Never mind Airfix, Build Your Own Cardboard Pumptrack!

If you’ve been thinking  of building a pump track in your back garden, maybe this is the assistance you need. Like tracks you may have seen at shows and events, it’s a modular system, but this one from Italian company Easy Pumptracks still needs the addition of dirt to complete it. Each module is a cardboard skeleton for a section of the pumptrack.

Each module arrives flat packed, in a selection of pre-cut cardboard sheets. You then push the sections out and assemble the module – a bit like those ‘build your own dinosaur’ balsa wood models, or perhaps an especially rubbish Ikea storage solution. Having slotted the pieces together to make a module, you combine the various sections to create pumptracks of different lengths and configurations.

Once you’ve got your modules laid out (like a Brio train set perhaps?) you add dirt, filling the sections of each module, and then packing it all firmly down and burying the cardboard skeleton. The result should be a track which flows as a pumptrack should, since the skeleton is designed to all fit together correctly – rather than you having to figure all that out and sculpt dirt without a template.

Over time the modules will decompose, leaving just your sculpted dirt in place – meaning if you ever did sell your house, the new owners would be fairly easily able to shovel it all up and make way for a patio, or whatever it is that real grown ups have in their gardens. No plywood or waterslides (Matt Beringer, I’m looking at you) for the new owners to deal with.

This is the smallest option available as standard, though they will figure out a child sized option for you too. No room for a whole pumptrack? How about just a mini wall ride or berm for you to practice schralping on?

If you’re wondering what project to have stashed in the house ready for another lockdown, could this be the answer? Or is the world stressful enough without the likely brain melt of figuring out all those pieces. We can see the scenes now: you’ve just got all the bits pushed out, ready to piece together, when there’s a gust of wind and an ominous first drop of rain.

Want something a bit easier and more all weather friendly? Try our jigsaw.

Hannah Dobson

Managing Editor

I came to Singletrack having decided there must be more to life than meetings. I like all bikes, but especially unusual ones. More than bikes, I like what bikes do. I think that they link people and places; that cycling creates a connection between us and our environment; bikes create communities; deliver freedom; bring joy; and improve fitness. They're environmentally friendly and create friendly environments. I try to write about all these things in the hope that others might discover the joy of bikes too.

More posts from Hannah