Indoor Mountain Bike Park Coming to Central Manchester
Canada has them, the US has them, Europe has them but indoor mountain bike parks never really took off in the UK... until now. If you want to escape the British rain and ride inside, Dirt Factory have found a premises and are due to be fully open to the public in late March.
Dirt Factory, who first reached their crowd funding target of £400,000 in 2016, will open as a pop-up being created inside a disused 25,000 sq ft warehouse off the Mancunian Way. While most indoor parks are made from wood, around 2,000 tonnes of reclaimed soil will be used to create the Dirt Factory Pop-Up. The dirt will be sculpted into "a range of exciting bike trails and features, designed for riders of all ages and abilities". It also means that that the team are able to continually evolve and change up the park layout, keeping it fresh for return riders.
 | We can’t wait to open at Mayfield. The Dirt Factory Pop-Up is an amazing opportunity to bring our dream alive and as a start-up it’s great to have such amazing support from the Mayfield Partnership, with whom we share so many common values around inclusivity, wellbeing and the environment. As well as the opportunity to ride a range of indoor bike trails and features, the Dirt Factory Pop-Up will offer bike hire including e-bikes and a host of exciting events. |
The site at Mayfield, next to Manchester Piccadilly train station, will create up to 10 full and part-time jobs. The team will be supported by more than 50 volunteers who have signed up to support the venture. The Dirt Factory Pop-Up will be open for up to two years before moving to a permanent home at a larger facility in Greater Manchester.
In the long term, the 24-acre Mayfield site will be transformed into a world-class urban quarter, delivering new office and leisure space, the first city centre park in more than 100 years, as well as 1,300 homes and a hotel.
| Mountain biking and BMX are hugely popular activities and high quality, low-cost facilities in convenient city locations are a major factor in encouraging more people to give them a try. We hope to do our bit by enabling more people to make journeys to and from the city centre without cars. It’s great to hear that there will be a big community focus to the Dirt Factory project and I wish everyone involved all the best with this venture. |
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It's usually soft southern shandy-drinkers who see us as "well-'ard" in comparison so have to make it known to everyone else that we see ourselves like that.
Go ride the South Downs in your full face.
My can of petrol:
North = Scotland, otherwise you're a Southener.
Orkney folk: get involved.
...Oh wait
Most of his other stuff from videos in Surrey and wherever else is dirt jumps in a piss pot.
I am stuck working in Manchester for the next year and an evening playing in here will be so much better than sat in a hotel gym trying to keep some vestige of fitness
A bit gutted its so far away from where I live (the south coast), but if it takes off, hopefully more will pop up around the country!
www.instagram.com/p/BtWH--5F8D3
More photos here too
one?
There, fixed it for you.
The pop up presents an opportunity to show case and prove the concept and to create a community that will support the applications for a bigger indoor park. This comes at no expense to shareholders.
Dirt Factory is very fortunate to have the opportunity to open an indoor bike park in the heart of Manchester, even if this is only for a couple of years until a more permanent home can be found. The company is thankful for the support of its shareholders, stake holders and supporters that have stuck by us over the years.
Was it a literal 'we're now worth 400k, you're now invested in the company by your contribution' type deal?