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A mountain bike pump track brings new youth sports opportunities to the community
It’s fair to say that Bristol, Connecticut, is a sports town. Not only is the city home to ESPN, but also it’s a great place for residents of all ages to roll up their sleeves and participate in a variety of recreational sports activities.
“Anything you can think of, you have a way to do it in Bristol,” says Dr. Josh Medeiros, superintendent of Bristol Parks, Recreation, Youth and Community Services (BPRYCS). “The city has a really strong youth sports program, including little league, youth football and cheer, soccer, basketball, tennis and more.”
But to some residents, there was still a gap in the types of opportunities available for young people in the community — in particular, for youth less interested in traditional team sports. Concerned these youth might be left out of the youth sports equation, community members took action.
This was the case for Brian Archibald, who alongside his friend, Mike Seery, founded the nonprofit known as Bike Bristol. “My sons started riding mountain bikes because the traditional ball sports weren’t really working for them, especially [for] my older son,” says Archibald. “Suddenly, he had a thing that was his. It became his place.” And as the Archibalds’ passion for mountain biking grew, they realized that the right facilities were lacking in Bristol. “Kids ride on the road, doing wheelies down the middle of the road. And we thought, ‘We’ve gotta get somewhere for these kids to go and do their stuff,’” notes Archibald.
That’s why Archibald, Seery and other members of the community approached BPRYCS in 2018, with a proposal for a five-mile mountain biking loop through Bristol’s Rockwell Park. Situated on slightly more than 100 acres near the heart of downtown Bristol, Rockwell Park was a natural fit for the new facilities, especially given the focus on providing accessible opportunities to everyone in the community. “The department and the Parks Board loved the idea, [so] despite some obstacles, we said…let’s find a way to do it,” recalls Medeiros. With volunteers driving the action and BPRYCS providing technical expertise, the community constructed the five-mile wooded loop over the next year.
After seeing the popularity of the loop, and with community support for establishing more biking opportunities in Bristol, BPRYCS and Bike Bristol kept momentum going with plans for a bike pump track located near the trail head in Rockwell Park. Unlike a traditional mountain bike trail, pump tracks are relatively short, and purposely designed to allow riders to navigate them without pedaling. Instead, riders generate and maintain their speed by “pumping” their bikes up and down a series of short, steeply sloped “rollers,” or hills.
Again, Medeiros and BPRYCS were enthusiastic about the ideas coming to the table from Bike Bristol, especially as a means of getting younger community members involved in a new type of sport offering. However, finding the capital necessary for the pump track proved to be a challenge. Bike Bristol wasted no time, holding a fundraising event and building a network of connections with local businesses and community members eager to help build the new pump track. However, this flurry of activity was cut short by the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Suddenly, it seemed like a project with significant community support and momentum was in jeopardy, just when people needed access to high-quality outdoor recreation activities more than ever.
Fortunately, an unexpected funding opportunity caught the attention of Medeiros and the BPYRCS team: NRPA’s Youth Sports and Play Grant. Supported by NRPA as part of the Walt Disney Company’s commitment to create healthier generations, the Youth Sports and Play Grant provides park and recreation professionals with resources, technical assistance and funding to implement park projects that increase equitable access to play. “My staff and I looked at it and said, ‘Woah, this would actually be the perfect fit to fund the bike pump track,’” remembers Medeiros.
Bristol’s receipt of a Youth Sports and Play Grant funded 100 percent of the pump track project. Just nine months later, in time for the busy summer season, the plans became reality and the pump track opened to the public in July 2021.
Impacting the Community and Shredding Barriers
In more ways than one, the pump track is a gateway to the sport of mountain biking.
For those who have never ridden a mountain bike on a trail before, especially younger riders, the pump track provides a venue to practice some of the basic skills. “It’s a great place to learn some of the handling skills [and] some of the balance skills that go into riding a bike safely [without] crashing or falling on rocks,” says Seery. Whereas tackling the wooded loop may prove too difficult or too intimidating for younger riders, the pump track provides a low-stakes place to train and have fun.
The pump track also is purposefully located at the start of the wooded trail loop, not only to entice new riders, but also to provide an opportunity for more experienced riders to warm up and refine some of the more advanced skills. “When you’re on a trail for five, six, 10 miles, it’s hard to get that type of repetition,” says Archibald. The pump track is designed to be a place to do just that, and for riders to connect with one another over a shared passion.
Archibald is quick to point out that the pump track is a versatile and inclusive community asset for kids of all ages, and that while it was built with mountain bikes in mind, visitors are just as likely to see “little kids on Strider [balance] bikes. It’s just the coolest thing to see little ones like 3, 4 years old with no pedals, just kind of using gravity to run them around [to] get the feel of the balance and how the bike responds to turns,” he says. In this way, Medeiros and Bike Bristol see the pump track as a way to bring the next generation of mountain bikers on board, a goal they view as integral to the success of the facility and the well-being of young people in the community.
The new mountain bike assets are located and designed purposefully to address the most common barriers to sports facing many young people in Bristol: transportation and cost. Simply locating the trail system and pump track in Rockwell Park helped address transportation-related constraints, as young people in the area now have a close-to-home option within easy biking or walking distance. Developing these assets in Rockwell Park also was an important step in bringing services to a traditionally under-resourced neighborhood of Bristol, and a way for Medeiros and his staff to build a bridge with a larger portion of the Bristol community. As he explained, “This is one of our underserved areas…and this is a residential area, so most of the kids that come to visit are walking or biking.”
With entry-level bikes costing several hundred dollars, and higher-end gear ranging into the multiple thousands, Medeiros and Bike Bristol are acutely aware that cost may be the difference between a young person finding the sport they love versus sitting on the sidelines. “We believe everyone has a right to access high-quality parks and recreation, and we never want cost to be a barrier,” explains Medeiros.
To help address financial obstacles for youth interested in learning to mountain bike, Medeiros and BPRYCS are establishing a free gear rental program in Rockwell Park. The “All Heart Gear Shop” — reflecting Bristol’s slogan, the “All Heart City” — will function something like a library, except instead of a book, young people will be able to check out a bike and protective equipment. Leveraging the fundraising and networking capabilities of Bike Bristol, along with generous contributions from sponsors in the community, the vision for the gear rental program is to acquire and maintain a fleet of equipment that will allow young people to sample a new sport without the cost barrier.
These innovative partnerships are paying off. As Medeiros explains, “We can buy all this stuff, and then lend it out to neighborhood kids and families to use when they’re coming to visit the park. That way if you can’t afford a mountain bike, you can come to our gear shop, get that for free, and then go try it out.” The gear shop program had a soft launch in summer 2021 and is expected to be fully up and running by summer 2022, alongside a host of programming aimed at introducing bike skills to young people and developing competitive mountain biking opportunities for more experienced riders.
In keeping with the agency’s mission to “enhance the quality of life for all Bristol residents,” Medeiros views the Rockwell Park improvements as a means of changing the face of mountain biking — and members of Bike Bristol agree. “Mountain biking is still primarily a rural or suburban white sport, and [is] still primarily male, although that’s changing faster than I could possibly imagine. The whole goal of the trail and the pump track was to put a trail system where [new] people could be introduced to biking,” reflects Seery.
Not only does the pump track increase access and opportunities for local youth, but also it provides a unique amenity that helps set Bristol apart in the region. “It’s really something that’s very unusual across the country. Urban mountain biking is not something you see much,” says Seery.
Medeiros points to the economic impacts of the pump track, saying visitors travel from Massachusetts and Vermont to use it. “People come from all over to use our pump track and the trail system, so that is a really, really cool thing. And if you’re coming [and using] the trail in the morning, you’re going out to lunch, so you’re patronizing the local restaurants. It is definitely a benefit to the economy.”
Some impacts of the project are less easily quantifiable, but perhaps even more important. As one young person in the community describes, “Mountain biking changed my life. It flipped my life upside down, or maybe right side up. I’m a completely different person now.”
The Next Lap
What’s next after the gear shop? Medeiros and Bike Bristol already have started discussing an expansion of the biking assets in Rockwell Park, as well as a network of bike trails connecting the parks system and other key destinations across the city. In reflecting on the whirlwind of development during the past several years and the potential next steps, Medeiros is excited to see Bristol reach its full potential and to expand the role of parks and recreation in that process. “Bristol is where I live, and there’s something special about working for the community you live in. I’ve always seen so much potential here, especially in our parks…they are really the gem of the city.”
To hear Medeiros and Brian Archibald talk more about the ways Bristol’s new pump track is bringing equitable youth sports opportunities to the community, tune in to the March bonus episode of Open Space Radio.
Nick Pitas, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Park and Recreation Management at State University of New York Brockport. Sammie Powers, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Recreation, Park and Tourism Management at Penn State Abington.