The bike park biz is booming and Tahoe is heeding the call. As a feeder system to improve trail skills, bike parks offer a controlled environment to practice high-speed turning, jumping, and other technical skills. With most parks designed to offer something for every level of rider, the result is a community draw for many towns and cities around the country, and Tahoe is next.
The bike park surge has come from the sustained popularity of mountain biking, which has grown six percent nationwide over the last three years, according to the Outdoor Foundation. For bike parks specifically, growth is exponential.
“Demand has skyrocketed to easily three times the volume for these projects just a few years ago,” according to Mark Eller, communications director for the International Mountain Biking Association, which also published a book in 2015 on developing bike parks.
Bike Parks are defined by the IMBA as “parks and recreation facilities including features like purpose built trails, pump-tracks, flow trails, jumps, and progressive skills areas for all ages and abilities.” Basically, they are non-pavement playgrounds for bikers. These parks are valued as an innovative way to use public space, and the way they help build skills is compared to the way terrain parks help skiers and snowboarders learn tricks they can apply elsewhere on the mountain.
Tahoe/Truckee is stepping up to meet that demand as the number of regional parks will have gone from zero to three — pending permits in the case of Incline Village — over the course of the next five years.
The Truckee Bike Park, which opened in 2011, is the area’s only open park at the time of press. But not for long, as South Lake Tahoe’s Bijou Bike Park has a planned grand opening of Sept. 19. And aiming to break ground around May 2016, the Incline Bike Project in Incline Village will round out the three offerings, all free to users.
The Pioneer: Truckee Bike Park
With an estimated 46,000 users per year, the Truckee Bike Park, located in Riverview Sports Park, has been a success. Open seven days a week, the park hosts races, demonstrations, instructional clinics, fundraising events, and more.
“I’m learning every day and working hard to move things along,” said Brooks McMullin, who founded the park with girlfriend Cortney Knudson and friend Mark Featherstone.
This summer, they extended their dual slalom course, on which weekly races are held, and added an intermediate/advanced flow line to the existing beginner/intermediate line.
The full buildout for the park is planned in six phases, with an aim of adding one phase per year. Work is currently being done on a secondary dirt jump line, which is the final section of the fourth phase. Phases five and six will include a slopestyle course and additional flow lines.
Owing to the park’s success is the hundreds of thousands of dollars it saved in donated labor and volunteer efforts. McMullin estimates that each phase will cost between $45,000 and $85,000, with only a small percentage coming from the Truckee Donner Recreation & Park District.
“These are not your tax dollars at work,” McMullin said.
For upcoming events, go to their Facebook page, Truckee Bike Park Project.
Brand Spanking New: Bijou Bike Park
A four-year plus project in the making, the Bijou Bike Park in South Lake Tahoe started with a vision from the South Lake-based mountain bike nonprofit TAMBA (Tahoe Area Mountain Biking Association).
“We wanted to give people a place to progress their skills on a bike, from a 3-year-old on a kick bike to an emerging pro working on the latest tricks,” said TAMBA President Ben Fish.
The project has since become a partnership between TAMBA, the City of South Lake Tahoe, and the South Lake Tahoe BMX association.
The idea took hold around 2011 as the Truckee park was getting on its feet, which provided inspiration to get through the challenges of permits and assorted red tape. While the City of South Lake Tahoe ended up offering full support and donating $100,000 to the project, Fish said that support was a hard-won effort.
“We had to convince the city that the community wants the project and has always been very vocal in supporting it,” said Fish.
A registered landscape architect, Fish donated his skills in design and permitting, saving around $100,000 of the estimated $200,000 cost for the total build.
At press time, the park has been nearly finished with a grand opening set for Sept. 19.
The park will feature a small and large pump track, a sanctioned BMX race track, a kids learning zone, three progressive slopestyle jump lines, and a loop trail. The park is zoned for 200,000 square feet, or nearly five acres, and will be an addition to Bijou Park off Al Tahoe Blvd. in South Lake.
“It’s a safe environment located in the center of town where many people will be able to access the park,” Fish said. “It promotes positive social interaction and creates community.”
Bijou Bike Park is seeking volunteers. Visit their website at bijoubikepark.org or their Facebook page under Bijou Bike Park Association.
The Next Thing: Incline Bike Project
Rounding out the final leg of the bike park triangle will be the Incline Bike Project. Spearheaded by Incline local Aaron “Elko” James, his goal is to break ground in late spring or early summer 2016.
Design specifics are still months from being finalized, but the park was approved by the Incline Village General Improvement District Board of Trustees in late May, along with $20,000 from IVGID for the planning and design. The park will be located somewhere between Incline Way and the Incline Village Recreation Center. The area already has several recreational offerings, with the goal to mesh the bike park with the existing facilities.
“We are looking to utilize the topography within the park. We don’t want to over-densify the area, and we aim to have the layout as symbiotic as possible with what’s already there,” IVGID Engineer Brad Johnson said.
Full funding for the project will come from both IVGID and community fundraising, but the specific amount is not yet known.
The goal of the design will be to cater to the “younger and more intermediate rider,” according to James. The park will have a small to medium pump track and one or two flow lines. Advanced riders will be able to hone their skills, but the larger gap jumps seen in Truckee won’t be a part of the Incline design, given space restrictions.
The park will collaborate with Momentum Trail Concepts, the trail-building company that worked on the Truckee Bike Park.
In terms of convincing the IVGID board to sign on for the project, Incline Bike Project had the advantage of being able to point to two existing successful projects.
“Truckee and South Lake definitely paved the road for this project,” Johnson said. “It would have been more challenging to move this along if we were the first in the region.”
Visit the Incline Bike Project website at inclinebikeproject.org.
