Last fall, Bell Helmets and IMBA announced the Bell Built Trail Building Grants and the 12 finalists were named earlier this year.
Bell Helmets is providing $100,000 to fund three, mountain bike trail projects, one each in the categories of bike park/pump track, flow trail and downhill/gravity trail. Out of the 12 selected as finalists, the public will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite project in each category on Bell’s Facebook page, beginning March 5.
Three Midwest parks are finalists in three separate categories:
Pump tracks/bike parks
- Elm Creek Bike Park: Minnesota Off-Road Cyclists, Maple Grove, MN
Flow trails
- Hobbs Hollow Flow Trail: Hoosier Mountain Biking Association, Brown County, IN
Downhill trails
- Overflow Trail: Copper Harbor Trails Club, Copper Harbor, MI
The big push here in the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes regions has been to vote for all three Midwest parks (you can only vote once in each category). The deadline is this Friday, April 12.
Last weekend, Aaron Rogers and Lori Hauswirth from the Copper Harbor Trails Club had a booth at Wheel & Sprocket’s Bike Expo Sale in Milwaukee where they cajoled passersby into logging into their Facebook accounts to vote. Very cool.
I’ve been doing a little work behind the scenes on this because A) Elm Creek is in the Twin Cities, about an hour away my hometown of Northfield; B) I’m a member of MORC; C) my riding ability has improved immensely because of the Eagan pump track so having more bike parks around is great for the sport; and D) I expect to be making frequent trips to Copper Harbor to take advantage of their downhill trails.
Because the Bell Built Facebook voting process can be a little cumbersome, I created this 3-minute how-to video/screencast:
So don’t delay. Vote now for:
- Elm Creek Bike Park/Maple Grove, MN in the Pump Track Category
- Overflow Trail/Copper Harbor, MI in the Downhill Category
- Hobbs Hollow/Brown County, IN in the Flow Trail category
We Midwest / Great Lakes mountain bikers would appreciate it.
And now that I’ve blogged about this, I’m going to nag, harass, and bother my non-mountain bike Facebook friends into voting. My message:
As you probably know, I’ve fallen in love with mountain biking the past two years. (You can read more than you’ll ever want to know on my blog, Mountain Bike Geezer.)
Right now, three Midwest mountain bike trails have a great opportunity to win a large grant from the Bell Helmet company. Most area mountain bikers on Facebook have already voted but because you can only vote once, it is critical to get our non-mountain biking Facebook friends to vote. Which is why I’m harassing you!
Step 1 (optional): See my short YouTube video on how to vote.
Step 2: Go to the Bell Built Facebook page and vote for:
* Elm Creek Bike Park/Maple Grove, MN in the Pump Track Category
* Overflow Trail/Copper Harbor, MI in the Downhill Category
* Hobbs Hollow/Brown County, IN in the Flow Trail category
If you vote, come on back here and ‘like’ this post and I’ll find a way to thank you.