Building a trail

Cqc

Hi everyone,
I've decided that this winter I will do the classic thing of building my own trail to mix things up a bit.
I ride in Surrey so the elevation isn't massive, nor very steep, but there's a decently large hillside that I've got permission to build on, so I hope to build a trail or two that could even be 1.5-2 minutes long.
I've already built a middle section which drops down about a third of the hill, so I plan to keep building a lot more.

My section is made up of very tight turns with low berms, and you don't need to brake much as your speed is kept down by the tight turns and incredibly loose loam which keep you sliding everywhere.

I've got a few questions for you all:

1) what sort of features would you want in an ideal trail / what sort of style would it be? Looking for some ideas to make this trail even more than it is

2)very nearby to my trail there is an area with hundreds of small (~500g) chunks of rock, so I was planning on adding some to a later section. If you were building a rock garden with small stones rather than large boulders, what sort of feature would you build? Some flat turns strewn with loose rock maybe? Would the rock garden be best on a steep or mellow bit of the hill?

Thanks guys, any other advice would be greatly appreciated (apart from drainage, got that sorted), would just like to recommend building to everyone, riding a trail you've planned and built yourself is amazing fun and more trails to add to your usual network is always a good thing!

rockmonkeysc

When building in loamy ground remember that the loam will soon be worn away and you will be down to solid dirt.
Personally I only like lots of tight turns if it's steep. It's good to get some speed up and put in some nice jumps. A couple step downs and good size doubles would be good. If you're not confident with doubles / gaps then kickers long fade landings are great so you can go small or boost it and go big and not overshoot. Tables are a lot of work and hard to get right.
Don't use branches / logs to build anything, it will all rot in a few months and you will have to build it all again.

buddy_club

Smaller jumps that you can go big on if you want. Also nice to include a few drops that can be rolled or even hopped. Dont ride anything straight away after building it because it also needs to bed in. There is a drop i built on a local trail with the classic knock two stakes in with branches in between that has stayed like that for 2 years so i guess it depends what wood you use.

brianbee

MUD, I like lots of mud and very slipping tree roots and streams to ride though/along. Though you may have trouble with the stream on a steep hill ? You could maybe do a water feature in the rock garden

brianbee

Yea and a hut with a decent coffee machine at the bottom, All trails are much improved with a extra strong milky coffee

rockmonkeysc

Rollable drops aren't drops. Make it a couple foot at least otherwise it gets ruined by people rolling over the lip. Anyone can drop two feet if they actually try it.
Depends on dirt type as to whether it can be ridden straight away or not. I prefer to build in spring time so it's not exposed to winter weather before its bedded in.

Cqc

Thanks for all the responses guys, I'm not really going to focus on drops, etc as well made, safe ones are so much work to build and I find that you constantly need to keep building bigger ones as you clear them - the same goes with gap jumps. I just head over to the ukbikeskills place when I want to do that type of riding, I don't think I could ever compete with there on the jumps and drops front.
I will be making some jumps with fade landings so that you can keep in going bigger and bigger though, only thing is that the loam (and sand underneath) doesn't compact very easily and so some thinking will be required for the take offs.

You are quite right rockmonkey the loam does get blasted everywhere so I'll see how long that lasts,need to do a bit of maintenance already but when it beds in it should be longer lasting.

Any more thoughts on the Rock garden? What's your favourite rock garden out there and what makes it good? That way I may be able to take some ideas about how to build a good one.
Cheers guys!

rockmonkeysc

You shouldn't look at drops as individual features, more as part of the trail. They don't take long to build if you use natural features. Step down jumps can be easier.
My favourite rock garden is about 50 metres long with a sweeping bend at the start and a fast run in. It's all natural so completely random and with lots of loose rocks. It's in the forest so there are roots in there as well. It's really hard to ride right so it's fun to session for an hour or two.
I hate neatly laid rock gardens, like you see at trail centres. Even the one on Zut Alores (black trail) at Bike Park Wales has a line through the middle which is smooth enough to sprint through flat out on a short travel trail bike.

cooldad

You could emulate the gnarly rock garden at Swinley, one of RMSC's favourites.



This sensible person is sensibly avoiding the worst of it. And no, it's not me.

The Rookie

Less of a garden, not even a flower bed, more a Rock window box!