TIMBER - News

February 2010

Announcement: Annual General Meeting due!!
We have booked the Santon Downham Classroom for 19:30 on February 18th.
All members welcome.

There will be some discussion about TIMBER's future role with the FC and what we want to do going forward. We will be chosing a new Chairman and some other Committee positions too. For more info check out the forum.

January 2010

Well a lot has been happening behind the scenes over the past couple of months:

Duck & Cover

OPs1 approved before Christmas
Final design work and FC questions answered
Commencement meeting has taken place and has been signed off
Building can commence!!

Autonomy

For those that don't know, TIMBER has been working towards being an autonomous group being able to work alongside the FC. Up until now, we have had to be 'hand-held' by the FC. We have now managed to complete processes to allow us to work independantly (ie when we want, not when they want). This includes:

Completing Risk assessments (yawn, but necessary in this day & age)
Two leaders trained in First Aid (hopefully more to follow)
Easy to follow procedures

October 2009

A Newsletter is in the offing and will be published soon. Dusk til Dawn was quite eventful and we did very well on the whole. We await the outcome of our latest plans for a new section to be overhauled on the Red Route... watch this space!

Some additions to the website will also be following before Christmas...

20th September 2009 (Newsletter 12 available)

Latest Newsletter - a bit late this month. You can find it here. In this months newsletter we reveal the next section of the red route we want to work on, news of our litter picking initiative and introduce TIMBER's new sponsor!

1st August 2009 (Build Day)

A Great day had by all! Welcome to the new members, you were a great help. We managed to get quite a bit done:

The First task was to drain a small pond that had formed toward the end of the Red Route (near the Squirrel Scamper). A drainage pit was dug to one side and the water was displaced by sand dug from the pit. The main part of the 'pond has been covered in an attempt to encourage riders on the hard bit which should allow the rest to consolidate

The next challenge was a little further on where the trail turns sharply right back toward High Lodge. We decided to make a berm and also sculpt the land to encourage better drainage.

We then went onto fill in a another hole that had formed

We then did some trail clearing up at Tightrope to let some more light in and then back down to the Rifle range section to clear some foliage to let some light in.

Finally we have started giving out the odd prize after a build day. On this occasion, we had two Go-Ape tickets worth £50. Our names went into a hat and the lucker winner was newcomer Liam.

1st August 2009 (Trail team Activities)

A welcome return for our resident Chief trail Pixie Paul Jewby (Red top). We got together before the main build day to set about inspecting the next section planned for an overhaul (the bit near the Rifle Range) Progress is happening! We are hoping to put in some more wooden features and improve the drainage in this section. Watch this space!

July 2009 (Newsletter 11 now available)

Latest Newsletter hot off the press here. In this months newsletter there's some news about the grant from Suffolk County Council, a report on TIMBER's presence at Bike Week recently, the website migration and Summer series racing results.

We also ran a prize draw for all those members who joined during Bike Week and the winner is Timothy Crabb.

We are now running a longer prize draw until November (draw will be November 31st) for two more multitools:

June 2009

BikeArt's new Bike Wash station is up and running. We are working on an agreement for a reduction in cost or some free tokens for TIMBER members... watch this space!

30th May 2009 (Build Day): The first task was to remove the brash from the Rishbuth Woods section so that the East loop could be opened. Whilst this was given a final whack, two people moved to the short section before this to trim some low branches. Proceedings were somewhat hampered by Dave's hook of Doom losing a bolt! Thereafter the day was spent mainly at the section after 39 steps and up to the split for the East Loop.

After a break for lunch the section was swept of the top 1-2in of loose 'marbles' to reveal quite a solid underpinning. There were a couple of places which needed attention, one of which being the tight left-right with the bank to go over in the middle. It was found that the natural flow pushed riders of the stone and this was causing the edge of the trail to erode. Some minor wacker work and some stone scooped from another berm was used to infill and reshape the bend. An update on this section is pending.

May 2009 (Newsletter 10 now available)

Latest Newsletter hot off the press here. We've reached the milestone of issue 10 of the TIMBER newsletter and this month it has a new look to match the new TIMBER logo! In this issue details of a busy couple of months with trail build work on the red route, cycling development team meetings and trail inspection training. Also find a review of the new Rendlesham bike park and an interview with the TIMBER summer racing series mixed pairs