Official Kelowna and Westbank Thread

PB Forum :: Canada - West
Official Kelowna and Westbank Thread
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flag ridayobike
Posted: Nov 1, 2014 at 12:03 Quote
This trail berm roost shot has gone too far...

Although possibly just a farce, pinkbikes latest news story is teaching kids straight up how to destroy volunteer built trails. https://www.pinkbike.com/news/how-to-get-a-shredding-turn-photo-2014.html
Like XB said, he's sure this is all a gag and is not meant to take seriously but trails are getting thrashed at the hands of "up-and-coming " local bro sponsored shredders and a handful of irresponsible videographers and photographers.
With 3/4 + of all of the Okanagan's trail work being done by volunteer effort, trail builders are getting ticked off and quite unfortunately stopping their efforts of maintaining trail due to some of these circumstances. Local bike organizations can only manage and build so much trail in a year, with still the majority of work being done by volunteers on their own accord on their personal time, along with in conjunction with efforts from the club.

Something to think about next time you are thrashing someones creation and hard work. Volunteers spend countless hours going back maintaining and keeping all these trails open. If these volunteers would stop doing such work the local bike clubs would be faced with possibly paying for such work to be done and that is less funds that can be put towards new trails and bike related projects for the future.

Roosting berms/ corners and scrubbing off lips of features look great in bike parks, but it gets complicated when this trail destructon is done in remote trail areas which take a lot of effort/time to get back to and repair and maintain.

Our riding area is a very maintenance high area of trail to maintain with the quite thick growing underbrush and multiple different types of soil in which some erode that very quickly. Combine this with large shoulder seasons of precipitation and snow melting which is a perfect environment for rotting wood very fast. Any more maintenance / trail destruction put on top of this is a heavy burden on the system.

Please contribute to local trail building efforts through your local bike club and spread awareness of preservation of the trails. With newly adopted trail building techniques taught through IMBA / NSMBA / Whistler Trail Building Codes; trails going forward will surely be built more sustainable and "bomb proof" in the future, but we may as well preserve the more delicate trails in existence out there.

Efforts to spread images / moving images of MTB'ing through pictures videos are great and fun to look at and they all mean well, but that market is super over saturated and easy to get into and fairly easy to carry out. Volunteer trail builders are very limited in number in our area, and it is a very difficult activity to carry out, so we should respect their efforts, help where we can and try not to piss them off out of their roles. Most of the people carrying out this work do the majority of their work unknown to the public, receive no compensation, and seek no gratitude or thanks... Most do out of love for the sport and volunteer in a much needed spot to fill to keep trails open. Please support your local trail builder and local Trail Society's efforts.

Xtreme Builder
flag FS4M1K3
Posted: Nov 17, 2014 at 20:12 Quote
cueTIP wrote:
Hey guys, looking to move to Kelowna. House prices are awesome compared to what I'm used to in Calgary.

Anyways, what's the riding like in late fall/early spring? I'm wanting to move so my wife and I can get some more riding in than we do now. We're constantly making road trips in to Silverstar/Whistler/Fernie during the summer and we're thinking we can just be happier living in the middle of it all.

Also, what's the traffic like from West Kelowna to the hospital around 7am/3pm? The other places we're looking at are kinda up the 33 to the east of town. How long would it take to get to the airport (I'll be flying back to Calgary every week or so) and the hospital?

My wife drives that route every day...She leaves here in Westbank (Boucherie Road area) around 7 am. Pulls into work over in Rutland round 7:20. To her opinion that's before rush hour.
flag vernonjeff
Posted: Nov 18, 2014 at 18:53 Quote
steeds wrote:
hey guys,
food for thought if you or know of anyone looking to sell a DH bike.

looking no more then 2000...
size : medium
i live in calgary, so either if you come to calgary i can maybe take the bike off your hands if you are coming this way, other wise at the end of december i will be going to kelowna for a trip so i can swing by and see the bike then if you still had it for sale

if anything maybe give me a PM and or we can exchange numbers and check out photos or details.

i haven't seen much out there right now I'm sure for obvious reasons. but wanting to buy one to get suited up for more proper of a DH bike this year.

thanks

yes. im selling an 11 v10 with 12 or better components including a fox fork.. a little more than 2000 but close.
flag oldschool24
Posted: Nov 22, 2014 at 16:39 Quote
Rode Bear Bones today. totally clear. great traction. the return on slick 50 is a little sketchy because of crews doing fire fuel management on that side. Wicked day for Nov 22
flag Wes-Barber
Posted: Nov 23, 2014 at 10:29 Quote
oldschool24 wrote:
Rode Bear Bones today. totally clear. great traction. the return on slick 50 is a little sketchy because of crews doing fire fuel management on that side. Wicked day for Nov 22

Need riding friends? Couple of us on the Westside still looking to ride. Powers is pretty much done for us now
flag duggyb
O+
Posted: Jan 11, 2015 at 15:42 Quote
Does anyone winter ride?any trails with good enough conditions for skinnys? Or is it fat bike only territory?
flag rippin-norco
Posted: Feb 2, 2015 at 22:59 Quote
duggyb wrote:
Does anyone winter ride?any trails with good enough conditions for skinnys? Or is it fat bike only territory?

Knox is kinda always ridable, if you consider it a trail network still. might be too much snow right at the moment though.
flag Wes-Barber
Posted: Feb 9, 2015 at 21:13 Quote
rippin-norco wrote:
duggyb wrote:
Does anyone winter ride?any trails with good enough conditions for skinnys? Or is it fat bike only territory?

Knox is kinda always ridable, if you consider it a trail network still. might be too much snow right at the moment though.

Update on this? I haven't been anywhere near lately.

Thinking about checking it out tomorrow since I havent been in about 6 years. All this new trail stuff easy to find?
flag k-towntrailryder
Posted: Feb 9, 2015 at 21:58 Quote
I'm not going to tell you not to ride knox tomorrow but i'm gonna ask you to use your head and some common sense.

- The snow just totally melted off the mtn as of this weekend and a lot of rain fell today.
- The new features (jumps) were made with a soil that contains a lot of clay and the absolutely cannon handle traffic when it's wet, you'll see. it clumps up and sticks to everything.
- Right now there is nobody maintaining the mtb trails up there, mtbco is working on this but at the moment, any damage that is caused wont be fixed so the trails will only get worse.
- There are some major water issues on lower shale and a large rut has formed on the old (black line) please be careful and use caution if riding this line.
- MTBco is working with the city to fix some of these issues and there is talk of more work happening but you need to understand that the money is finite and if the trails get thrashed and more erosion is caused it's going to lead to the money being spent on fixing rather then improving.

The trails may be fine to ride tomorrow, the sun could come out and the wind could pick up and by the afternoon things might be great or they might not, please use your best discretion.
flag steeds
Posted: Feb 10, 2015 at 15:13 Quote
Wes-Barber wrote:
rippin-norco wrote:
duggyb wrote:
Does anyone winter ride?any trails with good enough conditions for skinnys? Or is it fat bike only territory?

Knox is kinda always ridable, if you consider it a trail network still. might be too much snow right at the moment though.

Update on this? I haven't been anywhere near lately.

Thinking about checking it out tomorrow since I havent been in about 6 years. All this new trail stuff easy to find?

do it up bro!
flag oldschool24
Posted: Feb 12, 2015 at 17:20 Quote
rose valley is goodtogo! rode schoolside to the top today came back on RSVP. far side looks clear to the top didn't have time to explore. some wet areas but nothing to close any trails. felt like a fall day in squampton!
flag k-towntrailryder
Posted: Feb 15, 2015 at 15:51 Quote
So spring happened pretty fast...

- Knox is prime other then the 3 or 4 new jumps on shale trail
- Smith is clear and dry at least to the first lookout from what i've heard, maybe farther
- Rose looks to be g2g
- Crawford is starting to dry up, if connector isn't clear yet I suspect it will be by next weekend
- The lower Gillard trails should be mostly clear by next weekend i'd think, maybe the weekend after (wobbly, boss, sanchez)
- Postil is probably clear too....if anyone rides there anymore
- ok mtn park hasn't fared too well, lots of landslides and washouts, not recommended right now

I've got a request and an announcement of sorts,
There will more then likely be trail days happening on knox this year which is huge. This morning I went met with city parks staff and we did a hike up Apex and down shale. We will be making some small changes to Apex to make it an easier climb and we flagged several reroutes on lower shale do deal with the rutting and water damage.

Please don't mess with the flagging and if you see someone messing with it, please explain to them that they aren't helping. As an aside, the placement of the flagging it's set in stone, it's simply a suggestion and will need to be reviewed by many different people before it's approved so don't panic if you don't like what you see.
flag messmyth
Posted: Feb 16, 2015 at 17:01 Quote
"Pink HWY" up to the "Connector" trail is covered with hard packed snow for the top 75% excluding certain patches. The "Connector" trail on the way down was good for the time of year mostly greasy mud with the odd snow patch and a couple large puddles forcing a walk around. Didn't regret going for a ride though.
flag k-towntrailryder
Posted: Feb 22, 2015 at 17:39 Quote
Hiked around crawford today, it's way to muddy to ride there right now, fairlane is a mess, lostlake is a mess and the snow starts quite low.

People have been riding the new climb up to windfall and it's pretty mangled right now as a result, stay off that please. Trails don't build themselves.

 


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