Mountain Biking - New MTB Park Plan

Greetings Bike Forums;

I have a challenge for you;

I know I'm new here but please, disregard my Green Skin, and help a fellow biking junkie?

This is the thing;

I have recently been discussing with local business owners, government officials, and fellow riders about building a new bike park in our county in Michigan.

We currently have the land (about 100 acres) equipment, labor, and ambition...
but what we NEED is Money!! of course

So, I have volunteered to write up a formal Business Plan that will help generate Funding;

Unfortunately I am a bit overwelmed by the logistical aspects of the planning....most notably the COSTS>

This is where YOU ALL come in;
Anyone out there know how, or been apart of building such a Bike Park?

So far, the park is looking to be a "Hybrid" of sorts. A pumpTrack, Singletrack, Downhill, Cyclocross, etc.....

Soooo, my questions are;


1: How BIG is an "average sized" Park?
* IN AREA?? Square Feet? Acres?
* How many Trails?

2: How LONG will it take to build
* How many workers will it take? #
(assuming we use BOTH man and machine power)

3. What MATERIALS will be used?
* What kind of "Trail Base" did you use, and HOW MUCH?
* Lumber? (what kinds; how much)
* Other?


4. Parking/ Bathrooms?


5. How MUCH was the overall cost? (MOST IMPORTANT)


I realize that all of this inforamtion is Extremely relative to our own Specific situation and a number of different variables, but a "GENERAL" idea is all am looking for.

Also, I am Not really looking for any info about HOW TO BUILD, but rather HOW MUCH IT COSTS...


Again, ANY information you'd be willing to share would be greatly appreciated and will be put to good use.

An eager crew of local Mountain Bikers thanks you,



Cheers,
Steven

So were you wanting to open a sort of mountain biking theme park (a little bit of every kind of riding), or one main set of trails & maybe a section or two of everything else (ie - a DH park with some single track intertwined & a pump track at the bottom)?

I have to admit I really have no advise at all, I'm 21 & have never taken a business class before, I'm just curious.

Start small and work your way up. Over the past few years, we've gotten government and industry funding in the order of about $100,000 and we've only made a small dent in what we want to do.

It sounds like everyone is hanging you out to dry with this business plan. You can't just have a general idea and expect to come up with a detailed plan. You need to sit down with an executive committee, plan out what you want to build, map it out to make sure you have the area and terrain necessary. Then look into what permits are needed and decide if you want to put the effort in for each component (trails, access, parking, other infrastructure, signage, maps, advertising, etc.).

Once you have a clear picture of what is actually achievable, set some timelines and then go after funding.

But to give some guidance on your questions:

1: How BIG is an "average sized" Park?
* IN AREA?? Square Feet? Acres?
* How many Trails?

It all depends on what space you have and what the terrain will support. You should have a decent amount of space with the 100 acres but a lot depends on the relief.

2: How LONG will it take to build
* How many workers will it take? #
(assuming we use BOTH man and machine power)

It really depends on the length and type of trail. With machines and manual labour, you can generally build an XC trail pretty quick. We did 25km of XC trail over the past summer with mainly volunteers. But throw in bridges, jumps and other features and you add time to the process. In 2009, we had a crew of 4-10 working pretty hardcore and they only did about 8km of DH trail with a lot of features.

Also account for some time to scope lines, trails just don't appear by magic.

3. What MATERIALS will be used?
* What kind of "Trail Base" did you use, and HOW MUCH?
* Lumber? (what kinds; how much)
* Other?

You shouldn't have to bring anything to the site. We only use materials onsite. The only thing we bring in are nails. The key is to have guys that are good with a chainsaw. But then you may be limited by what you have on your site (is it forested?).

4. Parking/ Bathrooms?

Up to you guys, how much effort is it to get approval for parking or bathrooms? It's a nice to have but keep in mind that someone will have to maintain the bathrooms.

5. How MUCH was the overall cost? (MOST IMPORTANT)

See my general comments in the previous post.