One last ride at Revolution Bike Park
A chronic tree disease has hit one of the UK’s best bike parks. We swing by one last time to bid them farewell.
It was with a heavy heart that the Canyon crew attended the closing day of the iconic Revolution Bike Park, one of the UK’s best bike parks where mountain bike riders from around the country come to conquer the biggest jumps, ride the gnarliest trails, and soak up the electric atmosphere.
The park has been a destination for pros to train, enthusiasts to push themselves and for famous free ride lines (50:01 and Vision Line). It’s a world class venue and has an incredible legacy of events to prove it such as the Women’s Freeride Series, Project Evolve, the UK National Series, countless video projects and Redbull Quarter Masters just to name a few.
Why did Revolution Bike Park have to close?
Revolution’s website explains that park is closing due a rare tree disease. Their website explains, “The larch trees in the forest have a disease called Phytophthora Ramorum. This is a disease that affects large quantities of Japanese Larch in the UK and abroad. The park has been managing this alongside the running of the bike park for many years. It has come as a massive shock to us to be notified that the disease has reached us.”
How the closure impacts local and international superstars
We caught up with professional riders (part of the FMD Racing team) and siblings Tahnée and Kaos Seagrave to find out how the closure of Revolution Bike Park will impact their riding. Tahnee, a World Cup downhill rider, said, "I have been spoiled; it has shaped me into the rider I am. It's like a second home for us." The park has been a staple for Tahnee's world cup training and the loss of such a world class training ground to push her Canyon Sender will be felt deeply.
Kaos, a pro freerider, explained how having access to jumps to push himself on his Canyon Torque so close to home has been invaluable. "It's been such a good place. Having James and Tim [the park's owners] allow me to come here and use this as a training ground has been insane."
See more from the FMD team in the How We Roll Series here:
The legacy of Revolution Bike Park
Canyon seized the opportunity to pick the brains behind some of the UKs most ambitious trails. Tim, the co-owner of the park, said, "The thing that's kept me going and made it all worthwhile has been coming in every day and seeing people doing the thing they love and just enjoying the riding and being a part of making that happen."
Revolution has been a big player in pushing the standard and limits of what UK Bike Parks could offer. Of the famous jumps trails 50:01 and Vision Line, Tim said, “go back 10 or 15 years and there was nothing like that to ride in the UK and now we’re seeing people hitting that day in and out.” James, the park's co-owner and builder, is proud of the emerging talent from Revolution, “I used to ride bridleways as a kid, but young kids nowadays are riding Vision Line, so we will see a big spike in progression with all the younger riders coming through.”
Let the bikes do the Torque-ing
It's fair to say that Revolution Bike Park is one of the craziest places to ride a bike. The hits are hard, the trails are gnarly, and the weather is typically Welsh. As such, it has been a fantastic test for mountain bikes in the UK.
Tim shared his thoughts on this year's test bikes: "We have had two different kinds of bike this year, the Sender and the Torque. I've seen two sides of the bike equation. The Sender is the Lamborghini of bikes, it's an incredible piece of kit! As an owner of a bike park, I look at bikes as how easy are they to maintain and how easy are they to keep in good condition for customers. I have to say the Torque has won my heart on that front because they've been so easy. They've been absolutely bombproof all year and I would recommend it to anyone."
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