Lordship Loop Revisited

A little while ago I headed out to check Tottenham’s Lordship Rec pump track, not long after it opened. I said it was great and suggested it offered a chance for people to develop skills in a local environment, giving everyone from beginners to those with a bit more experience a challenge.

Some people didn’t agree and there was comment that it was a bit too advanced. Arguing that the opening had shown elite riders manualling rhythm sections and there was nothing for people to bridge a gap between rolling over the bumps to a level of skill that local kids will “never attain”.

Feeling that maybe I’d missed something I headed back, this time with a BMX to see if a second ride would prove different.

I still think it offers a great opportunity. While I was there a young girl on a cartoon-character bike was clearly enjoying the bumps and I’m sure that top riders can get something from it. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing for people in between. Why build something that’s not challenging? It’ll just go unused and people will get bored of it. Local kids certainly can gain the skills of the pros, as you can see time and again as you watch locals on BMXs tearing up the skateparks and guys hitting big lines in the bike parks. Should it have been assumed that they would never reach that level, so why build something to let them?

Skills loops at the big trail centres do offer a progression, but they don’t stay fun for long. You ride them, if you must, and then head out to use those skills on the bigger challenges that the real trails offer. Riding a bike and learning to get better shouldn’t be a soft, structured, educational process, but at times a full-on take-a-risk and hope type thing. How many times have you sized up a drop, and then finally just gone for it, hoping for the best, made it and then gone back again and again and ridden it with style. That’s how I learned in a time before we had graded trails.

So the Lordship Loop? It’s what you make it. It’s a tiring circuit to ride hard, but it makes you go again and work out the sections you stall on. I’m no air-merchant. I am a reasonable cross-country rider who likes a bit of fun in the riding. I can’t manual sections and I came up short on some of the doubles trying them out, but it makes me try again, and take something away each time. This time I cleared one jump consistently and was close on another. Next time I will get them both.

Go back again and again and make yourself learn something. You’ll end up a better rider in one way or another. As well as stronger and fitter. Making a trail centre in the middle of Tottenham would have been impractical. This is a resource for many different riders and lets you challenge yourself.

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