Parkland at The Hot Wells

Sometimes we feel this site is the only site that speaks up for Hotwells, the under-valued western end of the harbour.

Yet you can see that people travel distances to come and admire the flyovers, with the contrast between the modernist concrete and the Georgian terraces behind.

The old railway bridge, with the mud glistening underneath, is a place of peace and quiet to treasure before the BRT developments turn it into another piece of road.

And speaking of roads, what is this? An abandoned looking track with rubber surfacing, over the parkland?

According to some allotment people, it was put in to get some heavy machinery in, since they left it has been abandoned.

Not abandoned -we say it is the tooling needed to finally implement our vision of a new Hotwells: one with a skateboard/BMX park!

BMX-ers: most skilled riders in the city

Why is this BMX rider hitting the berm at speed?

For the same reason his friend did it: to get the speed you need to over the jump properly.

Eastville Park on a Saturday afternoon. No conflict with pedestrians, dog walkers, children or anyone else.

The Evening Post cycling edition

Wenesday's Evening Post had a special on city centre cycling, one that has some great photos of trials bikers. They and the BMX riders -here at the project 360 event- are the most skilled riders in the city.

They are the best at technical work, better than the downhill MTB Riders who work the Still's Wood trails.

They also make for the best videos; the city centre bit of Roam is fantastic, and the bit the little one likes to watch -when I'm not making him cycle along the pavement.

The paper's text, under the photos, argued that bikers cycling in a shared use area -the harbour and centre- should actually be banned, somehow from riding a bike. And well they should. Look how much fun the riders are having. That is not the kind of enjoyment we want in a post-capitalist, post-functional-economy, neo-Keynsian country. We want everyone to sit at home in darkness. Its the 1970s way.

Eastville Park Jumps

Someone has been building a set of jumps and berms in Eastville Park.

Given that there is a concrete wheel park only two miles away, it is clearly an act of mindless vandalism to make a corner of Eastville Park fun to ride in a BMX or Jump Bike.

Not a classic XC MTB, as the jumps are big and aggressive, and only work if you plan to clear the problems.

This is in the eastern edge of the park, near Everest Road, right about here.