I’m looking to build a few rollers on a flat section of trail to help maintain a bit of momentum and add something a little different.

Any good tips on spacing, sizes or foundations?

Thanks.

Sizes and spacing. I have found it depends how fast you are going.
Foundations. It depends on what you have available. I built with the biggest boulders I can find and then round me there is a lot of sandy/rocky/clay mix sub soil I use.

I built a pump track in the garden and it was useful to have some wooden ramps that I could move about to get the spacing and height right before building properly.

What soil/ rock type is it?

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Rock. What’s that.. nothing like that around here mate 😳

Soil has a sandy base. Drains well and packs down tight but you do need a lot of it to shape anything.

Sandbags.

They’re very cheap to buy and you can fill them on site. They can make your structure extremely quickly and they settle down rock hard. Plus you can build what you want and move it around until you’re happy with it. Ideal for spacing and rythm sections.

Cover with dirt and ride.

There’s some interesting information on theIMBA website (see links under the ‘TRAIL BUILDING AND DESIGN’ heading in the list on the right).

I’m looking to build a few rollers on a flat section of trail to help maintain a bit of momentum and add something a little different.

Before you get that for…
Is it your track?
If not who looks after/maintains it?
Is it likely to get ripped out if you do?
Then how do you build it so it doesn’t erode/collect water/rip up

Sorry for sounding like the fun police.

Sandbags.. an excellent shout, could work very well here. Thanks.

Mike it’s all legit so no need to worry, cheers for the sensible pointers though 8)

Sandbags.. an excellent shout, could work very well here. Thanks.

Good enough for the Redbull Rampage 😉

Seriously thought, in super dry conditions where your trails will dry out and blow away sandbags are incredible. Loads of people use them to build dirt jumps in hotter climates but if you’re building something somewhere with no rocks or woodwork they’re just as useful.

The real advantage is being able to quickly build a shape or a series of features then stand back and look at it. Then you can move things around until they look right.

They’re so good that I sold the idea to our local rangers and our new trail features are going to be heavily based on the hessian sandbag technique!

sharkattack, how long do you think they would last if buried, shorter life than wooden post / boards?

I don’t know but I imagine if the bag did decompose it would leave it’s solid contents lying exactly where you left it. It wouldn’t turn into soggy pulp like the logs that were used to build all the jumps in my local woods. That’s what we’re busy pulling out to replace with bags of dirt.

Even if the bags managed to vanish after you’d built your trail we won’t have the problem of them drying out and blowing away like they do in California.

Sandbags are generally made of either natural material like burlap or synthetic poly material.

The burlap ones will start to rot and degrade in a few years max, which may be a good thing in some cases.

The poly ones will last virtually forever if buried. The UV from the sun is what tends to degrade them, so they usually break down fastest if left exposed. They do make a horrible mess when parts of them degrade, and other pieces blow around in the wind.

where you live pal just build a pump track in wigsn