Bike park an ‘awesome’ hit
On a sunny afternoon in the middle of spring break, the age of bike riders at the new bike skills park inside Metfield Park ranged from 3 to 19.
The 19-year-old’s bike was only a little bigger than the 3-year-old’s. Both love the pump track. “It’s really awesome,” Ben Martin, the 19-year-old, said. “There’s nothing else like this around here.”
A pump track is a continuous loop of berms and rollers ridden without pedaling, according to www.teamtowncycle.com. The name pump track comes from the pumping motion used by the rider’s upper and lower body as they ride around the track.
Martin said he hasn’t spent much time on the trails because his bike doesn’t have brakes. But he’s always been into bike riding, so watching the trails and the skills park go in was awesome.
“It’s better than Bentonville. There are a lot more options.” Ben Martin Age 19
Nat and Jake Welborn were on the other side of the course, using wooden ladder bridges and drops. Their favorite part is the drop off — where the wooden ramp abruptly ends, leaving a drop of about two feet to the dirt. Why do they like it? “Because we don’t die,” Jake said.
A few falls is part of it,
Jacob Gulbransen said. He was at the park with two of his children. There had been a few falls, he said.
His daughter, Brightyn, said she likes going up and down. Overall, she likes the skills park better than the trails.
It’s easy to bring the kids to the park, her father said. The trails can be long for kids and there are some that are too difficult. They ride their bikes back and forth to the skills park and the park offers enough challenge for his kids.
Joe Buffington had already
spent four days at the bike park with his kids by Thursday. He said his kids aren’t quite ready for the trails. The skills park is the perfect place to practice.
They had both suffered some minor road rash from minor spills, but that hadn’t slowed them down. He’s already seeing improvement.
“It’s really cool. We love it,” April Haber said. She was at the park with two kids and two dogs. They also use the miniature golf course and the pool during the summer. They love the
trails, too.
“We see stuff like this in Bentonville,” she said. “It’s nice to see Bella Vista keeping up.”
Gulbransen would disagree. He thinks the new park is “way cooler” then the one in Bentonville.
“It’s better than Bentonville,” Martin said. “There are a lot more options.”
The park was built as part of the new trail system and — like the trails — it was funded by grants and is open to the public, POA Recreation Manager Joan Glubczynski said.
A skills park is a place where people new to mountain biking can practice their skills, she explained. While adults can use it, she believes it will be used more by young people on fat-tire bikes.
“It gives them a place to learn without letting them loose on the trails,” she said. Parents will be able to drive their cyclist to the park and supervise the experience.