Thanks to everyone that made it out to the volunteer appreciation ride Saturday. We got a few miles in before moving to our VIP beach setup provided by Shelby County. Our volunteer crew has been amazing this year. Thanks guys
News From BUMP
Bloodier Rock, 2023 Upduro World Championship, and other updates
The past few months have been an absolute flurry of activity for our club. First, we have to mention that our membership is the largest ever in our existence! With the support and growth of our membership we have been able to tackle some long overdue projects.
The maintenance of Blood Rock was eating into our precious volunteer time with near monthly attempts to curb erosion and other issues. Our renovation will help sustain that section of trail well into the future and allow us to focus on other areas in need of maintenance. We have to say it looks pretty great as well! Speaking of Blood Rock, our first ever UPduro took place there a few weeks ago. Riders of all ages made attempts to climb up Blood Rock to get the farthest with the fastest time. For just a casual Sunday afternoon the turnout was great and the crowd was an absolute blast. Big thanks to Eric Hagan and Bike Link for putting some prizes up for grabs. Free events like these, along with shuttle days are just a few ways we are looking to add value to your membership on and off the trails and we hope you take advantage of them when you can.
Tails and Lightning have settled in quite nicely since their construction/renovation. Having these two trails side by side has made our Shuttle Days even more exciting, so if you haven’t had a chance to make it out for one, get after it! Shuttle Days are the 1st Tuesday of every month and a good way to get your lines dialed in before the BUMP N’ GRIND.
Can’t forget about Tannehill! We recently were able to re-route a problematic section of trail at Tannehill State Park in a single day thanks to some dedicated volunteers. We still have a few more projects in the development stage there, and we hope to share more information on that soon.
And of course, double check that the 29th Annual BUMP N GRIND is on your calendar: June 9th-11th. This will be an action packed weekend starting with pre-ride shuttles and on-site technicians on Friday provided by FOX Factory. Rich Drew and The Ride Series crew will be out helping fine tune those skills Friday and Saturday. You can register for one of The Ride Series clinics on Bikereg.com. Saturday will be the 1st ever BUMP N ‘DURO, followed by the super exciting Short Track race. Sunday of course will feature all the XC racing and Omnium winners will be announced then as well. If racing isn’t your thing, then we are always happy to have volunteers. It takes a village to put this event on!
A fresh round of BUMP swag will be hitting the scene soon as well, including fresh hats, shirts, and fenders. You can stock up at BUMP N GRIND or your favorite local bike shop.
Ales and Trails Bike Fest
Xterra is returning to Oak Mountain this year with the addition of the Ales and Trails Bike Festival. Join us Thursday evening for races, shuttles, food, and music. Details can be found here.
Fox Factory and Tails
Fox Factory did a feature in the Trail Trust Journal about Tails. Get the details here
Get your new BUMP jersey!
We are working with Cognative MTB to have some cool new BUMP jerseys made. You can preorder until Oct 21 using this link. The jerseys feature our new branding and are $59.95. Men’s and women’s sizes are available (XS – 3XL).
Once the presale is over Cognative will print the jerseys and ship them directly to everyone who orders one. Get them while you can!
Upcoming volunteer appreciation party (6/18) and trail work day (6/25)
We will be having a volunteer appreciation party at Cahaba River Park next Saturday (6/18/22). If you have come out to help us on a trail work day, helped at BnG, or led one of our group rides come out and let us show how much we love you! We will be meeting at the pavilion closest to the river for a ride (wheels on dirt at 9 a.m., so show up a little before that), and having a cookout down by the river at The Slab afterwards. If you don’t want to ride, but still want to come hang out, show up at ~11:30. Here is a Google maps link to the pavilion.
We will also be having our next trail work day at Oak Mountain on Saturday 6/25/22 at 8 a.m. Meet at the BUMP shed at the South Trailhead by ~7:45 so we can start work at 8. Bring closed toed shoes appropriate for physical labor and gloves if you want them. Also, remember to bring water and sunscreen. You don’t want to be stuck in the woods without them at this time of year.
Enter the BNG 28 raffle to win a set of carbon wheels (and a lot of other cool stuff)!
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We are selling entries to the BNG 28 raffle, which will occur on Sunday June 5th. The prizes this year are really exciting and include a full carbon wheelset from NOX Composites (see the flyer for other great prizes)
We will be selling tickets digitally for $5 a pop, or 5 for $20. Use this link to buy tickets. After clicking next it will ask what the donation is for. Put ‘Raffle’ in that box so that we know the donation is for raffle tickets. We will be doing the drawing electronically on-site using a random number generator.
BUMP x YHC Merch Campaign is Live
You can now get our new logo on t-shirts, stickers, and tote bags through Yellowhammer Creative! This is a short-term campaign that closes on 4/25/22, so get it while you can because it will be a while before we are able to do another run!
A new look for BUMP
If you’re seeing this post you have probably noticed that things are looking a little different around here. We are excited to announce a cool new collaboration with Yellowhammer Creative to update our brand for the first time in over 20 years! You have probably seen t-shirts, tote bags, and posters designed by Yellowhammer all over Birmingham (check out some very cool shirts they have done for Oak Mountain State Park and Red Mountain Park). The package from Yellowhammer includes updated logos (see images above and below text) and color scheme. Merch including the updated logos will be coming soon.
Special thanks to board members Will Abner and Jacob Tubbs for taking the lead on this project and working with Yellowhammer to get this done!
Registration for BUMP N’ GRIND 28 is open!
You can now register for BUMP N’ GRIND 28 happening 6/4 & 6/5/2022 at Oak Mountain State Park. Our new race director Jacob Tubbs and VP Will Abner have been hard at work making some exciting changes to this year’s race format.
First, we are bringing back the omnium! This will allow racers competing in the Super D, Short Track, and XC races to compete for an overall title in their category. Sign up for the omnium at registration and see how all aspects of your riding stack up!
Second, the Cat 1/2 XC course is being modified from previous years to include our new trail Slingshot. This will add 3 miles of fast, flowy machine cut trail that includes a bunch of rippable berms, as well as a couple of significant climbs to thin the herd.
Lastly, we are excited to announce a new collaboration with The Hammies for the kids race this year. Max Klein will be bringing his popular Little Hammies series to BNG this year to get our future shredders some FUN racing experience.
As always, we need YOUR help to put on a great event and really showcase our trails to people from all over the region. If you aren’t racing (or are only racing on one day) please help us out by volunteering at the race. There is a Google Sheets signup sheet linked here. There are still some details lacking as things are still being finalized, but we always need people to help with signup/racer support, course marshaling, and sweep riding. Rumor is we will be hooking those of you who sign up early with some of our new and improved merch, so don’t delay.
Photo by Alejandro Pullin