[Closed] building jumps, advice please.

Have to start with for inexperienced or experienced jumpers?

If your used to trail jumps, these are at much shallower angles than "proper" dirt jumps. Build proper jumps as tables to start, then remove the dirt in the middle.

I couldn't tell you angles tbh, but if I was building them I'd get it right 😀

Play around and practice, fwiw steeper = higher. Means you have to use technique rather than just fly off it.

Hiking boots are great for digging in.

simply_oli_y - Member
Have to start with for inexperienced or experienced jumpers?

Sorry about that... I'm no dirt jumper like the likes of Sam Pilgrim. More of a rider with a 'bit' of jump experience who wants to learn more... I'm prepared to spend the winter digging/moving earth but would like to know more.

davidtaylforth - Member
Hiking boots are great for digging in.

How sweet you remember me 😉

[url= http://www.imba.com/resources/trail-building ]IMBA Guide to Building[/url]

Landings are important too 🙂
Other thing that is important is location. Do you have permission to dig? is it public land? Make sure you have your run outs sorted too.

On of the worst examples I saw was a jump out of a wet blind corner built by digging a hole in the trail leaving a hole full of sticks 🙂

robsoctane - Member
davidtaylforth - Member
Hiking boots are great for digging in.
How sweet you remember me

I'll never forget you!!

But basically.

Make em look like this if you're sick as ****

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Or make em look like this if you're a middle aged, over weight biffer who rides an orange 5, drives an audi and wears knee pads and a full face helmet to ride round trail centres.

[img] [/img]

If you're neither, go for somewhere in between the two

One tip i got shown was to put logs in the foundations of the jump, it can speed up the build and make it easier to turn into a double or whatever. Main thing i think everyone would agree on is to keep compacting it, just start from the bottom and work your way up! Good luck!

JCBs are also said to be very good jump builders

Best thing to start with is smallish tables, whatever you're currently used to. Then once your used to them dig the middles out then just keep widening the gap and making the takeoffs n landings taller n steeper. Before you know it you'll progress to pretty big stuff that would have seemed crazy when you started.

as above, start small, get the shape/lips right then build bigger as you get experience 😀

don't do what some kids have done in my local woods and dig a trench across the entire width of an established trail and pile some dirt in front of it looking like someones gone hunting moles...

There are 1000s of photos on [url= http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/list/?category=25&date=2012-11 ]Pinkbike.[/url]

Edit - some are excellent examples of how to build stuff properly. Others are excellent example of how NOT to build stuff...

Bike radar did a good article about building jumps as well!

quincie - Member
One tip i got shown was to put logs in the foundations of the jump,

If you are building proper dirt jump type jumps then if you can avoid it don't put logs in them. They rot over time and the jump will collapse.

If you are building DH / freeride / trail style jumps - logs are often ideal to brace behind a tree to start a take off.

The thing I'm wondering about is how long, what angle etc. to get you high/far? gaps between doubles - what gap at what speed?

This is far to variable to comment on , no two jumps will jump the same, and different people jump differently - I have to hit the same jump about twice as fast as one mate for less height and the same distance as he has unholy amounts of pop.

Just have to build it, man up, hit it and then adjust it. Once your out of A&E...

[img] [/img]
Recent Jump Improvement day
[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]
Reshaped and raised the takeoff to give people more change of clearing to the new transition. Also reshaped the ground in front to give a A- line as I demonstrated in the last pic. Idea was to enable people to drop short without OTB but keep a fast A line for those clearing it.

No offense but if you don't know what a dirt jump should look like, you need to get out and ride some first. Building decent jumps takes ages and if you do it wrong, it's time wasted.

Having said that, for basic ones aim for something like the right hand line at Llandegla ^^^. The beauty of having your own jump spot is that you can tweak and adjust them as you progress.