This is airbag trail.
The last time we rode it was back in the fall when Eric Porter visited.
The trail starts with a long, low double which leads into a hard packed slope.
It ends with a giant wooden lip with a bunch of laurels behind it.
Beyond those laurels is nothing.
So it’s a probably a good idea to scope things out before you hit this thing at full
speed.
Lest you become a human lawn dart.
That’s where the inflatable landing comes into play, and where the trail gets its namesake.
With the help of this airbag, Eric was able to nail a tailwhip on his enduro bike, and
I was able to do my very first no hander.
And when we messed up or bailed, it was on a giant marshmallow.
That’s the best part about the airbag, it’s a safe way to try new tricks.
But shortly after that session, it got too muddy to use the airbag and so we locked it
up for the Winter.
Now that it’s hot and sunny out, we’re bringing the airbag back for the season, but
not before we make some big improvements to the trail.
When we built airbag trail, I estimated it would require a lot of speed.
It turns out, that was way too much speed.
We were hiking all the way up Berm Peak express and dropping in off the flight deck just to
get enough speed for the setup jump, only to brake check before the lip.
So I’m cutting a new entrance to airbag trail that eliminates the flight deck altogether.
With this new entrance and our new gator trail, hiking to the start point should take 1/3
the time it used to.
That means we can do 3 laps in the time we used to do 1.
But we’re not stopping there.
Airbag trail is for dirt jump bikes so it’s supposed to be smooth.
So we’re resurfacing it the way we should have from day one.
The fill dirt I get from the dirt merchant is different every time.
This load has a lot of rocks in it, so we’ll need to do some raking it get it smoothed
out.
The objective is to build the trail up a bit to cover the roots, and allow for a smoother
more consistent runup.
It’s more of a luxury than a necessity, but it does make the approach as distraction-free
as possible.
Now to pack
it down.
Yep, I
now have my own plate compactor.
The Wacker Packer we usually rent is a bit too heavy for me to load into the gator myself,
so I bought a smaller cheaper one that doesn’t weigh quite as much.
Tamping is satisfying.
The work to results ratio is just so high, and now that we have our own tamp we can build
landings, rollers, and berms as fast as we can shovel dirt.
I ordered this tamp online from Harbor Freight, and while it gets the job done you can definitely
see why it costs a third what a proper machine would.
The throttle switch snapped off the first time I used it, so now you need to loosen
the friction screw, turn the remnants of the switch to pull the throttle cable, and then
tighten the friction screw to keep the tamp engaged.
Today, the fuel switch broke off, we assume from the vibration of the machine itself.
I’m sure the choke lever’s days are numbered.
This brings into question the integrity of the rest of the machine, and so we’ll get
some replacement parts and keep an eye on it.
For now, at least it’s effective at tamping.
With the trail looking smooth, and a more sensible route back to the top, Airbag trail
is almost ready to go.
But since we’re dialing back our speed, I need to adjust the setup jump.
The very phrase, “setup jump” should be taken literally.
The idea is, you place a very low consequence jump before a large, high consequence jump
to help riders gauge their speed.
If you hit the setup jump smoothly, you know your speed is right.
If you case it or overclear it, it’s time to abort.
In its prior state, this wasn’t a setup jump at all, but with these adjustments it
should set us up perfectly for the airbag.
With this re adjusted setup jump, the promise of quicker laps, and a smoother surface, Airbag
trail is now twice as good—at least.
All we need now is the airbag.1
Alexander has never seen or used the airbag before, so I’m showing him the ropes.
The new adjustments to airbag trail worked out perfectly.
Laps are quicker, and after the setup jump you just stay off the brakes and send it.
But Alex was a little intimidated by the size and shape of the lip.
It’s not every day you see something like this.
After a few run-ups and a fair bit of contemplation, Alex was confident in hitting the airbag jump.
And so, we gave him some space and let him have at it.
With
airbag trail back in service for the season, I have a few tricks I want to dial in.
Despite learning no handers last years, I never did any tricks that involved taking
feet off the bike.
This time, I did.
360s are something I was able to do on the much smaller lip at Kevin’s house last year.
But I’ve never landed one here at Berm Peak where you need to go much bigger to make the
landing.
It turns out, these are going to take a lot of work to figure out.
Despite the airbag being a giant marshmallow, falling on still takes something out of you
especially when you’re not 15 years old.
So with my body reaching its limits for the day, I decided to work on something else.
And with that, it was time to put the airbag away before another rainy week began.
I’ve been planning on this work to Airbag trail for months now, and I’m really glad
to finally get it done.
I can’t stress enough how much quicker laps are now, and how much easier it is to dial
in speed for the lip.
So until mud season returns, we’ll be able to set up the airbag in just a few minutes,
and enjoy Berm Peak’s largest jump.
We hope you enjoyed this video, and if you want to see our next project, make sure to
subscribe.
If you want more content from Berm Peak, check out our second channel Berm Peak Express.
Thanks for riding with me today and I’ll see you next time.