People having fun on T3

Between all the hard work, Jeff and Hugh had the chance to ride some of the good work they had done. Harvey Blakely and a few mates came through T3 around lunchtime and after some encouragement he gave “old skinky” a crack, good on ya Harvey!

Working Men

While all the noise of the kango was going there was some good old benching and gravelling going on in between so that we can ride to each obstacle, makes sense really. Rob and Will showing how it's done.

"Crash Test Dummy"

We decided to give people a choice at the first rock out-crop of going high or low, as the high line has quite a drop and takes full commitment to clean. As Hugh demonstrates in these photos, a tumble from the low line is not life threatening but still a good challenge.

Ratchet Canyon

This tricky little number required the most amount of Kango time, as you can see from the before shots. The obstacle is a trench in the shape of an S, is around 900mm deep in places and is very very tight. Some of you old school retro riders will remember a technique not often used in modern Mtb parks known as “ratcheting” this trick requires you to back pedal or ratchet your pedals backwards to clear the narrow gap. Not recommended for new pedals or shoes they will get scuffed. Good luck!!

The Twister

We finished the boardwalk part of the twister a couple of weeks ago on a beautiful autumn afternoon, which turned into evening by the time we were done. We knew this corner was going to be tight, but after 1 hour of kango action and a couple of test rides we came to the conclusion that this corner is very very tight, so after another hour on the kango we were just able to sneak around. Up hill needs a steady hand and smooth pedal control and down hill requires a very minor readjust of the rear wheel to get the exit just right.

Before anyone complains about The Twister or Ratchet Canyon been a bit tough remember this is an expert level track, up and down, meant to test your skills and improve them, all the obstacles have been ridden both ways more than once, so they are possible.

The Boardwalk to Nowhere

This is the next piece to the T3 puzzle. We cemented the poles in for this structure at the same time we did the poles for the Skink as it is just down the track from it, but then after several months of the “big lizard” taking all our time and thought we came back to the poles on this corner and scratched our heads, “ what was the plan here again?”

So yesterday Jonathan enlisted the help of the CC’s to carry the necessary timber down to the corner and we spent 3 hours nutting out this design while they did some hard yards digging stumps.

The corner is going to be very tight and riding up to it will hopefully feel like you are riding back onto the track you have just come off. There will be a nice step-up just before you get to the boardwalk then two thirds of the way around, the wood will turn into rock to make for an interesting and challenging ride.

Still have yet to come up with a good name for this obstacle or what we will be covering it with for traction, we wait for more inspiration from the track design Gods.