Indoor bike park £300k target smashed

A computer-generated image of the proposed bike park

AN online campaign to raise investment for the UK’s first indoor BMX and mountain bike park has smashed its £300,000 target in half the expected time.

Now the founders of fledgling business Dirt Factory, have increased their investment target to £450,000. The Dirt Factory bike park will be located somewhere in Greater Manchester and its founders include people from Oldham and Mossley.

They were trying to raise £300,000 with a crowd-funding appeal.

The Dirt Factory team includes a construction project manager, mountain bike trail-building specialists, marketing professionals and cycle coaches. They have spent three years developing their business plan and building a strong supporter network.

Dan Makin (29), from Mossley, is one of the founders and directors. He said: “Over the last few days the rate people have been investing has really increased..”

Co-director Mark McClure (34), from Oldham has worked on cycling projects with school children across Oldham and since 2010 has been a sub-contractor for the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA), building tracks in China, Israel, Mexico, Norway, Switzerland and the United States.

Entrepreneur and former Dragons’ Den star Piers Linney is one of the investors who has become a Dirt Factory backer.

He said: “Dan and the Dirt Factory team contacted me a couple of years ago. Since then, their vision has really paid off. They have raised moe than their initial £300,000 target from over 300 private investors through Crowdcube.

“After consultation they have increased the target to £450,000 to allow more rapid development. This is a huge success for a determined team tapping into the huge growth in all forms of cycling. The Dirt Factory will be a UK first.”

The Dirt Factory website will stay live until February 29: http://bit.ly/DFinvest.