After just over two months, the bike hall on the shores of Lake Zurich already had a thousand visitors. Well, the Skills Park in Winterthur receives that many on a single (albeit very good) day. Nevertheless, this is a success for the indoor facility, which is only open to the public on Wednesday afternoons and at weekends. Outside of opening hours, cycling clubs use the infrastructure for training from time to time, (freestyle) mountain bike courses are held and some school classes have also held a special gym session in the former warehouse.
Those responsible are so satisfied with the popularity that they asked the owner of the site, the municipality of Uetikon am See and the canton of Zurich for permission to keep the bike hall open all year round. This was recently approved until 2022.
Some modifications to the hall are necessary for permanent operation, including the wooden pump track, which belongs to the canton of Zurich and is on tour in the warmer half of the year. "This is the reason why further major investments are required. The hall should remain attractive for bikes, scooters, BMX and skateboards," says the media release from those responsible.
Specifically, the table line (jump ramps) will be extended, a flow park with three to four lines next to each other and a new "boomerang pump track" (U-shaped, with entry and exit) will be created. There are also skill and kids' courses where the basic elements of cycling can be practised.

Crowdfunding to cover the conversion costs

The Bike Trails Pfannenstiel and Trail Friends Zurich clubs were previously responsible for the hall. They are now handing over responsibility to taketrail AG. This changes little in terms of personnel, as both clubs and the AG are largely managed by Hans-Peter Kienast, his son Leandro and his wife Christine.

To finance the expansion of the facility, they have launched a crowdfunding campaign on lokalhelden.ch. The target is CHF 129,000, but they will start the renovation from CHF 60,000 and make use of the investors' funds. The campaign will run until July 2020.
Important for anyone who would like to ride under cover: The conversion work will begin on March 16 and the hall will be closed for two to four weeks. "We are confident that we will be able to do it in two to three weeks," explains Hans-Peter Kienast on the phone, "but you know how things sometimes go with construction projects." You can find out when the bike hall will reopen at bikehalle-uetikon.ch.