I need a tractor tire.................

[dru_b]

when and where does a "freeride park" come into play in the FORC organization then? it seems that all we want to promote is FAST FLOWY SINGLETRACK and if it gets too technical, dumb it down, just like ray says. i am completely in agreement with the trails and systems that we support and maintain, but the younger generation is looking for "MORE."

I'm not trying to ruffle feathers or get into heated debates/arguments on what and where the club is doing. I am just a younger rider still looking for that NEXT LEVEL without having to travel to other clubs' trail to do so and there are plenty out there. I'd like to have them here, AT HOME BASE. Being a new FORC'n member, it's hard to know just what the "CLUB" wants or has tried in the past. FREERIDE is a huge genre (sp?) that I feel could bring MAJOR attention to our parks. MOST EVERYONE, or at least the ones I talk to, want to hit drops, hucks, dips, berms, obstacles, etc.

speak up, you are paying members of a club and you should have a voice in what is happening within that organization. if you want more and bigger, speak out. no personal attack intended here, just a bit of ranting and raving on my part.

for those that might have missed this, i just want to reitterate -

We need some things to help us advance our skills since the riders who won't advance their skills keep taking out all the fun stuff- like the cool root/tree jump on stonehenge on Sylvan. That tree was alive and the trail was specifically put there to go over that as an obstacle and now it was all a wasted effort. Once again- A great technical trail is being dumbed down because of someones inability to ride and refusal to just skip the trail. Dumbing down the trails makes them faster for EVERYONE. Learning riding skills makes you faster COMPARED TO OTHERS. If you just want to go fast, why not just ride the paved paths? Sheesh I wish people who refuse to work on their own skills and want to go fast would ride the paved paths- we'd all be happier- and faster. :burnout:

[SweetSVT99]

when and where does a "freeride park" come into play in the FORC organization then? it seems that all we want to promote is FAST FLOWY SINGLETRACK and if it gets too technical, dumb it down, just like ray says. i am completely in agreement with the trails and systems that we support and maintain, but the younger generation is looking for "MORE."

I'm not trying to ruffle feathers or get into heated debates/arguments on what and where the club is doing. I am just a younger rider still looking for that NEXT LEVEL without having to travel to other clubs' trail to do so and there are plenty out there. I'd like to have them here, AT HOME BASE. Being a new FORC'n member, it's hard to know just what the "CLUB" wants or has tried in the past. FREERIDE is a huge genre (sp?) that I feel could bring MAJOR attention to our parks. MOST EVERYONE, or at least the ones I talk to, want to hit drops, hucks, dips, berms, obstacles, etc.

speak up, you are paying members of a club and you should have a voice in what is happening within that organization. if you want more and bigger, speak out. no personal attack intended here, just a bit of ranting and raving on my part.

for those that might have missed this, i just want to reitterate -

There are two major obstacles (no pun intended) to overcome when considering building a FREERIDE park (or any park for that matter):

1) INSURANCE
2) LAND MANAGERS

Neither of those things have anything specifically to do with FORC or what the membership of FORC have to say about the subject. I would hope that nobody actually feels like they don't have a voice in the club, and if they do, I would urge them to contact Rage or AG (president and vice president respectively). Remember, just because your idea doesn't come to fruition, doesn't mean you didn't have a voice...

-Sj

[Rage]

when and where does a "freeride park" come into play in the FORC organization then? it seems that all we want to promote is FAST FLOWY SINGLETRACK and if it gets too technical, dumb it down, just like ray says. i am completely in agreement with the trails and systems that we support and maintain, but the younger generation is looking for "MORE."

FORC doesn't specifically have a "freeride park" purpose, but (as noted above) we are definitely interested in providing additional challenging options via well design technical features. Ray was commenting about unauthorized trail modification - that root was not removed as part of a FORC sanctioned maintenance activity.

We also must remember that we are essentially guests at each of these parks, and must work with the land managers to gain approval for freeride-type features. And we are doing that, but it takes time. With the few features developed at Sunderbruch, we've been able to demonstrate to the Davenport Parks Dept that technical features do have a place in their trail systems.

It takes time man, and we've already made good progress over the past few years. We certainly don't want to jeopardize the progress we've made by building whatever, wherever we want. And it's not just the younger generation who's looking for "MORE", many of us geezers are there as well.

Rg.

ps. regarding the club purpose, this is listed in our bylaws:

The primary purposes for which the corporation is formed are:

a. To build, improve, and maintain the mountain bike trails in the Quad Cities area.

b. To take appropriate actions to prevent the ecological degradation of the lands touched by the trail and the trail users, including influencing trail closure decisions and enforcement of trail closures, subject to the authority of the land manager.

c. To organize competitive events and group rides.

d. To promote mountain biking in general and open access to other trail systems wherever they may be found, with particular emphasis on developing the mountain bike trail system in the immediate Quad Cities area.

[dru_b]

all good points and well taken by myself. i understand the whole idea. i know EVEYRONE has their own ideas and not all can be put to use. I am here to work WITH FORC, not against.

thanks and have a great day.

[Vibrato]

Since I'm fairly vocal with my frustration at the continual dumbing down of our trails, I wanna say i am in complete agreement with Rage on this one, although we all vary by a few degrees here and there with our interpretations. For instance:

d. To promote mountain biking in general and open access to other trail systems wherever they may be found, with particular emphasis on developing the mountain bike trail system in the immediate Quad Cities area.

To promote mountain biking in general doesn't necessarily mean that if someone-club member or not, is going to do something that might jeapordize our current access, then we can't support it even if the action is "for mountain bikers."

However- the point that we have to go to other trail systems to work on our technical skills should not be lost in the shuffle here. If we take a pic of the tire obstacle to a land manager and say "by the way, just out of curiousity, some the hard cores were wondering if you'd allow this to the side of one of the black diamonds?" if the land manager says ok, then we need to check with our insurance, and if they say ok- for the love of sweet two wheeled fun we should put it in!

2 problems with Sylvan although I'd be willing to give it a try- 1st, it's double tough to bury anything on Sylvan, 2nd, tires make great bon fires when your underage drinkin and smokin on a saturday night. I'm just sayin...

[Rage]

...tires make great bon fires when your underage drinkin and smokin on a saturday night. I'm just sayin...

Backyard Tire Fire, I love that band!

Rg.

ps. yah, good point about burying something at Sylvan, not a good place to hide a body. I'm just sayin...