Leeds Urban Bike Park Meet Up

We met up at Leeds Urban Bike Park Yesterday, to go and shred some of the trails. Since I’d not been there before, I was amazed at the selection of things to do. There’s some really basic blue and red, with a nice challenging jump line/rock garden line. There’s lots of BMX skills space and an additional Pump track. There is also a recently opened Red which is really tough, through the woods and down the side of the valley. More on this later.

We started out with the open blues and reds, just getting used to our bikes as some rippers were on new kit and others like me just hadn’t been out all summer. I know, shame on me. I tackled the jump line a couple of times and quickly realised that leaving the ground just isn’t something I’m good at. Practice needed. Regular Ripper Darren reckons he can get me off the ground in an afternoon. I’ll report back soon!!!

Around what was a lovely snack lunch from the onsite cafe (and their cake needs sampling too by the way!) we spent some time on the Pump Track. I was advised about using the compression to gain speed and I think that in that there is another skill I can practice on a later trip to the park. At this point in time the Cafe was busy, the surrounding area was also quite busy, but the Pump track is big enough to accommodate all, with just enough time between runs to gather my breath back.

At this point, we would go and tackle the line through the woods. We know now that this is a really challenging red, with some very technical bits. Nothing unpassable with care, but it is easy to get your line wrong. Which is what happened to one of our group. One of the rippers with us saw a huge kicker at the last minute, tried to get out of the side of it and took quite a big spill. Thankfully he seems to be ok today, but I’m writing this to serve as an example of why we’ll never let anyone ride with us without a helmet. We also wear pads ourselves and would advise them for your rippers where possible.

Back to the bike park though. Once we’d recovered the young lad to the top of the park, we took another cautious run round that same red and it really is a fun track. Well worth a visit, as is the whole park.

I look forward to going again and if you keep an eye on our Facebook group, you can join us.

Matt