time for a rant at Glasgow City Council

BoardinBob

Aye, I'm sure skulking around the back of the police recreation centre with a spanner would go down a treat

Banned!

dont skulk then. make your intentions clear. if possible, ask. it just might work.

seandonaghy

going by ur drawing JC i think that could work, but the see-saw idea would be better

peelerdh

these trails are not complete yet, need alot more work and fine tuning!! and yes stevie is right it will spoil the flow pollock park is a fantastic we trail( for being local) as for the run in to the new table top its fine, its a bit of a challenge to maintan speed but thats whats fun about it (did it the other night with lights on and soared over it) as for the corners lots of support they may have gravel on them but jeeez its a much better than pollock park mud!
just get wait and see what its like when its finished

jamm21

Instead of a rant at the council how about a big thank you for taking interest and budget for what is essentially a minority sport. Just about all the maintenance work they have undertaken is well appreciated by me. It is great having these trails less than 10 min from home and I now don't need to spend an hour cleaning my bike afterwards.

It is an MTB track so I would expect a slightly unpredictable surface. It will pack itself down very quickly through use and there is nothing new that could be called dangerous. Look at any of the recent new or resurfaced sections on the 7 Stanes, which ride great after a short time. The old surface on the blue climb was unsustainable.

In terms of the rebuilt jumps, they have pretty much re-instated what was originally there, maybe they are less technical now, my only thing is you have to land flat on all of it and there maybe isn't a great flow, but that adds to the challenge.

The berm that the OP crashed on isn't new, all berms contain loose material on the line that no one rides. If you look straight that section the berms are pretty redundant anyway, you are hardly turning and it is not a fast section of track - you have to point yourself into them - most people are just riding straight through and you can see the appearance of braking bumps just before the sharper and faster left corner just afterwards (again slightly bermed, loose because no one uses).

The new section of the trail is nowhere near complete and it is surprising that it has not been taped off to discourage riders (although it stops in the middle of nowhere). By the looks of it they are re-routing the top of the blue to point downwards onto it. I personally can't wait to see what they do with it. Constructively I hope the build something over the depression with the cobbles in it, but only because it will become a water trap once we come to autumn.

Banned!

oh, we do appreciate the time and effort and cash theyve expended. we just wish that they had asked riders what should be done before they went and did it anyway.

type 1 hardcore is excellent for the foundations of driveways and the like, but it is not anything like an ideal surface material for a black trail. its moves and it is too absorbent. it will never be a stable surface, which makes jumping the tabletop just that bit more dangerous.

it would have been much better if it had been left as a dirt track and had more ridable lines built onto it. however, we shall have to make do with what they have left us, which isnt much at all.

jamm21

I would wait until it is all finished, though, they may want to remove the small tree stump on the landing as that isn't safe. I think we would all agree that something is better than nothing.

As there isn't a local group of riders who would they ask, most of the people visiting the trails are complete novices and even a lot of other riders are not even hitting the jumps, so they are trying to cater for a minority of a minority.

Reading through the posts in this thread there has been all sorts of ideas put forward, some practical, some not. Their main objective is to put down something sustainable, that won't require a lot of maintenance. An unarmoured trail in Pollok Park is not practical as the area where the trails are have poor drainage. There isn't a right or wrong surface, you just have to adapt your riding to what is under your wheels and personally I didn't find any issue. Look at all the other surfaced jump trails in Scotland alone, they all use different materials.

Banned!

they wont remove any of the natural features, even the stumps that are right on the landing from the biggest jump on the trails, thats why i suggested building a double set over them.

i have a pretty heavy longish travel bike and i found the going over the loose stone pretty hard and it shifted a lot, not something i want to have to adapt to when trying to hold my speed off a table top into a berm!

peelerdh

just in from a day ride and played on the new section for most of it, worked on the berms to bed them in, hold you alot better now while going round them, as for the stumps leave them ride round them hop over them do what ever you want, they are not in your way and makes it easyier to spot some lines,
" i have a pretty heavy longish travel bike and i found the going over the loose stone pretty hard and it shifted a lot, not something i want to have to adapt to when trying to hold my speed off a table top into a berm!" it will bed in, need some rain to harden it, glentress started with all the same material just give it time , and sorry but its mountain biking you have to adapt to different terrain!!!!!!!!

ps - just a quick note about that wee stump on the landing? u have suggested building a jump over it!! a jump on a landin with the speeds u can get off that is a bad idea

Banned!

not a jump, a rythm section.

I can adapt to different terrain, do it all day, but that surfacing is just poor.

peelerdh

a rythem section is going to thro you off balance, just avoid the stump a nice easy line to the right of it or a rather tight faster on the left, the surface is new once the large rocks have cleared it will be sorted, try the berms now we did a bit of shaping on them and are very quick now

Pete-C

jamm21 wrote:

As there isn't a local group of riders who would they ask, most of the people visiting the trails are complete novices and even a lot of other riders are not even hitting the jumps, so they are trying to cater for a minority of a minority.

Me, seandonaghy, marinman and docker are down at the park at least twice a week no matter what the weather. If we arent what you call a local group of riders then please tell us what we are

jamm21

Sorry, what I meant was an organised group, say like the Carron Valley thing, not to say any opinions or ideas that you have aren't valid. But there is no real way for the council to contact you through formal channels.

Maybe they should have had a rep on the trails for a few weekends before work started to get some feedback from users. Did anyone know that work was about to commence before they saw machinery on the site?

Will be good to have something new once it's finished and the surface bedded in. Obviously getting to know the table top will mean you now where to go not to land on the stump. The other stump afterwards looks a bit of fun though and would not want rid.

montevideoguy

I take it these trails are well posted?

Going to be checking them out when I get back my holiday (Not too much out my way worth bothering with I reckon)

Pete-C

jamm21 wrote:

Will be good to have something new once it's finished and the surface bedded in. Obviously getting to know the table top will mean you now where to go not to land on the stump. The other stump afterwards looks a bit of fun though and would not want rid.

the table is looking good now, getting about 3 bikes length off it going at a half decent speed

Coatbridgeguy wrote:

I take it these trails are well posted?

once you get into the park there should be maps up at all the car parks that show its location. the parkies get around so if you cant find them just ask one

BoardinBob

Coatbridgeguy wrote:

I take it these trails are well posted?

Going to be checking them out when I get back my holiday (Not too much out my way worth bothering with I reckon)

To be honest, they're not worth travelling from Coatbridge for (assuming that's where you are). They're about 2.5km-ish in length, very flat, takes about 10 minutes to do a complete loop and shouldn't pose a challenge to anyone other than complete beginners. They're handy if you live nearby or you don't have access to transport to better trails, but it takes me less than 5 minutes to cycle from my house to the trails and I'd rather get in the car and drive for 2 hours.

steviesorefingers

STOP messing about with the new section the council will move it they have been told to take away or destroy all homemade mtb sections.I have been told this first hand this is the reason their building the new red section so keep it red your improvements? are dumbing it down, making it a bit easy its supposed to be an intermediate to an advanced section, so stop taking hard core off the ski jump, its turning into a ski lump, stop taking hard core off the jump it will collapse and lose its shape. I personally put a lot of work into that, stop dragging the hard core off the path it may be smoother but it will turn to mud as the hard core hasn't beded in. I do appreciate the effort you all have put in lets keep it loose and ride fast, the more hard core that stays on the path the faster it will become. Lets work together here, guys.

marinman1

there was a guy down today with a shovel messing about with the corner just after the table, i'm guessing it was him that f****d up the table

cee

jamm21 wrote:

Sorry, what I meant was an organised group, say like the Carron Valley thing, not to say any opinions or ideas that you have aren't valid. But there is no real way for the council to contact you through formal channels.

I know one of the guys from the Carron Valley Development group and it would seem that even with an organised group, the communication is not always the ideal that it might be.

Carron Valley is currently a swear word for him.

jamm21

cee wrote:

I know one of the guys from the Carron Valley Development group and it would seem that even with an organised group, the communication is not always the ideal that it might be.

Carron Valley is currently a swear word for him.

Shame what happened with those guys, the park's too wee for something like that anyway, but at least the council actually are prepared to invest in it.