Lexington Street Bike Park

Alright the cat can finally be let out of the bag. It has been pretty hush hush for the last I don't know many months but I can finally start discussing it. There has been a small group of us drafting a proposal to approach the City of Eagan to revamp the run down Lexington Street Dirt Jumps and turn them into a full fledged respectable bike park. It was something that had been brewing in my mind since I first laid eyes on it. There is a lot of land there and a ton of potential for this place to be epic and really take the skill of riders in the Twin Cities to a new level. I know I'm not the first to attempt this at this location. Actually I'm the 4th according to the city officials but they said that Tim and I were the most professional and well prepared out of any of them. I took this very serious and know that it will be a lot of work. It isn't something to take lightly as it wont build it's self but it really is a great opportunity for my self as a rider and an emerging figure in the cycling community as well as for Tim to expand is ever growing knowledge of trail building but we can't forget the more behind the scenes people. I would like to thank Frank and Dave for all there ideas and efforts. Frank has played a critical roll in helping map out the dimensions and design the proposal.
The general layout of the park is complete and official. There is some room for design change that will continue to be discussed over the winter but will be nailed down by the time we can actually get our hands dirty.
The city said they were going to start right away by spraying the entire area for weeds and then tearing up approximately half of the existing dirt park that is there and beginning to pile the dirt in the location of the 3 pump tracks! That's right you read that right. We will have 3 quality pump tracks at this location a beginner, an intermediate and an advanced track that an advanced rider could connect them all together with some choice lines! Let the creative juices flow. This is where most of the design effort will go over the next few winter months. We have some guide lines the city wants us to follow for the beginner and intermediate pump tracks but the advanced is kind of open to our imaginations.
The jump line will be a side by side 15 foot wide 3 tiered section of table tops. The large jumps will be some were in the 60-70inch tall area and about 10ft long, 40-50 inches high and about 8ft long for the intermediate and 30-36 inches tall and about 6ft long for the beginner. They will all share the same landing pad which will allow for some creative lines but all so the reassurance and safety of a 15ft wide landing!  There will be for sure 4 multi tiered jumps down the main straight that start from a launch ramp and head into a berm and will carry into another jump and into a berm followed by some larger rollers that could be jumped into another berm and then finish with a set of 4, 4ft tall tables set a little closer together to get that really flowy trail feel to them.
I'm super excited for this project and I know that it will be a great success. As well as keep my going through the long MN winters. It's awesome to add another hat to the rack, Project Manager and Trail designer/builder, I like the sound of that! Now I have some big shoes to fill so I don't let you guys down! I can't wait to see you all out there next summer building, riding and having a great timer. Stay tuned to my blog or like this on facebook at /www.facebook.com/pages/Lexington-Street-Bike-Park/

This is a rough drawing of what the park lay out will look like.

As for me and riding, I got out with Tim on Tuesday for a good ride at Battle Creek. Man I felt on. I don't know what it was, maybe because I'm back in the gym rocking the bikejames.com work out again! Love the DB Combos but I just picked up the Ultimate MTB Work Out and I'm super amped to get cracking with that. There is a lot of stuff included with that so it might take me a bit to sort through it all but I know it will be worth it!
Get out and enjoy what's left of fall, day light savings is coming this weekend and it's all down hill to darkness from there!
Keep it real!