WebreaderShopNewsletterTop dealers & workshops

Playground or tripping hazard? Pleasure garden or survival course?

Dimitri Lehner

 · 19.02.2014

Playground or tripping hazard? Pleasure garden or survival course?Photo: Sterling Lorence
Playground or tripping hazard? Pleasure garden or survival course?
Great fun or great frustration? In the third part of our test, we take a close look at seven more bike parks and tell you whether it's worth the trip.
Bike park testPhoto: Sterling Lorence Bike park test

We have tested the bike parks for you:

FREERIDE Ranking: Max. 10 points. You can find the tested bike parks and the corresponding ratings in the PDF download below.

That is important to us:


1) Routes with fun: Trails with lots of exciting features are ideal: curve changes, berms, wall rides, step-ups, table jumps, wooden bridges, root passages, stone fields - in other words, as much variety as possible. Desirable: Trails for every ability level, as the ski resorts demonstrate with blue, red and black pistes. Important: blue does not mean
not boring and black not dangerous! The slopes need to be maintained regularly.

Belongs in every park: the drop battery. This one here (Livigno) is only aimed at advanced bikers. There needs to be a small one for low-risk learning.Photo: Dimitri Lehner Belongs in every park: the drop battery. This one here (Livigno) is only aimed at advanced bikers. There needs to be a small one for low-risk learning. Signposting: Unfortunately miserable in many parks. Please warn of dangerous places!Photo: Dimitri Lehner Signposting: Unfortunately miserable in many parks. Please warn of dangerous places! Assistance: Whether up (step-up) or down (drop), wooden bridges help to take away fear and prevent falls.Photo: Dimitri Lehner Assistance: Whether up (step-up) or down (drop), wooden bridges help to take away fear and prevent falls.
How do you like this article?
Forgives mistakes and encourages jumping: Gap jump with a wide landing and plenty of run-out (Schladming).Photo: Dimitri Lehner Forgives mistakes and encourages jumping: Gap jump with a wide landing and plenty of run-out (Schladming). Good drop battery for beginners (Leogang).Photo: Hans Voglsamer Good drop battery for beginners (Leogang). Correct: Rolling or jumping - both possible (Hahnenklee).Photo: Florian Haymann Correct: Rolling or jumping - both possible (Hahnenklee). Safely at altitude: long, wide jumps give confidence and propel the biker through the air in a controlled manner. Particularly successful when built as a step-up (Schladming).Photo: Dimitri Lehner Safely at altitude: long, wide jumps give confidence and propel the biker through the air in a controlled manner. Particularly successful when built as a step-up (Schladming). Wrong dimensions: Many jumps are only designed for professionals. Too wide a gap with a flat landing (Braunlage).Photo: Florian Haymann Wrong dimensions: Many jumps are only designed for professionals. Too wide a gap with a flat landing (Braunlage). Blunt act: Drops with too shallow a landing unnecessarily increase the risk of falling. (Braunlage)Photo: Florian Haymann Blunt act: Drops with too shallow a landing unnecessarily increase the risk of falling. (Braunlage) Visual deterrent: jump with landing in the root carpet. Bold downhillers may like this, but the masses of bikers are put off (Schladming).Photo: Dimitri Lehner Visual deterrent: jump with landing in the root carpet. Bold downhillers may like this, but the masses of bikers are put off (Schladming).


2) Rhythm: The trail should be laid out in such a way that it can be ridden smoothly and rhythmically - without any annoying stop and go.


3) Professional construction: Bike park stunts should be fun and as safe as possible, i.e.: table jumps instead of doubles, step-ups, wide, long jumps, wide landings, etc. Important: point out sources of danger and signpost well!


4) Fast lift system: Ideally a chairlift or even a gondola. Exemplary: Schladming, Livigno.

A huge reaction: the interview with Dimitri Lehner and the guys from MTB-News sparked a shitstorm.


The whole world is raving about the Whistler Bike Park. But nothing is happening in Europe. Are we incapable of building fun bike parks? Or are the bike park critics soiling our nests when they criticise our bike park landscape? An interview with Dimitri Lehner, editor-in-chief of FREERIDE magazine and bike park tester.
to the interview

You can find a geographical overview of the bike parks on the FREERIDE Bikeparks Map!

What are your experiences with bike parks in Europe? Comment and tell us what you think.

Downloads:

Bike park test part 1 (pdf)

Bike park test part 3 (pdf)

Bike park test part 4 (pdf)

Bike park test part 2 (pdf)

Dimitri Lehner

Dimitri Lehner is a qualified sports scientist. He studied at the German Sport University Cologne. He is fascinated by almost every discipline of fun sports - besides biking, his favourites are windsurfing, skiing and skydiving. His latest passion: the gravel bike. He recently rode it from Munich to the Baltic Sea - and found it marvellous. And exhausting. Wonderfully exhausting!

Home
FREERIDE

Most read in category Tours