Mountain Biking - Building Some Local Trails

Me and some friends are going to start our own trail. With flowy jumps, natrual rock drops, long skinnys. The main mission in our trail is to let the land do most of the work. Let it all flow naturaly, besides some of the jumps of course.

Does anyone have any ideas to incoperate land and nature? Jump/drop/berm/hip/whatever ideas?

Me and some friends are going to start our own trail. With flowy jumps, natrual rock drops, long skinnys. The main mission in our trail is to let the land do most of the work. Let it all flow naturaly, besides some of the jumps of course.

Does anyone have any ideas to incoperate land and nature? Jump/drop/berm/hip/whatever ideas? a fallen tree to balance on :)

a fallen tree to balance on :)

As a skinny.Yeah, take a saw to the side of it and you got a long skinny, make a drop/roll off at the end.

Just make sure 1) that you are on public land and won't get into trouble building on it, and 2) that anything that you build is solid, well thought out, and safe so that it doesn't get torn down for being an eyesore or get somebody hurt.

Well...besides making it fun avoid water bars and renoff spots. Go out when it is raining and look at where the water flows. If there is a natural flow spot you want to cross, re-enforce it with some stone work. Get some build hints from nsmb.com qas they spend more time than just about anywhere in the world building trails for the rain levels we get.

Trails should be fun, but where we live we need to keep the trails sustainable. Us skinnies to bypass swampy areas, use berms to re-enforce areas where you are going to be shredding on rooty ground. Re-enforce really rooted areas or at the very least have a plan to do so when the trail starts to erode around the roots thereby damaging the trees.

Beyond that build the trail with the flow you like, think of trails you loved that flowed that way you liked. Everyone has a different idea of whats fun and whats not. If you liked a-line you will build a trail that might resemble that. Or Crank it up. A nice flowy jumping trail with box jumps, wall rides and berms to maintain speed. My type of flow is more garbonzo. A really well build dh trail that is techy but not killer. Multiple lines using rockfaces and steep rooted sections. A couple of small drops but when you get the flow very high speed.

i love whistler
i was there one day this summer and it was amazing

A thing that I have always liked ripping through is a short section of tight berms one right after the other. So kinda like tight S-curves. Have fun with that and make sure to post pics!

For sure. Ganna be a couple of months of building though.

Might think about burying a few logs to make some things a little rough also.might make a small drop from that,have seen it in a couple of magazines.nothing drastic but it is a change up.
I have a old railroad bed here that I am thinking of trying to do something with.There is about 7 miles of it.Might not be a bad thing to use.anyway good luck.

Might think about burying a few logs to make some things a little rough also.might make a small drop from that,have seen it in a couple of magazines.nothing drastic but it is a change up.
I have a old railroad bed here that I am thinking of trying to do something with.There is about 7 miles of it.Might not be a bad thing to use.anyway good luck.

By bury it, do you mean to actully dig up the ground and put the log into the ground? Becuase if you mean to put that on a hill, I think that is one heck of an idea.

ah, to be 15 again.
My friends and I used to do a lot of work in an empty field in my old neighborhood. We had a full bmx course with 2/3 foot jumps, rollers, etc. Took a lot of work, but there is just something about riding a trail that you built.

It would be more like an oversize rumble strip.short stuff that just lies across the trail.Just to make it interesting any way.I like the balance idea better but it is alot of work.Of course I guess they both are.
Just some idea's anyway.

You've got some great trail builders in the Vancouver area. You might want to see if you can tap into that resource. Check some of the BC bike shops, too.

Lots of consecutive little step downs and kickers. Like 5 or more in a row on a fast straight section.

Just take you time and don't rush anything!

Also build stunts that intimanate you at first so after a few rides the trail doesent get boaring.

Would you suggest a simple pen or something much more robust, like a stockade or full-blown corral?

Uggg he's back:(

I've never been "gone," unless 13 hours of late season high country ("mountains" to folks living in pancake lands) riding this weekend counts as being "gone."

Now, back to this problem with boars on the trail...

My bad thought maybe you got banned and had to make a new account:rolleyes:
And don't be fronting on my turf, we have more stairgaps in and around Chicago than you will ever see!

Now back to the trail....Maybe some flowy northshore with kickers and gaps on em(alot more work though).

yeah, I'd give up the mountains for a few chicago stair gaps.

That's quite an assumption, considering the fact that I grew up in Palatine. I'm very familiar with how sh|tty the mountain biking is in Chicagoland...

Fortunately, we escaped but the downside is that we are forced to endure horrid terrain like this.

http://www.paradigmhosting.net/images/grouse4.jpg


That really sucks. Life is hard for some folks.

^^^ Come on now, who said you need mountains to mountain bike??

You don't need em. But coming from a person that doesn't have them, but have ridden them....they enhance the riding by about a million levels.

Even if we don't move back to Sydney eventually, im almost certain that we wont be staying in flatland ohio forever.

^^Well it was implied that my "pancake land" has "sh|tty" mountain biking.
But anyways some of us don't have the luxury of mountains so be thankful for what you have.
...Take me out of the game coach! I'm done, no more!

What size boards work best when trying to protect mountain bikers from boars?
Wow!!!! Ok so I made a typo!

wow
mountains > stairs anyday
i live in wisconsin and i even know that

^^Well it was implied that my "pancake land" has "sh|tty" mountain biking.
But anyways some of us don't have the luxury of mountains so be thankful for what you have.
...Take me out of the game coach! I'm done, no more!

you can fight it all you want, but I don't know anyone that has lived there that loves the riding. Not knocking the place but I even know 3 roadies that left because it was to flat. I know flocks of mountain bikers that all live in WA. Stair gaps just doesn't get people excited the way a giant mountain ride can....hmmmm mountains.

Oh Geez, time for some...
http://www.cooking.com/images/products/shprodde/166718.jpg

As for the OP, IMBA (http://www.imba.com/resources/trail_building/index.html) might have some useful info.

Ok, thanks for all the ideas. Sometime this weekend I think me and the group are going to go clear a trail. We shall take some pictures, and then I can show you want we have to go on. My friends and I have some pretty big plans to do over 3-5 months, so it will be interesting to see what happens.

Ok, thanks for all the ideas. Sometime this weekend I think me and the group are going to go clear a trail. We shall take some pictures, and then I can show you want we have to go on. My friends and I have some pretty big plans to do over 3-5 months, so it will be interesting to see what happens.

Cool, keep us posted.