Bike ramp in the front yard

Well, Sunday morning, the kids were inside the house. Brandon was over, and they were doing creative things, but it was such a nice day I figured the kids should be in the Great Outdoors doing kid stuff, and getting a lot of exercise. As soon as I suggested building a ramp, the boys unanimously agreed to do it. They wanted to build it on the road to where they could ride their bikes down the hill and get a lot of speed before the jump. Well, being the victim of many a nasty bike crash, I told them that they had to build it in the grass first.

Their first ramp was built without an adult’s assistance, and consisted of two 4x6’s stacked on top of each other with two ramps of 3/4” plywood laminate on each end. While strong, it was far too steep, and had way to much drop on the other side for the speed in which they were hitting it (when they went over the jump, they almost endo’d every time). Using my superior ramp building skills, I moved the placement of the ramp to where they could build speed around the back yard, for more air. I also removed one of the 4x6’s, and replaced it with a piece of the 3/4” laminate. This lowered the ramp, and made it less steep.

Travis and Brandon had trouble building up speed from the back yard, and were not getting very impressive air. The endo problem was solved, but the jump had yet to give a good jump. I suggested to Jesse that he begin at the barn, then carry his speed around the corner of the house, and then hit the ramp. He did so, and was able to jump with both wheels in the air. Travis was not quite able to get the same performance, but was better than before.

After that, we had a bike maintainance session, with tires being inflated, seats being raised, and wheels being adjusted. I tuned my bike up, too, and would have jumped it, but we had to stop because Michelle wanted to go to the store.

Things like building a bike ramp, and spending all day riding bikes and skateboards are what I remember with fondness from childhood. I am trying to make sure that my children at least get the chance to experience it once, and decide if they like it, or not.