Forum

Yep we are running 2 hour taster sessions to let people come and have a quick go. New dates will be up next week, including the short 2 hour sessions.

Booked in for Saturday! Looking forward to it!

Anyone else booked in?

Conditions are good at the moment! Hard pack and frozen ground. The rocks aren't slippery at all.

Just got back from the meeting with the council and legacy as well as architrail which will be revamping the course.

This is the the truthful trustworthy plan of hadleigh and no rumour. Everything will be staying apart from monument as this is built over a protected heritage site. All of the hard lines will be made so there is an obstacle for you to tackle before you get to it, so if you can't do the obstacle you can't get onto the line, say an awkward step of rocks at slow speed as an example. The rocks are are awkwardly placed, and are there to take you out which actually make no difference in riding the course will either be replaced or changed so they don't cause huge accidents.

The track will flow into the easy c lines at all times and those riders that wish to ride the harder lines will be forced to tackle the awkward line or obstacle into the more series of lines, A or B.
The easier lines which are in place now will be more bermed and smoother and generally a lot more fun to ride as it as built as a race track now and less of a trail centre.

So everyone can chill out with the fact that all of the awkward technical sections are staying. They might be a bit more challenging to get to but this should hopefully make it a bit safer for the riders that aren't up to those sections. It also means a lot more of an enjoyable ride if you just want to bomb round some flowy berms and stuff. All in all I'm very very excited for this, I'll hopefully be building with architrail too in my days off so expect some updates when building starts. It should hopefully be starting May time with all the paperwork that needs sorting.

There is also going to be black (current A lines), red, blue and even some green trails and extra sections added on to the loop. Also a pump track with tarmac berms, skills area etc as well as the cafe, toilets, showers, bike shop etc.

Finally a trail centre close to london and over the east side of the country!

Here are some pictures from this mornings walk on the trust iphone. And they haven't been edited through instagram before you ask haha

Now that's a good update, cheers Tom. Sounds like most of the MTBers hopes are going to be met, just a wait now!

Should be amazing once opened though. Looking to hopefully get more involved with the input into course designs and stuff which should be good.

I think essex legacy are at the bike show and are running a competition to win a days riding there....

And work finished by at a rough guess ?


Thanks

Will have more of an idea closer to when building starts but at the latest early 2014. At a push maybe before winter 2013

Great news and cheers for the update, Tom.
stunning pics too

No worries, I know the official council press release will take a while and knew everyone deserved an update asap

Im well up for the 2 hour session, cant book yet as still adding the finishing touches to the bike i will be using for this but looking forward to it. if i miss out on the 5th ill be ready for the next one.

Great news.. cant wait to ride it! although like the other grumblers I'm too cheap to pay for the privilege...!

Great update and good news, and don't want to be a nay sayer but it is a pretty poor show if this doesn't open until 18-22 months after an event that was planned for 8 years and had a stated up front aim of creating legacy. Very disappointing effort by Locog/essexCC really!

But, as Tom says, good we will eventually get a good centre out of it.......

So instead of removing the interesting stuff they're adding more - bonus ! and a big win all round.

perhaps the builders could invite locals with an interest to help ? although this would no doubt create a pile of red tape for H&S but many shovels make light work and i'm sure people would get involved for the fun of it

anyway this is good news.

Yer not sure how the help would go down as it will be pretty much the same as building site H&S and all the staff have to be qualified and insured. Usual H&S stuff. Going to be big goings on with diggers mainly.

Yer its a shame its going to take so long to open but you know how slow paperwork is sometimes. Building will take time due to the massive project that it is. Stuff like this can't be built over night. But when I start work there I'll keep you all updated.

Great news..so near to me and nice frosty photos above too. It did seem to be a bit silly to spend time and money removing stuff and glad its agreed its far better to just build extra stuff.

Any news if this will join up with existing tracks and perhaps make a possible long(ish) DH(ish) route ?

Its just a pity it appears to take so long, the original track was built very quickly from what I recall and was ready long before the test event so shows it can be done quickly.

Andy