Building, not doing.

Started work on a freeride trail and would like a drop at the start to get enough speed for the first jump (it’s a monster 😀 ).

Problem: There isn’t a lot of room (maybe 2-3 bike lengths) to roll before the landing. The landing will be about 8ft below at it’s lowest and is almost vertical at the top but mellows out into a nice transition – probably about 20 ft in height. Should the drop (i’m thinking wood work) be horizontal, angled downwards or curved? And what sort of distance should the gap be?

My artists impression gives a very rough idea. The red bit will be the wood and it’s about 6′ tall – the first 3-4 foot of the landing is a quarry edge and pretty unstable so you’d want to be landing down a little bit.

Any advice/tips welcome.

personally, i’d make the ladder go to above the edge of the landing then speed isnt an issue as you will land “somewhere” down the slope and be set for the next move. ski drop the start by tilting the ladder

Cheers Tony, i was hoping you’d chip in.

When you say tilting, what are we talking about – 20 degrees too much?

Surely if you leave the ladder a little further from the edge, you’d be able to roll off and pump into the landing rather than dropping and hoping?

it doesnt matter as the roll will add speed that the distance doesnt give you. make sense?

scunny, if the ladder is further from the edge it will make it harder with only a 2-3 bike length run in. the picture shows a very long transition so by makeing the ladder closer to the lip it mkaes it not speed critical

Cheers Tony. I’ll post up pics when she’s done.

I reckon Tony knows what he’s talking about, and I completely agree, no speed issues on the run in!

Landing is near enough done and I hope to do the woodwork over the weekend.

Artist’s impression – scale is pretty close. Gonna go for a smallish gap (a bike length) and see how it goes. There’s a 7′ tall, 25′ long jump to clear so we’ll be wanting plenty of speed.

that spiderman costume is definitely going to help

what next one is 25ft? if that is to scale you wont make it

There’s about 40 feet of cranking room before the first jump, but it’ll probably be closer to a 20′ leap when the landing is shaped.

Building update.

You can just make out the temporary pallet drop in the top left corner. Will finish this with rock once i’m happy with the height and speed.

Had to trim the first jump a tad. It’s a beaut 😀