well its been a long time in coming -- took my son's desire to give mx a try and my fear of putting him on a track w/o some prior experience. the first 125-cu-yds of dirt will arrive saturday morning. any advice what to build first? thinking of a small table top, some whoops, and burming some turns. nothing serious as our overall track is only slightly over 1/2 mile (flat) - may be able to expand to 3/4 mile and still keep some of the green in the fields. i think this should be large enough to give some technical practice.
Dirt arrives starting Saturday
- Thread starter tnrider
- Start date
Just done the same for my son,keep the track simple to start with,they need to learn to corner first.Put a few basic jumps around the track as a treat for doing a circuit,keep the ramps long(not to steep) and have a long landing ramp.Last important point is to make the track reverseable so as every corner and obstacle can be reversed(corners and berms can be left or right hand).Best of luck
HajiWasAPunk
Member
- Aug 5, 2005
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- 0
what kind of machinery do you have to work with? We built our own track not quite a year ago. Unfortunately, if you pack it so it lasts, 125 cu yards of dirt is enough for 1 table top jump maybe 5 feet tall and 20 feet long. We used over 100 dump trucks (18yards a piece) to build a track that is about half mile long, has 2 jumps and 4 machine made berms.
- Thread starter
- #5
i have a kubota tractor with loader, backhoe, boxblade, cultivator. a neighbor contractor just offered his bobcat with tracks!!! and may also get their dozer that is sitting up the street. i hope they come with operators too...
i know that i will need more dirt - this is just a start. there is much construction going on locally and a major highway project coming soon - so i hope to get free dirt soon, this stuff i had to pay for.
i know that i will need more dirt - this is just a start. there is much construction going on locally and a major highway project coming soon - so i hope to get free dirt soon, this stuff i had to pay for.
- Thread starter
- #6
ellandoh said:
he is learning some humble lessons moving from the calm ttr125 to the rm85 :yikes:
he will also do the Tony D mx school in sept - comes free with the suzuki.
i really don't want him to get too much into racing (to scary for me to watch) but this stuff will make him a better rider. he is already more comfortable on the bike than i am. its fun to watch him moving around and reacting to the bikes movement.
you guys going to come down again some time? should do a "dirtweek on windrock" and see if we can get lots of people to attend. there is enough variety in trails to keep everyone happy down here.
did any of the photos of this past spring turn out - send or post some if they did.
- Aug 29, 2004
- 2,958
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ahh, unfortunately Lynnette took most of the pics and I dont really get along with her too well anymore LOL. I took her to the sand dunes for the 4th hopefully its the last i hear from her :boss:
I'll be back in the spring again to work out the cobwebs again, Ryan will be there for sure also. I tried last time to get a little something going. People just have other priorities I guess, they dont know what they're missing :coocoo:
ps. a secret i learned from a guy who built his own track is that the easier jumps to hit have a takeoff ramp that is at least twice as long as the bike going over it is from tire to tire.
hope that made sense :boss:
I'll be back in the spring again to work out the cobwebs again, Ryan will be there for sure also. I tried last time to get a little something going. People just have other priorities I guess, they dont know what they're missing :coocoo:
ps. a secret i learned from a guy who built his own track is that the easier jumps to hit have a takeoff ramp that is at least twice as long as the bike going over it is from tire to tire.
hope that made sense :boss:
- Aug 29, 2004
- 2,958
- 0
as close to the previous corner as you can , and still clear it comfortably. when that becomes routine , shift it closer so that it forces more aggressiveness. besides the skills learned by that method, it makes smaller jumps more fun when there is a not so routine challenge to them
what are the dimensions youre thinking of on the jump??
what are the dimensions youre thinking of on the jump??
- Thread starter
- #12
5-acres to play on, track is currently about .75 mile long. as for starting jump size - don't know... don't want to start with too much height but need enough for a good takeoff ramp length. what do you suggest? looks like i will have about 80x40-yards to play with on a dedicated practice jump (option on the track course). i heard that a good practice table is one with non-parallel jump faces and wide so that you can move along the jump to find various jump lengths.
if i can figure out how to post it, i have an air-photo with my current track layout overlaid on it. google-earth + powerpoint = pdf file
if i can figure out how to post it, i have an air-photo with my current track layout overlaid on it. google-earth + powerpoint = pdf file
- Thread starter
- #16
i have not had time to make much progress on the home track - busy working and spent a couple of days prepping the RM85 for J's MX class - which was then canceled. So we blew a day off school/work and went to I81 motocross track/trails for the day -basically had the place to ourselves - saw 4 other riders all day... unfortunately the main track was a mess - they had run the disk through it when it was wet and then let it sit and dry for a few days - clumps of dirt size of basketballs. we are use to a finely tilled track - the kubota and cultivator makes soft and fluffy track conditions.
back to the home track, i eventually got 6-loads in all ~25cu-yds per load according to driver but look more like ~15cu-yds to me. anyway, have used about 1.5 loads to build small whoops section near the road and started a small table top. plan to use the remaining .5 load to modify this tabletop into more of a single jump. had 4-loads dumped in a row in the middle field - plan to have a neighbor with a tracked bobcat come squash it were it sits into a larger tabletop but we had too much rain past weeks. although i am now unsure that i really need that much compression on the thing since it will only see a few bikes at a time. an atv with 500-lb roller may be enough?
will likely get another 5 or so loads after finished with these as want to enlarge the burms in a few turns also to grow the other obstacles. my rough calculation is that a trip to the local MX practice track costs the same as a load of dirt - ignoring my time to drive to the track vs time to move dirt into something useful. i have to justify buying dirt some how...
back to the home track, i eventually got 6-loads in all ~25cu-yds per load according to driver but look more like ~15cu-yds to me. anyway, have used about 1.5 loads to build small whoops section near the road and started a small table top. plan to use the remaining .5 load to modify this tabletop into more of a single jump. had 4-loads dumped in a row in the middle field - plan to have a neighbor with a tracked bobcat come squash it were it sits into a larger tabletop but we had too much rain past weeks. although i am now unsure that i really need that much compression on the thing since it will only see a few bikes at a time. an atv with 500-lb roller may be enough?
will likely get another 5 or so loads after finished with these as want to enlarge the burms in a few turns also to grow the other obstacles. my rough calculation is that a trip to the local MX practice track costs the same as a load of dirt - ignoring my time to drive to the track vs time to move dirt into something useful. i have to justify buying dirt some how...
