PORC is up for grabs.
The venerable PORC bike park has been put up for sale by its owner with a guide price of “at least £2million” in the description.
In case you’ve never heard of it before, PORC stands for Penhursty Off-Road Centre. It’s a long-established bike park in Kent. It’s one of the longest existing MTB playgrounds in the whole of the country in fact. There’s XC stuff, enduro stuff, DH stuff, even cyclocross-friendly trails there.
Despite its good reputation, impressive heritage and relatively long-life, PORC’s owner has just put the place up for sale.
This announcement follows on from the previous sale of a quarter of the land to a collective of roadies who went on to create a one-mile long closed circuit there.
In a world where Camden closets are being rented out for £1,000 per hour – or whatever the latest shock tabloid story is – shelling out £2million for thirty two acres of prime real estate in Kent doesn’t actually sound that bad.
But surely no-one with a two-wheeled heart wants to see this land end up in the un-grubby hands of a property developer. PORC is a classic venue in the British biking scene and it provides a great location for gravity addicts and speed demons in this otherwise rather er, calm part of England.
Indeed, the current owner – Mike Westphal – wold prefer it to stay under biker ownership and keep providing trail riding fun for the general public; “it’s time to pass the baton to a bike enthusiast who will continue to live the PORC dream.”
PORC is still a success story in terms of mountain biking. The reasons for Mr Westphal’s putting it up for sale is partly that he himself isn’t really a dirt biker and he wants to re-locate and begin another cycling project that’s more overtly focused with getting people out of their motor vehicles and on to their bicycles for ecological and healthy lifestyle reasons.
Fair play to him. We wish him all the best in finding a suitable bidder for this iconic riding spot.