Yeah, I could just buy a MTB hopper, but they’re £300+ and i’ve already got all the tools for a fun little project..

We’ve a TINY plastic kicker that he enjoys hopping off, but want a bigger, portable one…

Making a ‘fold flat’ on like the MTB hopper would be harder but more portable, or should i just make a narrowish rigid/fixed one, and just strap it to the back of the cargo bike!

Prob want a take off lip 30-50cm high…

Any pics of YOUR projects appreciated!

DrP

I would build a fixed ply ramp with a nice transition. Stick some small wheels on the back so you can tip it and wheel it about.

The click together ramps such as the MTB Hopper rely on really tight tolerances by CNC cut components. Perfectly possible at home, but not so easily to make nice and solid like a fixed ramp.

It’s a great little project to share with kids too, and get them into a bit of practical work.

I’ve got a mental image of a little kicker ramp based on the chassis of a kids bike trailer maybe. You could lay it down onto its ply base, then lift it up, hook it to a bike and ride off to the next sick spot 🤘

Cheers – and I kinda agree that a ‘sides, top, struts’ type ramp will be stronger and simpler to build…

will crack on this weekend…

(I bet you’ve noted the price of ply going up and up… jeesh! £45+VAT for an 8*4 of 12mm far east locally..)

DrP

Yeah.
Other day I was paying virtually £90 a sheet for birch ply 😲
I needed 6 sheets so it hurt a bit.

You can get wheels that are specifically designed to fit onto the backs of things, such as workbenches etc. Means you can lay the ramp down and use it, or lift it and roll it around.
Probably just a fixed industrial castor with a larger diameter wheel would work well.

Otherwise, workbench lifter wheels maybe?

Following with interest

Post pics!

Make sure the back has some prop otherwise the ramp will flip when ridden. Definitely go rigid getting a folding one right will take quite a lot to get right first time and I expect you will have a lot of wasted material and frustration.

I wot go with a smallish kicker only 30-45cm (but towards the lower end would be better) but find a bank to put it on this will make it higher and and steeper and depending on the bank a step up, which is a really good jump to learn stuff on. Or if you place the kicker at the top it’s more like a drop.

Making a kicker much bigger than this is pretty rough to ride unless you have a good down slope to land into and a small kicker placed in Good places can give you load of height.

I built this around Christmas time but didn’t finish it. Mostly because someone bought me a jigsaw and I already had the OSB in the garage. A few shandys later and voila…

The plan was to park it at the top of some natural downslopes and send it but now I don’t have the van to carry it in, or even the bike to ride it with. When I tried to finish it a few months ago my local timber place was out of stock and when it came back in it was much more expensive.

I was also planning to grab a skateboard the next time I saw one lying in a skip or something. I was going to use the trucks to make some kind of dolly for wheeling it around.

I might donate it to someone in Sheffield if they can use it.

When I were a lad and used to live for skateboarding, I always built my ramps with a small platform/deck after the transition. It kind of lessens the chance of the ramp flipping as you have support behind the takeoff, plus you can also use it for cheeky little coping tricks, though it might be more applicable for a skateboard.

(I bet you’ve noted the price of ply going up and up… jeesh! £45+VAT for an 8*4 of 12mm far east locally..)

35 in Wickes? (unsure if same quality)

https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Non-Structural-Hardwood-Plywood—12-x-1220-x-2440mm/p/110116

Cheers for the Wickes spot..
TBH, it’s PROBABLY lower wuality than Wnban Smith (the local merchant I like)…but…. It’s for a bike ramp, and it’s £4 for delivery, so I’ve gone for it!

Will do some planning with the lad, then get chopping!!! Likely looking to make one like @sharkattack , but only the first 3-4 struts in size!

DrP

I think the mobile ramp that Kayak and DrP are really after is featured in the Zenga Bros film ‘Tall Bikes Will Save the World’.

Ramp is featured at about 12 mins 50 seconds. The whole film is worth a watch if you have time.

https://instagram.com/trail.police?utm_medium=copy_link

https://ibb.co/6sjC5JS

2.5cm ply. Had it lying around. Weighs a tonne. Did not go for a kicker we my daughter is not the confident.

Drilled it out and cut out the sides. Still heavy

@DrP I’ve made quite a few different little ramps for my 7 year old (and me, ahem).

I’m about to try and make something bigger of a similar scale to what you mentioned (and about the same size as MTB Hopper Lite).

I thought this DIY design looked excellent and solid yet packable:

It only has 2 straight sections (like the old MTB Hopper) in the transition so I’m thinking of making a variation of it that has 3, even though that would make it less packable….but the basic idea is the same, you save space by making a simple ‘on-ramp’ of thick ply onto a main deck built up more like a conventional ramp, that has some kind of end piece lifting that deck up.

I know ramps with curved transitions are way nicer and more effective than straight ones…but am curious to know how 2 piece and 3 piece takeoffs compare to proper curved ones. Unfortunately I’m not an experienced enough jumper to know…anyone? Is it worth making a 3 piece vs a 2?

I’d have thought anything you can do to increase the number of facets on the take off would make it nicer to ride.

You wouldn’t really want to ride a faceted ramp on a skateboard but on an mtb it’ll probably be fine.

Clever design that kid in the video above 👌

I’ve ridden a few ghetto 1/4 pipes on a BMX and they are ridable but beat up a little so on a squishy MTB I think you would still notice but be mutch nicer.

Well we started the project yesterday eve… managed to get the idea into 3D before darkness/youngest child stopped play!

12mm ply…
43cm lip height, with a 205cm radius… seems to be a bit steeper than the MTB hoppers etc (which have a 400-500cm radius!), but if we used a 450cm radius, the take-off lip would only be about 15cm high!

50cm wide.

Will stick in the rest of the struts to give good support, then either:
-kerf the wood for the ramp surface
-soak and bend
-screw that MOFO down with neither of the above…!!!

Prob go for option 1 TBH..seems the neatest idea?

DrP

though..just read this..
“It’s surprisingly easy to bend plywood for a skate ramp. The amount of bend or curve you need in the plywood is gradual enough that you don’t need to use any special bending techniques. Ordinary plywood products can be used and you don’t need any heat source.”

Easy then!

DrP

Possibly not so easy with 12mm ply. I used 12mm for the sides and 9mm for the top, pulled down easily using screws into the cross braces

Depending on the ply, you may well find that you can bend it, although I would reckon that 12mm will be fairly hard to bend. Possibly on a full-size halfpipe, not so much on a small kicker.

Some ply will bend easier with cross-grain, so the grain running across the ramp rather than along it.

You can always do two layers of 6mm instead, 3 even for uber-gnar resistance.

The issue with bending ply that wants to be flat is it’ll try to spring back. Because where the ramp sides meet the floor you have a pretty thin and flimsy section, this can result in the ply bending slightly laterally and you’ll get a hollow underneath the edges of the sides along the floor.

Wanging some sort of support along these sides as close as you can to the start of the transition can help to reduce this.

Ply is incredibly stiff in its own plane, but because it’s cut so narrow it can happen.

hmm… might now have to pick up some 9mm stuff!!!

OK, cheers

DrP

EDIT – actually – I’ll just reverse-kerf the 12mm stuff..i can’t be bothered buying more wood!!

DrP

When our girls were younger, 6 and 4, in 2004 we made a few ramps of different heights that they could carry into the field. Got the timber from the local salvage yard. They helped build them. I did have to test them out

Must have helped as they are hitting stuff now that scares me

I think i’m gonna add in a design change….

I’m a bit worried about the lip being right at the rear, so going to make it a bit like the one above..remove a portion of the take off, to bring the lip forward a bit.
Mights also remove some of the early taper…it’s too thin to be useful!

DrP

I’m glad I didn’t make a folding one. Unless your t’lad is a whole lot less daft than my t’lad, he’d not go to the bother of folding it a just drag it about causing the hinged/clippy bits to go sloppy. Ours has been dragged up and down the drive and the street so much that the corners are all wearing off.

aAAND…WE’RE DONE!

TBH..it#s fab! A lovely kicker that can be taken fast OR slow(ish!)

Son’s loving it, and we’re both chuffed with the build!

So there you go…you can smash out a wicked little kicker for £45 of materials!!!

DrP

Amazing! Good work!

Sick 🤘

following…working on making one, but trying to scran bits from local skips and DIY renovations so might take a bit longer than you lol

well done looks fun tho

Looks like he’s enjoying it, hope you tested it first 😉

Nice one OP.

Fantastic ramp. New making and flying skills all round too!

Make another one but with a lot more support under and create a gap

@thebrick – this is the plan… going to make a larger, flat landing ramp (probably with decking as the landing surface)..

Honestly, making a ramp with him has been great!

I got him a new (to him) bike recently, and we upgraded the forks on it to some nice 120mm air forks (invariably, the forks that come with lower level bikes are a bit naff…
He’s loving hitting the ramp and just playing about on it.

He’s actually proper keen and a pretty aggressive jumper (much more than I imagined!.. #proud dad!!

DrP

That’s brilliant. He will need a clutch mech next if he keeps jumping like that.

He will need a clutch mech next if he keeps jumping like that.

Indeed.. at the mo it’s got some old, but working, XT 9 speed stuff…
no clutches until 10 speed!

I’ve some GX 12 speed stuff, but…not sure the huge cassette is gonna be needed, vs the weight penalty..

DrP