Track prep & condition

[Blazing MX]

I've always heard that "ask not, receive not" so I'm asking for you all to voice your opinions concerning the MX track prep and conditions over the past few months of Motocross racing?

Here's what I've noticed so far. As a racer myself, I prefer to have the track watered and somewhat "groomed" for race day motocross. That said, it does not come without side effects as a result. Beginning with I believe the March races, with no water truck, I used the old tractor we have and the blue blade to simply rake off the track, fill in the holes with loose dirt I could scrape off the top of other places. Seemed to work okay but as the weather got hotter, the track got much more dusty. Traction was non-existent and vision was severely limited as a result of the dust. When the red water truck was repaired, we used it starting with the July races and have continued through the September races.

For the watering to do any good, we must begin dumping around mid-day Saturday and water pretty much until midnight. It also helps to throw another light coat of water about sun-up. The track is always a little slick in spots for practice and maybe for the 1st moto or two. If we use any less water, the track will dry up before the 1st motos are over and it all appears in vain.

When we do get enough water on the track do do good, the top inch of soil is pretty moist and the tires kick up little marbles of dirt which dry and get very hard. Also the loose dirt that we wet to fill in holes bakes in the sun after a few days and starts to chunk up causing even more holes which are very hard. End result is that what was good for race day makes for a rough track for weeks after the races.

Mark Smith and I would like to try a little experiment on a small section of the track for the next race. We want to choose a corner section to wet, till, wet and re-till very deep then wet again. Wanting to see the result for a race and what happens afterward. This may or may not be the solution we are looking for but what will it hurt to try?

Please help me out by taking the poll and voicing your comments. This will help me do a better job on the track.

Thanks.

[cyclepop]

Jeff,

I think you guy do a awsome job with the stuff you have to work with. Myself, I like the hard packed, slick tracks? The track was great yesterday and had a blast. Took my first good spill in years! Got up and finished. However we had a great time and could not have been happier with the conditions.

My 9 yr old loved it as well. He hates dealing with those huge ruts on really soft dirt tracks.

Keep up the great work!

[HyperFX]

How's the MX track holding up, now, since the last club race?
Any better than last time?
Worse?
Opinions?

[Blazing MX]

hyperfx said:

How's the MX track holding up, now, since the last club race?
Any better than last time?
Worse?
Opinions?

I'm curious too, I haven't been either.

[TripleCrown]

I was at the track today. Other than the usual dryness, I thought it was in good shape. Coming out of the berm after the whoops is very rough! The straight before he camel back berm still needs some braking bump work and also the straight before the berm going into the whoops. As always, nothing can really be done until we get some rain.

[HyperFX]

How 'bout the turns?
And, the face of the jumps, and the landings?
Any "chunking" or holes developing anywhere?

[TripleCrown]

The turns are still good. All the jump faces and landings seem to be in good shape on both tracks. The rollers going into the woods are showing some holes due to chunks of dry dirt breaking away. They are still 100% rideable though. No major maintenance is needed, just the usual grooming items that can not be done on such a dry surface. We need to get the Round-up back out and spray all the edges of the track.

[TripleCrown]

I have an idea for us to be able to do our own track work. Remember, this is just an idea because it would cost a good amount of money. I know there has been talk of the club buying a new tractor in the past. I personally don't think a new tractor will do much more than the one we have. The advantage of it is that it would be dependable (if no one vandalizes it!). Without hydraulic controls on a box blade, the blade on a regular tractor does not cut into the concrete we call dirt. The blade just floats across the bumps and spreads the dust around.

Here's my idea (again, this is mostly just wishful thinking): I think a skid steer (Bobcat) would be able to do most anything we want to do at the track. Of course we could not rebuild the entire track with it. There are tons of attachments for these machines now. Instead of buying a new tractor, what if the club purchased a couple of attachments for a skid steer and we rented the machine to use them whenever we need it. It costs between $150 - 200 to rent the machine for a day. When you rent on a Saturday you can keep it all weekend. This would also eliminate possible vandalism to the machine since it would not be stored at the track.

I think these two attachments (along with a bucket which comes with the machine rental) would be able to do everything we need. We could break the concrete with the scarifier and then grade & condition the dirt with the soil conditioner. The bucket can be used to reface jumps. These would enable us to have soft landings also.





Anyway, like I said, this is pretty much just wishful thinking, but take a look and see what you think.

[DaddyFlea]

A Bob cat like you have pictured would be great for the track. Unfortunately another big part is shredding the grass. We have been lucky since there has been no rain since June. In other normal years grass cutting is a big part of maintenance. I worked on my Brothers 60hp tractor this weekend and it is 2 wheel drive with a hydralic blade. It worked great. He bought it new with all attachments last year for $15,000. I don't think we need something to rebuild the track, we need something to do routine maintenence, which includes some front end bucket work. The major jobs need to be done by real heavy duty construction equipment. If our little tractor was in good enough shape to handle the shredding for a few years the bob cat would be my choice as well. I just wonder how much they cost?

[TripleCrown]

I think a new Bobcat is between $15 - 20,000. I haven't priced them in several years. This is why I suggested the club buy the attachments and then rent the actual Bobcat when it is needed. I really don't know how much the attachments are either.

As far as the mowing goes, it can do that too. Here's three different attachments that could handle that job.






Front end loader work with a Bobcat is not a problem. It just might take a few more buckets to do what a large tractor could do.

I agree that there is no true "one machine cure all" but with all the options available on these machines today, I think this is as close as you can get.

Take a look at their website to see all the attachements that are available now. www.bobcat.com

[Blazing MX]

It seems almost ironic that you bring this up today, I was going to stop in at the bobcat place yesterday and take a look around but time didn't permit it. I think we ought to try one out and see what it does. A side note, when Darrel Mckensey bought his dozer, it was a "Demo" that he got in Abilene. Not really sure what that really means but it wasn't exactly new but it hadn't been sold prior to Darrel getting it.

[Blazing MX]

I did get by the bobcat dealer today and picked up some info. They are having a demo this Saturday but also will bring whichever ones we may be interested in out to the track for us to get a hands on sample. These are some incredible machines.

[TripleCrown]

Jeff - I guess great minds think alike! ;D

Did they have any suggestions on the attachments that might work good for us? Will they bring a demo with attachments to the track or will it just have a bucket? Did you get any pricing?

[Blazing MX]

triplecrown said:

Jeff - I guess great minds think alike! ;D

Did they have any suggestions on the attachments that might work good for us? Will they bring a demo with attachments to the track or will it just have a bucket? Did you get any pricing?

I was told that they would bring any attatchement they had or we wanted to see. I know they don't have the shredder attatchement ( or what ever they called it) in the rental department because ot's an insurance risk. The price on a new one is up there but they do have reconditioned equipment available.