Imagine being a kid growing up in this town. You would be able to ride rain or shine and have trails so close to everything. You'd be ripping! We are constantly having trails closed where I live, so I am so jealous of this!
Im a high schooler who lives here It’s amazing that this is my back yard! After school me and my friends ride straight from school to the trails until night time, takes about 10 minutes to ride from school to the trails
As someone who lives in Bentonville it's insane, the terrain already holds up to water very well. You can practically ride an hour or two after a hard rainfall
@@guyfawkesuThe1 When you have that many miles of trail to maintain, it's not bad. The great thing about Bentonville is you can go over to handcut hollow or the back 40 if you want more standard type mountain biking. The paved trails are few and far between. But for the most ridden trails that are for more of a warmup, they're nice things to have that take no maintenance.
@@guyfawkesuThe1 Because there aren't any city streets that have well designed jumps, rollers, high banks, etc. - this really isn't difficult to understand
@@RyTrapp0 Ya they are not supposed to have jumps, rollers, etc.. on city streets. That is why they call it mountain biking...not to difficult to figure out!
These are some of the most important videos you have made. Literally paving the way for a boost in cycling infrastructure worldwide and new thinking. Showing that it works and people WILL use it when it's made.
We been using concrete granulate on one off our local trails since 2022. The soil otherwise is clay, and it's pretty low laying so before we could ride probably half the year normally, the other half it was like riding through inches of mud every time it rained ( drainage was a pita since the terrain was already at low elevation ). The granulate not only lowered maintenance for the volunteer trail crew, it made the trail enjoyable throughout the year. Yes, falling on granulate vs dirt sucks. But that's the only downside really, aside perhaps aesthetics. And if you judge a trail only by how 'accommodating' it is when you crash, you're probably crashing a bit to often. Aesthetics wise, our granulate looks cheap compared to those almost slab like rock paths. Guess it helps being sponsored by a big company vs having to pay for stuff from local donations ;) But yeah, it really depends on the usage, granulate might upset a 'purist' ( we had guys who enjoyed the inches of mud... even went riding specifically after heavy rain... even if they knew they were destroying the trails riding in those conditions, they just didn't care somehow ) but it's far from bad overall.
@@mabamabam It's broken up concrete and bricks, in small pellet form, which get's packed on top of the existing soil. This hardens a lot, and it is permeable enough to allow water to not collect on top like we have with a clay soil. Used to dump truck loads of dirt on top of the clay but that's just a recipe for disaster with the rain we got. Especially now / this year.
I agree fully, I seen what can happen when someone falls on top of a broken off tree small shark stump and it's not pretty. But riding heavily rooted sections is also a lot of fun. Just do things at a pace you feel comfortable at ( even if you then come to TH-cam and feel old and fragile in comparison ). Also, you can still get pierced by wood if unlucky and falling off the trail, since the allure of riding is gone when people start removing all the shrubs and bushes / trees around the track. Again though, just ride at a pace you're comfortable at. @@AaronHendu
I live in the Dallas area and feel this so much. The trails are usually closed half the year because everything is clay so the trails are a mess for a week every time it rains. I would love to see paved trails (or covered in granulate) around here so we could spend more time riding.
That is just splendid. A shining example of what can be done to tangibly improve things and provide a positive experience to visitors and residents alike. I say, Well done to Bentonville. 👍👍
The city planners in Bentonville are all rock stars - such a great example for other cities to follow, nothing wrong with paving frequently used trails to make less maintenance & safer after rain etc 🤟
Sounds great, but the only piece of the equation you're missing is the fact that Walmart has sucked the life out of just about every town across America. Your money leaves your small town and turns the Walmart family's town into a utopia.
I love this! This looks like so much fun, and for a flow trail, why not? The few flow trails that I have ridden have been all torn up with braking bumps and ruts, this would be amazing. I really need to visit Bentonville, the fact that the town has out so much well thought out effort and expense to make cycling part of their infrastructure just blows my mind.
Seth, once aging great job. Love your channel... What Bentonville is doing serves a model for other cities and towns. Trails like this, makes accessibility available to more people. More people will buy bikes. That will help local bakeshops. More people owning bikes might mean less people in cars.
I love the diverse range of topics you cover in your videos. There is no like one thing you focus on. It's always something different. One of my favorite channels
I would have never though about cities doing this, but it's genius like you said! Down here in Florida a few of the trails become so dry and dusty during the winter it's almost unrideable for anybody even with healthy lungs. Then in the summer when it rains every single day the mud can get so thick your screwed. Again not all the trails, but two off the top of my head would so benefit from this! Hope you spread the word so other places identify trails that could use this to benefit the community, for me it would make those annoying trails usable more than a few months a year.
Graham is the only place I can think of that actually gets really sandy after months of no rain and they've been slowly armouring it up for the past 7 or so years.
Would love to see a longboard rip through this. Also this is one of the many reasons why concrete skateparks are superior to anything else. Good stuff.
I think what you are doing in talking and promoting Bentonville it is great thing that many other cities should take notice. I was there was something even close to that in the Dallas area.
I must say, this is a much cooler topic than bikes for toddlers... In fact all of the content while your in bentonville has been amazing! You might have to move there and review Ebikes...
I love seeing things like this. Improved recreation and infrastructure in a community will ALWAYS be welcome! Wish more cities were willing to invest in bike, skate and other recreational parks the way Bentonville seems to. Hopefully more in the future!
The Coler climb is a perfect application for paved surface trail. It serves like 6 DH only trails so it gets hammered compared to the flow trails. If each rider per day does 4-5 laps it gets 4-5 uses vs 1-2 on the DH trails. The old dirt climb sure showed this use. It's also wide enough to pass slower riders on the way up. Don't miss the old climb at all...
Building paved trails on heavily frequented ways to school is actually a genius way to get kids interested in outdoor recreation + give them a motivational boost to head out to school every morning. I wonder why I’ve never seen something like this before.
Here in low places we first fill with sand and let that pack before adding concrete granulate. If you're using the right granulate, freezing won't be a big issue since it's permeable enough to not crack ( since it doesn't retain the water ). The sand below serves the same purpose. And it's cheaper as as a sand / granite mixture aka gravel. It's not going to carry heavy traffic, it's not meant for cars so I think sand is stable enough.
these trails look so awesome! paved is fine as long as they look like that! what sucks is regular trails turned into flat gravel walking paths with no technicality, and unfortunately that happens alot! also, no reason rock gardens couldn't be fully cemented into place to keep the technical nature without the erosion.
Just got back from a weekend down there and I can't get enough of that area! Viewers, show this at your city council meetings! Find your local parks and rec director and get them excited about trails! There is no reason to leave these forgotten parts of cities alone when we could be building trails on them, for the same cost as sidewalks!
I wish my city did this. We used to have a small but nice bike park with some nice jump lines, but as soon as they fell into disrepair, the city just took them out and turned them into walking trails. You can still bike on them, but they're just flat trails through the woods. They still have street lights though so I guess that's nice. People don't use them since there's a rather large homeless camp in there.
This town is incredible. If you get the opportunity to explore the area you have to try to see as much as you can! Just know you’ll never see it all so be prepared to keep going back
As somebody that actually builds playgrounds I can tell you they are VERY expensive and once its built... it STILL requires maintenance. Let's make doing things right a priority instead of trying to save a dollar at every chance.
I*m speachless...while I was watching it felt so therapeutically and positive...level of happiness like a little kid🙃🤸♀🤸♀... Bentonville is a winner ! 👏👏👏👏🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝💪💪💪💪💨💥
It's like a pump track had a baby with a mountain bike trail and I love every bit of it... the roots and rocks and knarlykness is super fun to me. But something like this is awesome as well. No problem with choices and variety.
Mountain biking seems to be going through what skiing has been going through a hundred years ago, it's turning from a niche hobby that the natural environment can support to a mass attraction that can only be artificially maintained.
Yup. And the more popular it becomes, the more pretenses will be used as reasons to destroy the natural environment. This video is a good example of that. Destruction of nature can apparently be justified through very human-centered ideas of "accessibility". I see it all the time in my own hometown where nature is increasingly becoming subject to a new type of industrialization in which road infratructure is being constructed in untouched environments in the name of "accessibility". One can hardly call these areas natural anymore as a result of these processes. We're in 2023. There is no excuse good enough anylonger that can justify human expansion into what's left of nature.
This man accidentally releases this week's video last week, does he skip a week? No, he just keeps on releasing videos. That's impressive! You know he has to make that up somewhere!
Last July, I was lucky enough to stay in an AirBNB across the street from Leopard's. What a blast to start the day riding across the street and warming up on the Loop and then hitting a couple more times (if I wasn't completely blasted) at the end of the day. I never did see it actually glow in the dark, though.
Leopards Loop was unridable a few years ago before it got pavement. It would washout so bad near the end it was dangerous to ride. Same happened with choo choo. Would get washed out and wasnt fun to ride. Glad they paved those. plenty of natural surface trails out there as well.
As a casual biker I'd love to have one of these near me. I've never really liked going off pavement with my bike, and this certainly looks more exciting than a typical paved bike trail.
I'd like to see what the local bmx scene is like there.... I'd love to rip those sidewalks and paved trails on a BMX bike, that looks absolutely sick. Great job Bentonville.... Might show my local recreational director this. 😊❤
Check out the Railyard over in Rogers. They have a huge bike park that's perfect for BMX and djs. We've got paved pump tracks all over the place too, there's one at Runway park in Springdale.
I’m teaching my daughter to ride now. We’re planning on going to B’ville in the spring. How do you keep algae from growing on the shade-covered paved trails?
Scrub of the tires keeps them mostly clean. If they are well drained there won't be much moss coverage, maybe some lichens depending on the chemistry of the mix but it would take years to get bad. We do have that problem with wood though, most of the time they are covered in skate grip or a paint mix with rough texture.
It's so awesome to see this. I actually got into Mountain Biking in Northwest Arkansas, just outside of Springdale (which is just down the road from Bentonville) in the mid 90s.
I prefer paved and Hard Rock Trails as opposed to dirt. My city has mountain bike paved trails all over and I love them more than the dirt trails because they're always predictable and super fast. And probably cuz I grew up riding Street on my mountain bike as a kid living in the city so it's just natural to me.
What really strikes me about this is that the town cared enough about their kids to make a safe and fun way to get around on their bikes. Props to Bentonville. I'd love to see more creative car alternative infrastructure in every city.
Interesting video Seth. Are there any increases in injuries on the paved trails that have been noticed (compared to a dirt trail)? Or are so many people wearing elbow and knee pads now that it isn't an issue?
It's a bit of a double edged sword I suppose. A dirt trail may be more forgiving when you fall, but a paved trail makes the likelihood you will fall much less due to consistent traction.
I must admit, I'm quite disappointed with the idea of paving natural mountain bike trails. In Europe, we deeply value the connection with nature and the wilderness that mountain biking offers. Paving these trails feels like a disconnect from these values and seems environmentally unfriendly. While I understand different cultures have different approaches, I believe it's important to consider the impact on our natural surroundings, especially in light of climate change. I do enjoy this channel, but I felt it was important to share my perspective on this issue.
I was just out there a month ago, riding on those same metal grate trails in the intro :D It was my first time seeing a lot of that type of stuff, so it was pretty neat. Im not a skilled jumper, so I couldn't ride a lot of that to it's fullest, but had a blast covering 100+ miles of trail while there for several days on a sweet rented bike.
In short, it doesn’t. The vast majority of the town consists of normal singletrack, and a trail like Leopards Loop is only 1000 linear feet. BUT, if you’re just trying to optimize your experiences on asphalt you would go for an XC tire or even a BMX tire if that tread pattern is available.
I just got back from a Bentonville trip. As an old traditional tech rider, it is still pretty amazing. Any city planner should go there to see what can be done.
Say what ?? « If you’re a purist go into the wood where you belong… » okay Seth so what is the space you are right now ? Is it not what we use to call woods ??? If every fuckin city goes crazy with their woods and pave , cement every single tracks in it where will we find the woods near our cities ?? Mountain bike it’s not tennis or basket ball it is not an urban hobby. Let’s hope that doesn’t give idea to other facilities. Ho wait it happens already and tasteless track with no dirt and bump are everywhere…. The heavy track maintenance in bike park is a pain in itself. The crazyness to want smooth berm and track everywhere is stupid. MTB IS NOT SKYING. This trend arrived in Europe where bike park use to be natural and broken all summer. Now we have track closed for maintenance, park closed when rain, park with « flows » red to diamond DH lollll….. I hate it.
Swing and a miss man. "Leopard's Loop" for example, was built on an unused vacant lot that is between two roads, a school, and an apartment complex. It was dirt for years, with 6 ft high raised skinnies. But then mountain biking TOOK OFF here with the youth, and they started riding it, which caused very fast erosion. So to solve that, they paved it, but kept the small features to make it interesting to ride. People can poke fun...and that's fine. I'll be laughing when I'm out there riding laps on it when the dirt surface trails out "in the woods" are sloppy from freeze-thaw. The few paved trail options are great to have following heavy rain. If you get curious, look up Google Maps and type in Slaughter Pen Trail System. You'll see what I'm talking about. It's in a completely urban area and surrounded on all sides by city development. No woods were wasted in the development of the trail system there. It took advantage of areas for recreation, that in turn makes the housing developments more desirable. We have wooded trails that are remote enough that you don't have cell service within an hour drive. We have it all. That's just one thoughtful segment. You won't find those paved trails anywhere but in high traffic, urban areas. The rest...is dirt surface.
Austin, TX and the surrounding communities (especially Hutto/Round Rock/Georgetown, Pflugerville) need this! (I state those particular cities because they don't have ANY mountain bike trails, save for the brutal 29mi Georgetown lake "Dragonslayer"). Nothing at all east of I35.) Even if it's mostly flat, these can be made to make MTB features where usually you'd find only ordinary walking paths and gravel jogging trails.
I really want to thank you for all of the videos you put out. All of your Flip Bike videos, and then the poop shifting video has turned me into an amuetuer bike mechanic. I even used a trick from a video you put out years ago. Put a little air in the tube before putting it into the tire and onto the wheel. You have made me brave enough to change out a front derailuer, diagnose a rear derailuer issue, and make little mods to my bikes to make them a better ride for me. Again, thank you for sharing your knowledge with all of us.
Good on Bentonville for promoting Bikes instead of treating us like scum...Here in Kalistan, our trails are ruined by horses or Hikers with the damned Trekking poles!
Things other than dirt are great. Keeps it fresh and new. Provides a different experience. I would like to see more stuff like this. Its great for the hobbym
Seth, i’m not sure how you come up with these awesome videos! I would have ran out of ideas after the big surly video😂Thank you for this awesome content.
We were just there and the paved trails are awesome!👍😉 Leopards Loop and ChooChoo rock!🤘And It gives people a few places to ride when it’s wet. Perfect!
Makes sense from a weather standpoint. I live near the hydro cut here in Ontario and it becomes so slick every time it rains that it is dangerous. The roots are like ice and tires just slip all over the place! Paved seems awesome!!
Absolutely love this. In my teenage years this was my go to activity. I'd hop on the bmx bike and ride to the old forest lot by the railroad tracks. It had well worn hard dirt trails and a few nice hills you could zip up, down, and around. I remember once crashing head on with my friend at the time.
If it was no trails vs paved trails in the suburbs, I think EVERYONE would be happy to have something to ride so close to home.
I know I would!!
Hell yes
Absolutely!
100%
Even not paved trails, that's why the paved ones are so so f... unreal. 🤯🤯
Imagine being a kid growing up in this town. You would be able to ride rain or shine and have trails so close to everything. You'd be ripping! We are constantly having trails closed where I live, so I am so jealous of this!
You have trails? I have to ride over one and a half hours to get to "O Valiño"
We might see more Pros in the future who come from there.
I did and none of this existed for me growing up 😢
Im a high schooler who lives here It’s amazing that this is my back yard! After school me and my friends ride straight from school to the trails until night time, takes about 10 minutes to ride from school to the trails
As someone who lives in Bentonville it's insane, the terrain already holds up to water very well. You can practically ride an hour or two after a hard rainfall
Seems like there's one big drawback that you didn't mention: That's gotta hurt a lot worse if you crash (as compared to dirt).
But your road rash would glow.
But not compared to the desert
That was my first thought as well...
Those glow in the dark chunks look especially brutal.
also, where's all the dirt to rub some dirt on it when you do fall?!? add dirt and gravel for health safety and medical concerns!😂
Bentonville has everything. Having some paved trails in the mix is a great touch! All of these videos are making me want to go back.
I disagree. Why not ride on city streets and curb jump then? This is Pavement Biking, not Mountain Biking.
@@guyfawkesuThe1 When you have that many miles of trail to maintain, it's not bad. The great thing about Bentonville is you can go over to handcut hollow or the back 40 if you want more standard type mountain biking. The paved trails are few and far between. But for the most ridden trails that are for more of a warmup, they're nice things to have that take no maintenance.
Well because curbs don't have great landings and streets have cars, that's why.
@@guyfawkesuThe1 Because there aren't any city streets that have well designed jumps, rollers, high banks, etc. - this really isn't difficult to understand
@@RyTrapp0 Ya they are not supposed to have jumps, rollers, etc.. on city streets. That is why they call it mountain biking...not to difficult to figure out!
This is the best way to combat tech companies distracting kids for hours on end! Get outside, scrape knees, and fun! Just like the good old days!
These are some of the most important videos you have made. Literally paving the way for a boost in cycling infrastructure worldwide and new thinking. Showing that it works and people WILL use it when it's made.
there are so many un-walkable/bad infrastructure, car-centered cities that can benefit from ideas like this! i hope this video blows up! 🙏
That closing shot of the flowing berms is hypnotic. What a cool little section.
We been using concrete granulate on one off our local trails since 2022. The soil otherwise is clay, and it's pretty low laying so before we could ride probably half the year normally, the other half it was like riding through inches of mud every time it rained ( drainage was a pita since the terrain was already at low elevation ).
The granulate not only lowered maintenance for the volunteer trail crew, it made the trail enjoyable throughout the year.
Yes, falling on granulate vs dirt sucks. But that's the only downside really, aside perhaps aesthetics. And if you judge a trail only by how 'accommodating' it is when you crash, you're probably crashing a bit to often.
Aesthetics wise, our granulate looks cheap compared to those almost slab like rock paths. Guess it helps being sponsored by a big company vs having to pay for stuff from local donations ;)
But yeah, it really depends on the usage, granulate might upset a 'purist' ( we had guys who enjoyed the inches of mud... even went riding specifically after heavy rain... even if they knew they were destroying the trails riding in those conditions, they just didn't care somehow ) but it's far from bad overall.
What's granulate?
@@mabamabam It's broken up concrete and bricks, in small pellet form, which get's packed on top of the existing soil.
This hardens a lot, and it is permeable enough to allow water to not collect on top like we have with a clay soil. Used to dump truck loads of dirt on top of the clay but that's just a recipe for disaster with the rain we got.
Especially now / this year.
Most trails are not safe anyway...getting pierced by a stick is the real danger. If scrapes and bruises scare ya, go easy out there!
I agree fully, I seen what can happen when someone falls on top of a broken off tree small shark stump and it's not pretty. But riding heavily rooted sections is also a lot of fun. Just do things at a pace you feel comfortable at ( even if you then come to TH-cam and feel old and fragile in comparison ).
Also, you can still get pierced by wood if unlucky and falling off the trail, since the allure of riding is gone when people start removing all the shrubs and bushes / trees around the track. Again though, just ride at a pace you're comfortable at.
@@AaronHendu
I live in the Dallas area and feel this so much. The trails are usually closed half the year because everything is clay so the trails are a mess for a week every time it rains. I would love to see paved trails (or covered in granulate) around here so we could spend more time riding.
That is just splendid. A shining example of what can be done to tangibly improve things and provide a positive experience to visitors and residents alike. I say, Well done to Bentonville. 👍👍
👏👏👏
yes! now imagine how many un-walkable/bad infrastructure, car-centered cities can benefit from ideas like this! i hope this video blows up!
This honestly looks really nice, both from an aesthetic perspective and a practical perspective. And it looks super fast too!
The city planners in Bentonville are all rock stars - such a great example for other cities to follow, nothing wrong with paving frequently used trails to make less maintenance & safer after rain etc 🤟
Sounds great, but the only piece of the equation you're missing is the fact that Walmart has sucked the life out of just about every town across America. Your money leaves your small town and turns the Walmart family's town into a utopia.
This is a smart application of paving material for urban trails. Your reasoning is very sound, Seth; thank you for showing this to us.
I love this! This looks like so much fun, and for a flow trail, why not? The few flow trails that I have ridden have been all torn up with braking bumps and ruts, this would be amazing. I really need to visit Bentonville, the fact that the town has out so much well thought out effort and expense to make cycling part of their infrastructure just blows my mind.
Seth, once aging great job. Love your channel...
What Bentonville is doing serves a model for other cities and towns. Trails like this, makes accessibility available to more people. More people will buy bikes. That will help local bakeshops. More people owning bikes might mean less people in cars.
i was blown away by the paved trails on my first visit knowing if it rained during my visit id have options. its a win all day!
I love the diverse range of topics you cover in your videos. There is no like one thing you focus on. It's always something different. One of my favorite channels
Every town needs to do things like this. Being able to pump around and flow changes peoples lives.
NO
Please
This sucks
@@richarddecredico6098 you're miserable
I would have never though about cities doing this, but it's genius like you said! Down here in Florida a few of the trails become so dry and dusty during the winter it's almost unrideable for anybody even with healthy lungs. Then in the summer when it rains every single day the mud can get so thick your screwed. Again not all the trails, but two off the top of my head would so benefit from this! Hope you spread the word so other places identify trails that could use this to benefit the community, for me it would make those annoying trails usable more than a few months a year.
Graham is the only place I can think of that actually gets really sandy after months of no rain and they've been slowly armouring it up for the past 7 or so years.
Camo Murphy trails at JD State Park. Theres a couple hills that are straight up sand traps!
Most awesome town I've ever seen. Having jumps next to the road increases your chances of help if you do a faceplant, genius!
condolences
get to more places
this sucks
The last 30sec of the video are great. I love the quiet smooth swooshing of the tires.
Would love to see a longboard rip through this. Also this is one of the many reasons why concrete skateparks are superior to anything else. Good stuff.
I was about to say I’d love to skate down to say I’d love to skate on this as well
I think what you are doing in talking and promoting Bentonville it is great thing that many other cities should take notice. I was there was something even close to that in the Dallas area.
I must say, this is a much cooler topic than bikes for toddlers... In fact all of the content while your in bentonville has been amazing! You might have to move there and review Ebikes...
I love seeing things like this. Improved recreation and infrastructure in a community will ALWAYS be welcome! Wish more cities were willing to invest in bike, skate and other recreational parks the way Bentonville seems to. Hopefully more in the future!
The Coler climb is a perfect application for paved surface trail. It serves like 6 DH only trails so it gets hammered compared to the flow trails. If each rider per day does 4-5 laps it gets 4-5 uses vs 1-2 on the DH trails. The old dirt climb sure showed this use. It's also wide enough to pass slower riders on the way up. Don't miss the old climb at all...
Building paved trails on heavily frequented ways to school is actually a genius way to get kids interested in outdoor recreation + give them a motivational boost to head out to school every morning. I wonder why I’ve never seen something like this before.
Seth is such a great advocate for the MTB community. Everyone should email this video to their town leadership. He's already done the math for them.
Awesome video Seth! We love our paved trails here! Gives us something to ride when it rains
That’s incredible for AR, but that aquacrete/asphalt would last exactly 1 winter here in WI unless they put in a foot of gravel first.
Here in low places we first fill with sand and let that pack before adding concrete granulate. If you're using the right granulate, freezing won't be a big issue since it's permeable enough to not crack ( since it doesn't retain the water ).
The sand below serves the same purpose. And it's cheaper as as a sand / granite mixture aka gravel.
It's not going to carry heavy traffic, it's not meant for cars so I think sand is stable enough.
Absolutely LOVE this, been dreaming of this for years, its finally happening, Great Video!!!🤩
these trails look so awesome! paved is fine as long as they look like that! what sucks is regular trails turned into flat gravel walking paths with no technicality, and unfortunately that happens alot! also, no reason rock gardens couldn't be fully cemented into place to keep the technical nature without the erosion.
Just got back from a weekend down there and I can't get enough of that area! Viewers, show this at your city council meetings! Find your local parks and rec director and get them excited about trails! There is no reason to leave these forgotten parts of cities alone when we could be building trails on them, for the same cost as sidewalks!
I wish my city did this. We used to have a small but nice bike park with some nice jump lines, but as soon as they fell into disrepair, the city just took them out and turned them into walking trails. You can still bike on them, but they're just flat trails through the woods. They still have street lights though so I guess that's nice. People don't use them since there's a rather large homeless camp in there.
You mean fell into disrepair.
@@MichaelRei99 lol yes
Bentonville trails are sponsored by Walmart, otherwise we wouldn't have this infrastructure.
My family has gone down to Bentonville the past 2 spring breaks. It was awesome to see a video from you about places I have ridden before :)
This town is incredible. If you get the opportunity to explore the area you have to try to see as much as you can! Just know you’ll never see it all so be prepared to keep going back
What a great boone to the community! So good for physical, mental and emotional well being!
As somebody that actually builds playgrounds I can tell you they are VERY expensive and once its built... it STILL requires maintenance. Let's make doing things right a priority instead of trying to save a dollar at every chance.
I*m speachless...while I was watching it felt so therapeutically and positive...level of happiness like a little kid🙃🤸♀🤸♀... Bentonville is a winner ! 👏👏👏👏🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝💪💪💪💪💨💥
I wish where I live that there was 1/10 of the planning they do there for recreational or daily/commuting biking like you show in this video.
It's like a pump track had a baby with a mountain bike trail and I love every bit of it... the roots and rocks and knarlykness is super fun to me. But something like this is awesome as well. No problem with choices and variety.
Mountain biking seems to be going through what skiing has been going through a hundred years ago, it's turning from a niche hobby that the natural environment can support to a mass attraction that can only be artificially maintained.
Yup. And the more popular it becomes, the more pretenses will be used as reasons to destroy the natural environment. This video is a good example of that. Destruction of nature can apparently be justified through very human-centered ideas of "accessibility". I see it all the time in my own hometown where nature is increasingly becoming subject to a new type of industrialization in which road infratructure is being constructed in untouched environments in the name of "accessibility". One can hardly call these areas natural anymore as a result of these processes.
We're in 2023. There is no excuse good enough anylonger that can justify human expansion into what's left of nature.
such a sucker for any video that touches on trail building, this one was extra cool, thanks for what you do!
Definitely should come to Tasmania
Surely!
This man accidentally releases this week's video last week, does he skip a week? No, he just keeps on releasing videos. That's impressive! You know he has to make that up somewhere!
I do wonder if these paved trails are worse to crash on compared to normal ones. It does seem like road rash would be awful on these
No doubt. Would also tear up any pads you have on if they aren't hard plastic.
You're right. It actually hurts a lot worse than just staying at home.
Great commercial for Bentonville. I wouldn't complain. That would be a blast. Thanks for sharing this with us.
this looks like so much fun (for being in a city!)
I agree with your comments Berm... excellent trails for everyone to use for a long time.
I’d love to see someone on a longboard try to take those trails!
I have seen some one wheelers recently out and about. No longboarders yet.
@@hardtailadventures The one wheelers are a menace lol. I don't know how they do it, I guess it's like skateboarding where you just learn how to fall.
This is SO rad it defies logic…
Best stuff ever. Those a street jumps is perfect for something in Calgary
Last July, I was lucky enough to stay in an AirBNB across the street from Leopard's. What a blast to start the day riding across the street and warming up on the Loop and then hitting a couple more times (if I wasn't completely blasted) at the end of the day. I never did see it actually glow in the dark, though.
this idea is genius, especially the pump/jump line next to the road, commuting would be so more fun if we had trails like these in germany too
Leopards Loop was unridable a few years ago before it got pavement. It would washout so bad near the end it was dangerous to ride. Same happened with choo choo. Would get washed out and wasnt fun to ride. Glad they paved those. plenty of natural surface trails out there as well.
Yup. Choo choos berms were a maintenance nightmare when they were dirt
Same thing happened to Master Piece. It got washed out during a major flood we had in the area.
As a casual biker I'd love to have one of these near me. I've never really liked going off pavement with my bike, and this certainly looks more exciting than a typical paved bike trail.
I'd like to see what the local bmx scene is like there.... I'd love to rip those sidewalks and paved trails on a BMX bike, that looks absolutely sick. Great job Bentonville.... Might show my local recreational director this. 😊❤
Check out the Railyard over in Rogers. They have a huge bike park that's perfect for BMX and djs. We've got paved pump tracks all over the place too, there's one at Runway park in Springdale.
Just love this channel and how you find these things that seem strange at first glance but are pretty cool.
I’m teaching my daughter to ride now. We’re planning on going to B’ville in the spring. How do you keep algae from growing on the shade-covered paved trails?
If you leave it long enough, one of those pressure washing TH-camrs will show up.
🤣@@thomaslowry5632
Scrub of the tires keeps them mostly clean. If they are well drained there won't be much moss coverage, maybe some lichens depending on the chemistry of the mix but it would take years to get bad. We do have that problem with wood though, most of the time they are covered in skate grip or a paint mix with rough texture.
It's so awesome to see this. I actually got into Mountain Biking in Northwest Arkansas, just outside of Springdale (which is just down the road from Bentonville) in the mid 90s.
Mountain bikers discover road biking
Haha. It is kinda like “hey! Look at how fast and grippy this strange new surface is!”
Great content! Amazing ideas for all those municipalities around the globe!
I prefer paved and Hard Rock Trails as opposed to dirt. My city has mountain bike paved trails all over and I love them more than the dirt trails because they're always predictable and super fast. And probably cuz I grew up riding Street on my mountain bike as a kid living in the city so it's just natural to me.
It's cool to see trails maintained and invested in. really like the A-road idea
What really strikes me about this is that the town cared enough about their kids to make a safe and fun way to get around on their bikes.
Props to Bentonville. I'd love to see more creative car alternative infrastructure in every city.
I wanna go there so bad
This is just brilliant.
I love that a city has the foresight to do things like this. This is intelligent on so many levels.
Interesting video Seth.
Are there any increases in injuries on the paved trails that have been noticed (compared to a dirt trail)? Or are so many people wearing elbow and knee pads now that it isn't an issue?
It's a bit of a double edged sword I suppose. A dirt trail may be more forgiving when you fall, but a paved trail makes the likelihood you will fall much less due to consistent traction.
Maybe you should start a business selling knee pads etc.
I’d end up with those glowing green granules embedded in my skin. And I’d be proud of it.
Looks fun! Smart of them to hire you to promote Bentonville.
I must admit, I'm quite disappointed with the idea of paving natural mountain bike trails. In Europe, we deeply value the connection with nature and the wilderness that mountain biking offers. Paving these trails feels like a disconnect from these values and seems environmentally unfriendly. While I understand different cultures have different approaches, I believe it's important to consider the impact on our natural surroundings, especially in light of climate change. I do enjoy this channel, but I felt it was important to share my perspective on this issue.
Waiting for bermpeaks new paved trails .
Whoo hoo. Come on Seth...u know u want one.
Should come to Australia qld
I was just out there a month ago, riding on those same metal grate trails in the intro :D It was my first time seeing a lot of that type of stuff, so it was pretty neat. Im not a skilled jumper, so I couldn't ride a lot of that to it's fullest, but had a blast covering 100+ miles of trail while there for several days on a sweet rented bike.
How does that affect tire choice?
In short, it doesn’t. The vast majority of the town consists of normal singletrack, and a trail like Leopards Loop is only 1000 linear feet. BUT, if you’re just trying to optimize your experiences on asphalt you would go for an XC tire or even a BMX tire if that tread pattern is available.
Geez, that end screen shot of those berms was unbelievable! MTB fantasy! 😜
Not side walk, it's the ride walk.
Sideride*
I just got back from a Bentonville trip. As an old traditional tech rider, it is still pretty amazing. Any city planner should go there to see what can be done.
Say what ?? « If you’re a purist go into the wood where you belong… » okay Seth so what is the space you are right now ? Is it not what we use to call woods ???
If every fuckin city goes crazy with their woods and pave , cement every single tracks in it where will we find the woods near our cities ??
Mountain bike it’s not tennis or basket ball it is not an urban hobby.
Let’s hope that doesn’t give idea to other facilities. Ho wait it happens already and tasteless track with no dirt and bump are everywhere….
The heavy track maintenance in bike park is a pain in itself. The crazyness to want smooth berm and track everywhere is stupid.
MTB IS NOT SKYING. This trend arrived in Europe where bike park use to be natural and broken all summer. Now we have track closed for maintenance, park closed when rain, park with « flows » red to diamond DH lollll…..
I hate it.
It is not “woods”. It is just some infill space between housing developments that would sit there unused in most cities.
What is skying? Is it like skydiving?
Swing and a miss man. "Leopard's Loop" for example, was built on an unused vacant lot that is between two roads, a school, and an apartment complex. It was dirt for years, with 6 ft high raised skinnies. But then mountain biking TOOK OFF here with the youth, and they started riding it, which caused very fast erosion. So to solve that, they paved it, but kept the small features to make it interesting to ride. People can poke fun...and that's fine. I'll be laughing when I'm out there riding laps on it when the dirt surface trails out "in the woods" are sloppy from freeze-thaw. The few paved trail options are great to have following heavy rain.
If you get curious, look up Google Maps and type in Slaughter Pen Trail System. You'll see what I'm talking about. It's in a completely urban area and surrounded on all sides by city development. No woods were wasted in the development of the trail system there. It took advantage of areas for recreation, that in turn makes the housing developments more desirable. We have wooded trails that are remote enough that you don't have cell service within an hour drive. We have it all. That's just one thoughtful segment. You won't find those paved trails anywhere but in high traffic, urban areas. The rest...is dirt surface.
It looks and sounds purely awesome. I fell in love with the flow bike lane.
Brother love your content, its high quality and how the heck are you managing ur youtube channel at the same time taking care of your kids???
Austin, TX and the surrounding communities (especially Hutto/Round Rock/Georgetown, Pflugerville) need this! (I state those particular cities because they don't have ANY mountain bike trails, save for the brutal 29mi Georgetown lake "Dragonslayer"). Nothing at all east of I35.) Even if it's mostly flat, these can be made to make MTB features where usually you'd find only ordinary walking paths and gravel jogging trails.
It really is amazing that as cool as that area of Texas is, so little is provided in the realm of MTB.
I really want to thank you for all of the videos you put out. All of your Flip Bike videos, and then the poop shifting video has turned me into an amuetuer bike mechanic. I even used a trick from a video you put out years ago. Put a little air in the tube before putting it into the tire and onto the wheel. You have made me brave enough to change out a front derailuer, diagnose a rear derailuer issue, and make little mods to my bikes to make them a better ride for me. Again, thank you for sharing your knowledge with all of us.
Great idea, very nice. Heck of a gift for the residents.
I live in a self proclaimed “bicycle capital” and our only bike park is just a few neglected mounds of dirt. Bentonville is truly an inspiration.
Wait does Amsterdam even have any true "bike parks"? I mean Vondel does not count.
Not to mention, you can ride Leopard's Loop in the wet. A real plus for B'ville trips when you get a wet day!
Is it just me or is Seth updating more regularly this last month
And I love it !
Good on Bentonville for promoting Bikes instead of treating us like scum...Here in Kalistan, our trails are ruined by horses or Hikers with the damned Trekking poles!
What I show here is SF for me, I'm from Romania. Keep up the good work!
Oh now these are awesome. Especially how they connect to the commuter paths - that is the best idea ever.
Things other than dirt are great. Keeps it fresh and new. Provides a different experience. I would like to see more stuff like this. Its great for the hobbym
Seth, i’m not sure how you come up with these awesome videos! I would have ran out of ideas after the big surly video😂Thank you for this awesome content.
Would love to have roadside trails like that in the UK too. Great idea!
Would really liven up people’s cycle commutes to work!
I love this! I love spending my time riding outside and the trails at bentonville are amazing
Enjoying you enjoying Bentonville. Will have to make it down there someday!
We were just there and the paved trails are awesome!👍😉 Leopards Loop and ChooChoo rock!🤘And It gives people a few places to ride when it’s wet. Perfect!
I live right next to woods that has been built on for trails for years but keeps on getting over grown it would be sick if it was paved❤
Having such a way to get to the school is a DrEam!
I wish i could reborn there!
Thanks for sharing!
Makes sense from a weather standpoint. I live near the hydro cut here in Ontario and it becomes so slick every time it rains that it is dangerous. The roots are like ice and tires just slip all over the place! Paved seems awesome!!
That's part of the challenge! It's not supposed to be easy!
@@devononair There is a difference between hard and "why can I see my back tire when looking forward" haha
I saw the title and I was sceptical, but then I watched the video, and I am sold.
I LOVE the glowing trail, we need more of those.
Absolutely love this. In my teenage years this was my go to activity. I'd hop on the bmx bike and ride to the old forest lot by the railroad tracks. It had well worn hard dirt trails and a few nice hills you could zip up, down, and around. I remember once crashing head on with my friend at the time.
The video is awesome and should be sent out and used to encourage towns to adopt this idea.