THE TRACKS

THE BMX TRACK
The BMX track was designed by the Wheels Park Activities Supervisor Mark Sleigh. The track was designed to specifications from the UCI Track Building Guide. The construction work was carried out with a contractor under the supervision of Mark. The time with the heavy machinery was limited to two weeks due to a limited budget.

The main part of the work was to transform an underused part of the park and get the layout and descent of the track right. This involved moving/ landscaping around 5000-7000 tonnes of dirt!! Once the layout of the straights and corners was correct the material for the jumps and berms was moved into place.

Due to the time limitations the jumps and corners were not perfected at the time they were also no-where near as big as Mark would have liked due to limited materials!! Instead the features of the track were left to be completed by hand with the only available material onsite for surfacing (topsoil)
The first parts of the track are now surfaced and if you download the video you’ll see a few of us jumping the first 4 jumps on mountain bikes.

The third straight doesn’t need too much work on it to be ok to ride.
The third corner and forth straight which is the rythmn section shouldn’t need too much work either.
The last straight doesn’t have the jumps on it yet due to the material being dropped on site a year after the original track build.

ONCE THE CLUB IS FULLY ESTABLISHED AND HAS SORCED SOME MAJOR FUNDING THE TRACK WILL BE RESURFACED BY A TRACK BUILDER, TO MAKE IT READY FOR USE IN REGIONAL CLUB COMPETITION AND POSSIBLY THE NATIONAL BMX/4X CHAMPIONSHIPS.
MOUNTAINBIKE SINGLETRACK

If you look at this site map _ _ _ _ _ _ you’ll see the length of the plan for the singletrack and you’ll also see where the building work is up to at present. The trail is going to cater for all skill levels, but basically if you are competent to ride the start slope you should be ok to ride the whole of the trail, there will be different line choices with varying skills needed for each line. When the trail is officially open we shall safety brief all club members on trail use and have clear signs in place detailing all information needed to use the trail safely. We shall grade the trail when it is more developed and mark it according to the IMBA trail grading scale. We shall be offering coaching sessions to help improve your riding skills at a later date. You can see from the photos what is already built and with help from volunteers the trail will be greatly improved and will be littered with Technical Trail Features of the varying difficulties.

‘NORTH SHORE’ MOUNTAINBIKE / TRIALS CYCLING AREA
This area next to the BMX track is now starting to take shape. This is the Shore and Trials area. The obstacle area will consist of sets of runs, most starting from the back of the BMX start hill and mtb single track, leading to ‘drop offs’ of bigger and bigger sizes 1ft 2ft 3ft 4ft 5ft 6ft 7ft 8ft and 9ft!! This will create a brilliant training aid for any Mountainbiker. After the series of drops the area will be littered with ladders, jumps, see-saws, turns n tricks running at different heights and widths, relevant to the skills required for the line taken into area. All the materials and obstacles (cars, logs, rocks, wood, concrete blocks etc) are in place for work to continue it just needs lots of budding volunteers to come and lend a hand on the next building days!!

THE ROAD CIRCUIT
The Birmingham Wheels Park has a ¾ mile long perimeter roadway that has been used many times in the past to host major road cycling events.

Though it hasn’t been used for some time now the Bike Club is very interested to increase the uptake of road cycling on this technical and challenging closed road circuit.

Please contact us if you are interested in using the roadway for cycling whether you are an individual or another club looking for a venue to ride.

SPEED SKATING TRACK AND INFIELD
The speed skating track onsite is the only purpose built speed skating track in the country, it is 200m long and has just been resurfaced. It is perfect for young cyclists to do track racing.

The infield
The infield area on the speed skating track is a perfectly flat concrete area originally used for roller hockey. This area is perfect for Flatland BMX Riding and ‘back in the day’ was very popular for this activity.

Anyone interested in using the speed skating track should contact the bike club who will contact the speed skating club to discuss the use of the track.