Metro Spirit - 09.28.17

Get the skinny on the FATS Flow Master
WHEN DREW JORDAN first had the
spark of an idea for having a timed race
on the clay-packed FATS (Forks Area Trail
System), he wasn’t sure whether he could
pull it off.
The owner of Andy Jordan’s Bicycle
Warehouse (and Andy Jordan’s son) had
heard a lot about how difficult it would be
to get a race going on the land in Sumter
National Forest, because it is managed by
U.S. Forest Service. But a little more than
a year ago, after hearing that the local
mountain biking group that maintains
the trail system was looking for funds to
improve it, he said, “OK, this is it, we’ve got
to go for it.”
“So (Paul Farrow) and I were working on
it for a few months and getting involved
with the ranger out there,” Jordan said,
“and honestly it was a little easier to do
than I was expecting, because everybody
said, ‘Oh, you can’t get it approved,’ and it’ll
just be so much work, but … it’s gone pretty
smooth, I feel like.”
The FATS Flow Master (named for how
the trail is described as having good “flow,”
by bikers who use it) is the first event of
its kind on the FATS trail system. There is
a maximum of 125 riders, and Jordan said
it’s filling up, so bikers definitely should
register at andyjordans.com before the Oct.
8 deadline if they want a spot in the race.
Jordan already had experience with
running a race series, as he and Andy
Jordan’s Bicycle Warehouse have put on
The Canal Crown at a mountain bike trail
off of the canal for nine years now.
Farrow is a member of the Board of
Directors on the local chapter of Southern
Off-Road Bicycle Association (SORBA-
CSRA). The group’s prime objective, Farrow
said, is to have fun riding mountain bikes,
but with that comes the need for trails, and
the group spends a lot of hours and needed
funding to maintain the trails.
So the two friends collaborated and came
up with the FATS Flow Master, coming
Saturday, Oct. 21. Registration is $50 and
can be completed online at andyjordans.
com. All of the proceeds will be used to
make the trail better for all users, which
Farrow said is more than just bikers.
“Not only are there a lot of mountain
bikers, but there’s a lot of trail runners,
there’s a lot of hikers, there’s a lot of people
just going out and walking in the forest,”
Farrow said. “And it would be great if they
would connect with SORBA and help
perform some of this maintenance of
the trails. A lot of people will go out and
use trails (in the area), and I will see some
people on the trails and they’ll say, ‘Well, I’m glad the land manager
did this or did that,’ but no, the land manager didn’t do that. We,
SORBA, are the ones that did that. It would be nice for Joe Public
to understand that while the land manager will do what they can,
they’re very restricted in their resources, and they depend on
volunteer organizations like SORBA to go out and perform all this
trail maintenance.”
The trail needs maintenance because over time, biking trails
become weathered. FATS was built in 2005, and Farrow compared
trail maintenance to the kind of maintenance people would
routinely put into their house.
“FATS was built per IMBA — that stands for International
Mountain Biking Association — standards. But yet we still have
from Mother Nature, from all the rain that comes down, some
erosion that goes on,” Farrow said. “And so we want to raise funds
to bring back in a professional trail builder to go in and repair the
sections that have started eroding. I guess you can do an analogy
back to your house. Your house is built very fine, but as it ages, you
have to go back and repaint it and you have to do minor repairs. So
we’re doing these minor repairs so that these trails will last way into
the future, and future generations will be able to keep using them.”
He said right now, he anticipates that the cost of updating the
trail would be about $20,000.
“The land manager has told us that we should go and develop
a master plan for the FATS trail head, and once we develop this
master plan, the Forest Service will review it, and if it gets approved,
then the Forest Service will allow us to add trail amenities like a
picnic shelter, a changing room, a bike-wash station,” Farrow said.
“And if we’re able to get additional funding, then we will go and do
these trail amenities. This will make the whole experience of using
22 METROSPIRIT AUGUSTA’S INDEPENDENT VOICE SINCE 1989 28SEPTEMBER2017
V28|NO39
By Amanda Main
the FATS trails a whole lot better.”
FATS is considered one of the top trails of the world, Jordan said.
“It was one of the first purpose-built trails — it was built
specifically for mountain biking,” Jordan said. “It wasn’t a hiking
trail that was turned into a mountain bike trail, or a hiking trail that
could also be ridden on. They call it “flow trails”; a flow trail, as the
name implies, is all about keeping the trail as flowing as well as
possible so you’re constantly maintaining good speed. The turns
might be slightly less, like it won’t be as tight as a radius so you can
maintain more speed through it; you’re constantly going up and
down the hills without any extreme changes on the trail. Some of
the trails out there do feature that type of riding, but what we’ll
be doing on the race course is very flowy, single track. So you can
maintain a pretty high rate of speed the entire time out there, so
the guys that’ll be racing and going for the win, they’re gonna be
moving along quite quickly.”
Jordan’s advice for anyone wanting to do the trail race is to get
out there and ride it themselves first, and to also be prepared for
the almost 20-mile distance. The trail race course can be viewed
online at andyjordans.com.
“It’s a good idea to have ridden 20 miles off-road before. Or at
least close to that, because riding 20 miles off-road is a lot different
from riding 20 miles on the road or on bike paths,” Jordan said.
“It’s a little bit more physically demanding. It requires a little bit
more upper body strength because you are having to overcome
obstacles and ride over little roots and rocks and things like that,
that make you engage your upper body and core a little bit more.”
Although the race is meant to raise funds, Jordan and Farrow
both said they really want people to just come out and have a good
time.