[Closed] dalby

not "annoying" - more "interesting"

It's not BMX or road riding after all. Do it rigid to sharpen the skills (and kill the spine)

I was there yesterday - some bits are getting eroded and due to the exposed rock 'all weather' trails are a bit hard going on a hardtail

❗

Mountain Biking.................

😯

Wheel trap you ? Come on we all have steering to avoid this situation. Parts of Dalby are worn but it keeps the SS rigid freak niche pixies on thier toes and focused.

@ Bonj, if you want to put something back and volunteer some free time to help build/maintain the trails you ride have a look [url= http://www.singletraction.co.uk ] here.[/url]

...you could always pop along to a dig day and help out 💡

[url= http://www.singletraction.co.uk/ ]Improve your local trails![/url]

Oh go on then....where does one sign up to this singles..action club 😯 (N.B t & r missing from keyboard)

Right [url= http://www.singletraction.co.uk/page.php?page=Sign_Up_For_Membership ]here![/url]
You can even pay by Paypal now.

I will come along to the next Dalby dig day with Gil and meet all you nice folk.

Wheel trap you ? Come on we all have steering to avoid this situation

ok, but the wheeltrap is following the best line round the corner.
I can easily avoid it, but wont' be going as fast as if it wasn't there.
It isn't stainburn we're talking about.

[ride a rigid SS, it'll sharpen your skills]

[go to a dig day]

If you Join SingletrAction (£15) and attend a few SingletrAction Dalby digs (I think it's 3), you get a free year pass to Dalby. This free Dalby Pass also can be got by doing digs at other SingletrAction/FC locations (currently also Stainburn nr Otley, Guisboro nr Middlesbro and possibly the Gisburn skills area digs organised by Ed_O). I don't think FC employ anyone to maintain their trails, SingletrAction is a volunteer organisation and we do our bit to give MTbers a good day out, we build new trails at these FC locations and also do some repairs to existing trails, purely on a volunteer basis. Most volunteers turn up and dig for a few hours, then go off and ride their bikes.

All fair points I feel however inregard to riding Dalby SS rigid ? "with practice you could be come one of the gods " and then give the rain forest a trim in you spare time 😉

i do redeem myself however on the grounds that I would be perfectly willing to pay more than £35 for the season ticket fee

It's £42 & none of it goes to the bike trails

They should maybe have some weekday 'dig days' to capture all us weekend workers who aren't available Sundays?

They should maybe have some weekday 'dig days' to capture all us weekend workers who aren't available Sundays?

Good idea but it's already a significant task organising the monthly digs at weekends, nevermind also doing them during what a lot of other people consider their working day. Saying that if you and enough people were keen I'm sure Gil would be pleased to hear from you and see what could be sorted.

The only issue we've had with "out of regular dig day" activity is regulating quality of construction and ensuring what gets built (on FC sites) is what is permitted. Trailbuilding isn't rocket science but we spend quite a bit of time "behind the scenes" planning and liaising to be able to build new bits or improve others. Lot of it rests on goodwill / track record / trust. That can get eroded pretty quickly if we let a bunch of (well intentioned) not-so-experienced folks go wild in the woods with shovels 😉

I've never seen figures from FC regarding the income into Dalby since the trails (and everything else) went in. Nor do I know what they set aside for trail maintenance (nevermind development ;-). I know they put some money into the provision of a cycle ranger although I also think that is more of a match funding situation with the original OPS1 (IIRC) money.

Membership of SingletrAction ([url] http://www.singletraction.co.uk/page.php?page=Sign_Up_For_Membership [/url]) or simply a donation ([url] https://www.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=TlZcFI_QmHrXnsgZ_G5SMcH5VRUBsBmNETi7lPrz4kZgSgKQxb4Rh7EFehG&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8dc60d77e6184470d55d73a93d5b9f6c6e [/url]) simply goes into the funds which get administered by the club (i.e. the riders / volunteers / trailbuilders who are members and come to the AGM or the like). Usually we blow it on coke and hookers 😉

As if, we're so bloody Yorkshire about money it's untrue - short arms and deep pockets. Typically almost everything is voluntary, we buy tools, then daft buggers donate sweat and toil to fill the big gap between a shovel and some woodland and a constructed and armoured trail bed. The next purchase is typically stone at c.£25/tonne. We can easily use 20 to 40 tonnes on a few hundred metres of trail, at which point you can see why we always try to save money for stone as without that there's not going to be a fully armoured trail.

Sorry, I'm nearly off on one there 😉 Join SingletrAction or drop a few pennies into the (metaphorical Paypal) collection tin if you think this is worth supporting. We promise to use it as bests we can to improve riding wherever we get to help. We'd rather see you / anyone at a dig day but if that isn't possible then cash is a very welcome second choice.

Tim, Chairman, SingletrAction 😎

Tim - are there any local quarries that could be contacted to ask about donating stone/subsidising prices in return for sponsorship of the trail or sections of it or their names on signage or similar? In Bristol we used to have some sort of an arrangement with the local quarry - true, some of the trails backed onto the quarry so it was slightly more in their interest, but it worked well with regular lorryloads of stone dumped at access points to be used for building and maintenance...

ps Dalby is ace, great work, wish I still lived in Pickering sometimes, will have to get up to see the folks and hit the trails sometime soon.

Yes, that would be an option. However, FC control sponsorship "rights" and have some particular ideas about sort of stuff should go where in the forests.

TBH, Dalby is predominantly soil inversion or quarried on site (hence why it's rather sandy in places). Stainburn is somewhere where we've bought, or arranged to buy a lot of stone and, if you look on the marker posts whilst riding the trails there, you 'll often see sponsor details. That was arranged many moons ago though.

We're always looking for cheaper ways to get stuff and are not shy of saying we're a volunteer organisation and would like stuff for less. Sometimes it works, others not. There's no hard and fast rules for all this stuff, so much is off the cuff and individual's inclinations.

So when's the next dig then - I did actually join singletraction, but haven't dug yet.

[url= http://www.singletraction.co.uk/ ]SingletrAction Website[/url]
It depends where you want to go, digs are advertised down the right column on our website, the next one is Stainburn this Sunday. Then go onto the forum and click on the location you want, more details will be posted about when, where and what. There's also advertised the Gisburn XC dig organised by Stumpyjon off here, that isn't a Singletraction project, so might not count to your free Dalby pass, if that's an issue.

igm - Member

not "annoying" - more "interesting"

It's not BMX or road riding after all. Do it rigid to sharpen the skills (and kill the spine)

+1 🙂

so do you get told HOW to dig, etc, or are you expected to know what you are doing? I mean i obviously know how to dig, but there's digging and there's digging.
Or is it just a case of "make it better, however you think best"?

Surely it takes more skill (and time) to dig a feature that will last, than one that will erode quickly?

so do you get told HOW to dig, etc, or are you expected to know what you are doing? I mean i obviously know how to dig, but there's digging and there's digging.
Or is it just a case of "make it better, however you think best"?

Surely it takes more skill (and time) to dig a feature that will last, than one that will erode quickly?

We have guys with lots of experience in building good quality, durable and sustainable features. We try to apply that skill and experience to new people and any trail building so things work and last. So yes, it is "directed" digging.

However, we don't always get it right first time but that is a fairly standard experience amongst most trail builders (be they "pro's" or volunteers). There's alwasy bits that need subsequent tweaking and amendment.

For example, understanding and predicting what will happen with waterflow when laying out and then building the trail takes a lot of effort and insight. Even then you can build it with all the best plans and then find in reality it's different.

Also, we often go in and build after clear felling. The disturbance and impact of the felling contractor, their machines and the usual detritus / destruction they leave behind changes the behaviour and routes of surface water significantly. It's all just stuff to try and work around / with.

So, long answer in short - we tell you what to build where (in a nice way). 🙂

Anyone fancying coming along to a dig is more than welcome. We work at trying to make it open and friendly so people don;'t feel like spare parts or end up standing around not knowing what to do. The typical groups are a varied mix of young / old, riding gods / novices etc. TBH it's justs like your typical random assemblage of riders.