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Old 10-25-17, 02:11 PM
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kings run east
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I just saw this and know nothing about the owners or community- but as someone who just got certified there I'm very much not surprised. There are two critical design flaws to the track that I feel are absolutely impeding the culture and stunting the community around it.

While visiting the track is promoted / welcomed, the wayfinding is very odd and visitors arrive in a space where they mix with riders. Riders are tired, focused on bikes, and, sometimes, are annoyed with answering the same questions over and over again between efforts. What I observed was the riders having to act as ambassadors to the track contributed to several visitors feeling unwelcome- right after they saw a massive sign inviting them in. Some sort of info desk / greeter is probably necessary to orient visitors, it would also be beneficial if they circulated to the party deck instead of the infield.

The other issue is that the way the track is used is, in my opinion, completely unsafe. The combination of entering on the backfield and the steep, wooden banking means you have to merge on to the track with a good amount of speed- but the party deck at turns 1 & 2 gives little passage. Riders are encouraged to accelerate past this at a fairly quick speed, and then return to the infield on the back stretch immediately after a finish. As the BVV director told my cert class, "People don't want to watch cool down laps." This led to one of the people in my class deciding she never wanted to ride a track again- she told me that she felt mtbing by herself in the Rockies was safer.

It's tragic- it's a great resource, and a super fun and beautiful track to ride, but I think that it's under-utilized because of several fairly critical design flaws. And I'm not even mentioning the splintered wood on turns 3 & 4 that scares the ***** out of me when I ride over it...
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