Many mountain bikers would be horrified at the prospect of paving backcountry trails, and nobody is suggesting anyone do that.
When you're in an urban setting and trails are part of city infrastructure, they need to be accessible to everyone, work in any weather, and require as little maintenance as possible. Armoring MTB trails with asphalt, concrete, or rock armor makes total sense in certain situations, and they're fun to boot!
In Bentonville, the further you get from the greenway, the more natural and technical the trails get, and that's how it should be. But if you're ever in the area, check out these paved jump and rhythm sections for an undeniably fun experience.
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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. 🤯🤯
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!😂
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
My city’s solution to dirt trails requiring maintenance or pavement seems to be to not maintain the trails
That's definitely the cheapest option. 😞
Our trails are also not maintained by the city, but by volunteer crews. Not many cities sponsor single track trail systems, maybe a bike park or something but not single track over a larger area. The city might support the trail crew with assets ( like a building to store tools and supplies close to the trail head ) but they will not offer labor. In your situation, I would try to form a collective and as a collective go talk with your counselors ( or representatives ). Most city counselors will love to work with a motivated volunteer crew, for them the labor costs ( especially since you can't get a normal landscaping capable employer to do proper maintenance on a mtb trail, vastly different knowledge required ) are the main issue, not their unwillingness to support through materials or accommodations. Trail systems make city's more attractive not only for the locals but also for tourists. There are couple of places around here which rent out bikes, and they as well might be willing to 'sponsor' part of the equipment and materials needed. Do not rely on the city itself, the places where this actually happens are incredibly rare. Organize, look at who would profit besides you as a rider, and go talk with them. You'd be surprised about the possibilities.
In NJ they cut down trees to block trails because trails are bad for the environment. Or they fence it and throw up no trespassing signs.
Be the solution you're looking for.
Our trails are maintained by our local grassroots MTB club volunteers. Sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands and now we're 2000 members strong.
From an elderly non bike rider : Thank you for this video. I hope more places establish recreational areas that are fun, practical and highly usable. Again, thank you.
It is hard to do that in the United States when we destroyed neighborhoods for cars, parking lots, and highways.
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 KZhead 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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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
This honestly looks really nice, both from an aesthetic perspective and a practical perspective. And it looks super fast too!
Most awesome town I've ever seen. Having jumps next to the road increases your chances of help if you do a faceplant, genius!
Every town needs to do things like this. Being able to pump around and flow changes peoples lives.
This is a smart application of paving material for urban trails. Your reasoning is very sound, Seth; thank you for showing this to us.
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 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.
Awesome video Seth! We love our paved trails here! Gives us something to ride when it rains
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!
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
Trail builders in the Sierra's have been using concrete pavers and armoring for decades in areas that fall apart super fast. Mammoth mtb park armored a number of their trails since they are working with dirt that resembles kitty litter. Kinda surprised Whistler hasn't started armoring more since they have so much trail damage every year.
Come to the southwest and show us how to do it.
Absolutely LOVE this, been dreaming of this for years, its finally happening, Great Video!!!🤩
such a sucker for any video that touches on trail building, this one was extra cool, thanks for what you do!
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!
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.
@@MikeR65 lol yes
Bentonville trails are sponsored by Walmart, otherwise we wouldn't have this infrastructure.
The last 30sec of the video are great. I love the quiet smooth swooshing of the tires.
Just love this channel and how you find these things that seem strange at first glance but are pretty cool.
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.
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...
This is SO rad it defies logic… Best stuff ever. Those a street jumps is perfect for something in Calgary
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 :)
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...
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
I love this! I love spending my time riding outside and the trails at bentonville are amazing
Great commercial for Bentonville. I wouldn't complain. That would be a blast. Thanks for sharing this with us.
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.
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.
I agree with your comments Berm... excellent trails for everyone to use for a long time.
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.
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.
this looks like so much fun (for being in a city!)
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!
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.
Definitely should come to Tasmania
Surely!
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.
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.
This makes me want to visit Bentonville (which, admittedly I hadn't heard of until you're a series of videos).
Mountain bikers discover road biking
Haha. It is kinda like “hey! Look at how fast and grippy this strange new surface is!”
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Great idea, very nice. Heck of a gift for the residents.
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’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.
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.
Oh now these are awesome. Especially how they connect to the commuter paths - that is the best idea ever.
Enjoying you enjoying Bentonville. Will have to make it down there someday!
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?
If you leave it long enough, one of those pressure washing KZheadrs 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.
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.
It looks and sounds purely awesome. I fell in love with the flow bike lane.
I wanna go there so bad
Should come to Australia qld
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.
Awesome video! I wasn't aware of the glow in the dark trails when I was out there for Bike Fest this year.
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.
I'm surprised this isn't done more often. MTB trails can cause so much erosion, and we want to preserve the beautiful sights surrounding our routes.
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
Bentonville has it all! We stayed at an Air B&B on NW A street right across from the Leopard's Loop, it was great the first day there, waking up and riding Leopard's Loop 10 times in a row.
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.
Not side walk, it's the ride walk.
Sideride*
Awesome, interesting content man!
Awesome! Looked like Big Fun and makes sense.
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.
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!
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
Looks fun! Smart of them to hire you to promote Bentonville.
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!
Pretty awesome use of trails in general but to pave them in really smart. I wish more big cities would follow suit with similar projects.
What a great concept! This needs to be embraced.
Honestly a great idea, looks like a blast!!
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.
This is absolutely amazing!
its a good day when seth uploads
love the vids keep the up man
What a great boone to the community! So good for physical, mental and emotional well being!
Having such a way to get to the school is a DrEam! I wish i could reborn there! Thanks for sharing!
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???
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.
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!
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
Dude the trail along the road is such a cool idea. I’ll definitely be visiting at some point.
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.
This is just brilliant. I love that a city has the foresight to do things like this. This is intelligent on so many levels.
That looks like so much fun! I would love to ride something like that!
That looks so GOOD!
Watching you ride Choo choo got me excited enough to start riding MTB! It wasn't as fun as it looked, but it got me going!