Yesterday I was biking home from school. It was cold so I was to lazy to plug in my light, and because it was so cold I have to wear glasses in order to keep my eyes open. Of course I don’t own any clear glasses and the ones I have change color which is usually great but when it is cold they go a rather dark blue. You can probably see what I’m leading up to, dark glasses, no light and lets throw in a big chunk of ashpalt. I never saw it coming and there was no way I was could roll over it even if I had.
Instead I flipped over my handlebars at 18 mph, it’s okay though I took the fall with my body not the bike. Cracked my helmet and jammed my finger real good other then that bumps and brusies on most of my body but no blood and no breaks so I’m pretty happy with it.
It was my first fall on a road bike, and you know what they say, you can’t get better at falling without falling. So heres to learning.
So I was emailing back and forth with Doug at Santa Cruz. He is their mechanic and has been helping the guys with their new bikes at their rider camp (which is over now). Peaty, Josh Bryceland and Greg Minnar where there to test out their new rides. Doug said “The riders are very happy with their new bikes!”. Yep, very happy. And I made their custom rings on their grips (well no I didn’t make them, Aaron did, I just got them all set up) so next time you see a band new pic look at their grips.
You can read more about their new bikes and the rider camp on Santa Cruz’s website.
So you’ve made it this far, you know 1. that you love pump, 2. that you love tracks, and 3. when you put one and two put together it fits in your backyard.
As you begin the design stage consider what kind of bike you will be riding on the pump track. As you can see from the diagram below you don’t want to be stuck with rollers that are too big or too small for your bike.
*While the Penny Farthing does have the highest bottom bracket (because it has not bottom bracket) it is not recommended for pump tracks
Let’s break down our terminology before we continue. A bump is to small to use in a pump track, it just slows you down. Think of speed bumps, or as James May calls them “sleeping policemen”. Then there is the hump, also known as the roller. This is the most useful of the three, which you will use the majority of the time. A hump helps you gain speed while you “pump” off of it. Lastly is the jump, which is like a roller/hump but with a lip on the end of it. Observe the diagram below detailing the differences.
Still confused when you should use each of the three. Check out this diagram.
Now that that is squared away pull our you pencil and start drawing is hump and jumps (no bumps) that will help make your track faster, (or if you like start digging and if it doesn’t work move the dirt to the next hump attempt). A well designed track can be ridden without pedaling after the initial start. Here is what we did to gain the most speed from our track.
We determined that three rollers across the long straight would help us gain the majority of our speed with just a couple of extra humps through out to keep speed. The most important thing to consider when implementing a hump is the speed loss to awesomeness ratio.
As you can see the perfect speed loss to awesomeness ratio is 7.
Building the Dream
Your track is all designed now it is time to implement. Now lets lay down some ground rules before you start digging.
Rule #1 – Always add more dirt. Not sure if you hump is good enough? Add more dirt, just remember your speed loss to awesomeness ratio when deciding where to put the dirt. I know what you are thinking, but what if my yard is flat? I’ve got you covered.
Rule #2 – Make sure your significant other approves of your pump track plans. If they don’t wait until they are gone, rather to work or visiting family to implement your brilliant plan. Trust me they will love it once it’s in.
Tomorrow we will cover building and saftey on your pump track in Pt. 3. Until then enjoy this.
I know what your thinking. Clean slate at best. What you really want is this.
Awesome pump track backyard
Lets determine if you heart is in the right place to have a pump track. Answer these questions.
1. Do you come home longing to get on the bike, but heart sick because you know it will be dark by the time you get to the mountains?
2. When you are sitting at work do you dream about having your park/bmx bike with you so you could preform tricks in back… by the dumpster… where it’s beautiful?
And finally
3. Do you look out your kitchen window and feel disgusted when you see garden gnomes looking back at you?
If you answered yes to any or all of these questions it is time to move on to the the first stage on planning. If you answered no then enjoy this instead:
Planning to Pump
The first thing to consider when building a pump track is space. Count off your backyard. Is it at least 50 paces? If not you are going to have a hard time with the design. But even small or misshapen backyards can make amazing pump tracks. Consider ours:
It is easy to see that a normal squarish shaped track will not fit in this spot. But after many toiless hours and lines drawn on the ground we happened upon this shape.
In our case the “tilted A connecting the ends to the line in the middle” was the only plausible shape. Once you have the basic shape it is time to move to the next phase, adding pump to your track.
