A conceptual drawing shows what a new bike park could look like at Lake Fayetteville.

Courtesy: Crossland Construction / Progressive Bike Ramps

Mountain bikers can look forward to some major improvements at Lake Fayetteville.

Members of the Ozark Off-Road Cyclists group are planning to construct a new bike park that includes two skills courses and a pump track along the north shore of the lake.

For years the non-profit mountain biking organization has built and maintained a series of soft-surface trails that circumnavigate most of Lake Fayetteville. The new bike park is part of an ongoing plan to improve off-road biking amenities around the lake.

A skills course includes a variety of low-lying structures designed to teach riders various technical and balance skills.

Progressive Bike Ramps

The new facilities will be built near the parking lot for the North Shore Disc Golf course.

The skills courses will be made from wood, and will include one track for beginners and a second course for intermediate riders.

“We’ll put it around the trees and around the places where people can sit and watch their kids ride,” said Phil Penny, president emeritus of OORC, during this month’s meeting of the Fayetteville Parks and Recreation Advisory Board.

The courses will include low-lying bike ramps designed to teach slow-riding technical and balance skills. The ramps on the beginner’s course will sit 6-12 inches off the ground, while the intermediate course will include 2-foot-tall ramps.

Penny said the pump track will be constructed of a fiberglass composite material.

A pump track uses an up and down “pumping” motion to propel the bicycle forward instead of pedaling.

Progressive Bike Ramps

The group is also proposing a “wall ride” to be built between a paved portion of Lake Fayetteville Trail and South Turner Street, just north of the parking lot.

Penny said the six-foot-tall wall would be sloped outward at about a 45-degree angle so riders come around the corner, ride up on the wall, and then transition back down.

“We’re still researching to see if there’s enough room there,” said Alison Jumper, Fayetteville’s park planning superintendent. “It’s right on the line (between the trail road).”

Other plans include removing a trail section that cuts across the disc golf course, repairing some areas where erosion has damaged the trail, and building bridges and fences in other areas of the park.

The work is expected to cost about $153,000, according to documents (PDF) included in the parks board meeting agenda.

Jumper said OORC is currently raising funds for the project, which could begin by the end of the year.