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has its origins in grassroots community support and a desire DOES A BIKE PARK MAKE SENSE AT YOUR AREA?
for a safe place for kids to learn to ride. Attracting families
and riders of all skill levels, the BPP has an asphalt pump When considering whether to invest in a bike park, it’s
track look that is friendly for strider bikes, dirt jumpers, and important first and foremost to conduct an analysis to
mountain bikers looking for a place to practice. determine the following:
The BPP joins several other urban parks across the coun- • How would a bike park (versus other summer
try, from indoor facilities like The Wheel Mill in Pittsburgh, activities) fit with your brand?
Penn., to other outdoor facilities like the I-5 Colonnade park
in Seattle, Wash. Making it more difficult for Trombley is • H ow would it fit with your balance of passive versus
the fact that the park needs to move yet again (due to rede- active or action-type activities (will your customers
velopment of the land it’s currently on), possibly taking it want to bike)?
from a nonprofit venture to municipal facility.
• H ow would the bike park fit with the greater
Are urban parks part of the pipeline to get more rid- community (is the community already bike oriented)?
ers to lift-accessed facilities? While there isn’t hard and fast
data that proves this point, Trestle’s Bob Holme thinks so. • W hat are the projected long-term economic impacts
Trestle Bike Park and Winter Park are partners with the (will it drive an increase in visits)?
City of Denver on two urban parks, Ruby Hill and Barnum.
Barnum is the older and more focused on dirt jumping while • How could the bike park be leveraged into other
Ruby Hill will be a state-of-the-art facility replicating much aspects of your summer operations, including
of what riders can expect at Trestle. events and programming?
Both Trombley and Holme reiterated three critical • S pecific to the bike park, what are the different
points for the success of an urban park: proximity and rela- revenue streams (rentals, lessons, retail)?
tionship between the urban and lift-served park; strong
financial backing; and making the park accessible for all • What is the current market (existing guests and
ability levels. desired target markets)?
Operations & Risk Management • How much capital is required (year one, on-going)?
Additional sessions reiterated the importance of having • How long do you expect it to take to recoup
solid operational and risk management strategies. From your investment?
trail building with an eye toward risk management to
detailed lift operation plans, time and again panelists reit- Signage
erated the importance of carefully thought-through plans
and procedures. Coming out of this year’s Downhill Bike Park Summit,
NSAA will be putting together two working groups to look at
With respect to building trails, the panel of park man- developing signage recommendations and a biking responsi-
agers and trail builders encouraged the audience to not just bility code for its member areas. Consisting of representatives
think of the feature itself, but also to consider what hap- of member areas and other stakeholders, these two working
pens right afterwards. For instance, if there’s a drop in the groups will evaluate the variety of responsibility codes and
trail, how far is it to the next turn or feature? And, have sign programs areas have developed, and put together a recom-
you given your riders options when approaching a feature? mendation for the industry for trail type and rating signage as
Do they have an “out” or the ability to ride around a fea- well as for a biking responsibility code similar to winter’s Your
ture if they don’t feel they can successfully hit it? Have Responsibility Code. Look for initial recommendations to be
you designed in or outlined the evacuation points along discussed at next year’s Downhill Bike Park Summit.
your trail system to make it easy for your patrol to bring
an injured rider out? These are just a few of the questions Conclusion
(along with many more) that need to be asked as you regu-
larly evaluate your operating plan. Just as the inaugural Downhill Bike Park Summit demon-
strated, this year’s event reinforced the passion and desire to see
lift-served biking succeed from areas around North America.
This year though, the tone and conversation took a notable shift
toward the best practices that enable the top areas to succeed.
To access presentations from the 2016 Downhill Bike
Park Summit, please visit nsaa.org.
38 | NSAA JOURNAL | SUMMER 2016
