Basic Tricks |
Building Trails
Planning Jumps | Phase One | Phase Two | Final Preparation
Being part of a crew who built a set of good jumps is very rewarding and in my opinion is one of the best parts about BMX. Although the trails will be rewarding when they are done they take a lot of work, I mean days sometimes weeks so don't think that you and a few of your friends are going to take picks and shovels and build a boss set of jumps in a few hours. So now that I warned you that its going to entail a lot of work, lets get started...
Plan your jumps
Okay... so you and some of your friends had the brilliant idea to build some jumps out in the woods but first you need to gather tools and plan out where your jumps are going to be and what natural obstacles you want to incorporate in to them. You want your trails to flow or you won't have enough speed to catch the next jump. Also you want to take trees into consideration If there are two trees that you think are impeding your building, build a jump between them. You also want to take jump size into consideration. Large jumps are only for the skilled and can take hours to create only one. If you are a good BMXer and have the time and patience you should make your jumps 5-6 feet high, if you are intermediate 3-4 feet high and if you are a beginner about 2 feet high.
Phase One
Now that you have a plan and the materials you need you can begin building. The most frequently encountered jump in the BMX world is the double jump. A double jump consists of your launch ramp and your landing ramp. All double jumps obviously have a gap, don't make the gap too big for you to clear. To build a double jump you will need to pile up 2 mounds of dirt, one for the launch one for the landing. The mounds should be about a foot taller than your desired jump height.
Phase Two
Now that you have your two mounds of dirt in front of you it's time for the difficult part. This is kind of hard to describe. But you want a launch jump that has a transition similar to a ramp. So it needs to be nice and smooth curving upwards toward vertical. They need to be pretty steep. This is a bit annoying at first but it is the best way to get the amount of air you need to do tricks. In a way it is actually safer. So what you need to do now is to start shaping you jumps into a nice curve. So get a shovel with a flat head and start smoothing it down the face of the mound of dirt you just piled. Once you have something that looks good, you need to start packing it down. Use whatever to pack the dirt. Like your feet or bikes or your shovels. When finished, it should be as hard as cement. OK so now you should have your launch jump sorted out. Now you need to shape your landing jump. This is a little bit easier. You just need to make it so it has a lot less transition than the launch one. Make it nice and wide so when you catch sketchy air you have a good amount of space to land on and not get mangled in your bike. Pack this down well too. It doesn't have to be quite as hard as the launch one. Now that this process is done you are ready for final preparation.
Final Preparation.
It is always hard to not just start riding when you have packed down and shaped your jumps. But it is important to make them rock hard. Otherwise you grove them and they will fall apart really quick. The secret to making hard jumps is water. You need to get a hose and spray them down. If you can't get a hose to them then you will have to wait till it rains or carry buckets of water to the trails. Just keep packing them down and eventually they will be as solid as cement.
Remember, don't ride them wet! You will ruin the shape of them.
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