The 3.3.3. Freewheel was the first product Shimano ever sold back in the days when it was called Shimano Iron Works. It’s also the name of a brand new trail in Blue Derby, which also happens to be the first slice of singletrack constructed as part of Shimano’s Trail Born initiative.
Shimano has earmarked $10 million USD to invest in building trails around the globe over the next decade. Triple 3 is the first cab off the rank, and so to see what this masterpiece hand-built by World Trail is all about, we sent Flow’s fastest correspondents Ryan Gilchrist and Luke Meier-Smith, on a recon mission to Derby.
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Watch and Ryan Gilchrist and Luke Meier-Smith SHRED the new Triple 3 trail in Blue Derby
How it all began | Trails born from Trail Born
According to Glen Jacobs, they’ve been eyeing off this ridgeline between Longshadows and Flickity Sticks for years, and have been waiting for the opportunity to put something in there.
Running from Black Stump to the causeway down near the Cascade River, this 1.4km descent sees 130m of elevation drop and is chock full of Derby’s trademark granite and the magic soil that we all know and love.
The Dorset Council was actually talking about this trail as far back as 2022, and it was initially planned to be constructed for the EDR the following year to be used alongside Cuddles.
“Unfortunately, we had that big landslip, and all of the associated works with that. This trail was earmarked to be built after Cuddles, but I don’t think they had the funding for it,” Chris Cafe, Director and Chair of the Blue Derby Foundation, tells Flow.
“It was actually all taped and scoped out all the way back then,” he says.
After the festivities of the EDR, the Dorset Council didn’t have plans to put in new trails, because they are well acquainted with the fact that new trails mean more maintenance. While Blue Derby has a full-time trail crew headed up by the one and only Pete Coleborn, there is a limit to what they can stay on top of and keep the trails to the “Derby Standard.”
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Cafe says that Toby Shingleton from Shimano, Australia, who is also a part of the Blue Derby Foundation, came to him with the idea for a Trail Born project, and this trail immediately came into his mind. Coleborn was on board, but Cafe tells Flow that the Council was hesitant to commit to putting in a new trail because of the maintenance.
“We came up with the idea that if we were going to apply for it, why don’t we apply for the funding (for the build) and the maintenance of the trail? That was kind of the sweetener that got the Council on board,” says Cafe. “We ended up winning it (the Trail Born grant), and we got the $10,000 AUD a year, for three years, to maintain it.”
“It was the first time the community had actually gone out and got funding for a trail — it wasn’t State Government or Federal government or anything like that. It just showed that if the community, the Council, and everyone worked together, you could make these things happen,” he continued, while also acknowledging that without Shimano, the funding wouldn’t have been there in the first place.
Anybody Want A Snickers Bar? | Handcrafted, rough and rugged
With its own entry from the Black Stump trailhead, it’s one of about half a dozen hand-built trails in the nearly 130km Blue Derby trail network.
“It’s a slim trail that goes out wide in different places and back to skinny. On the whole, it’s unique to anything else in Derby but there are elements of Trouty and Kingswall — it’s very fast and very fun,” says Glen Jacobs from World Trail.
Hand built, mainly by Max O’Connor and Millie Cafe from World Trail, Jacobs tells us it’s been graded as a blue and will mature into a dark blue trail as things wear in — though they won’t let it fall over the edge into black diamond territory.
“We were chasing rock bars down this ridge, and they were significant rock bars — say something the width of your desk that goes for 100m, and they stick up out of the ground. Or others that stick a meter out of the ground but are 600mm wide and run for 20 meters,” says Jacobs.
Deemed Granite Snickers Bars, these unique bits of geology have become a cornerstone of Triple 3.
“They’re like log rides made of rock — it’s pretty unique, and you can ride the length of them, which is a heap of fun,” says Yeti EP Racing’s Ryan Gilchrist. “They’ve built the track so that you’re able to switch lines and swap sides and jump up and down. If you’re going slow and sessioning things, you can find these optional triple black skinnies that are made of out rock, and there are some huge gaps hiding on this track as well.”
Jacobs tells us they’ve never come across so many Echidna’s on a build before. As they moved down the ridgeline, a different spiky little creature would come and visit every day, surveying its respective territory. But with how long the crew at World Trail has been eyeing this ridgeline, it’s taken on a special meaning for Jacobs.
“We’ve always joked that it was going to be one of the last ‘Glen Built’ tracks designed for World Trail, and that’s one of the last hand-cut tracks that I’d be on the tools helping to build,” says Jacobs. “We’ve put our heart and soul into this one, and we wanted to build something really nice. Even the climb is really funky. It’s sort of core mountain biking, not beautifully cut edges, and there is no really nice shape to anything, it’s raw and rowdy.”
Handbuilt Goodness | What’s it like to ride?
And that heart and soul that Jacobs, O’Connor and Cafe blended into this ribbon of dirt and granite has shone through, as both Gilly and Meier Smith said it was their favourite trail in Derby at the moment.
“There is a huge amount of machine built track in Derby, and it’s nice to get a little bit tighter and narrower, and even just more organically built singletrack,” Gilchrist says. ‘You’ve gotta be a bit more on your toes, and it doesn’t just cradle you down the hill. You’ve gotta be active on the bike.”
“There was so much variability in it, and line choices,” Giant Factory Off-Road Racing’s Meier-Smith continues. “For riders like myself and Ryan, we were able to double off a lot of the rocks and create backsides to things, whereas a beginner rider could just roll through everything.”
While Triple 3 was the first project to be funded by Shimano’s Trail Born initiative, a lot of things lined up for it to be possible.
“I do feel proud that we’ve managed to make this come to fruition. It takes a massive team to make these things happen, and without the support of the guys from the Council, the Foundation, the trail builders, and Pete’s crew — they all understood the opportunity and the mechanics of all of the approvals and things like that, and how to expedite things “ says Shimano Australia’s Toby Shingleton.
“It’s surreal. Having ridden in Derby so much and to see how each of those trails has become iconic in it’s own way, and now there is a trail funded by Shimano that has a little bit of my stamp on it,” he continues.
All of this has been timed up to coincide with the 10-year anniversary of Blue Derby. Talk about serendipity. The trail will open in time for the festivities on April 10-12, which will also include duck AND billy car racing, guided riders, live music, shuttles with the one and only Sam Hill, live music, a film festival and more.
This story was made possible by Shimano Australia.
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