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Mowbray Park Farm track official opening tomorrow (Saturday 18th) - family friendly rides ahead?

Just a reminder for those who might have missed the Mowbray Park Farm track official opening calendar entry.

Enjoy the heat? Why not go and check out this new trail to the South of Sydney (near Picton) this weekend? For those that don't, might be worth a visit at another time?

The site looks like a pretty promising option for riders who may feel guilty about leaving the family at home while they indulge in the pleasures of MTB. There appear to be a tonne of family friendly activities for the significant other & kids. Kudos for the initiative guys!

All the details are on the calendar page linked above. Note club membership requirements before planning your trip!

Rob's picture

Manly Dam consultation sessions: Free BBQ and a chance to have your say!

Reverse angle drainage

Here's a bit of welcome news: Warringah Council are running two consultation sessions on the future of Manly Dam. Even better, these are to be run at the Dam and accompanied by a free BBQ lunch.

If you haven't been to the Dam in a while perhaps this is the perfect excuse? Take a ride, grab some well earned post-ride lunch and let the council know what an important venue this is for riders.

Dates are in our calendar and are:

Sunday 12 January, 12.30pm - 2.30pm
Saturday 1 February, 12.30pm - 2.30pm

Details from council here:

http://www.warringah.nsw.gov.au/your-council/pla...

This is all part of the consultation process which will end on Monday 10 February, so if you can't get there be sure to give your input in some other way on how the park (and of course mountain bike track) should be managed.

More details on the consultation here:

http://yoursaywarringah.com.au/manlydam

Rob's picture

Garigal NP/Bantry Bay to get authorised trails - it's official!

Back in June it was announced that NPWS had put out for comment amendments to Garigal National Park that, amongst other things, included provision for an authorised trail at Bantry Bay (see Garigal NP/Bantry Bay Proposed Trails - Act Now!).

The great news is that yesterday these amendments were officially announced and include a map of proposed trails pretty much unchanged from that put out for comment (see attached).

The full plan with these amendments can be found on-line at the Environment & Heritage site here:

http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/parkmanagement...

It includes some nice phrases such as...

Easily accessible mountain bike riding is also provided for in Garigal National Park. This activity will be enhanced by the purpose-built track proposed for construction in the Bantry Bay area of the park. There are opportunities to link tracks in the park to adjacent natural areas, thus creating a district track network.

The experience provided will be an authorised, cross-country / all-mountain mountain bike route, approximately seven to ten kilometres in length as shown on Map 4. The track will comprise mostly a 'one-way' route from beginner up to intermediate levels. The route will include attractive landscape features, such as view points. It will allow separation of mountain bike riders from bushwalkers. It will be supported by basic local government visitor infrastructure such as car parking space and toilets and will aim to attract local and regional visitors who may wish to enjoy a few hours exploring the park and surrounds.

Happy days Smiling

Rob's picture

Common 'newbie' queries on buying or upgrading a bike. How do a few local shops fair?

A lot of questions are asked in the forum here relate to buying a new bike for the first time, or (more often I think) upgrading from that first ride.

We'd like to think of the average user here as pretty knowledgeable, and that you'll find plenty of good advice in places like our MTB Gear Forum. That said, we were interested to find out how the pros in some local bike shope would respond to some common queries:

1. I'd like to take up MTB riding and have a limited budget, what's the best 'cheap' bike for me to buy to start?

2. I've been riding some local firetrails on my Huffy hardtail and feel ready to take my riding to the next level, take on some rougher terrain & maybe small drops. Say I have $2,500 to spend, what should I be looking at? Talk me into spending more if you can!

3. My 'significant other' has recently taken up MTB riding. They don't have much gear. In fact they ride in old tees, board shorts and trainers. What's the best gift under $100 you can recommend giving to a relatively new rider?

4. Store's choice (optional): aside from the above, what's the most common type of query you get and what does the customer usually end up buying?

Head on over to Local Bike Shops: Responses to common newbie queries to find out how they went.

Rob's picture

Have you tried our new Trails Finder?

Below is a preview, click to read the full post

As we mentioned a while back the trails DB on this site has had a bit of work done recently. With points of interest and other features now able to be classified we've been able to build a complete trails finder page.

On there, you can filter and search by features and instantly see on the map where those trails are.

Rob's picture

This year's Highland Fling: a true hardman's race? What was your take?

Below is a preview, click to read the full post

Fling Morning

The reports are starting to trickle in, and today's race down in Bundanoon was one for the hardmen - and hard women - by the sound of it.

One of the biggest Marathons of the year, the Fling always draws a great field, who this year were joined on the start line by a world tour road pro - bet you are wondering how he went? Eye-wink Throw in a whole lot of wet and windy stuff and the recipe looks a treat for those who like to read of adversity, and of overcoming.

If you were down in Bundanoon today we'd love to hear how you went. Why not share in a blog entry linked to our 2013 Highland Fling page. Include your result to get it built into a local leader board and history in your profile.

All the stories are always appreciated by those of us who couldn't make it! Smiling

Rob's picture

Trails Database gets some TLC (and more to come)

I'm not sure how much of this people will have noticed, but... thought it was about time to say a few words about our trails DB.

This started out as just a few words about local trails but after a quick glance at the page above you'll see it's grown into much more.

While this section of the site has been here for a long time, it's had a bit of TLC lately (and will get a bit more in the coming weeks & months).

There is a whole load of information here and it can be a bit daunting, so in general the changes are aimed at making it easy to find 'stuff I like'.

The changes so far have been:

  • Remove reliance on Google Maps in favour of Leaflet - looks great on mobile.
  • Nice little thumbnail maps on the 'At-a-glance' section for each trails area.
  • Introduction of a point of information (POI) content type. Instead of just listing facilities we can now pinpoint them on a map (with relevant icons of course).
  • Maps for individual areas can now show trails colour coded by difficulty (where authors have rated them), as well as those POIs.
  • As well as the Northern Beaches area overview map on the trails DB overview there's a new Trails Finder page that shows all the areas to ride on a map.
  • A little reminder message on all these content types: this is a site for the MTB community, and as trail info can often change, anyone is welcome to contribute with better information if they have it. You know - just like a wiki.
    • Well, that's for a start... there's more coming! Yes, a nerd's work is never done! Eye-wink

Rob's picture

Total fire ban & closures for Sydney National Parks (13 Oct)

Today (13 October) NPWS are reporting that due to a total fire ban, many National Parks in Sydney and surrounds are closed.

Eg. for Ku-ring-gai Chase:

Total Fire Ban

All tracks and trails across all of the Metropolitan National Parks are closed Sunday 13 October 2013 due to Total Fire Ban. West Head Road is closed, however the basin campground will remain open.

Many other parks around Sydney have similar warnings. Many thanks to the guys who put in all the trail status updates to alert us to this - nothing worse than turning up to a trail and finding out it's closed Sad

More details on NPWS page:

http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/NationalParks/...

Rob's picture

Extreme fire danger & closures for Sydney National Parks

Today (October 10) RFS and NPWS are reporting an extreme risk of fires in many National Parks in Sydney and surrounds.

Eg. for Garigal National Park (Oxford Falls, Cascades, Bantry Bay):

ALL WALKING TRACKS AND TRAILS CLOSED THURSDAY 10TH OCTOBER

Due to the high fire danger predictions, all walking tracks and trails will be CLOSED ON THURSDAY 10th OCTOBER. Picnic areas will be open and the public may only use the gas/electric barbeques supplied by the National Park.

Locations affected: Cascades trail, Heath and Bare Creek trails, Pipeline and Davidson Trails, Natural Bridge track to Davidson Park, Davidson Park to Stepping Stone Crossing walk, Stepping Stone Crossing to Cascades

Many other parks around Sydney have similar warnings. West Head road in Ku-ring-gai Chase is closed for example which will mean access to many tracks in that park is impossible.

More details on NPWS and RFS pages:

http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/NationalParks/...
http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/

Rob's picture

Saturday,October 5 is IMBA take a Kid (or Mom) Mountain Biking day

Heads up for everyone out there who might usually be having a hard time getting their family out riding with them: This Saturday (October 5) is IMBA's Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day. As this is the 10th anniversary, they have, rather tongue in cheek I think, crossed out the 'kid' and replaced with 'mom' as a way of saying it really is for all the family.

TKMBD is an annual celebration held on the first Saturday of October. The event, developed and coordinated by IMBA, strives to encourage communities around the world to join together and ride mountain bikes with youth.

To be honest, that's about all you need to know: it's an excuse to drag your family or friends out on the dirt and get them grinning Laughing out loud

For those wanting to know more about the background, details on the IMBA site here: http://www.imba.com/tkmbd

If anyone wants to arrange something 'official' for this day somewhere around the Northern Beaches, please put it in the calendar and comment here so we can give it a plug.

Best Mountain Bike