Bulid a Mountain Bike Trail

After a couple of years of putting it off, I finally decided to build my very own bike trail in my yard. I found a few web sites on trail building, and got started. This instructible shows guidelines and techniques that helped me a lot when building my trail.

Remember-- Never build any sort of trail unless you have permission from the land owner. Even on public land, it is illegal to build. Many great areas have banned mountain bikers from riding on trails because of illegal trail building. Mountain bikers are being watched under a microscope because of this, so don't ruin it for everyone-- get permission first.

With that said, lets get started.

Step 1 Find a Location

This is one of the hardest parts, especially if you live in a city. I live in the mountains, and have two acres, so I didn't have to go anywhere. You also need to decide what you want in your trail, and who will be using the trail. I wanted to build a main loop that was fairly easy for the kids in my neighborhood to use. I then added a couple of other branches off the loop that are very technical and challenge me. When scouting, ask yourself questions such as: Technical rocks or smooth dirt? Steep hills or mellow ones? Once you find a good general location, bring paper and a pen and walk around. Take notes of sections that would be nice to have in your trail (drop-offs, meadows, etc) as well as sections that would not be so good (big cliffs, dense forests, swamps etc.) Also take note of any obstacles that need to be removed. I had to cut out a few bushes and some small trees for my trail to work. The trail itself will only be about a foot wide, but i would recommend four to six feet of clearing for your handlebars to fit through. The faster the trail, the wider the clearing needs to be.

Comments

[Aron313]

Your lucky! You dont have any pickers or weeds. You probably dont live in PA.
Good instructable tho

[glockofdoom]

what do you mean by rollers?

[apaterson1]

he means mounds of dirt to use for pumping speed

[skutadude]

needs some jumps, drops, bigger berms, and the whole track needs to be more hektick. and the planks on your ramp thing need to be closer together. my track (that i was making before i checked out this instructable) has way better sections and is way more hektick. but your track would make a good cross country track. lol

[bikeparts24]

Yeah, I made mine to be a cross-country trail. I'm not in to the downhill and freeride biking, and I wanted the neighborhood kids (mostly around 10-12 years old) to be able to do the trail. I am thinking about addding a section with some north-shore type ramps, though. I'll post pics if I get to it.

[sharlston]

have you considered buying a cheap small ramp such as a mini rampage then covering the whole thing in mud just like a real ramp

[imkwl12345]

naaah its just not the same as a dirt jump 

[skutadude]

ok then.

[Ben.land101]

 first off, very nice instructable. (although this would've been helpful about a year ago) but anyways, one good way to get the trail smoother and down to nothing but dirt is to let a few people ride on it with dirt bikes because they will mess up all the grass and pack down the dirt faster than a mountain bike can.

[Yerboogieman]

Nice idea! I like the raised curve thing.

[Pkranger88]

Nice. I have 33 acres my wife and I would like to put a trail on. The only downside to the way I see you've done it is that you cut out some trees. I would encourage anyone to allow the trail to flow around natural obstacles rather than remove them. Enjoy!

[bikeparts24]

Yes, I agree that people should try to go around trees. The only reason I cut down some trees is because I had to thin out anyway, because they're are countless little trees right next to full grown ones, and because of wildfire danger around here.

[admanrocks]

This looks awesome! I wish I had a huge back yard, or an awesome neighbor like you...