[Closed] Guidelines for designing pump/gravity track

Can't really help but you might look at this place on u tube for ideas

bishops tatchbrook pump track

Pumptrack Nation I think it's called, that's the bible.
\Get in touch with cheeky monkey off here/SingletrAction website, he's built/designed a few, we've just finished one at Dalby Forest.

http://www.leelikesbikes.com/ebook-welcome-to-pump-track-nation all you'll ever need to know.

I'm sure there used to be more free info available on the site, however this is pretty much the pump track bible

EDIT: dammit sniped by B.A.nana

dj - thanks. I have been looking at loads like this so have some general plans but am stuck when it comes to the dimensions.

I want to make it flow nicely so does that mean I can fit 5 rollers or 4 rollers into a particular line?

How much build up before the table top?

How high should the table top be relative to the other features?

I have always just designed and built as I go along. Unfortunately the FC leveled the illegal site I am trying to sort of replicate so i have nothing to measure. i guess I will have to go visit some local sites.

remember bmx and mtb wheels are different sizes and roll differently over jumps etc

juiced - I agree. Trouble is one my MTB the wheels are different sizes too! Seriously though, that is why I don't want to just copy a BMX track

think the main difference when ridden on 20/24/26/29/ would be the distance between the rollers ( or close succession of humps).

+1 pump track nation.

However, all Lee's stuff is flat, you'll have to lengthen stuff out to cope with more speed on a descent.

I'd get a rough plan on paper then start building from the top down, you'll get an idea if it's looking right for the speed you'll have and can lengthen or shorten the troughs and rollers as you go.

Take a notebook and pace out stuff you like to ride at other locations. but remember to adjust for the slope you have to play with.

Looks like a tour of the souths best pump tracks and jump sites is required. 🙂

Recommendations for sites near Southampton please

Alot of it will be trial and error, you'll be building, shapeing and rebuilding for months. Like bangin on says, you wouldn't necessarily need the rollers for pumping speed on the down hill bits, but you'd need to be shapeing them to add interest for people to uses as doubles or manualling, but you'd still need the rollers to be spaced in such a way that those er....less skillful people, could still roll them without it jarring or throwing them off. You could do some traverses of the hillside with evenly spaced rollers, where people would need to pump or pedal, with a nice berm to pump at each end.

Seriously I'm up for spade work, have been considering doing similar but it wouldn't be as sanctioned. Have you been to the bmx track behind Scotthall in Eastleigh. Lots of table tops set up officially in an s shape.

Watching with interest

Also remembered there's some great stuff been built in Stoke park woods in bishopstoke, that's all based on a gradient but leans towards a jump set.

Great thread! I've a sloping field about 100-150 yards long which is crying out for something like this. I was a bit daunted about starting from scratch so I'll definitely get that e-book bought.

Also I believe there is a hard surfaced track in Andover and another north of winchester. All officially sanctioned.

As well the jump site at bar end park and ride is a work of art!

google 'pump track design' on google images. There's are few with dimensions on that.

Very interested to give you a hand with the build (presuming it's localish to southampton)....need a new project, otherwise I'll end up buying another bike...

There is a pump track about 70% built at watchmoore woods, moores valley. It's ok, might be that I'm rubbish but I can only get enough speed to barely clear one of the table tops.

Depending on access to the site I'd think about hiring a mini digger for a weekend or two to get the basis of the track shaped quickly. They are pretty cheap, my father and I dug the foundations for a triple stable block and a 200m gravel track in a weekend.

Not just you with the watchmoor track.

On a related topic, does anybody have any guidelines for building regs/insurance/liability? I own the land and I would like people to be able to enjoy themselves on it, but I don't want to have to worry about somebody wrecking themselves and holding me liable.

Not just you with the watchmoor track.

Fair enough. Obviously I need to try harder.

Pretty sure this has been posted before. First 30 secs or so are the pump track.

Serious impressed with the gap jump, that is big and there is next to no run out on it...

Looks like a tour of the souths best pump tracks and jump sites is required.

Recommendations for sites near Southampton please

Get down to Gosport, they've got a recently redone bmx track (now national standard) there.

Here's an old picture, before it was redone.

[img] [/img]

It's now much longer. It's in Rowner, on Grange road, near the recycling plant/tip and some football pitches, easy to spot on google maps.

I will check out the Gosport site.

DT78 - It is in the Sports Centre. they have given a provisional yes depending on design proposals, costs and local objections

Good to bump into you today WCA.

I'd assumed you were borrowing a corner of someone's back yard not a full on track at the local sports centre!

Like I said, I would be happy to help in anyway, let me know, plus I'd be happy to join up to a club to help with dig days if you get it off the ground.

Would be great to have something like this in our neck of the woods (so to speak!)

Well I thought the Sport Centre worked quite well. They build it, they maintain it. They insure it. We just design it and ride it.

Do you like the first draft design?

The area is 100m by 30m so I might have to make the design a bit longer though I want to plan it on squared paper first to get the size and distance right between [s]jumps[/s] easily rollable trail features.

[img] http://images.fotopic.net/?iid=15c9p7&outx=708&quality=70 [/img]

The green bits on the corners indicate berms. The little brown bumps are rollers. The larger brown bumps are a hip jump leading to a double. The cross roads with brown bits is a table top with jumps going in both directions.

Yes I know there is a chance of people colliding but I don't care, it looks funny.

me at my collegue from a bike shop in the new forest were just today discussing building some sort of track. Would be more than keen to help out, and im sure he would, as long as its within train or drive distance from brockenhurst. Heres my email, if you need a hand with anything just let me know, got saturdays free to come help out.

benny-freeman@hotmail.co.uk

cheers, ben

benny - Are you one of the guys in the Brokenhurst bike shop? I am the bloke who organised the Big Bike Bash and pestered your shop for prizes. The track will be in Southampton Sport Centre just a short ride up from the Central Station.

I was up at the sports centre today where would the track be?

WCA, yes buddy I am, along with a chap on here scenetoomuch who works at the brockenhurst and the wareham store. I remember the big bike bash, reminds me, need to take the poster for that down!

We're both up for coming to help out wherever possible, not sure where the Sports Centre is, but sure I can find it. easy enough.

Whens work due to start 🙂 ?

Also anyone ride moors valley recently?

*lurks ... with mattock*

duster - I'm sure WCA will answer in a bit, but as I spoke to him about it at lunch time he is in the process of talking with the site and they seem keen probably too soon to book in dig days just yet 🙂

That said if you are interested in digging the pixies have been busy in LW. Workman has been extended, looking forward to it drying out and bedding in.

Was at Moores Valley last weekend and the weekend before. What do you want to know?

dt78, all sounds good.

just wondering whats the conditions are like, havn't been on the bike in about a month due to delay with new frame swap, was thinking about taking a trip to moores on my day off this week for a few laps and stretch the legs a bit

Glad to see there is some interested.

I only thought of the idea on Wednesday after a few beers. Got provisional approval on Friday so need to come up with a proper plan with all the boring admin stuff.

The good news is that Active Nation who run the sports centre seem keen. If I can get some time when not working I hope to meet with the head honcho next week with a full proposal including plan, environmental impact assessment, risk and benefit analysis, creation budget and maintenance costs.

Basically I will be preparing all the paper work. As soon as they say yes I will find out how much funding they can provide, how much we need to raise and then grab your shovels.

I will spread the word when there is stuff to do. If anyone wants to give me money towards it that would help.

Following some feedback I have revised the planned area to provide four seperate levels of trail. I haven't drawn on the jumps and rollers yet but basically the progression in difficulty is :

Toddler
Milkshake
Cocktail
Cocaine
[img] http://images.fotopic.net/?iid=15cu6p&outx=554&quality=70 [/img]

If anyone has more acceptable names for the trail levels then suggestions are welcome.

🙂 cocaine probably isn't appropriate!

I'd like berms lots and lots of big flowy berms. In fact I'd like more berms than jumps...

Was also wondering, not sure on how much of the plot your designs would take up but have you thought about trying to wedge a 4x or dual track in there so you could host some races?

Reckon it would be more exciting to ride/watch than the cyclocross track there.

We have to encourage new riders rather than existing riders. Therefore no track, simply different trails for people to ride. That way they pay, not us.

The fact that a couple of the trails MAY take similar times to ride and you could do best of two where you each ride the two trails and time it is immaterial and not part of my plan 😉

IIRC Derby BMX club has the costings for rebuilding the alvaston track on their website, ~£150k for about the same area of land as you have. A national standard BMX track is easily big enough to cope with MTB's.

@ WCA

have emailed you something, hopefully it will help 😉

You'll struggle to get all that in the space you have I think.

Also, trails running straight down the hill will become a potential water erosion problem, and it'll also be tricky to drain the transition into the jumps; you need to make sure you don't trap water on the trail.

Diagonal tracks across the fall line to avoid erosion.

Rode a slow and easy 10 - 12 sweeping turns in the area to plan the size. When they agree funding I will get a proper track design drawn up

Any pro track designers contact me with your ideas please

They build it, they maintain it. They insure it. We just design it and ride it.

WCA, If this is going to be built by the local council, you should assume they are completely clueless about eveything that might appear obvious to you. If you leave them to choose the materials, sort out drainage and/or do the building, some things (possibly fundamental stuff like surfacing material) are likely to be completely inappropriate or built completely wrong. You will either have to do it yourself or ensure they get proper people in who know what they are doing.

I'm not going into detail about the trail building horrors we've seen, but you have to assume none mountain bikers, be they council or council appointed contractor, have no clue what-so-ever about appropriate materials, drainage and building/shapeing a MTB trail/track.

I'm not much use with designing trails, but have roped in 2 or 3 blokes from work who are more than up for helping out. And a friend of a friends dad owns a digger rental company, and can get us decent rates if it came to it...

Banana - We will be using a MTB track building specialist digger driver, not a general digger man. The most important thing to me is to make sure the trails flow with a nice rhythm. This is best done at the build time.

dusterbenny - I will let you know when we need man power. There may be a small delay while we go through the funding applications.

WCA - I'm southampton based part of the time and while i lack even the most basic skillz to perform on a pump track i would be very happy to volunteer some time to help with any manual labour.

haven't read the thread so appologies if any of this has already been mentioned but if I was designing a downhill pump track I'd design it to require no pedalling at all (for good riders) or braking, basically have the first pump bumps/berms leading into doubles, tables etc. that get progressively larger, keep the gradient mellow using turns to control speed for example, and at the end of a big line an uphill facing berm into a 270deg berm back round to the next line to control speed. clever use of whoops/pump bumps to gain speed from rather than just gravity will allow you to build a longer more interesting track for the height/gradient of your hill too, also some straights need to have 2 lines IMO ie. a beginner line and a pro line. you'll need a good rider and builder to do this well.

GW - I have been reading Pump Track Nation which describes how to build such trails. I have been fiddling with the design so the trails go more laterally across the hill rather than down the trail like the last two designs (look back a page for pictures).

I am trying to get 2, maybe three, trails with various lines. This will allow one to be more advanced than the other. I see the advanced one being a battle between your brain saying hit the brakes and your mind saying I can ride this. You will need to brake occasionally, or not pump so hard.

Unfortunately fotopic is down at the moment so I can't post my latest ideas.