“It will be similar to what we do in Maydena, where the whole area will be under our lease and under our responsibility. So we’ll manage the trail development, the trail maintenance, and the general operation of the park, including safety management and putting on bike patrol,” he says. The key change going forward is that rather than splitting management between two entities to run the park day to day and then having more outside contractors come in to build new trails, Elevation Parks will be in charge of everything.
The shield is kept secure with a magnetic anchor attachment and it can also be stored in a flipped-up position. There’s a new MIPS iteration that’s more comfortable than the original version and the helmet has a compact shape that fends off the weather without overheating. We found the fitting system to be effective and comfortable with a good amount of adjustability. Bell’s XR helmet is aimed at cyclists who like to ride both on and off-road and require a helmet to cover both terrains. We found the Protone to be one of the most comfortable helmets we’d ever tested, and indeed one of the lightest, beating the Giro Synthe by 20g (0.7oz).
On Tuesday, April 30, the Council voted to officially bring the Tassie-based outfit on board for five years. About 12 months later, when it came time to renew the leasing agreement for the bike park, HVP said it would ONLY negotiate with the Alpine Shire Council. The Alpine Community Plantation, which had run the park up to that point brought several governance options to the table, ranging from continuing the current volunteer-run model to bringing on full-time paid staff, among others. One of the most important measurements to consider is the top tube length and reach.
The Protone features a reinforced internal plastic sub-structure, which has been certified in passing the Kask Rotational Impact WG11 Test, the brand’s protocol on rotational impact. With its short tail, the MET Codatronca has an advantage which makes it a more versatile time trial helmet for most riders. Riders will still get significant aero gains but without having to worry that they are always in a perfect optimum “turtle” position – this is particularly relevant when faced with sporting courses. On the bike, we were impressed by the airflow as well, which works better than some more obviously vented helmets, despite there only being two front-facing vents. We also rated the ponytail-friendliness, although adjusting the cradle height at the rear is a little fiddly. To keep the weight as low as possible, the helmet doesn’t feature any additional safety features such as MIPS, although other versions of the Ventral do.
Cross Country has traditionally not been too much in our wheelhouse, but we’re still keen to look at it if there is local interest and we can help support it,” he says. As part of taking over park management, French says they’d like to bring events to the park. They’d like to get the Mystic genesis bicycles Downhill running primo again so they can start considering bringing DH racing into the park. But the future of Mystic is not just about gravity, and French tells Flow a major part of the development plans involves improving links and connectivity and building new climbing trails.