We wanted to create a beginner’s guide to building a motocross track at home where you can ride around all day long for free.

After all, who wants to haul up their bike, gear and camping equipment for a few nights away. If you have the fortune of having a few acres of land available, then building your own backyard motocross track is certainly appealing.

Now, we’re not talking about building the next AMA super track ready for competitors and 20,000 spectators by next weekend. That’s quite the overkill. We simply want you building your first motocross track at home.

How to Build a Home-Based MX Track

It’s quite an exciting proposition to construct your own dirt bike track in the backyard. When your buddies come over one afternoon and check it out, you can have the pride and admiration that you built this thing yourself.

The best part? It isn’t hard. Just follow these steps and constructing a dirt bike track at home is pretty easy:

1. Seek Neighborhood and Local Government Permission

One of the biggest concerns is the noise of your dirt bike going around and around for hours each day. Needless to say, you’ll want to consult with your neighbors first.

They are going to want to know how you plan on reducing noise and what hours you plan on riding. We propose 10am to 3pm as a guideline as this is when people are at work and also when the sun is at the highest point in the sky. There’s nothing worse than having the sun coming straight into the goggles at 50 miles per hour.

The noise issue isn’t just one that affects humans but livestock and pets too. No one wants their dog barking for hours each day because your dirt bikes are disturbing their peace time.

Pro-Tip: Electric dirt bikes are becoming quite affordable and KTM sells a seriously powerful machine. You can buy one of these and use it as a selling point.

The other main issue is dust. You don’t want to be whipping up dust and having it land at your neighbors house. If you’re in a dry area, then you’ll need a dust management plan.

2. Draw 5 Potential Designs on Paper

By knocking out some potential designs using traditional pen and paper, you’ll be able to let your imagination from your childhood run wild. Our recommendation is a design that is quite compact, given that you probably don’t have much space.

There should be a couple of long sections out the side with some tight technical loops in towards the middle. Add in some table tops and whoop sections, and you’ll have some good idea as to what you’ll want to build.

Also consider the orientatoin of your track. If it’s primarily windy in one direction, then keep this in mind so you can have the back to the wind in the fastest sections of the track and can reach quick lap times, while you’re pushing into the wind in the tighter corners.

3. Finalize 1 Motocross Track Design with Variations

While your final motocross track design is what you’ll be setting out to build, we recommend adding in some variations. These variations allow you to modify your track over time by adding in new corners or shortcuts, or even closing off particular sections.

Essentially, you’ll want a dynamic track that you don’t get bored of. Whereas you may be riding at your local MX track often, you’re not riding there enough to get bored. Your track at home will be great for the first 3 months before you’re pretty well over it.

By having these track modifications in place before you start construction, you’ll be able to retain much of your natural landscape. We don’t want to simply kill all the bushes and scrubs, do we?

4. Hire a Front-End Loader and Bobcat

While some people say that you can build a motocross track with just a bobcat, we believe that you’re going to need two machines. The front-end loader should do the bulk of the work given how heavy the bucket at the front is. Further more, the bucket is heavy and is ideal for compacting the soil in certain areas and has enough reach to build a decent-sized table top.

If you hire both machines from the same company, they’ll only charge you one pick up and delivery fee. Plus they might even give you a discount on hiring out both machines at the same time. Remember to ask for any additional attachments they may have such as a grader blade for either machine. These will save you a ton of time.

Aim to hire both machines for 48 hours at the same time. These will be advertised as wet hire (includes fuel) or dry hire (excludes fuel) so it really depends on how much you need it. Most of these machines are used in construction sites yet they sit idle on weekends, so this is where you’ll get the cheapest rates. Aim for Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon.

Now, couldn’t you just use an excavator to build a motocross track? Not really. While you can, this will be a very slow experience given the size of the bucket that it has. Also, their tracks (the things that make them steer) will keep ripping up the MX track you’re trying to build. Excavators are better suited for digging trenches and that isn’t what you’re trying to accomplish here.

5. Hire Some Beer Buddies to Finish It Quicker

So you’ve committed to hiring two machines but there’s only one of you. Well, you’re either going to be working all day and night before the machines need to go back to the depot, or you’re going to need to rope some buddies into the mix. Pay ’em with beer, of course.

Remember that your buddies may need to be licenced to operate these machines and this depends on your state. At worse, someone could just be using a hose around the track construction to keep the dust down. Try and segregate the machines by letting the bobcat do the lighter work and away from the front end loader.

Your buddies will probably just be as excited as you are to get this all finished and looking sick. Needless to say, you’ll want to offer them unlimited riding opportunities too and being the first crew to use the track late on Sunday afternoon.

6. Use a Shovel to Edge the Corners, Then Start Riding!

While we marvel at where we have come in 100 years as humans, and the developments in the earth-moving space, you’re going to want to finish parts of your MX track construction off with a shovel. This is especially at the top and bottoms of your jumps, cleaning the edges on the corners and levelling out the whoop sections.

Shovels will become a routine part of your track maintenance and probably something you’ll whip out daily to fill in the rutted sections. Sure, it gets a little annoying but get yourself a good quality shovel too that doesn’t break when you need it the most.

You may also want to buy a backhoe in the future if your savings allow for it. They have an excavator arm at the back which also allows for fence-post construction borers. The front bucket has enough capacity for routine track maintenance including padding down and moving soil.

Tips for Track Construction Success

Now you have the basic process down-pat, let’s share some tips to ensure you have a great time:

• Consider the types of soils you’re working with. Sand is very different from loam and gnarly rocks, which is different again to mud.
• Don’t put the landing of jumps near trees or buildings. This is a dangerous situation if someone stumbles coming off a jump and hasn’t got full control yet of their dirt bike. You can just imagine exactly where they are going to go.
• Slow water drainage is a big issue with most soil types. You’d hate to be waiting 3 days for the track to dry out, so consider installing some sub-surface water drainage ponds when using the earth-moving machines.
• Use an old rubber conveyor belt at the start of any jump. You can find these on Craigslist or Gumtree. This stops ruts from developing. While tempting, it’s also tricky to use these in corners as they move around way too much.
• Find some old tyres for the corners. These are both a great idea to keep your track from prematurely wearing out as well as for safety to provide a soft landing if you come in too hot and bounce.
• Go in reverse as much as forwards. This way you’re able to spend less time doing maintenance and more time riding, plus you get to experience 2 tracks in 1.
• Don’t use star-pickets for fencing. These are highly dangerous for MX riders even when they’re capped. Instead, get yourself some soft plastic fencing.

Stay Upright are one of Australia’s most well-known motorcycle training schools with centres across QLD, NSW, VIC and ACT.

The question is: Are they worth it?

We’re providing an unbiased review of Stay Upright so you guys can get some insights as to whether you should enroll into one of their motorcycle centres.

Let’s begin.

Stay Upright Review

When you’re learning to ride a motorcycle, you shouldn’t skimp on the training. This is serious stuff that’s designed to keep you alive. Additionally, you can’t expect to simply get your P’s and you’re done.

In our experience, learning to ride a motorcycle safely is a lifelong pursuit. You’ll often hear of people who have been riding for 10 years and they are still picking up tips and ideas that can keep them alive.

This is why Stay Upright offers a range of motorcycling courses that aren’t just designed to get your licence. As dirt bike and adventure riding enthusiasts, Frontaer became especially interested in their off-road riding skills day which turned out to be exactly what we were hoping for.

Instead of watching some ‘tips and advice’ from a YouTube channel, you’re in the trenches literally practising what the trainers preach. You’ll learn how to actually do effective cornering procedures, hill climbs and managing big ADV bikes offroad.

In addition, they offer tours which are super helpful if you’re new yet aren’t quite confident to go on a trip by yourself just yet. Or perhaps you don’t have any friends that share the same passion and enthusiasm towards seeing your state or the entire country on 2 wheels.

Things to Consider

Stay Upright isn’t the only motorcycle school in Australia, but they are the largest with HART coming in at a very close 2nd place. When you are choosing a motorcycle school, you should be considering some important factors.

These are:

• How long have they been in the business of training?
• Will they postpone things if the weather turns bad?
• What do they provide in their lessons for protection?
• Do they provide bikes if you don’t want to use your own?
• Is there a location near home so you don’t have to travel far?

These things you should be considering instead of the price. In fact, the cost of the course is one of the least things you should worry about. Stay Upright’s pricing is a little higher than average but the bang-for-buck you get is a key reason why we went with them over their competitors.

They have an open area where you spend most of the time develping your skills. If it’s a dirt-orientated course, then you’ll be out in the scrub and learning skills first-hand.

In Summary

There are thousands of people who use Stay Upright every year yet so few actually leave a review, either good or bad. In our experience, they are one of the best places to learn or upskill your motorcycling skills in a controlled environment.

They welcome beginners as well as seasoned riders all the time. With almost 40 years now in the business of motorcycle training using a mindset-first approach to reducing accidents, and thus, saving lives.

Would we use them again? In a heartbeat.