Photo: City of Santa Clarita
The Haskell Canyon Bike Park will bring 16 miles of MTB trails of all types to the riders of Santa Clarita, with $7.4 million being invested into this ambitious trail development. Unfortunately, kids on dirt bikes and Sur-Rons are “destroying progress” and delaying the opening of this groundbreaking bike park.
In a post on both Instagram and Facebook, the City of Santa Clarita and the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff shared that riders on dirt bikes, including both gas-powered dirt bikes and electric-powered Sur-Rons, are “actively damaging the park, delaying its opening, and impacting the quality of the facility for everyone who is excited to use it. The trails and riding features are carefully shaped and compacted, and unauthorized riding is destroying progress and setting the project back.”
They clarify that “riding dirt bikes or any motorized vehicles inside the Haskell Canyon Bike Park construction area is not allowed.” Santa Clarita is asking these riders to stay out of the park so that they can finish construction and open it to the public. And don’t expect to get away with a slap on the wrist: “Violations will be enforced to the fullest extent of the law.”
Riding a Sur-ron, one of the most popular e-moto brands. Photo by Jasper Garratt on Unsplash
Sur-Rons are motorcycles, not e-bikes
A careful analysis of the photo shared by the City of Santa Clarita shows both gas- and electric-powered dirt bikes, but the confusion of electric-powered motos, like Sur-Rons, being called e-bikes is rampant. As we’ve covered on Singletracks before, the use of the term “e-bike” for these high-powered machines is causing real problems for legitimate mountain bikers. This is just the latest episode in a long saga, but unfortunately, a multi-million dollar bike park is being damaged in the process.
The widespread confusion between these two types of machines recently prompted renowned professional rider Hans Rey to write an open letter to the bicycle industry exhorting brands “to define our language,” saying “it’s time to draw a line in the sand of when e-bikes become too powerful.” States including California and New Jersey are considering or have already passed laws meant to distinguish electric bikes from electric motorcycles.
Haskell Canyon Bike Park. Photo: City of Santa Clarita
What will Haskell Canyon Bike Park offer once it opens?
If and when the City of Santa Clarita manages to open the bike park, riders will find four miles of cross-country and climbing trails that will connect to 5.5 miles of downhill trails — the first downhill-only trails in Santa Clarita. The park will also offer five miles of multi-use trails for biking, hiking, and running, and will grandfather in nearly two miles of existing social trails.
“The downhill bike trails include beginner, intermediate, and expert lines, and we’ll have mountain bike optimized and downhill jump lines, a dual slalom race course, progressive jump lines, skill loops, progressive skills areas, and beginner and intermediate asphalt pump tracks,” said Georgia Rios, Communication Specialist for the City of Santa Clarita.
We just need the dirt bikers to stop tearing up the fresh trails.
