The Bike Jump Dream: Plan the Design

Once you have the ramp site scoped out you can begin your design process. There are many great designs out there but before you start ask yourself one question. Why I am building this jump? Are you looking to pull a backflip? Want to land way far away from the shore? Want to load up 5 people on the bike and pull some kind of clown show maneuver? Maybe you just want to impress some friends?

The answer to these questions will clearly impact your jump design. I wanted to get big air and pull off some tricks. To that end shopped around a bit before deciding to go with a modified skateboard ramp. A quick google search will help you find dozens of videos, blogs, and even detailed plans.

Here is a nice rapid fire video.



Bottom line. You need to figure out how much wood to buy. Do the math. Get a bunch of 2 x 4's for builiding your crossbeams. Get enough thin layers of plywood to ben onto your jump curve. It is better to have more layers than a piece that is too thick. In my case I also had to build a small dock to get the jump far enough out to clear some rocks. That definitely ads to your budget and can be a bit tricky to setup.

In the next post I'll tackle tools and supplies.