Once mrs orena45 and I move into our new house which will hopefully be very soon (we've been waiting since last summer – long story), as we've got a bit of land I'm really wanting to build a pump track. Perfect for those times when I can't be arsed to get kitted up for an XC ride or just don't have time etc.

Just bought the Leelovesbikes guide which is great and the 'Lee's (ex)' design looks perfect!

Anyone else built their own yet? If so, how'd you get on with it/how long did it take to build etc?

I must have lysdekia, read this as building a track pump – thought WTF would you wanna do that!

I've helped (along with other people) my lbs mate build one outside his shop.

http://www.torico.co.uk/news/2009/oct/30/pump-track-evolution/

I too read it as "Anyone built their own track pump?" and was very confused for a while…..

I've built two (with other people and on public land – FE managed and Bradford MBC).

Started with McCormack's book and just took it from there. Haven't found much that you could disagree with him on TBH, it really is the "bible" for PT building. Until you get a feel for it I would go as simple as possible, building and re-building sections that just don't quite work is knackering and a bit demoralising.

Like the man says drainage is really important. Importing soil and building up can be a really good idea in some circumstances.

Plant (mini-digger / bobcat / power barrow) is great but depends on a lot of factors.

Shaping is OK work to do by hand with limited people. If you 've got to shift much muck then plant can really save time and effort.

Where are you? I could be tempted to pitch in for access rights to somewhere else local?

Haha, that'll be the next project!

Cheeky monkey – am based in south Cornwall (why do get the feeling more offers of help will come along now!).

What sort of size are the one's you've built?

You're a bit far from Leeds, never mind 😉

Our tracks have been in areas about 20 x 20 m (ish), maybe a bit less. Really hard to judge in my mind's eye.

The one a Stainburn is built completely from site won material. The one at Thackley used about 100 tonnes of reclaimed top/sub soil and maybe 12 tonnes of single size 60 or 80mm dia limestone as the drainage media (plus some terram wrap). We also laid out the one STW did for their weekender feature a while back. No one was free to help dig though unfortunately and I think it's all been trashed by the Moto's.

Drainage is where it's worth putting some effort (which possibly means spending money as well) IMO. Digging a deep enough trench by hand can be knackering, a mini digger will do it in the blink of an eye. Similarly some mechanised barrow or dumper can make shifting the drainage media (or soil) a much less back breaking experience. We paid about £250 to hire a mini-digger, driver, 1 tonne self loading skip dumper and fuel for a day. You could probably get more for less but our guy knew what we wanted doing so was considered money well spent.

The easier you make the donkey work aspect of the build the more energy you'll have for the technical bit (getting berms to link, rollers properly spaced etc. IMO that gives you a much better chance of getting a good track, pretty much right, pretty quickly.

Hey Ho. All depends what you've gor on site / nearby, how much cash, how many bodies and what time.

Good luck and feel free to email if you want any other advice (timsellors[at]googlemail[dot]com).

have helped with one at at the local MTB park/trail centre…

big can of flouro spray paint to work out the shape and rough in where the ups and downs are before a spade touched the dirt.

used the soil dug out to build up the berms etc as easier/cheaper/quicker than importing lots of soil.

many hands made light work; though I reckon it'll be a damp mess if we have a wet winter this year. we shall see

used the soil dug out to build up the berms etc as easier/cheaper/quicker than importing lots of soil.

Absolutely. But, if you go too far and the drainage isn't right then you're just building puddles 😉

Cheers folks. Could possibly have access to a digger with a small bucket so that could work. It's not going to be huge but I want a good size to play about on and keep it interesting – likely to be my 'little' project for this summer 🙂

Have read in the LLB guide about using a fair amount of water to help bind the soil to make it solid – this could be a slight problem as our water supply is pumped up from the watertable below. I'm sure it'll rain enough this summer (again) for that not to be too much of an issue tho!

Water not such an issue in UK. We've had no supply at either site and have just built them and left to bed in. All the rain over here tends to take care of it.