

    Cheers

  • Homework.

    At the moment each committee member is working on a project.

    My project involves improving the Allotment as a riding environment for the XC side of the club. My idea is to build a singletrack link from the site of the skills area (close to the main fire road) to the point where the ‘Moron’ DH section meets the fire road that runs up to our current three downhill trails.

    The trail will be possible to ride both ways. In my head I imagine the style to be similar to the section that runs parallel to the Center Parcs drive – so sweeping corners, gentle climbs – fun!

    This project will hopefully achieve a number of things:

    • To encourage XC riders into and through the Allotment.

    • To allow more varied loops of the Allotment.

    • To have more traffic through the Allotment, which will hopefully decrease the number of non-members and littering.

    Singletrack Proposal

  • What a difference a day makes…

    Thanks to Chris, Darren, Garry, Gordon, Jim, Mark, Neil, Sam and Simon. Twenty greasy elbows have left BBMS looking as good as new, and spoons well on the way.

    More of the same tomorrow, 17:15 at the allotment.