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Red and black trails only, the Black Run on its way back and a new push-up: Bike Park Chilterns answers riders' questions on the Aston Hill rebuild.
Bike Park Chilterns CIC has answered riders' most-asked questions about the rebuilt Aston Hill Bike Park, in the fifth episode of its trail build video series, published on 6 October. Ian Warby of Bike Park Chilterns walks the hill and takes questions sent in on Instagram, covering the grades, the trails, the opening days and the new push-up.
The build is still being funded by riders: you can donate to the Aston Hill crowdfunder on GoFundMe, which on 6 October stood at £36,558 of its £50,000 target from 268 donations. Ian says the donations, small and large, have made a real difference to how much has been built.
Red and black only
There will be no blue trails at Aston Hill. Ian says Aston Hill is a technical bike park, and blue trails would give the wrong impression of it, so the trails start at red and mix into black. Bike Park Chilterns will grade them "in a slightly different way", which it says will make sense once riders see it. For blue riding, the company points riders to its other site, Whippy Trails in Whippendell Woods near Watford.
The trails
The park will open with two trails, one of each kind: a machine-built flow trail and a natural tech trail, both being worked on at the same time.
- The flow trail follows a line moved slightly from the old Ricochet trail and is surfaced to get away from Aston's chalk. It has a new name, not yet announced. The video shows big jumps, a large berm into a shark fin near the bottom, and a rooty section from the old Ricochet rebuilt with a jump into a cambered corner, now that the trees around it have gone. The track is wide, with plenty of line choice, and is expected to take about as long to ride as the old runs, around a minute and a half to two minutes.
- The tech trail is steep, rooty and natural, a return for one of the park's classic tracks with new sections added. The Aston Hill website says it follows the old Root Canal corridor.
The long-standing Black Run is coming back, though not in the first two trails: the plan is for it to be among the next two. Over time, Bike Park Chilterns is aiming for 10 trails, ranging from technical flow to steep, rooty tech, and says it does not expect to take the full 10 years to build them. The 1.2km jump trail being designed in the Mavrix game with Matt Jones and Acer, covered here last week, is part of that plan.
The new push-up
The way back to the top has been rebuilt from a haulage road opened up through the forest, on the line of the old foot and mouth push-up from the early 2000s. It is steep but direct, and near the top it splits: the left fork, which the team jokingly calls the relief road, is a little easier. Ian says it is easy on an e-bike and hard work pushing a downhill bike, but quicker than the old way up. Bike Park Chilterns hopes to raise money to surface it so it does not get slippery in winter.
Opening days, booking and memberships
The plan is to open from Wednesday to Sunday, closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, with every visit booked in advance, whether you are a member or buying a day pass. Ian suggests the park may open at weekends first: members will be able to start their membership then, or buy day passes and keep their membership in reserve until more days are added. Bike Park Chilterns says it will contact members once the details are set. The Aston Hill website gives the day pass price as £25.
When will it open?
The video was filmed earlier in the year, when the team was aiming to open in the summer and a long dry spell meant the new trail surface needed rain to bed in before it could be ridden. In a comment under the video on 6 October, Aston Hill said it will announce its planned opening date "very soon". Until then, the park and all its trails remain closed.
Find out more
Watch the full update below, and keep an eye on the Aston Hill YouTube channel for more from Matt and Jono Jones, who have both been riding on the hill. See the Aston Hill Bike Park listing for directions and the park's history.
To help get the trails finished, donate to the Aston Hill crowdfunder.
Image: Aston Hill Bike Park, from its crowdfunder on GoFundMe.