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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.
Theres been a change if plans, what if I just went with a layout like this around the house. There are a few benefits, it uses lead if the field on the sides and just makes the house area larger, makes it easy on the farmer, can get longer lanes like this (4 400 foot lane and 2 300 foot lanes) how can I space jumps out here, what features to make, and how to make this design more interesting
Guess hard to gauge but then are some long straight rhythm lanes that way. Personally I like more corners for a practice track but you got do what works best for what’s available to you
I've built private tracks with two lane options side by side, whoops one lap, jumps the next. Also building tracks at fairgrounds, there is limited dirt and they don't want any foreign dirt mixed in. If there is 12 inches of depth, then you can skim it and get a lot of dirt for obstacles. If you have access to roll bales of hay, you can use those to build your jumps with less dirt. Just be sure to place the roll bales flat side down, not round. They are solid and I've used them for private tracks. I tore one down for a guy that sold his house and moved, the roll bales were still intact. Six bales will give you a good base for a tabletop. I've used 12-15 bales for a fair race or basic arenacross.
Yep we did that with a local track to build a table and years later when reworking the bales were still intact
Thanks for the intel, I would honestly prefer more turns, however this makes more sense from a broad perspective with the land and such. I have a lot of top soil which has a high clay content from the field I can scrape and make jumps so no issues with dirt. Can also get in 20ft by 8ft by 5 ft of sand for 600 canadian dollars a load. Which is very cheap. Can use it to mix in and make the berms. My only thing is I dont know how to space jumps and get a good rhythm with rollers, tables, and doubles
I am also looking at building a track at my house at some point when I buy 4-10 acres. I have thought about it and lot, I would suggest trying to do a daytona style track, if you can.
If Your unsure of spacing. I really think You need to get a layout and ride it first. Get a feel for the speed You can carry.
Go on google earth and measure some of the jumps on tracks You have ridden that You enjoy. If You can find a reference point like a flagger stand or anything that will help You find the beginning and end of the transitions so Your able to measure both. It is accurate enough that it could be a big help.
As a new builder the chances of building everything perfect the first time is slim. The traction and type of dirt impact the style jumps I build. If it will develop ruts , or just get rough with holes and bumps. square edge bumps, etc. I've built enough to have a decent idea of what to build after I know what the soil is like. I may have missed it, but Your skill level as a rider is an important detail for people to know if they are going to help with a layout. If You like big jumps, steep jumps, faster less steep jumps, etc.
took a screenshot of googlearth while I placed the measuring tool on a section of a local track to give you an idea of what I was talking about. Its a yellow line about center of the image of the track. It blends into the dirt a little. But the points are what is measured and then the numbers are on the right. Elevations have always been the contour lines or lidar and not done often enough to be accurate on a mx track. so don't pay as much attention to the elevation numbers as the length.
If there is a track You have ridden that has similar soil to what Your building on, You could copy sections from it. Measure them using google earth and then lay them out . I would use photoshop myself. Place measurements on the image in google earth of the property I am working on. a generic 50 foot line and take a screenshot then open in photoshop and use that 50 foot line to make my own shapes in photoshop that would be used to measure and stay to scale. I know I'm not explaining it very well. Hungry and about to close up and go eat dinner after I hit enter on this post.
When I was working for a developer the mason told me they used to use bales of hay under the concrete stairs. Form them up and use the hay in the middle. It did rot away under the stairs though and caused problems on some so they stopped allowing it. That was many many years ago.
I dug up some stumps and logs that had been buried about 10 or so years earlier and they looked like they had just been pulled out of a fresh pile. With the wood , it will not rot if oxygen can't get to it. in some soils You'll have more oxygen than others.
I wouldn't burry wood or big rocks in jumps, but the round bale idea sounds good. Worst case is it rots away and mixes into the soil . Moving the bale can be easier than moving all the dirt it would take to make a similar sized jump.
Here is a layout i think im going with. I had to downsize a decent bit, and will probably add more lanes and expand next year, but for this year and as my first track this is the footprint im in. What do you guys think of the layout, so I have a double then a table after the big berm on bottom, maybe you guys can tell me what would come first, I would like the biggest jump be the table so I thought I would put it after the double so I can build speed. Then I have rollers on the left side, and another double on the way down on the right. Yea I know the lanes are a bit tight, I will open then up when I make the track, dont worry about that. I marked out this layout today, just wibought the s turn on the left side, and rode it. It was good the runs are decent and allow me to get up into third pretty well, plenty of speed as its 380ft long. The bottom turn was very open and very wide, same with the top ones, felt like I could carry a lot of speed. Let me know what you guys think. I will try and figure out where jumps go hopefully but would appreciate some help.
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