Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Reminiscence

I was playing around with some new photo software tonight and accidentally came across some pics from a recent winter not too far past.

'Twas about this same time-a-year, 'cept four ago:

Yes, this was pre-snowblower (best money I ever spent btw, after last winter),
and  so yes, those berms were all hand-built.  I was a badass machine, obviously.

This is what we were riding on:


When that didn't work out, this was a pretty good alternative:


Snowbike aside, I'm not complaining. Just happened to notice.
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4 comments:

  1. Andy D.February 22, 2012 at 9:47 AM

    Not entirely related, but speaking of cold places, as a pump track owner you might be interested in checking out how the National Park Service built a pump track in Fairbanks, AK:

    http://www.nps.gov/ncrc/programs/rtca/news&events/ne_videoak.html

    Maybe you can turn your not-snowy-this-year yard into Pat's Pump Track National Park.

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  2. Pat SFebruary 22, 2012 at 11:39 PM

    BDD, thanks for the link. That vid totally captures the flavor of how I think a community pump track could and should work in a public space.

    And I can taste just about every operation and experience in that video - it's just a scaled community-sized version of my little micro experiment. Which is so much more appropriate and useful than my unsustainable backyard model.

    John and I have had the discussion over a couple of head-slappingly, no-brainer public spaces that just cry out to become pump tracks, and how to even begin to approach the powers that be with the idea in a manner that would even give us half a chance. John's actually done a little work on it.

    If they could ever envision one of their grandkids taking that first, slow, herky-jerky, "it works!" lap on a track they had just spent all day sweating over and sculpting out of nothing with a bunch of people of all ages from their neighborhood, well . . . just maybe.

    Painting the picture is easier said than done, though. Maybe if we could get them over here with their kids and grandkids on the pretense of a back yard tea party and just happen to have some bikes laying around . . .

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousFebruary 23, 2012 at 12:17 PM

    Booty call! How's the tail bone? Any good drug experiences to report?

    You're sitting on an ice doughnut dreaming of snowfalls and pumptracks past....hmmmm.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Andy D.February 24, 2012 at 10:13 PM

    Pat,

    Building a community pump track may actually be a real possibility. In my day job I'm a bike-focused researcher. Community based projects to promote preventive health behaviors are hot right now for a variety of reasons. A pump track is a project that would work toward increasing physical activity of a range of people, young to not-so-young, and may be eligible for parks space and grant funding.

    If this sounds of interest to you, contact me through my Blogger profile and I can give you some details and contacts.

    ReplyDelete