Life Outside Spring 2019 - 33

HOW TO BUILD A BIKE PARK, WITH BRAD STONE
Getting Started Going at it from scratch, you
start by creating a master plan. Typically, a client
has a pretty good idea of what they want to do.
That's going to depend on their budget and
wanting to have something like whatever this or
that other resort has. But in reality, it all comes
down to terrain. You have to look at how many
trails they want, what level of ability they want
them to be, and think about how it's all going to
fit together on the mountain. That can be tough,
especially when you're trying to build doubleblack rides that'll be challenging for top-level
guys, and putting them alongside stuff Mom can
ride with her two-year-old.
Magic Gradient The key to a perfect downhill ride
is gradient. You want your trails to be graded so riders
can maintain the desired speed without having to
brake or pedal. For a green-level course, that's going
to be no more than 5 percent; for a double-black
jump trail it's gonna' be between 8-10 percent. It's
precarious, because your trails have to be just right.
"This guy heard about what we'd done and came
out and rode the course," he says. "Afterwards, he
asks me if I'd be interested in getting paid to build
a bigger system with trails for a wider variety of
skill levels ranging from beginner to expert. By
that point, I really knew what I was doing. So, of
course, I said yes."
Stone went to work at Snowshoe in April of
2002. The project led to the formation of a legitimate company, 402 Trails, and proved to be
the first of many to come.
Since building the doomed masterpiece at
Wintergreen, Stone has completed hundreds of
miles of MTB track for resorts throughout the
U.S. and beyond. From 2010 to 2015, he worked
as Gravity Logic's primary contract trail-builder
and installed upward of five high-end systems a
year. Stone's bike parks can be found in Virginia,
Vermont, Alabama, Georgia, Jamaica, Mexico,
Colorado, Utah, Alaska, and elsewhere.
Today, he says that while he takes on at least one
big MTB project per year, 402 Trails has momentarily shifted its focus to building private motocross
training courses for pro-level MX riders.
"Looking back, it's crazy how it all happened,"
Stone says. "What I considered a bizarre, one-time
gig suddenly led to me owning a company with five
full-time employees. I was able to take what I learned
at Wintergreen and apply it to jobs all around the
country. Now, there are probably about five guys
in the U.S. that can do what I do."

Mapping the Course After you've designed a
general outline using satellite and topo maps, and
adjusted for grade, you have to physically get out on
the mountain and flag your routes. In a perfect world,
you get to the bottom with no hang-ups. But most of
the time, that's not how it goes. You may run into a
giant boulder and have to reroute the entire trail. And
if things get shifted too much, you'll probably have to
modify others as well.
Installation Once you've made it to the bottom,
you break out the chainsaws and clear your routes.
When that's done, you bring in the machinery and
start moving earth. This is the hardest part, because
the equipment isn't really designed to be used on
the side of a mountain. So, you're constantly flirting
with danger. Meanwhile, you have to think about
managing drainage. As opposed to designing tracks
where water drains off the tread, we want to route it
around the track. That way, the trails stay rideable in
all conditions and throughout the season.
Timetable & Costs

If I'm starting from scratch,
the process is going to take about three months.
Including lifts, rental gear, and infrastructure, a
bike park typically costs around $500,000 dollars.
That said, it all depends on what you're doing. For
instance, early in my career, I spent more than two
years in interior Jamaica installing a massive system
of trails and lifts.

LifeOutsideMag.com // Spring 2019

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Life Outside Spring 2019

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