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Building a Bike Park

07.10.2022

In 2021, We had just submitted the plans and were still dreaming about ripping down the trails.

Fast forward a bit....And a couple of weeks after the building started, my brother and I were trying out the first segments.
We were blown away by how well the building crews of Mountainbike Movement were able to craft the trail into the flanks of the mountain. They excelled at incorporating natural features like rocks (as drops) and ancient logging roads as roller-coaster-like features. It was also remarkable how well they were able to impliment our concept of minimal invasive natural single trails (no felling of trees, maximum trail width of 1m, no man-built features, no foreign material like gravel).

Here's the first section of trail:

My contribution to the trail project revolved about drafting a safety/ security concept for the trail park. The main focus of my assignment was:

  • Segmentation of trails in emergency sectors to allow for precise location in case of an emergency
  • Ensure all the trail segments, crossings with forest roads and hiking paths as well as dangerous features are correctly marked with signposts
  • Finding the easiest access paths and forest roads for the emergency services (Ambulance and Fire Brigade) and set up signposts
  • Defining potential helicopter landing spots
  • Put all the info in a trail map for each trail
  • Presentation of the results to the emergency service

Once the main lines were built, we ventured out together with a professional photographer to take some pictures and video of the new features for publicising the new Bike park.

We opted for a slow, soft opening to test the trails and the shuttle service (only on weekends or by demand), to make sure we had a professional service set up for the  official opening.
This worked well as we were able to tweak here and there, and found some issues (like proper bike trailers are really hard to get hold of).

The build crews finished up on the build over the Spring and Summer, adding more and more diversions and features to the trails.
After they were finished, 40km of hand-crafted singletrack was waiting to be ridden all year around. The trails blend in perfectly with the rest of the forest and seem like they have always been there.

Now it's autumn, it was time for the official opening of the Bike Park with a big party.
The Park is open year round as the region is known for its mild winters, so it seemed like the perfect time.
It took place on 17th of September, with our local governor (who sponsored the project) officially cutting the ribbon.

It was a great pleasure to welcome my fellow ambassador to the opening event. Olaf was travelling home from a vacation in Croatia and managed to stop by for a fun day of riding.

A rather unfortunate little crash 2 weeks earlier meant no riding for me. In the crash, I managed to rip off a small piece of my radius head as well as inflict a small crack in my ulnar, resulting in 3 titanium plates and a long road to recovery. I’m out of the cast now, but another 7 weeks until I can ride a bike again, so Olaf rode with my twin brother instead!

For those wanting to visit and ride the Bike Park at Burgenland, here is everything you need to know:

(shuttle and trails): trails.burgenland.info
Instagram: @burgenlandtrails
Shuttle Service: @bikeshuttle_burgenlandtrails

Words & Pictures: Lukas Nehrer
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