Designing A MTB Trail

Pufftmw

I have access to about 50 acres of land which is based around a couple of steep hills. It's a bit boggy, lots of scrub, trees and gorse. Not massively high as in 100s of feet of climb but (in my opinion) could be made into a tricky and strenuous course.

Short of wandering around with a spade and a chainsaw, how would I go about getting it designed into a good trail? Is there somewhere I can go for advice etc? Any good publications?

Then how would I make back any costs on it?

The land is totally unused at the moment and is not even suitable for grazing of animals :roll:

supersonic

See what local riders think. Input from many sources is best, and always design good drainage ;-)

Pufftmw

That's one of the problems - there aren't any "local riders" per se - its in North West Donegal which has a plethora of lovely locations but nothing in the way of specific trails or courses.

supersonic

MBUK has a resident trail builder in the mag. Might be worth contacting him?

miss notax

supersonic wrote:

MBUK has a resident trail builder in the mag. Might be worth contacting him?

I bet they would be interested - it would make a very good editorial peice ('See how a trail is designed and built from scratch'). I could see that making a nice feature

Anonymous

Russ Burton has built some cracking trails. He's the trail building guru from MBUK that's been mentioned.

delcol

there's videos on the ithink it's namba website showing you how to build trails and maintain them..

remember google is your friend.

amt27

came across this a while back

http://www.imba.org.uk/Trailbuilding/Tr ... _FAQs.html

Whytepeak

The IMBA website is a good resourse, but contact MBUK and Russel Burton, as I am sure they would be interested.

MBUK did a series of 'jump building' features, I imagine a 'trail building' series wouldn't be too hard to come up with.

I would find it very useful as I am currently building a little bit of trail too.

RealMan

Organize a massive walking/hiking event. Advertise as being tough too cover ground. Mark out what trail you want to build, then get everyone to follow it. Should clear it up quite a bit, and save you some work.

Alternativly, aquire a land rover. Spend the day driving over stuff, dragging trees out the way etc.

Whytepeak

RealMan

Thats all very well, but just making a line can be done in a week with just a bike and a saw, but actually building a sustainable trail that will last a long time takes a lot dedication and technique. - Which is the hard part.

RealMan

You can make a loop of a 50 acre piece of land in a week with just a saw and a bike? Sounds like it would be more work then that.

bigfoot36954

now what i would do with this have everyone input into it like XC downhill single track etc... take all of their input and have trails going all in different directions now what you can do for downhillers is have a trolley system with an old pickup that can hall bikes and people up and then let the downhillers have at it or let them choose to ride up as you could have it graded so its a nice slop to go up. you could make this into a business really have a shop a place to rest maybe eat a spot for people to lock up their bikes without having to worry.

Pufftmw

I think this place might need more than a chainsaw and a landy At the moment it's (well the less steep bits) used by my mum for walking the dog and it takes a day every year to just cut back the simple trails she uses lol

Been having a look on the web and there are some interesting ideas and concepts and "how to's" but I'm probably not experienced enough to design a trail myself. There are lots of rocks and other natural features that can be used and there is probably a dis-used quarry I can extend into as well.

matt581

Are there any local trail building groups in your area. You could try contacting them for any help or advice. If not in your area try one a bit further afield. There is one in Bristol called Bristol Trails Group.
http://www.bristoltrailsgroup.com

They are pretty friendly and Im sure wouldn't mind giving you a few pointers.
Hope this helps a bit.

Matt

Northwind

IMBA do a book, don't they?

If there's a trail centre near you, see if they do volunteer/dig days, you'll learn more in a morning of whacking rocks with a mattock than you would in a week of reading books and websites... Not to mention that you could well aquire a bit of help

With this much land, I wouldn't want to be doing much actual building, just clearing and shaping- get a machete or brush-hook and just knock holes in the plant cover, and use the lines on the ground that are already there. You can cover a lot of ground quickly this way, and you tend to get a nice natural feeling, durable trail. Actually building something from scratch, with earthmoving and digging and surfacing, is a hell of a lot of work and quite hard to get right.

Dig out ferns etc (fern clumps are horrible to ride into, they squish and slow you right down instead of letting you ride over, and they always grow back) and clear back around the path- if you're having to clear undergrowth annually it's probably because you're not clearing back enough, a cleared path done just right is fairly low maintenance. Some plants regrow faster into damaged areas so cutting them back is a stimulus for growth, not a control- we've got a few like this in the garden and I HATE THEM :evil: But at the same time, you want a path not a motorway so don't go too mad. If you find yourself clearing a particular area again next year, don't just repeat the first clearance, go further, take out the plant if you have to. Well worth it and something else will grow there.

projectsome

matt581 wrote:

Are there any local trail building groups in your area. You could try contacting them for any help or advice. If not in your area try one a bit further afield. There is one in Bristol called Bristol Trails Group.
http://www.bristoltrailsgroup.com

They are pretty friendly and Im sure wouldn't mind giving you a few pointers.
Hope this helps a bit.

Matt

Yes we are pretty friendly

Someone will actually own the land so first off you need to find out who and talk to them about it before you go planning anything

Pufftmw

Someone will actually own the land so first off you need to find out who and talk to them about it before you go planning anything

Me - so that won't be a problem

For what it's used for at the moment, major clearance is not really necessary I guess but obviously would need to up the ante to open it up for bikers. It's more about getting the best possible route out of the available space with enough features and challenges to make it exciting without it being either dangerous or stupidly hard. Lots of rock outcrops and its pretty sheer in places

Thread8

this is an excellent resource made by a guy called southern freerider:

http://www.pinkbike.com/forum/listcomments/?threadid=15980

you could build sections of shore over the boggy bits, just like they did originally in vancouver