Brad's yard

Our friend Brad's backyard pumptrack is running really well. Brad hand-built this track himself. It's really awesome. Watch this video of him enjoying his hard work

Backyard track

New lines sprouting up in the center

More updates from Brad's backyard track. This thing is going to be rocking by spring time!
 More photos after the jump>>

How a Bicycle is made

The design and manufacture of Raleigh bicycles, circa 1945

Bill C-51

The US SOPA bill was stopped. But the world keeps on turning. A new Canadian Bill C-51 is all about Internet surveillance

More after the jump>>

Stop SOPA

The United States Congress is trying to push some legislation through the system THAT WILL CHANGE THE FACE OF INTERNET AS WE KNOW IT.  Gizmodo has a really nice layman's terms article explaining the bill and its effects HERE, which is definitely worth a read if you're not familiar with what is going on. Then, after you're filled with enough rage at the people pushing this shit, you can go HERE, HERE or HERE to write your congressperson and tell them you didn't elect them  LET YOUR INTERNET-LOVING VOICE BE HEARD.

Something wicked

This way comes....

...more info after Wednesday August 24th

Boulder, Colorado

Boulder, Colorado is doing exactly what we want to see lower mainland Cities do for biking. Valmont is the future of community bike parks. Natural surface trails are an amenity and need to be viewed as a park facility. Most importantly: trails have a place in our park system.

Port Kells Park

We had a great turn-out at the meeting last Thursday. We met with Denis, Alana and Preeti from the City of Surrey as well as a number of youths from around the lower mainland to discuss improvements and designs for upgrades to Port Kells park.

Preeti, Alana, and Dennis from City of Surrey

Everyone was asked for their opinions on the future of Port Kells Bike park. The Vote was unanimous in favor of the dirtwest designs for a new pumptrack and 3 rows of step-up table-top jumps and a new taller start mound.

meeting in session

The City is taking our designs back to their Design team for review, and to form an action plan for the upcoming dig day and how to best spend the ~$2000 budget the City of Surrey has to spend towards upgrades to the bike park.

dirtwest designs on display

In the meantime we have contacted one of the contractors who built Willoughby bike park in Langley. He has informed us that a $2000 budget would allow him to operate a machine for two days at the park and supply dirt all within the budget available. We suggested to Denis at the meeting the idea of hiring an individual with real riding and jump building experience to maximize the work done by the machine and ensuring that it is not money wasted on an inexperienced contractor. We will forward this info to the City of Surrey.

Port Kells Park

We are meeting with the representatives from the City of Surrey tonight. We will be discussing improvements to the dirt jumps as well as the addition of a pump track at Port Kells Park in Surrey.

Here's a sneak peek of what we've prepared:

Invergarry bike park on NSMB

Check out the info about tomorrow's open house on NSMB and Pinkbike

Invergarry Open House

 

Above is the flyer we have been distributing along with the City's Open House Notice at bike shops and local rec centres. *UPDATE: We also contacted the Surrey School Board to help us distribute Info about this project in local schools.* We are all excited for the Invergarry Open House which is a little over two weeks away.

Invergarry Open House Info

Here is the PDF file with all the info about the upcoming Open house on April 28,
Here is the link to the City of Surrey's upcoming events page

"You are invited to view and comment on plans for formalizing the existing downhill bike area in Invergarry Park with new jumps, new fencing and improved pedestrian trails. The plans will be on display on the evening of Thursday April 28th in the gymnasium of Ellendale Elementary School between the hours of 6:00 and 8:00 p.m."

Here's what you can expect at the Open house:

There will be a guest book at the door, where you can pick up a comment form. In the gym will be a number of presentation boards in a semi-circle which present the material about the proposed bike park.

There will be a group of tables and chairs where you can fill out your comment form and give it back to the City.

The City staff will be there to answer questions and/or concerns, and to help clarify information provided.

This won’t be a venue to do a speech to an audience.

Feel free to bring the whole family!

Pump track How To

If you've ever wanted to build a pump track and weren't sure how to go about it. We are here to help. We are starting a series of 'how to' guides for pump track construction. The first installment is today.

In this continuing series you can expect to find tips on pump track construction, We will offer design plans for download on this site and we will be featuring various pump tracks big and small.

We also will be dealing with tips on corner construction, roller spacing, roller heights, and anything else we think would be relevant information for people who want to dig a track of their own.
 If you have any immediate questions, feel free to contact us at dirtwest@hotmail.com

Preserve Vedder

This is a petition to stop the gravel conveyor & quarry on north side of Vedder Mountain. The petition ends March 31, Sign it. and send to anyone you know.
Petition here.

http://www.gopetition.com/petition/41943.html

604 on Dirt

The 604 pump track is now on DIRT magazine for their 'Winter Digging' feature check it out here.

Happy Valentine's day

Dirtwest on Vital

We made it onto the first page with our pump track time lapse. Visit VitalMTB to vote and comment

604 pump track

Here is a start-to-finish time lapse of the 604 pump track construction. We built the track in seven days over a period of two months. Thanks to everyone who volunteered their time and effort. Special thanks to Matt at North Shore Bike Shop.

How to build a pump track in two minutes:


Full version:

Invergarry Bike Park Petition

Our contact from the City of Surrey has informed us there will finally be an Open House for Invergarry Park some time in April 2011.

The purpose of the Open House will be to propose making a bike facility in a small portion of Invergarry park(located east of Bonaccord creek, a previously disturbed site and former construction waste dump).

The Open house will be open to the public. The City will decide to move forward or cancel the bike park based on support for this project.

We need the positive support of cyclists and other park users at this public hearing to push this project through.  We will post all information regarding the Open house as it becomes available.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION

In the meantime, We have started an online petition, Please take the time to sign it. follow the link above.

join the face book group

604 pump track

Jordan put in some solo time at the pump track while I was on Galiano. Here's a time lapse of 'the crown' construction.

We are hosting a Dig Day Sunday, February 6th starting at 11 am. The more helping hands we have; the faster the track will be completed, and ride-able! See you there!

604 pump track plan

Here's the plan for the 604 pump track. Drawn in Google Sketch Up:

Pump track design plans
Now all we have to do is finish it in real life.
Track Specs:

Corner radius 12, Corner height 3'
Roller distance 10'(peak to peak)
Roller height -max 18"
Smooth transitions between all surfaces.
It should end up being about 50' x 120' overall