Track build

Get a friend to try it out first...

There are plenty of blueprints on line with this info.

cdncombatmedic wrote:

Get a friend to try it out first...

Amen to that !

55ft is a decent sized jump for a backyard. 30 foot doubles. Safe means mostly tables and the landings have a really nice radius to them so if you case it you dont get bucked off. I think moto whoops are something like 25ft peak to peak and 3-4 ft tall piles of dirt. Just a rough guess. Make it whatever you want

Build and test. Trial and error, look at photos online if you have to

Here’s some good info for you

https://www.dirtbikes101.com/arts/building-dirt-bike-track.html

http://www.dirtwurx.com/track_tips2.php

https://dirtbikeplanet.com/motocross-track-construction/

pay someone to build its cheaper than your medical deductible

do a image search for supercross track dimensions for some basic ideas

I'm betting that it takes a lot more dirt and time than you think. My track did, and it's still not done.
I got lucky and had a friend build it and jump everything first.

I built mine by myself but when it came to obstacles i hired a Pro best 5K i spent. He came in and in 5 days took a killer track to the next level. Robert Settles DirtCraft MX tracks. He's located in Prescott AZ.
https://www.facebook.com/dirtcraftmxtracks/?ref=page_internal
Pics of my track there Crippen's outdoor build.

Building the track is the easy part keeping it fresh and maintained is so much more work than you can possibly imagine.

motomojo wrote:

I built mine by myself but when it came to obstacles i hired a Pro best 5K i spent. He came in and in 5 days took a killer track to the next level. Robert Settles DirtCraft MX tracks. He's located in Prescott AZ.
https://www.facebook.com/dirtcraftmxtracks/?ref=page_internal
Pics of my track there Crippen's outdoor build.

Building the track is the easy part keeping it fresh and maintained is so much more work than you can possibly imagine.

"when it came to obstacles i hired a Pro best 5K i spent. He came in and in 5 days took a killer track to the next level"

WOW, 5K for five days of heavy equipment. That's crazy good prices. That was equipment delivered and operated?

Tiki wrote:

"when it came to obstacles i hired a Pro best 5K i spent. He came in and in 5 days took a killer track to the next level"

WOW, 5K for five days of heavy equipment. That's crazy good prices. That was equipment delivered and operated?

Yes as i mentioned i had already built the track and i had marked where and what kind of obstacles i wanted.
He came with a trac loader and i hogged up dirt with my dozer and he built the jumps, landings, etc...and sorted out a couple corners that i didn't have quite right.
He worked 8 to 10 hr's a day no breaks except to refuel i was pretty impressed.

I had an ex pro build mine. He takes care of Rio Bravo and Freestone Raceway and he is cheaper than you might think and my track is bad ass. Vernon Mckiddie is a super nice guy. I hacked around long enough to know when I was in over my head and my long sand whoop section he built is killer.

vmactracks@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/vmac129/

http://freestonemx.com/latest-news/vmac-tracks-official-track-builder-freestone-raceway/

Even if you're a solid operator...building a track is an art and a science.

You might be able to hire someone and then offset the cost by pushing dirt and doing the rough-in work after they do the layout.

I'd go that route so you could learn some tips when it comes to keep that bad boy maintained.

motomojo wrote:

I built mine by myself but when it came to obstacles i hired a Pro best 5K i spent. He came in and in 5 days took a killer track to the next level. Robert Settles DirtCraft MX tracks. He's located in Prescott AZ.
https://www.facebook.com/dirtcraftmxtracks/?ref=page_internal
Pics of my track there Crippen's outdoor build.

Building the track is the easy part keeping it fresh and maintained is so much more work than you can possibly imagine.

Man, that place looks awesome! Have you held a ride day or anything like that? I'm in Phoenix. I'd love to come check it out one day!

Kzirk525 wrote:

Man, that place looks awesome! Have you held a ride day or anything like that? I'm in Phoenix. I'd love to come check it out one day!

Yeah i have opened it to the public a few times in 16 and 17 learned my lesson on that stupid idea.
Won't be repeating that one again.
AMA licensed pros, Sponsored serious amateurs with references we can talk.

I've built a few including my own over the years. Their is definitely an art & science to it. Being able to operate is only part of the equation.
When I go to tracks and see an obstacle I like I usually pace/measure it off.
I built a replica of Washougals whoops at our track with some tweaks. Ours are actually a bit bigger. Outdoor whoops are average of 16' apart and 2 1/2"' high +/-. You can rhythm or pound through our set which makes for good practice.
Landings are hugely overlooked in track building. Big rounded landings make almost every jump safer and more fun.
Run out after obstacles is also important for safety - What's going to happen of something goes wrong?
Work with your terrain as much as possible.
Be ready to tweak after building. Even a few inches of dirt moved on a jump face can make a huge difference.
Always build stuff bigger than you think. Easier to knock down than rebuild & dirt settles over time.........

It may not be much of a problem in CO, but here in the PNW, thinking about drainage is a big deal too. I learned that one the hard way years ago... Turns out water will flow to the lowest place and it's not as easy as just pushing dirt up in a pile. Whoops tend to be hardest thing to build IMO.

ACBraap wrote:

It may not be much of a problem in CO, but here in the PNW, thinking about drainage is a big deal too. I learned that one the hard way years ago... Turns out water will flow to the lowest place and it's not as easy as just pushing dirt up in a pile. Whoops tend to be hardest thing to build IMO.

^This. No mater where you live you don't want to miss the best days of the year because the turns etc. are full of water. The track lanes should be higher than the sides of the track. Also make some low spots off to the side so you can retrieve the dirt before it leaves the track, otherwise within a few years you'll be out of good dirt. I built my track so that virtually no dirt leaves the property. In the spring I get the dirt out of the low spots and bring it up hill. It is also important to bring dirt from far away to build take offs and landings so you don't end up with g outs before and after your jumps - don't be lazy when moving dirt!

Lots of good info here.

I'll toss in what i learned in building a track this summer.

having the right equipment is key. A d6 bulldozer or equivalent would be ideal, along with a front end loader and possibly a dump truck depending how far and readily available the dirt is. We were lucky in that the property had a cone of 1000+ yards of screened top soil that we used to build some of the features and a good portion of the track was built on a massive pile of dirt (hundreds of thousands of yards of material if not millions) that had been scraped from the surrounding area when the property was going to become a golf course before the project fell through. So luckily we didn't have to transport much dirt, but if you do you want to be able to do it in large quantities.

be ready to burn lots of diesel and lots of time. We were typically running a Komatsu 200 excavator or a komatsu 138 and a kubota asv90 skid. I probably spent 150 or so hours working on it along with another guy who spent around the same amount of time, the track is about a mile long on 15ish acres id guess.. Unfortunately we didn't have a bulldozer which would have saved a massive amount of time. the excavators were good, but it took way more time to grade and cut in the track then it would of with a bulldozer.

come up with your layout and use stakes to mark obstacles and corners, it can be hard to gauge distances for jumps/features and radius of corners when you are operating.

get the layout done and ride the layout some before building a majority of the features. this will let you get a feel for the speed of the track and will help you determine what features might work where and if you need to change anything layout wise.

don't make your jump faces too steep. I had the best luck building jump faces as a ramp, with a smooth transition at the bottom, once through the transition the face of the jump maintains a consistent slope, think of a triangle.

make things as low consequence as possible at first so you aren't intimidated to hit it and if you mess up it won't be to bad. as you get better at building you can make features of higher consequence cause you will know what works and what doesn't.

if you have good top soil to use try mixing in some bark mulch or sand with it to help keep it broken up. most top soil has quite a bit of clay in it and it will become rock hard with machines driving over it all the time.

having a power rake attachment or something to till the soil when you are done would be a massive help in maintaining the track. As someone said earlier it's the outgoing grooming and maintenance that is a real doozy

Have fun!

Equipment doesn't have to be big nor a lot of it. You will however burn a bit of fuel and spend a whole lot of time with plenty of hand work as well.
I built my 1.7 mile track with a small 30 HP tractor with a loader attachment.
Pretty much went with the terrain so didn't have to transport any dirt. it did take 2 years but i have way more time than money and took my time and made it very very nice, I'd upload a pic or two but you wouldn't believe it was done with basically a garden tractor.

motomojo wrote:

Equipment doesn't have to be big nor a lot of it. You will however burn a bit of fuel and spend a whole lot of time with plenty of hand work as well.
I built my 1.7 mile track with a small 30 HP tractor with a loader attachment.
Pretty much went with the terrain so didn't have to transport any dirt. it did take 2 years but i have way more time than money and took my time and made it very very nice, I'd upload a pic or two but you wouldn't believe it was done with basically a garden tractor.

yea i have seen some impressive work done with just tractors. it all depends of the terrain you are working with. if its a flat piece of land you'll obviously have to move more to create features then if you have a lot of natural terrain variation. i preferred using the 200 ex for the rough cuts and then shape and smooth things out with the skid steer.

motomojo wrote:

I built mine by myself but when it came to obstacles i hired a Pro best 5K i spent. He came in and in 5 days took a killer track to the next level. Robert Settles DirtCraft MX tracks. He's located in Prescott AZ.
https://www.facebook.com/dirtcraftmxtracks/?ref=page_internal
Pics of my track there Crippen's outdoor build.

Building the track is the easy part keeping it fresh and maintained is so much more work than you can possibly imagine.

How many acres do you think your track takes up? I live near Seligman in one of the ranch communities and would love to upgrade my turn track in the future. I only have 11.25 acres so I’m limited to what I can do. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Your track looks amazing

Only math you need is an operator + machine. Your gut will tell you what gear you need to be in on the face. IF it doesn’t, get more seat time hitting smaller stuff until you get the feel.

You have to build the jumps when the dirt is wet, otherwise they will never hold together. Also try to leave all of the top soil on top. If you grade down through the first foot or two you might get down to some really junky and potentially much rockier dirt. On straights and where possible on corners I would suggest as much as possible just ripping the dirt and start riding it. Save the dozer work for building the obstacles. Like others have said, if you can use natural elevation changes that can save you an unbelievable amount of time and $s. I could not imagine what it must be like trying to build full size motocross tracks on pool table flat terrain.

langhammx wrote:

There are plenty of blueprints on line with this info.

Yes but be sure you get the dimensions right or you could end up with something like this:

I’m not sure how to get the vid to link up using an iPhone. I can only post the link you see here. Sorry.

PS, for you youngun’s, you’ll have to watch it to the end.

JM825 wrote:

How many acres do you think your track takes up? I live near Seligman in one of the ranch communities and would love to upgrade my turn track in the future. I only have 11.25 acres so I’m limited to what I can do. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Your track looks amazing

Thanks.
I have pretty much the whole 40 acres tracked out 2 main tracks one strictly Moto one off road and a vintage/quad track that borrows some of each of the two mains but also has some vintage only sections bypassing the big hits.
Yellow is the main MX track
Blue the off road ( still some roughing in to do)
Red Vintage/quad



Seligman is pretty close if you want to come out some time and check it out to get some ideas.
Head south on 93 to just past mile post 100 turn east into Windmill Ranches follow Bull Springs (main road) about 8.5 miles can't miss it. motomojo3@gmail.com

And a drool shot.

motomojo wrote:

Equipment doesn't have to be big nor a lot of it. You will however burn a bit of fuel and spend a whole lot of time with plenty of hand work as well.
I built my 1.7 mile track with a small 30 HP tractor with a loader attachment.
Pretty much went with the terrain so didn't have to transport any dirt. it did take 2 years but i have way more time than money and took my time and made it very very nice, I'd upload a pic or two but you wouldn't believe it was done with basically a garden tractor.

I have a 40hp 4x4 tractor with a loader and 6ft tiller. My track is currently about 3/4 of a mile and only has 1 real jump (a 34ft double measured peak to peak with about a 6ft face and 3ft landing). I bought my tractor brand new and it now has about 60hrs on it (not all of the hrs are on it from track, but most). I enjoy working on the track, but only have so much time with work and wife/kids so it can be difficult to work on it. Jump making was a bit of a learning curve but feel i picked it up pretty quickly. I tested my jump myself and its was one of the scariest jumps i have ever hit (even though i have hit jumps over 3 times its size) just due to not knowing how it was going to feel and a bit of self doubt but it was damn near perfect, landing was butter. Was so proud of myself (and still am obviously) lol I wish i had natural terrain to work with, but i live in NE Ohio and my entire 45 acres of land is completely flat.

damn mojo that is gorgeous,looks like you have beautiful dirt to work with as well. nice work.