RideBHM Brings Downhill Bike Park Riding to Alabama

Alabama could be recognized for lots of issues: blue skies, the civil rights motion, and sure, even a Silver Lever IMBA Experience Heart, however the the Yellowhammer state just isn’t but recognized for its downhill bike parks. Hobie King and Emile Hughes are hoping to vary that with a newly opened downhill park, Experience BHM, positioned simply ten miles outdoors of downtown Birmingham.

“We form of reached what we felt like was a plateau,” stated Hughes of using in Alabama. Although there are mountain bike-optimized path networks like Coldwater Mountain in Anniston, and a smattering of path networks in Huntsville, Hughes and King felt just like the state lacked correct gravity using, particularly after touring to different parks within the Southeast, like Experience Kanuga and Windrock.

In 2020 proper earlier than the pandemic, Hughes discovered himself able to get his arms soiled and increase the using alternatives for Alabama mountain bikers. He was the COO for a medical startup and bought his mission, releasing up time and assets. First, he needed to get his black belt in jiu jitsu, however with gyms closed due to Covid, he honed in on one other mission: bringing a downhill bike park to Birmingham.

With out the cash to purchase a significant chunk of land, they knew they’d have to search out someplace particular to put in the park. King and Hughes approached Purple Mountain Park, a former iron-mined mountain that has been reclaimed as a leisure space on the outskirts of Birmingham, with mountaineering trails, a 6-acre off-leash canine park, and now a 200-acre bike park. Hughes stated RideBHM was an ideal match and addition to Purple Mountain since locals have been in search of extra mountain bike trails.

“This was form of a solution for them,” stated Hughes.

Digging in

Although RideBHM secured a strong hunk of land to construct a mountain bike park in, the event was removed from straightforward. Purple Mountain, with its wealthy crimson dust from its iron ore layers had been mined extensively and the land had been tossed and turned.

“So we come into the piece of property and we mainly have a giant rectangle, form of ridgeline southern dealing with with a piece carved out of it for chert mining after which the highest of the ridge is simply scored from the place they sampled for iron ore.”

Hughes says the soil had been unstable from mining and the pure vegetation had been stripped, so land managers planted kudzu — a viney, invasive species — and privet, a plant that has been described as “worse than kudzu.” Kudzu vines had pulled down bushes and the land was plagued by fallen wooden and infested with ticks. The kudzu and privent could have added some shade and stability, however a lot of it wanted to be eliminated once more to construct trails.

RideBHM used skid steerers to take away as a lot of the privet as potential and opened up the forest cover above and the dust canvas under.

A imaginative and prescient for the park

Hughes and King didn’t must look too far for inspiration. After touring the nation, and visiting bike parks shut by and afar, they knew what they needed: an accessible and beginner-friendly bike park, near a significant city middle, with one thing for everybody.

The 2 beloved using the Windrock Bike Park, however there isn’t a straightforward manner down the mountain, Hughes stated. And Experience Kanuga has a very good unfold, however the 500′ climb could be an excessive amount of for some riders. However, there was one path at Experience Kanuga that Hughes and King fell in love with.

“Will need to have Tortuga,” they instructed one another the primary time they rode at Kanuga. The flowy, blue-rated bounce path has clean berms, catapulting-lips, and broad landings. RideBHM will need to have jumps, they insisted, and it will need to have a bounce path like Tortuga.

After approaching Experience Kanuga for recommendation, the path builders from the North Carolina bike park got here right down to Birmingham to construct one thing that mirrored the enjoyable. RideBHM referred to as their new blue path Kanuga.

Additionally they took inspiration from the Purple Bull drop at WindRock, a giant, speedy drop towards the bottom of the bike park the place onlookers can watch as they load up right into a shuttle to take them to the highest. RideBHM referred to as it Massive Bertha; it’s a giant step-up bounce that shoots riders into the air as they end their runs close to the parking zone.

The opposite massive precedence for RideBHM is accessibility. They need to expose mountain biking to communities that will not have seen it and make the exercise an reasonably priced proposition. Being a public-private entity and a profit company, they’re saving 20% of the obtainable slots in educational lessons for deprived youth, so children can take part and benefit from rental bikes and mountain bike training.

Following the opening of RideBHM at Purple Mountain Park, Hughes stated they’ve a number of different plans within the works and objectives for the park(s). They’re including a 3-mile cross-country monitor and should have short-track XC races, and want to add a mud bounce part and a pump monitor.

However, Hughes stated additionally they need to open extra parks in Alabama, probably in Huntsville or perhaps Anniston, and a season go would work at any of the places.

“Hopefully that is only the start.”