Our Motocross Track

[CR_Dave]

I thought I would throw this out there for anyone killing time. It is a video of my son and his friend riding on a track I built at the house. Track is 1.5 miles and 15-20 ft wide. I only have a John Deere sub-compact (4410), so making the jumps took a while.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH6a1vVhOVA

 

[Rich Rohrich]

Looks like a fun track.

 

[Moparman1539]

Looks fun, its cool that you can build a track on your property. And you live only about an hour away from me. :cool:

 

[_JOE_]

Good stuff! The kids look pretty good. Where do you guys normally ride?

 

[nikki]

Cool video, very nice home track... looks like a lot of fun. Those kids are on the gas!! :ride:

 

[longtime coming]

That was great. I've been thinking about building a track for a year or so now. Next spring it will happen. I have a pasture in some rolling land that will be perfect. Thanks for the motivation. Those kids are having the greatest fun that exists!! Good luck to them. :cool:

 

[Chili]

Nice looking track and those boys are on it! I was going to comment that the kid on the 65 needs to move up but based on the video you already knew that :laugh:

 

[BSWIFT]

I like the sound of two strokes wound up tight! Nice track!

 

[CR_Dave]

Since I bought the house and property about 1.5 years ago, we have pretty much rode here. I broke my pelvis last year and some other stuff that slowed my racing days down pretty good. Other places in the area are the District 5 tracks. There are some good practice tracks (SwitchbackMX in Butler, PA and High Voltage in Ford City, PA). There is a little track up in Grove City, PA. We have also spent time way up north at Majestic Trails (Rew, PA) -- great place, but with gas prices, a bit far -- they have over 40 miles of trails and camping.

The little guy wants to get racing next year. I have left it up to him, as long as he is having fun. I think he sees his friends racing and wants to get out there with him. He understands the risks, unfortunately due to all my accidents. I think it is best to let a kid figure out when he wants to race. Whatever he decides, I will support him.

A

Regarding the building of the track. I am always trying to find ways to do build it without a ton of heavy machinery.

I have a 34hp JD 4410 and just use 3point attachments and the front end loader. The track sits on about 10 acres of the property with lap times around 2'30" in good conditions.

(1) I use a 5 foot roto-tiller (3 point) to make the main layout of the track and make 3-4 passes to make it wide.

(2) I use a 3 point landscape rake to get the rocks to a minimum

(3) when the weeds come in (and they do), I roto-till it around the edges.

(4) I use a box scaper with the tines all the way down to dig deep and get rid of the hard pack. I plan on getting a cultivator next year. The roto-tiller makes it way too smooth.

I also did a lot of planning to make it as safe as possible, one direction, careful where I put jumps to prevent someone getting screwed up and going into another lane. And lastly, lots and lots of turns........that is the key.

I could use a big loader or something, but just too much money, the front end loader is just too much back and forth moving dirt.

Thanks for all the comments. If anyone can tell how they build and maintain their tracks, I would love to learn. I find very little info out there for the average Joe (Dave) to building a backyard track.

 

[Rich Rohrich]

At my buddy OT's practice track we just let the horses do the vegetation management.:)

 

[Chili]

Hope the horses aren't as bad as cattle for using any nearby object as a scratching post, had a buddy whose truck ended a write off after the cattle were done with it while he was out upland game hunting in some pasture land.

 

[longtime coming]

and horses have been known to chew the paint right off of vehicles...

 

[_JOE_]

I've been trying to get to Switchback for a couple years now, but it hasn't worked out. I barely got to ride at all this summer. We usually go Mapleshade MX in Sugargrove when we do track riding. I've been to Majestic a few times, that place is really fun. What do you guys do in the winter? The indoor track in Ashtabula runs ALOT of minis.