Tame Valley Mountain Bike Route
09/08/2017Dirt Factory partners with HEDCAMz
29/08/2017Where and what on earth have Mark and Gary been up to? Here’s a quick update on what’s been happening including news on the urban bike park.
Urban bike park
Since the start of of year, Mark and I have been busy designing and constructing mountain bike facilities around the world. From Portugal to China and Mexico to Norway, we’ve helped create a wide range of new riding experiences to encourage more people to get out on their bikes.
Construção do Águeda Bike Center
Foi inaugurado o Centro de BTT de Águeda, o primeiro Bike Park de Portugal que engloba um conjunto de pistas de diferentes níveis, certificadas a nível internacional. Este vídeo resume a evolução da construção da infra-estrutura, iniciada em 2015.O Centro terá todas as condições para a prática desportiva, onde os munícipes de todas as idades poderão realizar a sua atividade física, usufruindo de instalações seguras e de acompanhamento técnico apropriado.Este projeto, instalado no abandonado campo de futebol do Randam, pertencente à União de Freguesias de Recardães e Espinhel, engloba um sistema de trilhos de BTT que foram desenvolvidos de acordo com as mais recentes linhas orientadoras para a criação de trilhos sustentáveis da Internacional Mountain Bicycling Association – Europe (IMBA Europe), de forma a proporcionar uma experiência de qualidade aos seus utilizadores, minimizando simultaneamente o impacto ambiental. Esta infraestrutura poderá, assim, ser usufruída não só por toda a comunidade aguedense, mas também por ciclistas de outros concelhos/países, congregando diferentes atividades de desporto e lazer.Este é um projeto multidisciplinar no âmbito da estratégia da autarquia na área do desporto, sendo o primeiro Urban Bike Park da Europa com uma enorme variedade de trilhos no mesmo espaço, um edifício de apoio aos ciclistas com café/esplanada, espaço para eventos e salas polivalentes, área de lavagem das bicicletas, balneários e um espaço para loja, podendo desenvolver uma atividade comercial relacionada com a Indústria das Duas Rodas.#sportislife #desportoevida #BTT #AguedaBikeCenter #AguedaBikePark #CentroBTTAgueda #agueda #aguedatv #cmaguedaSite: https://agueda.tv/archive.ud121?trigger_event_0=show_all&oid=13081636
Posted by Agueda.tv on Saturday, 5 August 2017
This last weekend saw the grand opening of the Agueda Urban Bike Park, situated in central Portugal. It was an eight week construction project, turning a disused football field, into a free to use public facility, the likes of which had never been seen before in Portugal. Most if not all of the local residents couldn’t quite believe the lack of an entry fee. Alongside the construction, we conducted a Trail Building School to educate local people about sustainable trail building.
The park itself contains; cross country courses, progressive jump lines, pump tracks and an adaptive bike trail designed for wheelchair users. The construction material, ‘dirt’, was trucked in to form elevation throughout the park to encourage gravity assisted trails with flow.
International crew
An international crew of builders were brought together to help construct this new facility. One notable member of the team was John Thorpe, of Farmer John’s Mountain Bike Park. After the opening, we went along to spectate at a local downhill race event. So impressed by the course and overall feeling of the town, Farmer John took to social media and suggested his 10 year anniversary race could be held there. This was after a long day in the sun, with a bin full of empty beer bottles but hey, what an amazing prospect that would be.
Stay tuned for more stories from the road, as we continue to help grow the sport of mountain biking.
All the best
Gary
Ps. What would be your dream location for a new bike park?
Let us know via Instagram @dirtfactory or Facebook @Dirtfact
