Sydney has a new mountain bike park, it's first. I went there yesterday with riders Nic Learmonth, Kath Bicknell and Melanie Bell to check it out.
It's located on Sydney's North Shore at the Golden Jubilee Sports Field in North Wahroonga and borders Kuringai National Park. You couldn't find a more spectacular setting for a bike park. The new park has three trails with a XC trail on the steep west facing hillside and on the hilltop there is the pump track and bike skills trail.
My vote of the coolest trail goes to the XC- flow track and it makes for some nice photos as well.
The park was built in a short few months by World Trail an outfit based in Queensland. These pro's from the far north know about trail building in wet country and how to build a sustainable trail in a place like Sydney where it rains hard, I have no doubts this trail is built to last. The park's official opening isn't until next month, but the trails were open and already busy with riders this weekend. The bike park links
The skills trail is really fun with an obstacle course of rocks, a ramp wall, three narrow ramps, jumps and a teeter-totter.This is Kath on the teeter-totter in the background you can see the wall ramp.
The pump track was closed off with orange fencing so the dirt could cure and dry, but that didn't stop the grommets form checking out this marvel. The surface of the track was dry and fast. Pump tracks are designed so a rider can maintain speed through the course by pumping their handlebars as they ride over the rollers. This track uses imported dirt that has been cleaned of rocks so the surface should cure into a hard smooth finish. I wonder if the neighborhood skateboarders will try it out.
I am a traditionalist when it comes to mountain biking, so my favorite trail at the bike park is the XC-trail. It may not be long, but it more than makes up for that with a fast downhill ride through rollers and berms.
In the past mountain bike parks could only found at ski areas or in rural forest far from urban centres. But in the last few years city bike parks of every kind are growing in popularity like the new Valmont Bike Park in Boulder Colorado. The Valmont park features slopestyle riding a popular new type of biking that I might even try one day.
It was great to check out what the latest up to date bike park looks like. I like that the Jubilee trails focus on improving bike skills and trail riding abilities. It's still a few weeks to the official opening of this park, but If the crowds I saw this weekend are any indication then it looks like this park is already a success.
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