Bristol’s Brunel Way Pumptrack just got a much needed upgrade.
To celebrate, we grabbed a few mates and went down for a Sunday Session. Here’s what happened!
Photos by Jacob Gibbins
A bit knackered.
Bristol’s Brunel Way pump track appeared way back in 2013. It was the result of a bit of local pressure from the riders via Facebook, some cycling money that was sloshing around and Bristol City Council generally being good eggs at the time. A couple of years went by, Wideopen and DMR put on a few races at the track (followed by some excellent parties) and all was good.
Skip to a few years later and the old girl was looking a bit knackered and the pump track fell from favour a little bit. That is, until November this year when Architrail turned up and sorted it right out.
The updates to the track were paid for by Bristol City Council and the hard graft was done by Architrail, who gave the job a bit of extra beans as it’s their local track (their office is 2 minutes up the road). The job took a week to complete and – according to their man Duncan Ferris – was “pretty hard”.
He told me “The hardest thing was weather. We did all the tarmaccing in the pouring rain and we were racing against time. The council are building a massive bus route next to the track and were blocking off the access road the day we were due to finish – so we had to get the work done or we’d be stuffed!”
The boys from Architrail on site and grafting in the pouring rain. These guys deserve a high five!
That’s better
The track was originally made with a loose, dusty surface and had some pretty low berms that made carrying speed tricky. Thanks to the new upgrade it’s 100% better. The berms are bigger, the corners flow much more easily and the new, tarmac surface is way gripper – it’s more fun and more likely to stay looking good for years to come.
To celebrate the new upgrades we rounded up a few mates and went down for a bit of a session. We blasted out a tonne of laps, ate some mince pies made up some weird new lines and (of course) went for a few beers. It was exactly what pump tracks are made for!
You can tell straight away how good the new upgrades are – the track is instantly packed with riders of all ages, there’s skateboarders shredding with BMXers and mountain bikers and there’s a satisfying “yes! That’s awesome!” every time someone drops in for their first lap. Job done.
Looking to ride Bristol’s Brunel Way Pumptrack? There’s a group for the pumptrack on Facebook here that’s full of riders.
If you’d like to join us for a ride in 2017 and help us create some features like this, drop us a line and we’ll add you to the new Wideopen Bicycle Club.
