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I've been busy......

buckoW

Turbo Monkey
Mar 1, 2007
3,777
4,700
Champery, Switzerland
digging, but I cheated and used a excavator and a hose. Here are some pics from one of the days digging. It is a bunch more fine tuned now.




Timo hitting the lip I was shaping in the pic before



The new pumptrack





It is pretty long. You can drop in the big line and then hip off to the pumptrack gain a bit of speed and then get back into the big line and by the end you need to lay down and rest a bit. Anyone is welcome to come and ride it. I think it is a little far for most of you though.

Somedays everyone from the office come out and help. Most people don't jump but they come help anyway. A lot gets done at lunch break.


 
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buckoW

Turbo Monkey
Mar 1, 2007
3,777
4,700
Champery, Switzerland
I had about a hundred loads of dirt from one of these.



It looked like this before I started



Then for a while it looked like this.......

 
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buckoW

Turbo Monkey
Mar 1, 2007
3,777
4,700
Champery, Switzerland
The first line taking shape. This is now the smallest of 3 lines on this straight.



View from the product managers' office. Pretty distracting but lunch rides just got a lot more fun.



testing....testing....




train.



I like this shot. Sometimes my brother hides with his telephoto lense and snipes away.



I am going back to dig next week and hopefully it will be dry enough to ride. I will try and get some more riding shots.

Photos by Will Walker
 
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don

Turbo Monkey
Nov 8, 2001
1,319
0
Rumson, NJ
Damn. Europe is rad. I was in Italy for a week and was impressed by a lot of stuff and didn't see a bike save for a few roadies (I was on the coast the whole time).

Here are a few other things you showed that make it even more dope:

1.
Somedays everyone from the office come out and help. Most people don't jump but they come help anyway. A lot gets done at lunch break.
Some of us locals can't even get guys that ride to help. Shows how people help each other out over there. That's one thing in Italy I noticed - lots of community.

2.

5 axle Mercedes dump w/ forward control?! That thing looks awesome. I'm guessing you can get a LOT of dirt in tight places with that.

3.

Having ladies at the trails/spot helping out is on a ultra high on the cool level. The more girls in the sport the better IMO and I know there is plenty of them out there that can shred. Look at the US girls gymnists at the Olympics or what girls are doing on snow/skate/surf boards.

4.
Last but not least - the place looks like a wicked amount of fun. Well laid out and looks like it has some flow. If you ever get film of the place please post - I'd love to see how the place is riden.

Big props to your crew and you for getting a spot like that going strong.
 

RUFUS

e-douche of the year
Dec 1, 2006
3,480
1
Denver, CO
Everyone here now hates you for posting those pictures. In no way did you make me feel good about my digging skills.
I award you no points and may god have mercy on your soul!!!

That is INCREDIBLE
Very well done.
 

buckoW

Turbo Monkey
Mar 1, 2007
3,777
4,700
Champery, Switzerland
Thanks guys. My brother has some more pics but I have to go get them from his place. For now here is a shot of my friend Julien hipping towards the end of the line. If you look closely you can see another buddy training right behind. The landing is about 3 feet stepped up. When he lands that there is a mini step up to bowl to step down to 90° left berm to a mini triple into a head high lip with a slightly hipped landing.


You can see a little bit of what I am talking about in this photo. Since this photo a lot of new lines have been added. Check out the dirt. It has no rocks and packs as hard as concrete with little effort. They tell me it's sandstone.



cheating photo



this is from another spot (Champery) but check out the height of this wallride.



Here you can see me on the right for a size comparison. I am 6'1" tall. This line has a left hip to a right hip into a step on step off into that wall ride.



Wallrides and sheep in the center of town. Only in Europe. I am originally from the US by the way.



This shows the tram in the village where I live. That tram goes up 3000 vertical feet.



I usually build downhill and freeride trails for ski resorts but have been building more and more park/jump stuff in the last couple years. I can't build doubles because I am working for ski resorts and have to make stuff for tourism. I try and make it work for multiple levels of riders.

I will get some current photos today of the first spot and post them later.
 
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buckoW

Turbo Monkey
Mar 1, 2007
3,777
4,700
Champery, Switzerland
I usually build stuff like this



or this



with this



Hey Don, I saw you liked the Mercedes dump truck. What do you think of the walking digger? I never saw one of those when I lived in the States.
 
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buckoW

Turbo Monkey
Mar 1, 2007
3,777
4,700
Champery, Switzerland
More pics

The lip on the left of this pic is a step down into that step up in the center of the photo.



The landing of the step up goes directly into this 4X style berm.



Someone poached this one while it was still drying..... Oh well.



Looking down the first straight from the start hill. The guys on the left of the pic are standing on the pumptrack.



They are standing right where I am in this photo.



I am going to ride there tomorrow afternoon so maybe we can get a riding shot or two for you guys.
 

don

Turbo Monkey
Nov 8, 2001
1,319
0
Rumson, NJ
Hey Don, I saw you liked the Mercedes dump truck. What do you think of the walking digger? I never saw one of those when I lived in the States.
O yeah, that thing is really cool too. Did you post a pic of that before? It looks kinda familiar. It looks like the perfect unit for the on mountain stuff you have built (which BTW, is very nice looking as well).
 

buckoW

Turbo Monkey
Mar 1, 2007
3,777
4,700
Champery, Switzerland
O yeah, that thing is really cool too. Did you post a pic of that before? It looks kinda familiar. It looks like the perfect unit for the on mountain stuff you have built (which BTW, is very nice looking as well).
Yeah, I think I did post that earlier this summer when I was building that trail and probably last year as well. You can tip toe through the forest and leave just a single track with those machines. Ideal for trailbuilding very fast.
 

buckoW

Turbo Monkey
Mar 1, 2007
3,777
4,700
Champery, Switzerland
The step up is on the right of the photo and the landing of that takes you into a 4x style berm to some mini rhythm section into a hip at the end. You can see the landing of the hip in between the step up and the 4x berm.



This doesn't look like much but it is fun to ride. It is a step up to a little bowl to mini step down.

 

TortugaTonta

Monkey
Aug 27, 2008
539
0
That last jump is just my style, if a trail doesen't have turns it needs elevation change, looks like you made very good use of the area.

One thing I allways wanted, imagine the letter P, now imagine where the radius intersects the middle of the straight part, Now put a square table top there with the same trannies on all four sides, and make the radius a vert 270 berm, you could hit it and hip left skipping the berm, you could hit it straight rail the berm and hip right back into the berm, basically you would have too many options to list! Unfortunately my area is on a big hill so I don't have a big and flat enough area to build it, but you do!
 

buckoW

Turbo Monkey
Mar 1, 2007
3,777
4,700
Champery, Switzerland
That sounds like a cool idea. It seems like the radius of the berm would have to be 3 meters or bigger to keep speed. I don't have a spot for that right now but I think we will be adding some more lines, transfers and pumptrack variations. I would love to be able to pumptrack back to the start hill. Too many ideas and my DH bike takes up too much time.
 

BikeSATORI

Monkey
Apr 13, 2007
720
0
one world...
awwww....... whoa.


Damn buckoW, when I'm on my deathbed pondering things to regret, the first that will come to mind will probably be my career choice and why I didn't follow your footsteps, haha. d'oh, yeah, that's pretty sad. You're livin' the dream my friend.
 

buckoW

Turbo Monkey
Mar 1, 2007
3,777
4,700
Champery, Switzerland
Thanks BikeSATORI. I love doing stuff with bikes and snowboards.

TortugaTonta: nice berm. I would love to concrete some stuff. How thick is the layer you have on there?

Here are a couple pics of some other stuff I built this summer, from a small village in Switzerland called Leysin that has a big bike park in the center of town with jumps and drops right next to the soccer field and ice hockey rink.




testing...testing....




I built those lips out of wood because I only had a day and a half to build and no time to keep them well shaped. I only did the jump line and a small rhythm line. The ladder bridge stuff was built by someone else. I thought it was pretty cool that the local government hired me to build some jumps in the middle of town. The have a cog train going up there from the valley floor that you can run shuttles with. Next year they want to start developing the trails and create a whole bike park package.
 

Damo

Short One Marshmallow
Sep 7, 2006
4,603
27
French Alps
Ben! Where the fck are those first pics from?
That doesn't look like Champery, is it down the line?
I'll have to come check it out before the snows come...
 

buckoW

Turbo Monkey
Mar 1, 2007
3,777
4,700
Champery, Switzerland
I built this for the WC 4X track last year. They took it down before we got a chance to really ride the track. This was a couple days after the race and I only hit it a few times on maybe 3 or 4 different days. Oh well. We will have a WC 4X and DH race in 2010 so I will probably get the chance to make another one.



Here is another angle of the same jump but this time on the DH bike.



funny side note about that last pic: The guy in the background doesn't ride bikes much but is a sick snowboarder. He has ridden 2 different lines on the mountain behind. A couple times down the snow field on the right and once down the couloir/chute/drainage on the upper left of the pic.
 

AlmostHeaven

Turbo Monkey
Jun 8, 2005
1,164
0
VIRGINIA
funny side note about that last pic: The guy in the background doesn't ride bikes much but is a sick snowboarder. He has ridden 2 different lines on the mountain behind. A couple times down the snow field on the right and once down the couloir/chute/drainage on the upper left of the pic.
:shocked::shocked:

does he have any video parts?
 

buckoW

Turbo Monkey
Mar 1, 2007
3,777
4,700
Champery, Switzerland
:shocked::shocked:

does he have any video parts?
No, none of us take the time to film anymore. Everytime we try and film it is always half assed hand held shots from above or below. We lost hope of properly filming the snowboarding by ourselves. I do film projects with Bjorn Enga and here is the last non biking mini film we did for a contest.

http://winter.outdoorgames.org/fr/gallery/video.php?idIndex=181&idContent=4526&a=1&b=0&noeud=6


Hey Damo

It is in Fribourg behind the Scott factory. Come ride. There are a couple loaner hard tails if you need one. The other day I rode dh in Neuchatel on the Funiculaire and then dirt jumping at night. Let me know when you come.
 

buckoW

Turbo Monkey
Mar 1, 2007
3,777
4,700
Champery, Switzerland
Pull yourself up with the bucket. It has hydraulic driven wheels but that is usually only for driving on roads and you have to put the smaller wheels in a different spot so they touch the ground.