I was watching an endurocross race and the light bulb clicked. I want my own mini-endurocross track and some of this garbage left behind could be used for it. Recycling in my own kind of way. Riding the same trails on a few acres can get boring pretty quick so I was looking to spice it up with obstacles, thus my mini-endurocross was born.
First off, the weapon of choice. 1988 KX80. Yeah, a "kids" dirt bike. Its amazing how snappy these little things are, perfectly suitable for an adult screwing around.
First obstacle, balance log. I took this tree down awhile ago as it had a lot of rotten widow makers waiting to kill me when I'm weed wacking. I got lazy and never chopped it up. Lets just say this balance log was difficult to navigate. There was much bleeding.
2nd obstacle. The creekbed bedliner. Up and over. Its a slow speed obstacle, just don't stall. I thoroughly enjoyed this one.
Third obstacle. Tire whoops. Brief lesson. Stay on the throttle and lean back. These too were a blast to rip through. Made me want to find more tires on my land. As if 21 weren't enough.
Fourth obstacle, S-turn. After spring rain it got pretty gnarly.
Fifth obstacle. Logs that aren't perpindicular to the flow of the track. Best thing to do is loft the front wheel over them as the front wheel naturally wants to jerk to the right and throw you off when it hits the logs. I found it pretty amusing.
Sixth obstacle, Muddy rock garden. Everyday I walked down to the woods I'd grab a few rocks from the creek bed and take them down with me, slowly making my rock garden grow.
Seventh obstacle. Log stack. As long as you had momentum it wasn't a problem. The mud only got worse, meaning it got "better".
Eighth obstacle. This one was an experiment. I chopped up all the well pipe I found in the bushes. I thought maybe it'd make a good material to make it difficult to ride through. I thought right. It was almost impossible to not go down. The pipe would find its way into the spokes and lock up the wheel. When they pipe is sideways it acted like riding over wet tree roots, meaning the back tire shoots out to the side resulting in a nice casual lay down. Needless to say I removed this obstacle.
Not really an obstacle, just a sharp turn to go back up the hill to the beginning.
The final obstacle. A suspended log. This one provided the most entertainment. You had to wheelie over it otherwise the front tire would just push the log, making it swing higher and higher until it lodged itself between the front fender and front tire against the forks. Stopping you instantly. When you did ride over it with the back tire it'd make the log shoot out the back and if you weren't quick the log would swing back and mess you up. I went over the bars a few times. All in good fun of course.
I eventually sold the dirt bike and removed the garbage finally. Like I said, it was just an idea. It was fun while it lasted and I'd definitely like to build a full blown endurocross course somedays. The slower speed and technical nature of it is attractive to me. Challenging and although you wreck often, its generally minor.
