Run Down In Stitches with Sponsored Rider Kyle Murray
Advanced Trails: What to expect:
Red Bike Park trails require a high level of well-developed bike handling skills as they consistently entail difficult riding on all manner of surfaces. Advanced trails may feature fast and flowing manmade sections or be more natural and technical in style and appearance. Most trails feature a slight mixture of these styles and are made up from a combination of long steep descents, loose variable trail surfaces, and numerous natural and manmade obstacles including timber structures.
IS THIS TRAIL FOR YOU? - RED
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Red grade Bike Park trails are suitable for: Proficient mountain bikers with advanced off-road bike handling skills used to riding technically demanding difficult trails.
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Bike required: Good quality well maintained off-road mountain bikes with hydraulic disc brakes. Mid to long travel (140mm to 200mm) modern full-suspension all-mountain or downhill bikes recommended.
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Trail and surface types: Steep and tough terrain, with constant technicality. Expect very variable surface types and a high frequency of natural and manmade obstacles.
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Gradients and technical trail features: Red trails can include, steep descents of a challenging nature, natural trail features such as rock gardens, large and numerous exposed roots and technical terrain, as well as manmade trail features such as large berms, timber features, and large advanced jumps
and drops.
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Suggested skill level: An advanced level of skill is required; riders must be confidently able to handle off-cambers, larger drops, jumps and steep gradients, with an ability to control the bike over very uneven and often slippery trail surfaces such as roots and rocks.
Some trails in the park will be highlighted with
a + sign to show that these are plus trails.
These trails feature a high frequency of bike park style features such as jumps, drops or gaps that require, or actively encourage, a rider’s wheels to leave the ground.
+ trails are a variation of intermediate, advanced and expert trails, they feature a high frequency of bike park style features such as jumps, drops or gaps that require, or actively encourage, a rider’s wheels to leave the ground.
Standard graded trails may include some of these features but not to the same frequency, scale or focus as a + graded trail.
Look out for the + symbol on the trail maps and trail name boards to help you decide if it is a suitable trail for you.
PLUS TRAILS: ARE THEY FOR ME?
A trail with the additional Plus grading features a high frequency of BikePark style features such as jumps, drops or gaps that require, or actively encourage, a rider’s wheels to leave the ground.
Do you actively seek airtime and confidently tackle drop off’s, jumps and gaps? If so, then plus trails are right up your street! The trails are colour graded as usual to denote the extent of the challenge of the bike park style jump and drop features.
If you prefer riding more naturally technical terrain or are not confident at handling the bike in the air and prefer ‘wheels on the ground’ then please stick to the standard blue, red and black trail gradings where the frequency of jumps and drop features is far lower.
