Pump Track Day 4 & 5

I think I now have the top corner low enough. Now I just need to adjust the rest of the track to match the new level, and then smooth everything down. I took a bunch of the dirt from digging down the top corner a put it on the bank of the bottom corner. I will add pictures to the pump track log at http://www.epicbiking.com/pumtrack.html this evening.

Pump Track Day 3

It must be getting close to spring. The roosters were out fighting today.

I did some more digging on the pump track. It still seems like it will be hard to pump from the bottom of the track to the top. I think tomorrow I will lower the top of the track another foot. http://www.epicbiking.com/pumptrack.html

The snow is melting fast. It is probably a good thing I started working on the track before the snow melted. I had to shovel all the snow off so that I could start digging. Now as all the snow melts there is no snow on the track making it more muddy. It is almost dry enough to ride a bike on. I did test it with my son's bike. It still needs to dry out a little, and I need to smooth things out.

Pump Track Day 2

I put some more work into the pump track today and updated the pump track web page. http://www.epicbiking.com/pumptrack.html

After working all day I decided I really didn't pick the best spot for the track. Down at the bottom of my hill, before it drops off into the gully there is a nice flat spot that would be perfect for the pump track. Maybe when the snow melts I'll build a second track down there. It would be a lot easier because that area doesn't have rocks. The area I am working in now is very rocky.

I guess though two tracks are better than one. The upper track will dry out sooner, and the lower track will be easier to expand.

Pump Track

What does a mountain biker do when the snow is too deep the temperature to warm making the snow melt and the trails a mess, and the roads are too wet for the road bike?

How about build a pump track! It looks like riding a pump track would be a great upper body workout, and great for building core strength. So I headed out to the back yard with a snow shovel, a shovel and a pick. Before long I was digging away in a t-shirt while huge snow flakes were falling all around.

After about 6 hours of digging I was a muddy mess but I had two of the three sides roughed out. My initial track will be triangular and then I plan on building an alternate route that will make it squareish. My track is on a bit of a slope so I will have a nice fast down hill section, and then some rollers to pump your way back to the top.

I posted some pictures on my store's website at:
http://www.epicbiking.com/pumptrack.html

Robot Opera #2

My son and I have seen balancing robots on the internet and decided to try and duplicate the feat for his science fair. After 100's of hours of failure and giving up on the idea that it would ever work my son built a new robot. Then in classic science fiction style I changed a + to a - in the program and voila, it worked!

So we made a video of the project and put it to the sound track from Vitas' Opera #2. After getting permission from Vitas we posted it on YouTube.