Running out of places to ride? Do something about it here!

[johnny]

We all know how much you hate having your jumps dozed, your track closed, playing russian roulette with daily traffic, being abused for being on the road and on the footpath and in the bush! Well, we pay our rates, we have rights too............., not to mention a little thing called VOTING POWER.

So, let them know how many of you there are. If you are young, let them know how important your safety is to your parents. Better still, get your parents to let them know too. THE MORE PEOPLE THAT WRITE, THE MORE CHANCE YOU HAVE OF BEING SUCCESSFUL!! Let them know that you will only support a candidate that supports your interests. This is the most important part of your message to them.

These are all feedback/complaints/request pages of all our major councils. I'm not up on the whole funding issues with projects like these, but my bet is the council is the place to start.

I suggest you be polite, respectful and distinct in what it is you are asking for. Bike lanes, Designated riding tracks, skate park, BMX track or better locking facilities. Make sure you fill in all your details, DO NOT WRITE ANONYMOUSLY OR YOU WILL BE IGNORED. It's not something you should be guarded about anyway, your (mums and dads)taxes/rates pay these people. They are our employees, now it's up to you to politely start representing your subset of the community to these employees so's you get your money's worth out of them.

Send an email once a week until you recieve a reply. If you don't get a reply, send one each day. Make sure that you remain polite, but make sure you let them know that you won't go away. If they don't reply at all, call their number. The Perth site even has the lord Mayor and all the other reps' phone numbers on it Write letters by mail or even request an appointment with the appropriate person.

If you want to get what you are paying for, let them know what it is that you want.

Now get writing!


Sydney city council
http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/cu_complaints_comment.asp

Melbourne council
http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/info.cfm?top=23&pg=1527

Brisbane council = shitty site. You have to go to this page, check which region you are in and email the appropriate person. They're all listed here, not hard, just a nuisance.
http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/BCC:STANDARD:1909438097:pc=PC_5

Perth. This is a forum address, not entirely the best avenue, but none other than the mayors address were there. On the brightside though, read the page and check out how easy it is to set up a council forum. 25 riders and possibly some mums and dads of the younger riders and you may have yourself a real little pressure group going! Seriously easy stuff to do and the avenue is there for you to use it.
forums@cityofperth.wa.gov.au.


Adelaide council
http://www.adelaidecitycouncil.com/apps/feedback/default.asp

Queenbeyan council (Canberra)
http://www.qcc.nsw.gov.au/Feedback.aspx

Hobart council
vineyr@mailnet.hcc.tas.gov.au

Sorry Darwin and the other areas like Townsville and Armidale, but you'll have to google it yourselves, my fingers are tired.

[2 smooth 4 u]

To Willoughby city council

my name is Samuel tastzidis I am avid Mountain Biker like at least 20 others in the Roseville/castle cove area. I am writing to you today to propose the building of a youth recreational facility, specifically a Mountain Bike Park. At the moment, to practice this sport in which I do 2-3 days a week during the school term, and often every day of the holidays, I have to travel a huge, unrideable distance. Red Hill, Oxford Falls, Terry Hills, and Wyong are the three closest suitable places to ride, and with ourimbah up the Central Coast, Terry hills only accessible through Mona Vale, and Wyong a 4 hr journey involving trains and a 10 km ride, and thredbo which is a 5-6 hour trip, you begin to see the problem. It is both highly dangerous and time consuming to travel to any of these places by bike or train.

Hence, and you may or may not be aware of this, myself and several others have taken it upon ourselves to build our own facilities, at various places in and around the area, which have subsequently been destroyed. Many hours have been spent in the creation and destruction of these tracks. The tracks that have been built were both Dirt Jump trails, and 'Northshore' trails, which involve thin bridge-like structures made of wood, called Sky Bridges.

At the moment, Mountain Bike Riding and BMX riding is becoming an increasingly popular sport in both Sydney, and Australia in general. Currently, against the world, Australia is at the top of Mountain Biking in the areas of Freeride and Downhill. I myself see more and more people my age riding at the trails I ride, very often meeting new people whilst building trails. Among the huge number of people, both young and old, I am yet to find a single person who has acted with the slightest bit of hostility to myself or any other fellow rider. This friendliness does not only appear among riders, but with the general public as well. I have often been riding or building and people will stop to have a look, or talk to us for a while. This includes both the Willoughby council Rangers and workers as well. Roughly one and a half years ago, I ran a petition, entirely out of curiosity to understand how many people would actually want a BMX track in our area. A friend and I walked down deep water road on one side, knocking on each door with the petition, and these were the results. We met one refusal, several houses where no-one was home, and apart from that at least one member of each household signed the petition. It is clear through this that there is no lack of support from the local community.

What I am asking for is a a Mountain Bike Park, that would be built in the Roseville/castle cove area, and would be suitable for riders, to stop them having to make the dangerous journeys to other tracks, and also to get kids off the couch, or the Xbox, or the computer, or the TV, and get out and do something active. The amount of Mountain biking in Sydney is tremendous, and still growing, which is shown through the 3975 members, of an Australian Mountain Biking website that has been running for 14 months. For ideas of what we are asking for here are some websites:
www.farkin.net
www.nsmtb.com
www.mtba.asn.au

Our signatures:



we sent this in with 2 pages of signitures from people i ride with and it has worked :wink: the local council will reguarly dump dirt or clay 4 us to bulid jumps :D :D :D

[lotec]

Red Hill, Oxford Falls, Terry Hills, and Wyong are the three closest suitable places to ride
What, you can't count to four? They might take you a little more seriously if you make an effort to re read your letters and fix little things like that up.

[rhyno]

Red Hill, Oxford Falls, Terry Hills, and Wyong are the three closest suitable places to ride
What, you can't count to four? They might take you a little more seriously if you make an effort to re read your letters and fix little things like that up.

we sent this in with 2 pages of signitures from people i ride with and it has worked the local council will reguarly dump dirt or clay 4 us to bulid jumps

[lotec]

i saw that, maybe if he'd made more of an effort they'd build the jumps for them? :P

[W2ttsy]

last year, as part of a writers workshop class in year 12, i wrote a letter aimed at the editorial section of the paper. i cant find it off hand, but i will dig it up and post it later on. basically, i was expressing my upset for the closure of trails on mt Wellington.

unfortunately, it didnt get published in the paper (stupid mercury) but i plan on rewriting it and then forwarding the letter to the hobart council.

apparently there were rumours that the glenorchy city council (tasmania) was planning the construction of an MTB park that had 4x, DJ and dh, but im not sure if that is going to happen still or not.

W2ttsy

[johnny]

Red Hill, Oxford Falls, Terry Hills, and Wyong are the three closest suitable places to ride
What, you can't count to four? They might take you a little more seriously if you make an effort to re read your letters and fix little things like that up.

A guy puts the effort in to write a letter, albeit with a minor innacurracy, and you pick the shit out of him. Dude, I think it's a good letter and good onya for puting the effort in.

Lotec, instead of just being a critic, how about you write and send one that's better and be sure to show us your work. That's gotta be more constructive than criticising others!

[lotec]

sorry if i sounded like a dickhead, i only meant it as constructive criticism :oops:

[anfon]

Red Hill, Oxford Falls, Terry Hills, and Wyong are the three closest suitable places to ride
What, you can't count to four? They might take you a little more seriously if you make an effort to re read your letters and fix little things like that up.

A guy puts the effort in to write a letter, albeit with a minor innacurracy, and you pick the shit out of him. Dude, I think it's a good letter and good onya for puting the effort in.

Lotec, instead of just being a critic, how about you write and send one that's better and be sure to show us your work. That's gotta be more constructive than criticising others!

The only effort he made was pressing copy and paste. Rexy put up that letter about a week ago. Changing names/places isn't hard.

WAY TO GO!

[rhyno]

Sorry if it's a bit OT but i wrote a letter to the newspaper this morning only to find that its too long. Advice on what to cut out is appreciated. Once down to 200 wds i will submit it. Please dont be asses and submit it under your own name.
Do you want to see half the amount of cars on the road? It would make travelling to work a lot quicker! How about paying only 50 cents per litre for petrol? That would leave you with up to $50 a week of extra money to spend on luxuries! How about parking? Would you like to see that cost reduced by 50%?
Did I hear you say yes? Sure you did! Now, how does this work?
Carpooling.
How many times have you followed the same car, pretty much from your doorstep, all the way to work? Have you ever taken the time to think that if you shared a lift, or carpooled, you would save oodles of money, not to mention the service that you would be doing for the environment? If everyone picked a partner or two to share a lift with, the amount of traffic on the road would drop phenomenally. You would also need to take your car into the service agent far less often, saving you both time and money. There are far more advantages than those that I have listed, but I’ll let you think about them for yourselves, call it dinnertime conversation.
Cycling.
Seen those pesky cyclists riding to work? You know, the ones that keep overtaking you as your stuck in traffic? Ever thought of doing that yourself? No? Why not? Scared of the traffic knocking you off your bike, think its too expensive to buy a bike, can’t stand to spend the day sweaty or need to take thinks to work each day? There are solutions to each of those dilemmas. As a student who rides 20km per day to uni, I have learnt how to ride in traffic; don’t ride on the side of the road, ride at least 1.5 meters from the edge of the road. It may sound crazy, but it’s the safest part of the road. As for the cost of a bike, I’m yet to spend money on mine. I got mine from a council collection dump, greased the chain, and pumped up the tyres and shazam! I now ride my c.1980 road bike 20km per day without fail and with summer approaching the chance of rain is far less. You can often pick up a perfectly worthy bike from garage sales for less than the cost of one days petrol. As for the smell when I get to uni, we have showers, and I keep a spare set of lightweight clothing in my bag to change into. In your workplace, lobby with other cyclist and you will get one, its been done plenty of times before. Alternatively go to the local gym, they usually let you use theirs for only a couple of dollars. If you drive on a Monday, take all the clothes and papers you will need for the week, you can ride the rest of the week with minimal luggage. Did I mention that you get super fit?
I’m not some ‘tree hugging hippy’, just a regular Joe who realises that the trees and oil will run out sooner rather than later, and if there is a simple way to avoid this then I say do it!
So, next time your stuck in traffic, wind down your window and ask the person in the car next to you where they are coming from and where they are going, you may strike it lucky and be able to car pool. Alternatively take advantage of the advertisement board at your local supermarket and put up a card with your details on it (where you go, etc) and see what happens. Find that warm glow in the bottom of your heart that lets you know you’re doing the right thing.

Ryan Akers

[donthucktoflat]

Red Hill, Oxford Falls, Terry Hills, and Wyong are the three closest suitable places to ride
What, you can't count to four? They might take you a little more seriously if you make an effort to re read your letters and fix little things like that up.

A guy puts the effort in to write a letter, albeit with a minor innacurracy, and you pick the shit out of him. Dude, I think it's a good letter and good onya for puting the effort in.

Lotec, instead of just being a critic, how about you write and send one that's better and be sure to show us your work. That's gotta be more constructive than criticising others!

damn, you beat me to it!

The only effort he made was pressing copy and paste. Rexy put up that letter about a week ago. Changing names/places isn't hard.

WAY TO GO!

[rhyno]

Red Hill, Oxford Falls, Terry Hills, and Wyong are the three closest suitable places to ride
What, you can't count to four? They might take you a little more seriously if you make an effort to re read your letters and fix little things like that up.

A guy puts the effort in to write a letter, albeit with a minor innacurracy, and you pick the shit out of him. Dude, I think it's a good letter and good onya for puting the effort in.

Lotec, instead of just being a critic, how about you write and send one that's better and be sure to show us your work. That's gotta be more constructive than criticising others!

damn, you beat me to it!

The only effort he made was pressing copy and paste. Rexy put up that letter about a week ago. Changing names/places isn't hard.

WAY TO GO!

Dude, learn to quote!

[floody]

apparently there were rumours that the glenorchy city council (tasmania) was planning the construction of an MTB park that had 4x, DJ and dh, but im not sure if that is going to happen still or not.

W2ttsy

Its not rumours mate, its on the go as we speak, basically its been approved and is going through the hoops to get funding and planning etc sorted out.
Sometime early next year work should start if all goes to plan, at least thats the last I heard.
If you want the latest info on it, go and see John Clingo at Cyclingo.

[W2ttsy]

hey floody,

glad to hear that someone is in the know on this. i heard talk of the park last year, and really didnt keep up with what was going on, so i assumed that it was still just on the drawing board.

ill go catch up with johnny soon, work is a little preventative of travel up to his new joint.

anyways, do you know if they are looking for people to help with the tracks? cos id be more than willing to lend my virgin work hands (yes, i am an IT bum and never really used a spade before) to this awesome cause.

W2ttsy

[johnny]

Red Hill, Oxford Falls, Terry Hills, and Wyong are the three closest suitable places to ride
What, you can't count to four? They might take you a little more seriously if you make an effort to re read your letters and fix little things like that up.

A guy puts the effort in to write a letter, albeit with a minor innacurracy, and you pick the shit out of him. Dude, I think it's a good letter and good onya for puting the effort in.

Lotec, instead of just being a critic, how about you write and send one that's better and be sure to show us your work. That's gotta be more constructive than criticising others!

The only effort he made was pressing copy and paste. Rexy put up that letter about a week ago. Changing names/places isn't hard.

WAY TO GO!

I wasn't aware of that. As long as Rexy doesn't mind, I see no problem with that.

[arnott]

i sent a the letter posted here in to the sydney complaints page, changed my name and location and a few other little bits in the ltter i felt should be added/taken out this was thier reply 3 days later

Hi
Thanks for sending us this.

As the City of Sydney probably cannot do a lot to support this proposal -
but it is interesting to keep this in mind when we do our recreation
planning.
Thanks
Monica Barone
Director Community Living

[johnny]

You may ask them to elaborate as to why they can't do anything about it. To say that is one thing, but to explain why is another.

[Rexy]

actually its not copyed off me really, a base letter was posted up here age ago that i wrote mine from, but i changed it a bit to suit my area better. So hes either used that or mine, if it is mine i dont mind at all.
ps ive been a total bitch to my council and everyone else for about 2 months and were getting a track built near my house, probably with clubrooms and all (BMX track)

[2 smooth 4 u]

actually its not copyed off me really, a base letter was posted up here age ago that i wrote mine from, but i changed it a bit to suit my area better. So hes either used that or mine, if it is mine i dont mind at all.
ps ive been a total bitch to my council and everyone else for about 2 months and were getting a track built near my house, probably with clubrooms and all (BMX track)

yeah it was posted a while ago but i have changed it around a bit

[2 smooth 4 u]

i saw that, maybe if he'd made more of an effort they'd build the jumps for them? :P

the council built a bmx style track wich all jumps where verry wide and where all table tops. so we have dug out from in the middle and took off dirt from the edges and used it to build up the jump and now they give us dirt to maintain them

[Shintaro]

the local council will reguarly dump dirt or clay 4 us to bulid jumps :D :D :D

I don't know how you managed to do it, but well done!!

2 smooth 4 u, can you please explain more about what the council has approved for the dirt jump area?

Is it the Castle Cove track?

[2 smooth 4 u]

the local council will reguarly dump dirt or clay 4 us to bulid jumps :D :D :D

I don't know how you managed to do it, but well done!!

2 smooth 4 u, can you please explain more about what the council has approved for the dirt jump area?

Is it the Castle Cove track?

yes this is the castle cove track.

The local council has allowed us to build and ride in a area of land.
we can:
build jumps
use wood in and around jumps
buil small ns bridges or use planks to get over holes
dig the jumps into the ground
we cant:
dig big holes
cut down trees (unless have asked ranger and is 100% dead)
build jumps out of the area we have been given


some times they also bring a bob cat down (they have only done it twice in the past year)

Latley we have been given dirt 2 build up the 1 foot table tops they built us and our jumps are starting to get bigger and bigger

these are our jumps now
[img]http://www.pinkbike.com/modules/photo/?op=view&image=306306

www.pinkbike.com/modules/photo/?op=view&image=306304

www.pinkbike.com/modules/photo/?op=view&image=306303

www.pinkbike.com/modules/photo/?op=view&image=306318

www.pinkbike.com/modules/photo/?op=view&image=306315

www.pinkbike.com/modules/photo/?op=view&image=306305 /img]

[tu plang]

i saw that, maybe if he'd made more of an effort they'd build the jumps for them? :P

hmmmm from what i have heard about council efforts, them giving you the dirt is the best bet. sure its hard work but atleast you know how to build jumps.

alternatively it would be nice if they sent down a bobcat and operator for a day so you could tell him where u wanted everything etc.

[dmwill]

Hrmmm, might have a go at writing a letter myself to my council here in Perth, well...the City of Joondalup. There is the odd limestone track or two in each suburb which were all made in the mid 90's and they were huge! People would be there all into the night, though mostly BMXers, including myself back then :), there were a few Mountain Bikers.

Now it is 2004, it is very uncommon to see someone down at the tracks, and they are rapidly deteriorating.

When there are people down there, they are usually digging it up, which is a BIG mistake considering it is Limestone and it needs to be soaked and compacted to make it smooth and perfect, instead it is left all rocky and dusty. A few of my mates and I spend a few hours each weekend trying to fix what we can, but It gets runied again.

It gets to the stage where you are just left with a flattened area of dusty, rocky limestone and nothing else. The council used to spend thousands on maintaining the jumps/tracks and even erecting sinage and seating in the shade, but that has all beeen vandalised too :(.

Well, might start writing something now, I'll post a copy up when I am done!

[dmwill]

Ok, well I have my letter here...I got a few ideas from Samuel (2 smooth 4 u), hope you don't mind!

Here it goes anyway...

---------------------------------------------------------------

To Whom It May Concern,

I am a passionate mountain biker, along with many others around the City of Joondalup who spend most of our afternoons and weekends riding along trails and going to some of the local BMX tracks. Unfortunately, many of these BMX tracks and in particular, Shepherds Bush Reserve have experienced rapid deterioration in the past year or two from both neglect and from inexperienced people digging them up. As a result many of us do not use these facilities now and we have to travel unrideable distances to Mundaring, Dwellingup and other locations throughout the hills to go riding. This is both time consuming and unsafe considering that many of us are also young drivers who are inexperienced with driving long distances into the hills.

As we are not too keen on travelling into the hills to go riding we have taken to building our own facilities throughout the area. We put a lot of effort into building quality tracks which include dirt jumps and ‘North Shore’ trails which involve wooden bridge-like structures. To our disappointment, many of our tracks have been cleaned up by council workers. We all understand that it is not acceptable to build bike tracks in or around parks and bushes, let alone not getting permission from you, but we much prefer our tracks over the unsafe and neglected limestone tracks that you have built many years ago.

When these limestone BMX tracks were first built, many people used them and council workers regularly maintained them, topping up the track with more limestone and even going to the effort of compacting it to ensure the tracks were smooth and free of rocky debris. In recent years this has not been done and as I have mentioned the tracks are deteriorating and it is extremely uncommon to see someone riding on them.

Mountain Biking is a rapidly increasing sport throughout Australia and in recent years, Australia has become number one for Free-riding and Downhill competition in the world. Many people have taken to the sport and even people with BMX type bikes have swapped them for Mountain Bikes. When my friends and I are out riding, people will often stop to chat to us and talk about the lack of facilities for such sports and how councils should be doing more.

What I and many others are asking for is a Mountain Bike specific Park or two in the City of Joondalup area and for ongoing maintenance of the existing limestone BMX/Bike tracks throughout the area. Many of us would be willing to work with you on ideas for such projects as we are keen to have permanent, well maintained tracks for mountain bikes in particular.

Yours Sincerely,

Name
Address
etc.