With your kind donations we are going to bring a purpose built all weather bike pump track to the Cove and Altens Community. The area we will be using is where the old BMX track is located behind the Altens Community Centre ( please see picture below). We have already had a meeting with local Councillors who have given us their full backing and support for the project to go ahead.

The initial £4000 we are aiming to raise through crowd funding and other fund raising (pub quiz, raffle) will pay for Tom Durham of Collective Trax http://www.collectivetrax.com/ to complete a proper site survey, soil sampling and design. Tom kindly came up from Dundee in December to talk with myself and Simon Hill, we showed him the area and discussed what we would like to bring to the community.

The total cost of what we are aiming to achive is going to cost in the region of between £50000 -£100000. The more money we can raise the better a facility we can bring to the community.

The area currently has no active MTB (mountain bike) club, or purpose built facilities, with residents having to travel considerable distance by car to a limited selection of riding spots in the region for formal off road cycling activity. These are across the city of Aberdeen to Kirkhill Forest, or much further afield to Aboyne or Tarland, or the short trail at Auchenblae. There are several primary schools in the immediate area, which will feed a new academy school being built very close to the site.

It is key that any development must encourage participation of new and inexperienced mountain bikers as well as providing a fun challenge for those with more experience. The development should offer potential for skills coaching using the Go Mountain Bike scheme or similar, therefore it should include various ‘Technical Trail Features’ (TTFs) with progressive difficulty, as well as creating a fun facility that users want to return to repeatedly.

As well as mountain bikers, it would also be advantageous to create a facility that suits other types of bike such as BMX, as well as scooters and skateboards if possible, to maximise on the potential user groups that the facility would cater for.

The facility should also be of a sustainable and low maintenance design and construction. There is scope for a fairly high volume of users on any track and so it must be able to stand up to the demands of this in all weathers.

For those of you not sure what a pump track is please click on link. Here you can download a skills area datasheet.

http://www.dmbins.com/developing/trails-page--2/guide-to-project-development-for-mtb-trails-and-training-facilities

Please see the photos below of the existing track and what can be built. ( 2nd pic is for illustration only. Final design not complete)

I'm very proud as are all the other committee members https://www.facebook.com/karen.mcdougall.714?ref=br_rs https://www.facebook.com/simon.hill.121 https://www.facebook.com/catherine.murdoch.73 https://www.facebook.com/craig.scott.714049 to be heavily involved in this project and we are really hoping we can make a difference for the community.

We all appreciate as I'm sure the whole community does of any contribution you can make towards the £4000 we initial hope to raise .

You can join our Facebook page by clicking on link below.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/132136787433930/

Thank you very much.