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I have started to make a track in the garden. Its mainly all lawn, I had a little go last year but the two jumps and a berm I made last year are now covered in grass so more a grassy mounds than a dirt jump.
The vast majority of the land is flat, with some gradual ups and down in places. Just wanted to get some ideas and check a few things.
To provide a good surface for the track, Should I….
a. Hope repeated riding kills and grass back leaving a nice dirt track
b. Apply weedkiller to where I want the track to be
c. Dig out the turf where I want the track to be and replace with hardcore/dirt (not ideal, its going to be going around the edge of about an acre so lots of work)
Would I be daft in thinking I could create pump track type bits on the vaguely uphill sections ? With bigger jumpy jumps and berms elsewhere (if that makes sense)
I have collected old pallets and will be creating some kinda north shore somewhere, maybe over a bramble hedge for added giggles.
A lot of the work in building trails is the bit in between jumps as well. Where I used to dig we dug down maybe an inch or two to level the ground and then whacked it down to create a hard surface. Regular riding should keep this fairly free from grass, with the occasional strimming session to keep the surrounding vegetation from encroaching. You'll also want to consider what happens when it rains i.e. drainage, nothing worse than having a nice track that can only be ridden after two weeks of dry weather.
[url= http://www.leelikesbikes.com/ebook-welcome-to-pump-track-nation ]http://www.leelikesbikes.com/ebook-welcome-to-pump-track-nation[/url]
It's pretty well drained but will need raising in a couple of places.
I'm thinking sections of pump track on the flat going into twistyness on the slightly downhill bits. There are a few tree stumps along the way I'll try and use. I'm also making a pond and it's a foot of loamy soil then loads of clayish stuff which looks ideal for building.
Sounds good, I'd love to have a garden or piece of land to build on. Make sure you post up pictures of your progress.
That would mean figuring out how to post pictures on here..;o)
It's me and a shovel so may be slow progress.
I'll start today, lifting the turf and replacing with packed down dirt.
Does a series of pump track type bumps work on a slight uphill ? I presume it works but requires extra "pumping"
Instinct leads me to think 'no', you'll just lose too much inertia. But the beauty of building your own means you can try it out and change it, albeit with a bit of work.Does a series of pump track type bumps work on a slight uphill ?
Can you hire a mini digger for a day to get some of the boring graft done? Out of interest, have you built any trails / jumps etc before?It's me and a shovel so may be slow progress.
I'd like a digger but access is limited in some places and this is all being done on a budget.
Have I built trails before ? Yes, around 1984 for me and my Raleigh Burner riding gang of mates !
Ah okay, fair enough, have at it. It can be slow going but the approach I take is even doing a little bit at a time you get there in the end.
Just a thought on your uphill sections, could you use these for some north shore stuff?
Still dreamin of doing this one..
Still can't figure out posting images. ....
I've been strimming and fighting my way through bramble to clear the route.
Uncovered last years attempt and it's not too bad. Will be clearing the turf back on the actual route then filling back in with dirt.
Looks promising... I can bring you hope and joy and confirm you can indeed pump uphill; a while back, I built a pumptrack that went up about 6 or 7ft, over a distance of 25-30ft, so it was pretty steep; took a fair bit of trail and error to get it to work, and I was probably gurning worse than popeye taking a spinach hit, with veins popping out of my forehead the 1st few times I attempted it, but once it bedded in, with a bit of practice, it was sweet.
Here's an edit from it's early days before it became a 4 tiered behemoth, with some properly silly lines just because I could.
Nice, Thats what I hope it'll be like once I'm done.
I'm off work for a few days this week so start digging in ernst tomorrow.
How far should I leave between each jump for maximum pumpidge ?
I'll take some snaps of the up till bits tomorrow and post them up (how can I make pictures appear on here ??)
Maximum pumpage is not an exact science... sometimes you've just got to go with the mounds the way you like em, just don't get too greedy 😉
As for pics, it's normally a matter of right clicking on the image, clicking copy image location, then pasting that in the brackets provided by the IMG button above... Flickr isn't letting me do that with your pics, though maybe if just copy the link you've provided and bung it in the brackets it'll work:
[img] https://flic.kr/p/UPL6ci [/img]
Nope... I'm no flickr wiz, so can't help there I'm afraid.
Posting pics from flickr
to the right of the image you get some symbols. One is an arrow thing. click on that you get a series of ways fof sharing. click on BBcode. copy and paste that
[url= https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4199/33994993583_5b4eaf30bc_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4199/33994993583_5b4eaf30bc_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/TN2ee2 ]2017-05-21_08-09-38[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/146761403@N07/ ]Bob Bob[/url], on Flickr
I've the app or mobile version as I'm on Android. I get a share option but can't see anywhere to copy anything other than the url. Excuse my ignorance.
sorry - I was on a desktop. Old skool
[img] https://flic.kr/p/UMcJLA [/img]
Still can't figure out posting pictures. It's baking out, Sun tan and berm is coming along nicely. Sausage sandwich for lunch then onto the jumps.
I gave up on flickr and use photo bucket now. Capture the IMG code and paste it straight into the Forum post box.
Oh for Petes sake, pump tracks are sooooooo lame. Build some proper dirt jumps or stick with begonias. 😉
[URL= http://i350.photobucket.com/albums/q416/williamsrob2/20170812_175920_zpse4op5h7r.jp g" target="_blank">
http://i350.photobucket.com/albums/q416/williamsrob2/20170812_175920_zpse4op5h7r.jp g"/> [/IMG][/URL]
Had no time until today. finished this section. more tomorrow.
[URL= http://i350.photobucket.com/albums/q416/williamsrob2/20170812_175946_zpsghwqbkmb.jp g" target="_blank">
http://i350.photobucket.com/albums/q416/williamsrob2/20170812_175946_zpsghwqbkmb.jp g"/> [/IMG][/URL]
Berms not finished yet, With optional cave for the nippers.