How to build a small minibike/bmx track?

[flenn]

We have a small field that was used as a horse paddock by the previous owners of our property. The terrain is fairly flat and even, but just a little too rough for the kids to ride their minibikes and bicycles smoothly. I’d like to make a small track that would be smooth enough for even my 5 year old to ride on. Has anyone turned a field into a minibike/bmx track? What attachments do you suggest I use? What techniques? I’d like to be able to make some rolling bumps and low jumps and maybe make changes periodically. The areas that are not part of the track could be maintained with a finish mower. Can this project be done with a tractor or would I need a piece of heavy equipment to cut into the sod/topsoil. I’d appreciate any advice on this.

BTW, I have no experience with anything larger than a lawn tractor and am looking for a compact with FEL right now.

 

[tnmx]

i am in the process of building a practice (learning) mx track for my kids (and me /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif). our land is primarily flat so i plan to bring dirt in for jumps and burmed turns. sounds like you may be in the same situation - if you dig on flat land to make your contour - then you will have mud holes after any rain. that is why i am adding dirt instead. thus the track surface will then be higher than surrounding ground.

to smooth things out i would use a box blade - however, we plan to prep more with the tiller (and use box blade to make bumps!) as it will provide a nice loose surface. i anticipate running the tiller at least daily around the track to even out the bike created brake bumps and ruts.

since we are a practice only area, we can limit to one bike at a time, so track width will be around 5' on straights (1-pass on tractor) with jumps about double that for safety margin.

 

[TobyH]

In my profile picture to the left is my 8 year old boy building our bmx track with a BX2200. Same situation as you. A retired horse pasture that's begging for some use. All I have is a back blade (grader blade) and a loader. If I had a toothbar on the loader it would make the digging a lot easier. Maybe this spring... Anyway, I just started digging with the loader and pushing with the back blade until I had some track, ramps and banked turns. My land slopes a little so I added some drainage. Sorry, no pictures at the moment since we're getting buried with snow. Just start digging away and have fun!

 

[BB_TX]

If you are within any city limits, make sure what you are allowed to do before you get too carried away. There was someone locally last year that built himself a track for his bikes and 4 wheelers. He had several acres in a rural area, but had been annexed into the nearby town. Well, he built the track, neighbors complained, city made him stop using it. I seem to recall that he had built a fairly elaborate track, so you may not have a problem if you keep it small.

 

[TobyH]

I can see the neighbors complaining about motorized vehicles and the city stopping anyone not living on the property for liability reasons but for your own use as a bmx track I doubt there's anything they could do. All you're doing is a little lanscaping and your kids are riding their bicycles on it! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[tnmx]

my b7800 at pto-speed is as loud as my racing mx bike - add a chainsaw to the mix and you can't hear either of the first two... the key is to be polite and not run many bikes at once and limit the hours of operation to something reasonable. oh, and waive to the neighbors when they go by and have your cute kids ride too.

 

[flenn]

Thanks for the replies guys. Please keep them coming. I just bought a Kubota B7500 with a belly mower and loader. The loader has detachable teeth on the bucket. I'm thinking that I could bury the teeth into the ground and drive backwards to "Scrape" the topsoil. Once it's loose, I could run a blade through it to make it smooth. Does this make sense? Has anyone done this?

 

[rdbrumfield]

Using a tiller to carve out the design would be the best. You will need to churn it up good to have any results. If you just try to dig with the loader and roll up sod in the corners and make some hooptydoos, it will be a mess to ride on.By using the tiller to loosen the ground as you go down it will be much easier on the tractor.

 

[tnmx]

I'll let you know how the tiller thing works out as i have 60" tiller to pull behnd the B7800. would have run it today but was having fun digging out tree stumps instead.

 

[flenn]

tnmx,

Did you ever get a chance to use your tiller? Let us know how it worked.