Dagmar and Durham Trails: Mountain Bike Product Development - By John Fisher

Dagmar North Trails

John Fisher President - DMBA Project Manager – Dagmar North Trails

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• Dagmar Stats: o o o o o

Built 13 km of new multi use mountain bike preferred single track Over 5 months 205 unique volunteers 5,700 trail building hours contributed 54 organized builds

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Partnered with TRCA Received at $20,000 grant $20,000 grant matched by DMBA (from members fees) $12,500 additional personal contributions by members Cost to build 1km of trails is $10,000 + Project Value was $130,000 (includes in-kind labour)

Who are the Durham Mountain Biking Association?

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Who are the DMBA? • • • • • •

2nd Largest MTB club in Canada Riding on single tracked forested trails 750 members and growing We ride on conservation lands We build legal & sustainable trails We ride in the Uxbridge area...

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40 KM

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What does the DMBA do?

• Advocate for the Mountain bikers • Organize events for our members – Group rides out of Durham Forest – Organize community events such as; • Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day • Pancakes of the Forest • Earth day Cleanup

• Build sustainable trails • Follow International Mountain Bike Assoc. rules • Resist erosion and reduces maintenance

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• We ride

Who are the DMBA? Where are we from?

Gender of our members Durham – 49% York – 28% Toronto – 9% Other – 14%

Age % distribution 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

Under 30

30s

40s

50s

60+

Who are the DMBA? Where are we from?

Gender of our members Durham – 49% York – 28% Toronto – 9% Other – 14%

Age % distribution 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

Under 30

30s

40s

50s

60+

It’s important to mention…

• Before Dagmar, over 100 km of beginner and intermediate multi-use trails existed • MTB’ers were the primary user group • There was no charge to use these trails • Durham Region contributes up to 40% of the cost to acquire conservation lands

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– the forest continue to grow by Durham Region’s new land acquisitions

Dagmar trails were built to…

• Improve connectivity to other existing trails • Reduce user conflict – These new intermediate and advanced MTB preferred trails were designed to attract MTB’er to this area and away from other areas of the forests, we have done this in SPADES let me show you how...

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Strava Heat map Notice the left moon shape…

This is - Durham Forest, Walkers Wood, Glen Major forest…

Strava Heat Map 2014 Created by Cyclists…

Durham Forest

Walker Woods Glen Major Forest

This is 2014 - Durham Forest, Walkers Wood, Glen Major Forest…

Strava Heat Map 2015 Created by Cyclists‌

Durham Forest

Walker Woods Glen Major Forest

DMBA

Dagmar

How did Dagmar North come to market and attract all those riders‌

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It all starts with having great partners • Our Major Partners are; Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority (LSRCA) Toronto Region Conservation Authority (TRCA)

• The Conservation Authorities own or manage the land we ride, build and maintain trails on… o It took years to develop these partnerships as we had to figure out how to speak their language and understand what was important to them and that is why we only build sustainable quality trails. o We also have DMBA members on their stewardship committees.

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Our supporters include:

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How Dagmar comes to Market  Got idea onto the TRCA management plan… adding mountain biking preferred trails onto the closed Dagmar North conservation lands  Applied for $20K Federal Grant (NTC) …

 Then Marketing starts - 2015  Outdoor press in Feb 2015 to announce NTC Grant    

With 2 federal MP’s, with their social media support (Facebook/Twitter, etc.)

Mayor of Uxbridge and councillors 3 Local newspapers DMBA Facebook and others, twitter updates

 Toronto Bike Show – Spring 2015  Arranged for 3 video which were posted on YouTube…

 The Built starts : April 2015 Sept 2015

 Facebook, emailed and tweeting every build… all 54  Added photos to DMBA FB and twitter after build day  Newspapers did articles as we were building trails  Special rides with influential in MTB community, prior to opening  “Test rides” by trail builders, prior to opening  Dagmar T-Shirts (after 3 builds) and Dagmar Jersey (7 plus builds)

 Promoting the project was an important part of our success o It attracted     

Volunteers Donors Sponsorship New DMBA members and a lot of buzz through social media It was so successful , we had trouble keeping riders off the trails until the grand opening

 Grand opening – Sept 2015        

250 people (rainy day – outdoors) Bike shops – provided prizes, test bikes and additional market penetration Live band playing Food Ribbon cutting Press Politicians 70 Dagmar jerseys, revealed and presented (group photo)

So why did they come to Dagmar?

We already had 100 km of beginner & intermediate level trails in Durham Forest and Walkers Woods, etc.  that look like this…

But we wanted to create a different experience, trails with more technical features… something a bit more challenging.

So why did they come to Dagmar?  The secret of our success is what we built…

We did it in a way that challenged riders to improve their skills, while minimizing risk…  we signed each trail with the name of the trail and it’s difficulty rating (similar to down hill ski runs)  we created bypasses around technical features on most trails  we created safe fall zones around technical features  we created technical features for intermediate riders to challenge themselves  We also created double black diamond trails for advanced riders…

So why did they come to Dagmar?  We created a different trail experience…

 Or just riding fun like…

 Stump Ride

 Log Rides  Drops or wall ride

So why did they come to Dagmar?  We created a different trail experience…

…Double Black Diamond…

We created Rock features like “Mr. Mayhem”

So why did they come to Dagmar?  We created a different trail experience…

…Double Black Diamond…

And created log over features like “Cattlelogs”

Do you have any question?

Thanks for listening, do you have any questions? ď śJohn Fisher

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john.fisher@durhammountainbiking.ca