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There's a ton of good advice in here. I'm all for your own track. It's SO nice to get home from work, throw on your gear and rip for 30-40 minutes and not have to haul your bike anywhere.
While two acres is smallish for a full sized bike, it becomes large to maintain unless you have nice equipment and most importantly TIME. Yeah you can get a good bush hog and knock the flat stuff out easy, it's the sides of the jumps and around the edges that become the challenge.
My approach has always been to try to find any natural humps or dips in the land and use them as the beginning of a jump face or landing. That then dictates the rest of the track for me. I also build my jumps smallish and then push the landings around as needed. I also build my jumps to where they are not do or die. If one jump becomes sketchy EVERYtime I hit it, it gets reworked.
This guys track looks to be on 2 acres and it looks fun.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWhK999E8ea/
When I built mine it was more of a work in progre for the first couple years. I moved things around quite a bit until it felt right. I've moved almost everything at some point.
I wouldn't stress too much unless you are hiring equipment to come in and you have to get it right the first try. Changing things up isn't that hard to do.
Ive ridden the last 3 evenings in a row. Was motivated since we had some rain last week and track conditions have been perfect. Normally its just wednesdays after work.
Pull up Google Earth for your property and drop some general pins to mark the "box" you have to work in.
Now that you have the "box" delineated, next add additional markers for the track layout you have in mind. This is where you want to do most of your ideation. Once you have a track shape that you think you'll be happy with, move onto the next step.
Borrow traffic cones (and broom handles if vegetation is high.) These become your visual cues. Place one at each marker on the course, or at least the major turns. You should then have a mock-up of the course that is easy to make adjustments to.
Ride the course and make notes about what you like and don't like. Make adjustments with the cones or if making major changes, go back to Google Earth and revisit the pins. Revisit as needed.
It sounds like a fun project. Enjoy!
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I think I would prefer going the opposite direction you are thinking. Agree with trying to make it easy on the farmer as maybe you can work out with him initial tillage or he might have a skid steer or other equipment you can use. I think if you keep the lanes approximately 10’ wide with 10’ or so between them you can fit more in that 200’. I would look at some SX layouts to get more ideas what you can fit in there.
So i have access to a bulldozer and skid steer and the operator will charge me a less rate than normal. The machines are at my family members house down the road as hes building a house, so he has 250 truck loads of dirt coming to raise the level of his house next weekend, and the dirt is free so I have access to many loads too. Machine operation and dirt isn't an issue, just the layout of the track I need tk get down asap and the placement of jumps, as I will have the dozer and trucks dump the dirt where it needs to be then they can shape it. So if anyone can help with track layout thay would be great. Ill send a image of the area withought my layout so people can use it as a canvas.
Tell us you have no clue who you’re making that comment to or what their track building resume is without telling us…
Some people think jumps are fun and want them.
being a good track builder doesn’t change the fact that his comment was dick-ish.
With those dimensions you could use any football field SX track layout as a baseline and modify to your liking.
Im not a pro😭
Is the farmer going to let you rip those fields after harvest? Freshly picked bean field is the best dirt on earth!
Yea Ive been ripping, he doesnt mind. Also that layout you got there will not work haha, no track building on the lawn. Gotta use the portion of field I highlight in red, no more.
I definitely agree with the other guys who recommend riding your layout first before building any jumps. This is a small space you are working with and it will feel even smaller on the bike. Be careful not to fall into the trap that a smaller track = getting away with smaller jumps. It seems counterintuitive, but small steep jumps are actually at their worst on a small track (you might find yourself never getting your bike out of 2nd gear).
Well there are other threads already on the subject and there’s some good advice and some not so good advice scattered throughout said threads.
Here is a friend's backyard track:
Doubles are the way, unless you own machinery or have lots of dirt to play with.
Avoid placing jumps near "on the gas" sections/coming out of corners, as the ramps will wear out FAST.
Be prepared to eat dust! Unless you can water it.
Leave a pile of loose dirt near the ramps, so you can shovel it back when the ramps wear out.
Try to design a lay out that allows changes without much work, as it can get pretty monotonous quick.
Sounds good. The hardest part fkr me is spacing the jumps, I dont want to have to absolutely keep it wide open to clear stuff, and I dont want to have to coast excessively to no over jump. Not sure how to figure that out.
Pit Row
After looking at your foot print you have to work with, mine is about the same.. I made a classic horseshoe / U shaped track.... and in each section I made two lanes…. that way if someone that just wants to chill and hit small tables around the track, they have their own safe lines, then in the other lane I added some lips a few feet back from the tables to make doubles, step on step offs, etc. mine is a constant work in progress so don’t expect it to be perfect after your initial build…. And like someone mentioned earlier, I’m
a huge fan of making your lanes north/south for sunlight purposes. Either way, just have fun and keep us posted on the build..
So maybe instead of criticizing a guy coming onto a moto forum and asking a legit moto related question, he could help him out by supplying good information. Or if he doesn’t want to be inconvenienced by helping someone out, just ignore the thread. It’s just so strange to me that just because he knows how to build a track, that means he can’t say something stupid (in your mind apparently.)
Excellent advice.
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