The Death Star is nearing completion!

Once the final phase of the bike park is finished and the course is protected with special sealants the hype machine kicks in for Freeride BC! 

Then we can handle the masses and combat the wear and tear!

It is in our backyard, few blocks from our Facility and a Training are for all styles of riding, 2 huge professionally built pumptracks and intermediate to advanced Jump lines.

So this is a old shot of the construction days from a few years back, it will be looking like this in the spring when it gets refaced and redesigned. 

Who has a professional Fitness bike park in their back yard? Send me links! Who wants to challenge their community to get together and build another park like Freeride?

FreerideBC Bike Park is so sick!

FreerideBC.com is a little project we at Straitlinestarted 4 years ago. I am the President of the society and admittedly the worst President on earth but at least I admit it.

 

Kyle Michell  and Andrew Mitchell have reshaped the intermediate lines in preparation to soil tac treatment over the past week or so and they are chiseled once again.

Here is Kyle and Drew trying to look tough for a photo posted on the fence asking kids to stay out until we are done.

It wouldn’t keep me out, they look like a bunch of push over's, but the missing tooth is pretty core Drew.

As a back up plan, we have enlisted our local grommit Jon Stanners to help smack heads when and if people start disrespecting our work in progress.

Anyways,this is not showing the bowls and hips they placed in and out of the lines. I’m limited to how far I can walk in with my bunk leg so use your imagination but we started scratch again since the previous jumps were looking rough.

The Large rock right of the digger is the kicker to enter the pro lines, I’ll try and get a better angle in the coming days but they are building some crazy lines, stoked to show it off.

 

Local pro BMX rider Matt Bear is helping plan the flow of the lines and test ride it as Kyle and drew shape the course.

This view is just over a third of the park from the entrance gate, we have a lot to do and an entire treed section to build in so keep your eyes peeled.

Evil Pump Track of Death with Explosions and stuff!

Pump Tracks just sound so wimpy so the title ensures that you understand this will be a epic new addition to the Freeride BC course. http://www.freeridebc.com/
Chris Lamb is the man behind many of the best trails we love to shred in Whistler and last Summer he visited the park and got stoked on what we had planned. We were stoked just to have a guy like him build our slalom track!
So He has signed on to help future track development next Spring in http://www.freeridebc.com/ our local project of love!

The amazing people of Rotary have also agreed to help fundraise and in return we will have Chris make the Rotary Fitness section the place to be!

Check out some of Chris’s work in these links:
http://www.pinkbike.com/video/30834/
http://www.pinkbike.com/video/30843/
http://www.pinkbike.com/video/31016/

Chris's work…

Weather Closure!

I am going to be using our main blog to sound off on any bike park announcements as this blog has better traffic than www.freeridebc.blogspot.com. Below is mentioning that we shut the park www.freeridebc.com due to bad weather! You will be hearing a lot about this park next Spring when we complete the Pro sections and pump track expansions. Gonna be good!

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The park is open to public and free for all to use between dawn and dusk but some of you may have noticed the gate is closed from time to time.  This is for safety reasons and for the park general health too. The park can also be shut down at our discretion if some one has modified the course in anyway and we need to repair the damage but for the most part not a problem at all, the weather is to blame! 

 

When it rains heavily the jumps become  wet and slimy causing concern for safety as there is little to no traction at all, and when you ride the jumps or the pump track with or without proper tires you cause extreme damage to the surface.

 

Then when it all dries out we are left with heavily rutted tire tracks all over the park so we must close it down until it dries up! This drains our resources and partial course closures or the entire park needs to be closed for repair.

 

This Saturday we are holding a cleanup party, basically a modest day raking rocks and debris off the course so that we can prepare the site wit ha product called Soil Tac!  What Soil Tac does is penetrate the surface of the park about an inch thick making water bead off the surface almost making it into concrete. This will save the park from heavy winter conditions and all of us can ride it safely!

We would have don't this before but the funds were simply not there to do so until now through very generous donations and community support!

 

Keep in mind this entire park has come to life through the endless hard work of a small group of people and as with every project of this size and the amazing growth we have had there are communication issues and lack of man hours  at times.   We will promise to have this blog updated every time the park is closed so you can check prior to driving or riding out.

 

Thanks a bunch and we hope to see you this Saturday!

Whistler is closed… lets reminisce!

 

I was talking to Eric Peterson of Faultine today and checked out his website where I saw a refreshing video from this summer in Whistler of the Spaniard, Xavier Raventos or “CHO CHO” for short!

 

This kid is REDONKULOUSLY fast and he uses our Straitline levers and pedals for what they were designed for… Whistler runs!

 

 

The rest of these videos are from Eric as well, I had him send me all his summer links from Camp of Champions since he documented the entire summer up on the slopes who else can supply proper “Ode to Whistler” vids in a pinch!

Camp A

 

Camp B

Camp C

Camp D

 

Gereth Dyer - Air Dome

 

Casey Groves - Snakes the Boneyard weeks before Crankworxs

 

And possibly the most important video Faultine has and will ever make… The Straitline Bear Bell Public Service announcement!

Not shot in Whistler at all I just look for excuses to tie this video in, it was done on a very generous budget of $60 dollars in Guerillabear suits and Eric worked for Break Levers and world wide fame!

Straitline Bear Bell Technology from Eric Peterson on Vimeo.

 

For all of you who just hear about BC and our beautiful surroundings check out this guys photo blog I found on BC and a bit of Alaska- close enough!  And after visiting Europe where they have cut all the trees and eaten all the animals I can understand why people get so excited seeing a whale or a bear, BC is pretty sick place to live and ride but not the best, plenty of places in the Alps that will make your jaw drop!

http://www.my-photo-blog.com/2009/07 

 

Know a little plug for our little know Bike park www.freeridebc.blogspot.com we have been hiding it until it has fully completed so that people see it and go WTF? We just secured a fund raising grant from The Rotary club along with a few municipal awards for bridging community health with such a ambitious project!  So we will make a announcement in the Spring inviting all levels from Pro DJ riders to Olympic XC hopefulls to coem and ride it for free!

And…  We have deer!

Werd!

Expert Phase Complete!!

This park is going to be sick and as promised 100 percent free for all to enjoy! Half done with only the dual slalom course and pro lines to be designed and connected to the pump tracks hidden in the trees!





Another Teaser on the Park!


This is just the expert/ intermediate and learning area the sloped bank is soon to be a dual slalom course that will be the most used feature in the park by far!
Shout outs to follow, just enjoy the sneak peeks.

This is the last post!

Some of you may know that we are in the lengthy process of building a local Free Ride park here in Sidney BC actually across the road a bit in North Saanich BC. www.freeridebc.com

So much work goes into building a bike park that is free for the community to train and ride in. Check this Park just built in New Zealand as shown on MTBcut.TV




I hate it when people say this to me at the years end but... See ya Next Year!

Bike park in full swing!

Straitline Components is neck deep in developing a modern bike park here in our backyard in Sidney BC. We have been collaborating with many local business owners to make this thing a success. It has been a year of bi monthly meetings and scheming to get to this point and we are blown away at what has been happening.

To build a local park it would cost around a $100,000 no biggy but we decided what if we build a modern park, junk all previous ideas of how a park should be built call it a fitness park and do it for free!

Pretty much impossible but we have pulled it off with the help of no less than 3 excavation firms stepping up to the plate to help out.

Kyle Michell is our park design and construction guru, he is currently in Switzerland building a BMX worlds track and back here this week.

This park is going to be FREE! What a concept build it for free and let you ride it for free. Please check out www.freeridebc.com and keep an eye on it. I am running two blogs so i get behind at times but most info will be posted there.

You want more Park?

And this is just the kids section...


Sorry Locals only... go build your own pumptrack!

Nah this is a free park and just a sample of whats to come in North Saanich.

This is about 1/3rd of the pump track starting out with a triple up into a flowy straight stretch that offers transfer lines and a big triple into a berm once you get into the flow.

And this is our last section to eb built- the pro section! The picture makes this look small but we piled our start ramp to 25 feet.

Stay tuned!