By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
The Wood County Park District wants to catch the wave of off-road sport biking.
So last year, the park board voiced support for a proposal to create an off-road mountain bike training area in Rudolph and a mountain bike trail in the savanna area along the Slippery Elm Trail.
The goal is to create programming to attract older kids and young adults to the parks.
Bids are currently being sought for the bike park in Rudolph, and should be opened next month. The park district is requiring that contractors submitting bids must have experience with trail construction, and have portfolios showing the bike trails they have built.
There will be four sections of the proposed Rudolph Bike Park.
Section 1: Strider Track
The Strider track is designed for young riders, ages 2 to 7, who are just learning to ride their balance bikes. The course will have small rollers and banked turns. The area for the Strider track will be about 1,900 square feet, and will have a riding surface paved to a smooth finish.
Section 2: Pump Track 1
This track is for all ages, designed for novice and intermediate riders. This course will weave in and around the trees on the site. It will have larger rollers and steeper banked turns. The area for this track will be about 15,000 square feet of a smooth pavement.
Section 3: Pump Track 2
This track is also for all ages, but will be designed more for intermediate and advanced bike riders. The track will have various areas where riders can transfer from section to section, and create multiple lines on the course.
The course will have large rollers and steeper banked corners. The Pump Track 2 will be approximately 18,375 square feet, with a wide connection to Pump Track 1, and a final riding surface of smooth pavement.
Section 4: Skills Loop
This is for riders to test their bike handling skills on various features, most which resemble features a rider might see on a mountain bike single-track trail. These features may be pre-fab features which need to be purchased and installed, or they may be created on-site, preferably using recycled materials found on the site, or in the county.
The features must be laid out to promote a trail-like riding experience, but also separated into zones of similar features to promote session practice, with ride-arounds for each feature.
The final riding surface will be dirt or crushed stone, and must be compacted. The Skills Loop will be take up about 15,000 square feet.
In addition to the tracks, the Rudolph Bike Path will include a shelterhouse, a parking lot with about 20 spaces, and an open lawn that can be used as a demonstration area during festivals.
Last year when presenting a proposal for the bike park, Wood County Park District naturalist Craig Spicer explained the mountain biking park and trail would help the district attract teens and young adults. A survey conducted earlier in the year showed only 6 percent of the county park users were college student age.
All parks suffer from the same difficulty luring teens and young adults, Spicer told the park board.
“They are one of the most finicky audiences,” he said.
According to Spicer, off-road and sport biking are growing in popularity.
“This is a good opportunity to ride that wave,” he said.
The creation of an off-road biking park in Rudolph, and a trail in the woods north of the community would also be an investment in a county park in the southern part of Wood County. Currently just five of the county’s 20 parks are south of U.S. 6.
The proposed park would be located in the one-acre area already owned by the park district along the Slippery Elm Trail, just south of Mermill Road.
Don DiBartolomeo, of the Right Direction Youth Development Program, told the board last year that he would offer programming for free at the bike park. DiBartolomeo is in the 10th year of running the non-profit youth support program Right Direction, and organizes programming at the skate park in Bowling Green City Park.
“Having something like this skills track is huge,” DiBartolomeo told the board.
