When we left sunday the bottom of the start hill was a mess and from the moguls down was wet and boggy but the rest was alright, just the layer of rocky stuff covered in a layer of slimey mud.

Not the best i've ridden, the guys have obviously put a LOT of effort in (props to them for actually doing it) but didn't seem to have a lot of flow and was a bit rough and ready.

Give it a year of riding in and some tweaking here and there and its got the potential to be a very good track.

yeah I havent been up and its still going to be soggy as its rained pretty much all week
As for course changes there will be quite a few to try and make the racing tighter. as for flow, well its a hard one to call  and maybe flow isnt the right word??and most of the input we have had from the elites is that they dont want flow, it should be hard, nasty, difficult to ride and present the racing with lots of overtaking opportunities, we are not there yet however the design brief was to have a flowy start straight and then a nasty WC esque finish, so expect to see more WC type features and less flow in the second half of the course and more flow in the first straight , however one section that didnt work in the wet was the moguls which might change to a rhythmn section, maybe a rock garden ( very difficult to get right and not just turn into a one line option) we shall see

we welcome all the feedback we can get and aprreciate its not just a course for elite riders although BC feedback was very much of the view that we should make a hard track and not pander to the beginners with too many easy options( we dont neccesarily share this view!) so its a compromise between making a fun course with challenges for elites and also present the rider with loads of places for overtaking - we are not there yet ( and maybe never will please everyone!) .

 My personal view is that we will end up with an area that has courses that we cna use for NPS and other seperate add on sections that are fun on all types of bike ( dont forget its a bike park and we want to encourage mass participatiion) however rest assured all feedback is greatly accepted and we will do everything we can to help promote and grow 4x as a sport and hopefully help some more riders reach the top level in the sport.

keep watching this space and if anyone has any ideas please give me a ring
so far we are looking at the following ideas

1 corner on first straight - possible dog leg off to the right as an additional optional line
2 rhythmn section to replace moguls
3 course widening in places
4 new finish corners down the steep part of the hill, extending the track with more natural nasty stuff
5 wall rides on  first berm or possible inside berm
6 more mums cake !
7 less rain!

4x is for bmx drop outs who dont have the bulls to do it without suss.. crankworx and all that gash is for bmx street/park riders who arnt good enough to win comps so invented s**t shore jumps.. like bmx jumps slighlty down hill. for those glory hunters like bearclaw the huck king.. any top bmx rider would put these guys to shame!

dh/xc are the only pure forms of mtb-ing that arnt copies of bmx!

bmx is king when it come to racing and jumping! remember your roots and dont forget it!

anyway what i wanted to say was that ukbp is best on spikes.. cut downs so  for you four x boys thats a medusa exeption series and possibly a thinner dh wtescream for the front.. i only ride spikes there wet or dry.. my local track is the same ttyre and is always spikes.

so spikes i say

There's nowt wrong with a tough, rough pro line. There should just be a smooth/easy line option that's longer as well. Chicken runs are pretty vital to encouraging participation at all levels. You're running some grassroots 4X stuff with a Novice class, so the track should definitely cater for that stuff - as well as offering the pros a challenge.

So the general view is it'll be wet this weekend then? Hmm, I was hoping to check it out and see whether I fancied doing the October race. Hmm...

husky
great to see you voicing your opinions as strongly as ever !- keep up the good work- it makes a refreshing change on this forum
 
personally I think 4x is a great format for bike racing but we can agree to disagree

Having spent the weekend there for the NPS, on the whole, I feel it was more what a 4X track should be, as opposed to what they generally turn out like.

My views were the start straight was a little too long, with no gradient change. First corner was good, few incidents there. An inner (smaller berm) might promote more line choice in it.

Next short straight, good. Next corner was good, once people realised there was a line choice there, however I think if you bermed up the inside after the 3 little log steps it would become even more of a viable option. It would make the inside as quick as the outside. The big issue I saw there was people taking the outside line didn't have to brake & could carry more speed into the next straight. Berm up the inside so you can carry more speed onto the straight.

The moguls could work, if you got rid of the obvious line down the middle. It caused a bottleneck & stopped a few overtaking opportunities. Maybe rework them?

The last corner was interesting, until it got taped off on the Sunday. It seemed strange people seemed to all take the sheep line round the outside, even when it was tight, bar about 5 or 6 who nailed the inside line, missed the last sloppy berm & made up a place, if not 2!

Overall though, thumbs up from me, as you say, it could have a little tweak here & there, and you have to factor in things like the push up route, so you are limited to a certain extent by finish. It's definately an improvement on the likes of Chicksands IMO, especially when it was wet. It was commented on that a few people who have done well thus far on the 'groomed' tracks looked to be really struggling with the mud, the lines and testing second half.

Make it less about the gate/snap & more about the ability to actually ride something thats not a glorified BMX track on a hill & you won't go too far wrong in my book