A vote made by the Sedona City Council on April 25 came as welcomed news for local mountain bikers.
That’s because council approved a contract with American Ramp Company for the second phase of the Posse Grounds Bike Skills Park in the amount of $115,407.
The project is anticipated to start in early May and be complete by mid-June. Construction of the first phase of the park, including the pump park, wildcat flow trail and vortex tech flow trail was completed in April.
“The response has been good,” Sedona Bicycle Coordinator Doug Copp said. “I have seen a lot of riders using the park, volunteering to maintain the park, and several skills clinics have been held.”
The bicycle community has developed an active core group of volunteers that have taken the lead on track maintenance along with the local bicycle community and bicycle shops, he said.
American Ramp Company has completed a number of bike park projects throughout the country, and they are working on two projects in Arizona. ARC has the appropriate contractor’s license in Arizona for this type of work.
“ARC is highly recommended by folks within the bicycle community and their past clients,” a city report states.
City staff received other bids for this work and but found ARC’s experience to be a better fit for this project. Other bids were higher and the other contractors did not have the level of experience ARC has with this type of work. Copp said a dual slalom will be the main feature built in phase two.
This was the most popular feature voted on by the user community during the design phase of the bike park project. Dual slalom is a difficult feature to construct properly, he said, but the American Ramp Company has significant experience so Copp said he was happy that it was selected to construct phase two.
Copp said a dual slalom consists of two racers riding two almost identical tracks next to each other down a slope. The courses are usually short — one run lasting about 30 seconds. Both rider’s times are taken and then they switch tracks for another run. Then their times for the two runs are combined to determine the faster rider for the course.
“Mountain bikers are very happy that phase two was funded and approved,” Copp said. “I believe we have a good design.”
