building a bike trail

if there are trails in your area, find out who built/maintains them. That would be a good starting point. You could work with people and learn techniques from them. Additionally IMBA gives out a free dvd on this subject from their website.

I started buiding trails this year and it is way tougher then I thought it would be. I would say start building and you will learn along the way. You will figure out how to build stuff better with experience. check out the videos and instead of watching all the riding, pause the dvd and take a good look at the jump or stunt. You'll learn a lot that way too. Good luck and have fun!

I've been building trails for years and have had plenty of experience. As said before, IMBA has a book on proper trail building techniques that is good. Before you build jumps and drops, just build a good trail to get the feel for it. You want to spend a lot of time to be sure you have a good line planned or else it will take more work later to fix it. Build it right the first time and there will be less work later, and more time to ride. It takes a lot of time to build a full trail, but can be very worth it. It also helps to have the proper tools for the job. McLeods are best, but those can be hard to get, so I'd suggest rakes, shovels, and especially pulaskis. And of course, be safe and have fun!

EDIT: I wrote a paper on proper trail building a few years ago that is a few pages long, and might be helpful at least for a start since it includes all the basics. Send me a message if you want me to email you a copy of it. I like to help all inspiring trail builders as much as I can.

jeff da grom said:

Additionally IMBA gives out a free dvd on this subject from their website.

Click to expand...

Do you have a link to this? Looked around and couldn't find anything...

EDIT:
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/rectrails/trailpub.htm

There ya go.

my trail building arsenal at my cabin includes a pulaski, flat head shovel, spade and rake. i find myself using the rake quite a bit, so make sure you get a heavy duty metal one. i'd really like to find a mcleod myself, they're indeed very hard to some by, but if you can find one they can make things much easier in certain cases. also, if you're building berms and jumps, make sure you use tons of water. building takes a lot of time, and the more time you spend getting a jump or berm packed the longer it'll last. don't try to ride things before they're set, and use a lot of water to try and get things to harden as much as possible. also, make sure that you don't make berms too tight or jumps that are too steep and short because it can take all of the flow out of a trail. another very important thing to remember is that your trail won't be perfect as soon as you finish it. there will be fine tuning needed in certain spots to get everything flowing right, but it's all more than worth it.

I found one place that sells McLeods - they are indeed the best.

look here for the McLeod

The biggest thing when building a trail is dont hurry. In the last week or so I spent at least 20 hours working on trails and only in a few places. I spent a lot of time for each place I was at to make it right.

Formulate your goal for the trail first. Do you want it to be a fast trail with drops that catch you if you snooze? Slower, more technical trail? Flag out a proposed route, then hike everything 300' to either side of it to make sure there isn't some hidden terrain feature you'd otherwise miss. Build in 100' increments, and ride each section after you build it. A lot of times newbies will build something that looks really cool at the time, but when ridden doesn't work as intended. I find the trail is always harder to ride than I thought it would be. I also like to add a few things to every trail that I'm actually afraid to ride at first, thought being my cojones will grow as I ride it more often. Also important is the old builders' axiom - measure twice/cut once! If you're 'pruning' try to ride the flags before you take out the saw to make sure you don't cut a line you need to reroute later. Don't plant your metal rake into a ground wasp nest :biggrin:
I should add most of my work has been on DH type trails, wher eyou can get fooled by pitch, accumulated speed, etc. A flatter trail is easier to build...

Yeah you should definitely check with the guys in your area so that you can get a general idea about expenses.

dwaugh said:

I found one place that sells McLeods - they are indeed the best.

look here for the McLeod

Click to expand...

Looks like one could fabricate a McLeod rip-off without breaking a sweat...might have to look into that.

First hike the area you plan to build the trail in. This allows you to get a feel for the pitch of the ground, and other terrain features.
Second, use prospectors tape every 10-20ft or so to mark out the general route of the trail. In order to get the most “bang fer your buck” try and weave the trail down a hillside, rather than bomb it all in a straight line.
Third, look for areas that will be good for building jumps/berms/drops. Look for natural transitions in the ground. They will make it all the more easier when it comes to building a landing.
Four begin cutting the trail in. Cut all of the major foliage, working your way down towards the ground. Try and be as thorough as possible.
Ride each section (100-150ft) of trail is you cut it. Make sure there is enough flow for what you plan to do with it. If you plan do have a jump, make sure you don’t get bogged down in this section.
Five, once you have a complete trail cut in, ride the hell out of it, packing the dirt. This will also allow you to figure out trouble spots where you may need to re-route in order to preserve flow, or stop erosion.
Six, build stunts. Place them where you will have adequate time before it to gain speed, and after it to scrub speed before the next turn. Always build the stunt bigger than you think it should be. Stuff always looks bigger before completion than it actually is. Make sure to armor the lips of the jumps and transitions with rocks. Setting down a good bed of rocks makes a jump last longer, and makes less digging for you.
For your first few trails, stay away from wooden structures. They are hard to build, and if built improperly can collapse. Get the hang out jumps and natural stunts before you get yourself in over your head.
Hope this helps.

any progress w/the trail...??? lets see some pics.

Well sometime during the winter I got incredibly stir crazy and was dying for something to do so I, like you, started building a trail in the woods behind my house. Im in WV and theres not to many natural formations I can build on so I kinda went for the north shore style of building with ladder drops and the log cabin jumps. Im only 15 so I dont have a chainsaw or any power tools, but it does take a long time to chop all the wood and cement support posts in. The thing that is probably the most time consuming but most worth it is cutting the trails in. My lines are fairly fast because the whole trail is downhill, but whenever your building a quick turning section, definitely cut it in and grade it level. The most thing that I had in terms of trial and error (for my own experience at least) was jump building. Do yourself a favor and don't just pile up a mound of dirt really high, grade it and try it jump it. I works but erodes incredibly fast. For sturdiness I log cabin stack logs 5-8 diameter logs and fill the rest with dirt. I tried sending pics but they all failed to upload.

cuteman- where in WV do you live?

Mononghalia county