Welcome to the Bike Zone
Published Friday July 18th, 2008
The volunteer-driven mountain bike project will host its Grand Opening in Centennial Park on Saturday
Outdoor and off-road cycling enthusiasts are gearing up for a major event, as the Centennial Bike Zone in Centennial Park will have it's official Grand Opening this weekend, beginning at 10 am on Saturday.
The official opening is the culmination of several years work for a large number of people.
"We're going to have Kona Bikes there doing a bike demonstration and they'll have demo models of all of their 2008 bikes for people to take out for a test drive in the park," says Peter Rowan, one of the five-person volunteer organizing committee.
"We're also going to have a barbecue with hot dogs and pop - just a basic, fun day at the park."
Although the July 19 marks the grand opening, the Centennial Bike Zone is still growing and developing.
"We're in phase two of our five year plan," explains Peter. "We've completed a dual slalom track that includes table tops and berms and a few other obstacles for the riders.
"Most recently we've completed our first line of dirt jumps and we're beginning to put in some single track cross country trails as well."
"The whole idea started about three years ago," continues Peter. "The first year was all about planning, trying to get some people together, coming up with a design, seeking out sponsorship and things of that nature.
"Last year was the ground breaking and we reached out to the community for volunteers and financial support. We were lucky enough to get some help from places such as United Rentals, which has been one of our key contributors right from the start."
By depending on volunteers and seeking out outside sources of funding, the Centennial Bike Zone has stayed true to one of it's main goals - to be not just low cost to it's users, but no cost.
"We have worked very closely with the city to ensure that this would be a facility that would be free and open to the public," says Peter. "There are no day use fees and no membership fees or anything like."
The search for funding has been one of the challenges for the organizers because even with countless volunteers donating their time for construction and maintenance, there are costs involved.
"The biggest expense we have is materials and equipment rentals for the construction and development of the park," says Peter. "Because all of our labour is volunteer, it just takes some time to contact and round up the people to do the work."
Recently, the Centennial Bike Zone received a major boost, in the form of a $5000 grant from the Bicycle Trade Association of Canada (BTAC).
"We received that after our first year of operations, so it is a real testament to the quality of the project," says Peter. With the park up and running for a second straight summer, the use continues to grow as well.
"On any given day we're seeing from 30-50 kids out there in the park and the usage seems to be growing as people become aware of it," Peter relates. "We're seeing kids out there and some older people as well - the park caters to all ages really. Usually some of the more experienced riders are more than willing to talk to newer riders, give them some tips and help them out."
The future also looks bright for the park, and the organizers hope to see it become a fixture in the community.
"Ideally we'd like to see it taken into the community whole-heartedly," says Peter. "We'd really like to have a major corporate sponsor, perhaps for the namesake of the park.
"We've done a tremendous amount of work on a relatively small budget, so it would be great to have a reliable and predictable source of funding to keep the park going. We've proven it can be successful."
For more information on the Centennial Bike Zone, search for their group of Facebook or visit their website at www.centennialbikezone.org.
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