If you didn’t make it to the meeting, the vote passed and we have purchased a mini skid steer to help us with building and maintenance at Tannehill and the other parks we service.  Nov 2 we have our first workday planned out there to begin clearing the corridor for phase 1 of the build.  We plan to build the first 3 phases of the expansion which would add about 8 miles of trail to Tannehill.  We are applying for grant funding to fund the final phase that would connect the trail system back into Farley Field.  Until we get that funding the loop can be closed by use of the access road next to the maintenance facility that leads back into the most recent Forever Wild Acquisition. We are currently looking for sponsorship and material donations to assist us in completing phase 1-3 of the build.  Sponsorship in the form of monetary donations, trail building equipment, bridge building materials, and signage are all critical to the project.  If you think you can help with any of these or know someone who can please let us know.  We are also evaluating some of the abandoned horse trails on the property to see if they can be modified to be more bike friendly in the future.  All of the approved trails are shown on the map in dotted lines.  Phase 1 is in dark blue, Phase 2 and 3 are shown in orange and purple.  Phase 4 is shown in light blue.  If you want to look at the full proposal from the meeting you can find it here

Schedule

Admission Cost: $35 can be purchased here or on site

Cost (includes event admission)

Level 1 $60

Level 2 $60

Level 1 and 2 $100

Beginner 9-11: Participants should arrive by 8:45 to check-in and create name plates. The clinic starts at 9 with an overview of bike and gear checks to perform before every ride.

We will be covering the basics: Shifting, braking, body/bike positioning, and more before heading out to practice your new skills on the Lake trail.

It is preferred that clinic participants should be in flat pedals (not clipped in) and all participants must wear a helmet.

Intermediate 12-2: It is preferred that intermediate participants have had a beginner’s skills clinic prior to the intermediate skills clinic.

Participants should arrive by 11:45 to check-in and create name plates. The clinic starts at 12 with an overview of bike and gear checks to perform before every ride, including suspension setup.

Skills covered will include wheel lifts, roll-downs, cornering, switchbacks, and more. Riders should be comfortable riding all blue trails at Oak Mountain State Park and be ready to start tackling specifics such as Seven Bridges and possibly Garrets Gulch, time permitting. Intermediate riders should ride in either flat pedals or clipless, whichever they most typically prefer to ride in.

Tie Dye Station

We’ll setup the tie dye station from roughly 2:30 until 5.  You purchase a white BUMP T shirt and we’ll provide the materials and training to die your own shirt.

Short Track Race

The short track race will start around 3:30 pm.  It’s a spectator friendly lap around the South Trail Head with some optional new features added in.

Entertainment

Band Goes on Stage at 5pm at the South Trailhead.

With some big support from Intense, Cane Creek, and Industry Nine; we’ve put together another incredible sweepstakes bike.  Click here to find out more.

For those that missed the Christmas Party, I wanted to give an update on the end of 2023.

Our Membership is still hovering just below 500 but I’m sure we’ll make it next year.

Financially we managed to make a couple thousand dollars while still completing a number of large projects.  Those projects include purchasing a timing system, resurfacing Bloodrock, resurfacing Lightning, and Rebuilding our Website.

We managed to put on the most profitable and most fun Bump N Grind that anyone I know can remember.  The success of the event was largely due to the 87 volunteers that put our 923 volunteer hours on that weekend.

Speaking of volunteers, our top volunteers for 2023 were:
Scott Pruitt, Eric Hagan, Michael Lee, Jeff Palmer, Ken Blackwood, Hunter Nobles, Fletcher Scott, Leo Henry, George Ford, and Freddie Delchamps.

Our 2024 Board will be:
Chase Draper, Will Abner, Reagan Pennock, Jacob Tubbs, Butch White, Scott Pruitt, and Freddie Delchamps

Notable additions to the 2024 event Calendar will be the Sorba Fall Conference/Fall Festival on Oct 4-5 and the return of the Oak Ass Epic on Nov 16.

Bump N Grind XXX will be June 7-9 and the Alz Bike a Thon will be Oct 19.

Thanks to everyone who donated or volunteered in 2023, you made it all possible.

We have several large opportunities coming our way next year, it is a great time to be a BUMP member.

Sunday, Sep 10th we put on a ladies beginner mountain bike clinic with the aid of Bike Link, Cahaba Cycles, and PMBIA level 1 instructor Erin McMahon from HAMR.  Erin kicked off the day at 11 a.m. with the first clinic followed by two more at 1 p.m. and 3 pm.  We had a few volunteers on site helping checkout and setup loaner bikes that were provided by Cahaba Cycle and Bikelink of Hoover.  We had a total of 36 ladies come through for a lesson.  As usual we couldn’t have pulled this off without all the community partnerships we have.  Thanks alot to Joe at Bikelink, Faris and Tammy from Cahaba Cycles, Shelby County, Oak Mountain State Park as well as our dedicated volunteers that helped out with the day of execution.

Bump N Grind was a huge success this year.  We raised close to $30,000 (which might be a record) for the club this year and threw one helluva party.  We had just shy of 400 individual racers representing 13 different states.  Better than half the racers were from more than an hour away.  None of this would be possible without the army of volunteers who showed up to organize and run the event.  Special thanks go to the event committee who spent several months working through the details of the event and helping us put all the pieces together.  We really appreciate our sponsor. Hendrick Subaru, Discover Shelby Alabama, Bike Link of Hoover, Cahaba Cycles, Fox Factory, Trail Trust, Outside Van, Kuat, Therapy South, Ortho Alabama the official ortho sponsor of the XC Race, Andrews Sports Medicine the official ortho sponsor of the Enduro Race, Full Moon BBQ, Cahaba Brewing, Ride the Rebellion, Muc Off, Leatt, NOX composites, Factor Components, Alabama Outdoors, Ride BHAM, Deity Components, Wolf Tooth, Handup, and Pedal Industries. We had a really great environment out there and they were a huge part of it.  We are already working to make BNGXXX bigger and better.  If you’d like to help us out email [email protected]

Click here to see the Ride the Rebellion follow up video

Jason from Chainbuster Racing contacted us after BNG and invited us to participate in 24 hours of Iron Maiden this year.  I haven’t raced or cared about racing in quite some time, but I took him up for some reason.  With my fitness limitations in mind, I knew team selections would be critical so I reached out to four really fun guys (none of which own spandex or XC bikes) and challenged them to an all-day party on the hottest day of the century.  We spent the next two weeks intensely preparing for race day, creating shopping lists, gathering supplies for our Pit area, and challenging the other Alabama Chapters to a dance-off.  My competitive streak made an unexpected appearance right about the time we lined up to start the first lap, but the format of riding one lap and then hanging out with your friends for 4 hours before doing another lap was a really laid-back and fun way to spend the day.  We spent the whole day hanging out in front of the fans, listening to music, grilling kabobs, and cheering on or talking trash to our friends.  Our team called it quits when the weather delay started and we ended up being the fastest team to quit early, there’s no trophy for that in case you’re wondering, but we had a ton of fun and are already planning on doing it again next year.  My goals for next year’s race are to be slightly faster, throw a much bigger party, and get the rest of the Alabama Sorba chapters to take me up on my party challenge.

Chase