I’m going to be working on a trials course sometime soon and had a question:
I’ve seen courses on asphalt, grass and dirt. What are the pros and cons of each?
Asphalt:
pros:
-Grippy in wet or dry
-Lots of bounce for jumps off of it
-no mud pots or slick spots after rain, meaning the course can be used while relatively wet. It will dry faster
cons:
-not a good surface to fall onto
-expensive
-difficult to anchor obstacles
-can get soft and nasty in extreme heat, sometimes cracks
-the first point is worth repeating. Not good to fall onto.
Grass:
pros:
-Best of surfaces to fall onto
-easy to anchor obstacles
-nicer looking
cons:
-less bounce for high jumps
-stays wet longer
-slippery when wet
-grass blades can come off on tire, lessening traction
-quickly turns to dirt in heavily ridden spots
Dirt:
pros:
-good surface to fall onto, sometimes better than grass
-easily anchored to
-mud
cons:
-depending on what kind of dirt, it can really kill the power from highjumps.
-gets really slippery in wet weather, making course virtually unridable
-mud
-some soils have sharp pebbles embedded in them, makign them awful to fall onto. By my house there’s a large empty dirt path that has sharp pebbles ranging n size from a golf ball to a fist. That stuff requires gloves, leg, and arm armor, and of course a helmet. It sucks to fall onto.
Anchoring obstacles is a big deal. On grass and dirt, you can just bury a large part of an object and use the exposed part, or you can use concrete embedments. On asphalt everything must be relatively mobile and it’s a lot more work mounting things permanently. I think the best coursers are just large granite boulders strews or piled on a dirt or grassy field.
meh concrete isin’t THAT bad to fall onto…as long as you know how to fall…
I’d go with concrete cause yeah it dires fast so you won’t be waiting too long after the rain.
the of highland mountain out of tokyo, grass wet? To profrom bunnyjump skill. does this need of the city floor. Legalize of the blades and water, for rest is of bad.
Umm, Im no sure what thanh-uni was sayin…but, gerble was right on the money especially about dirt and assfault, I ride dirt near every time and yeah it realy robs you of the high jump. If you can ancor it right Id go with the assfault, grass would be my very last choice.
i’d vote dirt with lots of wooden obstacles. or concrete with pallets, spools, skinnies, etc.
I’m with you…FREE THE WEED!