The UK is not known for extreme riding, mainly because we do not have the elevation that other countries have. Although we have mountains, they are not close to populated areas as in Vancouver, so any good freeriding is always a good car journey away.

The South east of England has no mountains to speak of and it's one of the most populated areas of the UK. There are only two main ranges of hill, the South and the North Downs. Both offer a range of different types of riding, but a good downhill run is over very quickly.

Times are changing though.

Spurred on by a lot of the freeriding videos like Kranked and NSX people are starting to look at the trails they ride in a different way. Recently, in Mountain Biking UK Magazine, an article covered the first "North Shore" trail, which was built by a group of us. There are also other trails which have gained corporate sponsorship in places like Germany, with Evil Eye.

For us though the challenge is now to see what we can do to make riding better on the very limited trails we have. Public access to the countryside in the UK is limited, with trails which are shared with other uses, like pedestrians and horses. So building a trail is carefully planned so as not to upset other uses or the landowners. Unless you have access to private land, it can be very difficult, but with good planning it can be done.

Since the first article in MBUK Magazine, we have expanded our network of trails to over 350 feet of ladders and a range of stunts including rock drops and steep descents. There are plans for more, but time and resources are limited. A rule we have is never to damage the countryside and only use material which are surplus. To us this means never cutting down trees, only using material that has already been cut and getting permission to build from the landowner.

When you surf the net, you can see from a lot of pictures that across the UK, more and more people are building "North Shore" style trails. It will not be long before there will be a good network of trails across the UK, that would challenge some of the trails in Vancouver. It would be good to see some of the riders from BC coming over to test themselves on the UK trails in the next few years. Now there's a thought?

Regards,
The Architect