Let's Ride---INDOORS!

[geremacheks]

In the thread on Garage-Workshop Ideas...I posted an idea about buying an old Walmart or Kmart building and making an indoor riding area out of it. Ideally, it would have a MX track and a single track woods trail with plenty of winding ridges and and obstructions.

This idea keeps coming back into my mind. Is this idea the furture, because we will keep losing riding land? Or are indoor riding areas not even feasible?

But---who'd ever thunk their would ever be indoor SX? Or indoor ArenaCross. I also think there are indoor go cart tracks (gas engines?). So it must be possible.

The construction problem I see is a good air filtration and recycling system. But this problem must have been solved at the places mentioned above. Even simple indoor shooting ranges have solved this problem.

Another problem could be zoning, which I don't know much about.

What do you think? The first class indoor riding park that I can picture would look somewhat like a large Cabella's or Bass Pro Shop giant store. But the theme would be dirt bikes and riding, and so would the decor. (And to dream further, there would be a couple of outdoor tracks too, but probably not likely).

But lesser varities of this idea would be just fine. Maybe we could have major cycle company sponsors, with all the dealers and bikes inside.

Who wants to buy the first brick?

 

[Green Horn]

Originally posted by geremacheks
In the thread on Garage-Workshop Ideas...I posted an idea about buying an old Walmart or Kmart building and making an indoor riding area out of it. Ideally, it would have a MX track and a single track woods trail with plenty of winding ridges and and obstructions.

How BIG are the Wal-Marts where you live? Most buildings I've seen would make good pit areas but that would be about it. Not a bad idea to have an indoor woods type setting in a big dome though. Or maybe I could just ride up to the local Wally World and roost up the garden dept. :) Sure would be fun to power slide down the glassware isle too. :yeehaw:

 

[MikeT]

He must be talking about the SUPER WAL-MARTs. If you haven't been in one of those, man you'll like it. They are HUGE!

 

[Green Horn]

Originally posted by MikeT
He must be talking about the SUPER WAL-MARTs.

Yep, got one about 5 min from the house. They're a big friggin' store, but I don't see how you could have a "riding area" in one. Don't get me wrong though, I think an indoor riding area would be bad-ss to say the least.

 

[geremacheks]

Old Walmarts and Kmarts too small? Ok. Maybe we need a four story factory that's been sitting for sale for years. Take out the three top floors. (Or ramps to the upper floors?) Put a sign out front: Fill Dirt Wanted. There are ways to not spend a lot of money.

 

[tharnacle]

here in the lovely cold state of michigan we have an indoor arenacross track. Lots of fun but very small. i think i remember 28,000 square feet from their website, check it out.

http://www.prosourcesuzuki.com/

 

[nikki]

Originally posted by Green Horn


They're a big friggin' store, but I don't see how you could have a "riding area" in one.

LOL... you know Arenacross tracks are on areas the size of a basketball court, right? You could do a lot in a Wal-Mart/K-Mart. Heck I thought about putting a PW track in my basement :)

 

[derekb_55]

In London Ontario they made a track in a hockey arena. Really turned out great. Check it out http://www.londonmotoplex.com

 

[Patman]

It's not bad enough to come to work with battle scars from a weekend riding adventure but now I'll have to explain how I knocked all my teef out on a giant steel truss? Imagine somebodyies suprise when they are blazing a new trail in the indoor woods and they hit a support column :) Can you imagine the mud-fest of a multi story riding area if the sprinkler system went off?! :eek: Head for the top floor Mabel because it will be the ground floor soon!

Actually I like the idea and know it's been done but some of the minor details sure would need to be thought out first.

 

[KXrider12]

I think that it is a really sweet idea, and if i had a basement nikki i would deffinitly have a PW track.

 

[MXFastGuy]

Here's some pics of the one in Tecumseh, MI that tharnacle refers to:

http://my.voyager.net/~aaronsmith/prosource.htm

28,000 sounds right, but I think 20,000 is the actual track and 8,000 is the pit area.

 

[MXFastGuy]

OMG, Nikki, BASEMENT! I've got an 1,800 sq ft basement with literally nothing in it (exept for a couple cats and a litter box). Now I'm starting to think!

 

[WoodsRider]

I'm thinking the Boeing triple-7 plant in Everett, WA would be a good place to hold something like that. It's the most square footage under one roof in the world. The cost would probably be a couple billion, but maybe we could rent it for a couple days... do you think they'd move the planes out? :confused:

 

[jmics19067]

In Harrisburgh Pa every february they have a weekend called Motorama in the convention center. It is a huge facility comprising of a bunch of smaller buildings that are linked together. In one area they have arena cross in an other the pits for the racers, also, indoor go kart track with pits, R.C course with pits trials competition with pits and a small car,truck, bike show with vendors. Never have to go outside, all going on at once really neat to see. A small defunct strip mall could easily fit that bill.

 

[geremacheks]

If you had a choice to build an indoor or an outdoor track that would be open to the public, I'm thinking the indoor one would have much less roadblocks, much less paper trail (bureaucy...can't spell today), and much less headaches. We've learned they just don't want our tracks next to their beautiful homes in the country.

Many cities have buildings that are owned by the city, and they'd love to sell them (tax income) but these properties don't move too well on the real estate market. With a little promotion, I think they would be open to this idea, and buildings could be bought cheaply.

Columns and trusses? Yeah, sure, but the real woods has trees and rocks. We'll have to cover-protect the danger areas. But there will be a rescue squad bay.

Sprinklers? Ahh....like a spring rain, fun riding. Yes, a mess, but nothing like the damage incurred to department store with sprinkers going off in the Christmas season. We can clean up with a front loader.

Maybe we will need seperate buildings for each sport. I can envision a really fun indoor woods-riding park--small hill climbs, off cambers, bar-scraping tree trunks, and water crossings included. A Disney World for off-road riders.

 

[Jaybird]

http://www.xarenasports.com/

 

 

[Tom Dixon]

I need to go to Tecumseh!!!!! Probably a 4 hour drive from Kalkaska.

 

[Tony Eeds]

Read a very interesting chapter regarding an indoor riding area in Monkey Butt.

Regarding the original concept.  It is a good one, but take it from someone who has looked into developing indoor sports facilities, it is very expensive.  I think the idea has merit, but it would still take a great deal of cooperation by the city and there would have to be major upgrades to the fire suppression and ventilation systems before the fire marshal would likely approve it.

Tony

 

[tx246]

i am actually an employee of the wally world empire. we build all of the time and relocate stores. often times in smaller towns we have replaced 60000-80000 sq foot stores with the bigger 110000 sq ft supercenters. we dont own the empty buildings but we do have to pay the lease on the empty building. there are lots of times that the buildings remain vacant for some time before we can find someone to pick up our lease. i think 80000 sq ft equals in the area of 3acres or so. you can build a pretty cool track in that kind of space. in the older buildings you are looking at ceilings that are shorter. the upside of the fire sprinkler system is using a similar rig to water the surface to keep dirt down. heck maybe there is a synthetic dirt out there waiting to be discovered. shredded plastic or rubber ect. that might lessen the dust problem. and no dirty bikes!!! heck some of the tracks we ride are hard packed like concrete anyway. oh the possibilites. as far as city sanction goes............might be easier talking a smaller town into it. bottom line is that the property owner is going to want at least what a legitimate business wants. lights and utilites are way higher than residential rates too. seems that this idea would flourish in northern regions where the riding season is short. these types of buildings would be perfect for flat track, new style 50mx, trials, as well as mx.

 

[Glitch]

I sure hope that XArena in Trenton NJ opens up, if it even does, because I'm only 45 minutes from there. :)

 

[SpeedyManiac]

Imagine the 50 track you could build in a Walmart Store. It could be epic!

 

[n8MX]

I think it would be cool to even do something a bit more limited... instead of all out outdoor-ness, I think an arenacross or maybe tamed-down supercross style track should be possible. AX tracks are basically basketball courts, most commercial building are much bigger than this. Anywhere to ride from December to March would be great! It's tough to stay off a bike for four months! I've been kicking this idea around for while... too bad I'm still in high school and couldn't dream of that kinda money anytime soon!

Andy

 

[Weld it]

Check out www.imxarena.com a indoor facility built just for MX they had a open practice last weekend and they are running a whole series starting Dec.
15 on through the winter. Located in Farley, Iowa ( not to far from Dubuque, Iowa ) some of the people compared it to being about the size of the national arenacross held in Des Moines. There is also a place supposed to be opening a hour west of Chicago, Dave Antolak the owner of Tuf racing
is supposed to have something to do with it. You can email / check there website at www.tufracing.com and see if there is anymore information on this.

Weld it

 

[Weld it]

Checkout the link to indoor enduro - european style.

Weld it

http://www.portaloffroad.com/acontecimientos/enduroindoor/enduroindoor.htm

 

[Gary B.]

Wal-Marts and K-marts are in high traffic (read expensive) areas. This would be easier and cheaper to do in an industrial area (i.e., one of those giant warehouse/logistics buildings. Anyone who rides at Fon du Lac would know what I'm talking about. There is a building next door that must be a 1/4 long and 300 ft wide. :scream: