Thanks to everyone who turned up to the meeting at the Scotchman and his Pack on Monday night. It was good to catch up with people and to share the plans for 2011.This is going to be a big year for the trails in Bristol and we want to get as many people excited about it as we can. For those who weren’t there, here’s a round-up of what you missed.

Ashton Court

Phil and Dunc from Architrail walked us through what’s going to be happening in Ashton Court. They start work at the beginning of April and they will be finished in time for BikeFest. The whole loop is being rebuilt to a really high standard, with a massive amount of stone being brought in and the trail lifted and cambered so that it drains water off it. The result is going to be proper armoured trail that will really hold up to the Bristol winter and give us all a solid, entertaining playground right the way through the year.

There are two big bits of news for those who haven’t been following. First, Beggar Bush Lane will run the slightly controversial anti-clockwise direction up from the gatehouse. There are two main reasons for this - first, it enables them to build more downhill trail, and secondly because the speeds of riders coming the “unofficial” way on a good surface would mean putting in wide turns that wouldn’t fit in the trail corridor. The trail is effectively going to be built to flow one way, with features and corridor laid out accordingly. There’s a proper piece of downhill trail being built above New Barn Wood. This is completely new, and is going to be a fast, flowy trail with lots of pumps and jumps. There will also be optional red features dotted around the trail.

When work starts there will be rolling trail closures. Once completed, each new bit of trail will need 2-4 weeks to bed in, before people start riding it. It’s tempting to try out new bits of trail, but if people start riding before it’s properly bedded in they will damage it. Spread the word, and be patient. It’ll be worthwhile.

The new trails will feature two handbuilt sections, so will be a couple of days in May when volunteers will be able to pitch in with the professionals. Machines will do the heavy lifting and the preparation work, then the volunteers will be let lose to build and shape the trail. We’ll announce the dates of these nearer the time.

To say goodbye to the Ashton Court trail we’ll be having a send-off ride on Saturday 26^th March. Tell everyone. Let’s give the old trail a really good send-off and get a last fill of mud.

Leigh Woods

The contract for Leigh Woods hasn’t been awarded yet, but the design has been completed. As with the Ashton Court trail, the old trails across the top of the wood will be replaced with fully armoured all weather surface. No closures of the more interesting off-shoots of the trail network are planned. The new build will produce a ride that’s fun in all weathers, and that will attract the winter traffic and reduce the horrific wear and tear on the rest of them. Everyone wins.

50 Acre Wood

We have big plans for 50 Acre Wood in 2011. The work in Ashton court and Leigh Woods takes a big load off our shoulders, as the new trails there should need only the lightest repair for a couple of years. The frees us up to focus completely on 50 Acre. We have masses of stone, plenty of tools and willing volunteers.

The idea is to turn 50 Acre into a real showcase for the mucky, rooty, crafted but insanitary riding that we all associate with Bristol. We’re going to increase the tempo of dig days, aiming to do 2 a month and make rapid progress on sorting out the mucky, tiresome bits between now and the winter closing in again.Once this is completed, there may be scope to add more length to the trail there.

Brunel Way Pumptrack

This is a work in progress. A planning application has been submitted to get a pump track built by the flyover on the edge of Cumberland Basin. The pump track is going to be a perfect crossover - urban riders will get introduced to the joys of dirt, and mountain bikers can have a play on some properly built jumps on our way out to the trails. The comments received on the project to date have mostly been supportive, with a few complaints mainly from people who are worried about user conflict and aren’t certain that it’ll be used.

If you have time, go to: http://e2eweb.bristol.gov.uk/PublicAccess/tdc/tdc_home.aspx , check out the application and submit any comments. A link to the specific application will be posted soon.

Eastville Park

There’s another pump track planned for Eastville Park. BMX collective Body English are working with the Council to bring the project into being . If you're an Eastville local, add your supportive comments. Body English can be found here:

http://bodyenglishcic.org.uk/wordpress/?page_id=152

Or search for “Body English” on Facebook.

Ashton Hill Plantation (Failand)

Last Autumn we were having discussions with the Forestry Commission about trail developments in the Plantation. In the wake of the Still closure, unofficial downhill trail construction had mushroomed over at the Plantation. To their credit, the FC wanted to cater to the riders and formalise the trails over there, with an area set aside for downhill riders and an extended XC loop incorporating all the best trails and possibly some new ones.

Unfortunately before anything definite could be agreed, the Forestry Commission sell-off plans meant they had to shelve any new developments of this type. Now that the sell-off isn’t happening, we’re going to go back to them with some thoughts. The site has a lot of potential, in certain areas, for DH and XC riding, and it could be a great addition to the existing trails if a few issues are worked through.

Access

There’ll be a more in-depth article on the website about access and rights of way soon, but for now, we want a feel for whether we should be focusing on rights of way and access issues. In particular, we’d be interested in hearing from anyone who uses their local rights of way for longer rides, anyone with contacts on the Council Rights of Way team, and anyone who feels like keeping an ear to the ground or attending a Joint Local Access Forum meeting.

Dig Days

We’ve had a few months off digging recently. This has been due to a mix of personal commitments, the fact that we don’t want to channel our energies into repairing trail that’s being redeveloped soon anyway, and the bad weather makes it hard to fix without causing more damage than we repair!

Over the next couple of months we’re aiming to ramp up the dig day schedule to twice a month and this will be publicised on the website, over the email list and through the Facebook group. Join them all.

It’s sometimes hard to get out for a dig day. Bring your friends. Come for a couple of hours then have a ride. Every little helps.

The Group

The Bristol Trails Group started as a fully constituted group with a committee of three, but has since shrunk to a chairman, a core of fairly regular helpers and whoever turns up for dig days. For an organisation to grow it needs a diverse base, and we certainly have that, it’s just not formalised in any way. This could limit our effectiveness as an independent entity - for example, some types of funding grants require a larger committee than we currently have.

Another problem is the overall workload. There’s actually quite a bit to be done:

• Fundraising
• Sponsorship blagging
• Updating email lists
• Publicity
• Cake-baking
• Material and tool scrounging
• Poster-making
• Bike-shop flyering
• Advocacy and access
• Meetings and consultations
• Planning
• Dig-day marshalling
• Press and council monitoring

You name it, someone could be doing it.

For the long-term health of the Group, we’d like to spread some of the organisational load. We agreed that a good start would be to come up with a system where leadership of dig days could be shared. If you’ve come out on a few dig days and fancy leading your own, get in touch. A bit of load-sharing with the other jobs would also help a lot. As you can see from the above list, we want people with a broad range of talents. Please get in touch if you want to help. If loads of people want in, we might have to have something as formal as committee elections…

Bristol Trails

Bristol is very lucky. We have awesome trails, right on our doorsteps and there are scores of dedicated riders out there.

At the moment they often pass one another with a quick nod and ride on. We’d like to use the huge trail-building of 2011 to jump-start a real change in Bristol’s mountain-biking scene. As our long history of organising trail days shows, often it’s just a case of giving people the tools and the framework to get them involved

With that in mind, we’d like to branch out into more than just trail days. Some ideas so far include community projects, rides, events and advocacy. If you weren’t there last night but have an idea you want to contribute, get in touch!