Suburban Pump Track Madness!
Pump Track Nation is rolling stronger than ever. Here are a couple tasty examples, one from a pro BMXer and one from a pro landscaper.
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The more you click, the more I can post. Lee Likes Groceries dot com! |
In process
Down in Socal, AA Pro BMX racer Jason Richardson is braving his HOA like the champion he is.
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Dialed
Up in Norcal, Cynthia Tanyan of Mozaic Landscape Design just finished this beauty. Better Homes and Pump Tracks!
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Oh man, I’m sitting on 1.5 acres in the foothills above Boulder. Trying to buy the house. Once we sign the papers …
Those are the tastiest pump tracks I’ve ever seen.
Wow I might stand a chance building one in my yard now.
What is landscaped track made out of dirt ? stone dust ?
Compacted base rock fines.
Looks nice, eh?
Lee,
I really like the photos of the fully landscaped pump track.
As you know, I don’t ride this stuff, but my son does. As I start making plans to buy a home to someday retire to in the mountains I also wonder how often I would see our son. So one thought that I have is to get a place in the mountains with a couple of acres and let him build a pump track. I don’t want some ugly piles of dirt in a barren field.
Someday.
Yeah … a pump track and a keg, and Curtis should be around all the time!
Lee, no matter how much I water and compact my track (all topsoil) I still have a few areas which seem to erode or get a little loose from making tight turns coming out of the berms with speed. I am interested in the compacted base rock fines that you mentioned above. I did a google search and found this on the “Land Scaping for Dummies” web site: I looks nice and hard but do you know if you can maintain traction on this stuff?
Here is what I found….
Crushed stone, on the other hand, has sharp edges that enable it to compact into a solid mass. It varies in size. The mixture of small rocks and fines (sand and fine particles) compacts into a dense surface that’s almost as solid as paving materials. The smaller particles, however, stick to shoes and become messy. Larger-sized particles and stones don’t compact as tightly, but are cleaner. Crushed stone varies in color from tan and beige tones to blue and gray tones.
To build a gravel or stone garden path, follow these steps:
1. Lay out the edges of the path using garden hoses or stringlines.
2. Dig between the edges to a depth of 6 to 8 inches (deeper, if your winters are severe).
3. Install a border along each side of the path.
Set 1x6s or flexible bender boards (thin, bendable boards) on edge and nail them to short stakes placed along the outside. You can also buy vinyl edging and install it according to the manufacturer. As another alternative, consider lining the sides of the excavation with bricks, stones, or timbers.
4. Place 4 to 6 inches of road base (crushed rock used for gravel beds) or class-five gravel in the bottom of the excavation.
5. Using a flat plate vibrator (which you can rent), compact the base.
Add rock, as necessary.
6. Fill the rest of the excavation with 2 to 4 inches of pea gravel or crushed rock.
If you use crushed rock, build a crown, or hump, along the center of the path for drainage, and compact the rock with the flat plate vibrator.
As long as it’s hard there should be plenty of traction. I can imagine, though, that your tires will loosen it up. Seems like a broom and a garden hose would keep that in check.