Last Rides

[mullan2304]

Hey boys and girls. After a long battle with Lake Maquarie concil the Eleebana tracks in Newcastle are to be destroyed. I am extending an open invitation to any riders who can make it this weekend as we are going to pull the north shore parts down this sunday and salvage the wood for future tracks. The tracks are located at the top of Maquarie drive, Eleebana. Depending on the weather i'll be there from about 10 on saturday. Hope to see heaps of people there.

[ss-stp1'06]

bugger...thats a shame
its always sad to hear of a trail getting knocked down

[cooper_sgs]

Looks like a decent track. Agreed, allways sad to see the already low number of dh riding areas decrease

[Bodin]

Hey boys and girls. After a long battle with Lake Maquarie concil the Eleebana tracks in Newcastle are to be destroyed

Very sad - looks like some blood, sweat and tears went in to those trails. If I was in the area, I'd be there to give a hand.

What is the reason being given for the track closure?

[Bike Psycho]

Very sad - looks like some blood, sweat and tears went in to those trails. If I was in the area, I'd be there to give a hand.

What is the reason being given for the track closure?

Same old reason, public liability. The council started out by saying that some of it may be able to be saved, if it were overlooked by the mtb club, but I guess they considered it to be the expensive way out, so they decided to can it.

But by all means come down and check it out over the weekend if you want to see some solid north shore, and make it saturday if ya want to ride it. There was a lot of effort put into it, so make worth our while.

Cheers, BJ

[demo man]

Same old reason, public liability. The council started out by saying that some of it may be able to be saved, if it were overlooked by the mtb club, but I guess they considered it to be the expensive way out, so they decided to can it.

But by all means come down and check it out over the weekend if you want to see some solid north shore, and make it saturday if ya want to ride it. There was a lot of effort put into it, so make worth our while.

Cheers, BJ

hold on a second...a MTB club did not go out to a trail and check it out in the hope of saving a trail for closure? Which club is this?

Or, did you not contact them and so they were unaware of the situation?


either way, the trail should not have to be closed because of those reasons.

And mate, a bulldozer for a day isn't as 'cheap' a way out as you might think.


sad to see a trail closed, and it certainly does look like a lot of effort has gone into those structures. I guess all you can do to aviod this is get permission first hey. If i was anywhere near you i'd be there ridding for sure.

[T-Bone]

Very sad to see another track get taken down.

This whole public liability thing is out of control. We all know MTB can be dangerous but there are too many wankers that hurt themselves and think "who can I sue?" Its about time people take responsibility for their own actions so the rest of us can have some fun.

[mullan2304]

demo man;740854]hold on a second...a MTB club did not go out to a trail and check it out in the hope of saving a trail for closure? Which club is this?

There actually was a keen interest by HMBA, so a mountain bike club did check out the tracks and help to lobby council into saving it.
With regards to bulldozers. They were never used in the first place. Councils problem was that a structure was built on their land without a permit which legally leaves them in trouble if someone was to sue because of injury.

[sammydog]

For more info on what went down between the Club, the local riders and Council Click Here (http://forums.farkin.net/showthread.php?t=56579)

Like mullan says, Councils issue was with the potential safety issues of someone coming off some of the structures. Construction wise, they were really well built. We had tried to negotiate that the trail be modified to alleviate safety concerns, rather than removed, and it looked for a long time like we would acheive this. Unfortunately a change in staff meant that the direction changed and things are coming down.

I must admit I was surprised whn I learnt that the top half of the trail was included for destruction. The top half is really just a typical single trail with a few jumps, nothing huge.

A lot of effort went into trying to save this trail, and some positive has come out of it with the club now looking to secure some form of mtb facility on the eastern side of the lake. First meeting for this will be this week.

Make sure you get some picks of someone hitting everything for the last time, and BJ on the spiral ramp with his unicycle. Its really a shame that brad is at the snow for a season and can't have another belt on it.

[mullan2304]

Brad should be back within the next couple of weeks so he might catch some bits. If this rain continues then I dount we will knock it down this weekend. Hopefully he can have a bash at it because he did a lot of the work.
I'll try and get some photos up of BJ on the unicycle.

[Bike Psycho]

Here are a few more shots from the track. This is a very tight turn, so as with any NS, walk it first.

[sammydog]

Has that changes since I was out there last??

It doesn't look as tight in the photos.

[Bike Psycho]

Nah man, just as tight. I can only just slip around it on my XC bike. I've heard of a fella who is meant to be a trials freak going down it and hopping the back wheel around by doing an endo.