Having lead rides for every year of the Abingdon Spring cycle festival, this year I decided to do something totally different and helped organize a pump track, or in other words rather than ride round in a big circle, ride round and round in lots of small circles.
Its by the far the most enjoyable day I have had at the festival, as well as the most exhausting with a 5am start, and finished at 8pm, then after a beer straight to bed.
What was really interesting was seeing what kinds of people would give the track a go, and how it felt to try it (as someone who rides road and MTB), thinking that somehow it was a bit of a BMX thing,
First off, it actually does not look very hard, and the track which consists of a series of wooden track sections with ramps and banked corners, is only a foot or so off the ground at max, and a metre wide. Single speed rigid forked bikes were supplied so everyone used the same type of bike. seat down to the max, as you need to ride the track standing up/
But when you ride it, its really hard, and first time round slightly scary. My neighbour runs a pump track business, and as I'd agreed to help manage it on the day, I needed to reasonably proficient at doing it to show others how to ride it. A couple of laps will leave you out of breath, its not only technically hard.
The key thing was to get the knack of cornering very tight corners on a narrow track, at speed. To do this, you needed to ensure you looked at the exit point of the corner as you entered each curve. We probably all do this when we ride to a certain extent, but this was far trickier. Once I got that sussed, I started to get the knack of it.
In the 6 hours the track was open for, it was in use pretty much constantly, we reckon at least by 70 people, many of whom came back for repeated goes.
I thought the MTB crowd would really take to it, but most of them avoided it. The die hard lycra crowd totally avoided the track too. The people that did give it a try were often mums and dads coaxed into it by the kids, as well as an assortment of commuters, brompton riders, and general A to B cyclists. Often some fancy pants on a fancy bike would wobble around a couple of laps, and then decide it was too difficult, then someone on a battered commuter bike would persevere until they got the knack and be whizzing around. But then the really good MTBers and roadies also got it on the first lap, their biking handling skills being very sharp.
The best bit was seeing kids do it. Scary bad at first, but no fear to keep on trying until they got it right. The looking into corner exits being the essential skill, without fail they all mastered it.
In moment of total genius our game for anything Abingdon Town crier had a go in full ceremonial robes, and did very well too.
To be honest, if it were not for the thought that it was a good fun thing to do at the festival, I'd probably have given it a miss too, but so glad that I didn't. I feel that my own handling skills are much sharper. Being able to suddenly turn at speed is a very fundamental skill, both for MTB rides and in the chaos of modern city traffic.
If you have a chance to try a pump track, give it a go!
