Since building Berm Creek, my backyard trail system, quite a few of my friends have stopped
by for a ride.
The vast majority of them avoided the North Shore Drop, also known as the Drama drop.
The first time Alex sent the Drama Drop it was during a livestream, and even with the
pressure of a live audience he did like a hundred test approaches.
On screen, people were confused why he was hesitating so much.
After all, Alex had ridden bigger features and the drop shouldn’t have been a big deal.
But to this day he’s one of only two people besides me to ride it.
Size has nothing to do with it.
When you see the drop in 3D, you’ll notice how blind and tricky the approach is.
You have to start in the street and turn 90 degrees to line yourself up for it.
Where the pavement meets the grass, this divot immediately throws you off before entering
the narrow platform.
If you enter crooked or without proper speed, you’re locked in for disaster.
In summary, it’s rational to be scared of the Drama drop because everything about it
is sketchy.
So today we’ll give the drama drop a total revamp, aimed at decreasing the sketch factor
of the approach, improving the feeling of the drop itself, and making the whole feature
more fun overall.
Let’s start with these 2x3 slats.
Because of their shape, the slats often become loose and need tightening.
Because I never treated the wood for use outdoors, they’re also becoming homes for bugs, like
this carpenter bee.
That’s on me for choosing a poor material.
I’ll reuse slats for a ladder I’m building in the dungeon, and replace them with flat,
treated planks like we used on the bike wash station.
Next to smooth out the approach.
While it seems easy to just fill in the dirt here or dig out the top, this depression in
the lawn is actually for drainage.
So we’ll add an extension that allows water to flow underneath.
Once finished, this extension will make for a much smoother and less intimidating approach.
Now let’s take pause to appreciate one of the dumbest and sketchiest ideas I’ve had
to date.
I obtained these flat rocks for some projects around the yard, and thought they’d make
a good surface for the North Shore drop.
My plan was to use liquid nails to tack them down, and then a masonry bit to drill holes
for actual fasteners.
I was wooed by the prospect of a really good thumbnail!
After spending hours dry fitting the rocks, I used tie down straps to fasten the looser
ones temporarily.
All this for a real world test.
With the new extension, it actually didn’t feel as sketchy as I thought it would—but
it sure looked sketchy.
I couldn’t get past that, and after sleeping on it, I decided to remove all the rocks and
proceed with the original plan.
Back to the planks.
Just like before I cut the surface planks 12 inches, except this time they’d lay flatter
and wouldn’t be as prone to coming loose.
I spaced them using another plank, and carefully fastened them along the length of the drop.
At the front of the drop, I found a rock that fit in perfectly, making a nice transition
between the lawn and the extension.
It was then time to add something new.
There are many riders out there, some of them very experienced, who simply don’t want
to send big drops.
I respect that, so for them I built a rollable option by attaching a 4x4 to the end of the
drop angled towards the ground.
On the top of that, I added an 8 inch wide set of planks which of course is 4 inches
narrower than the ones on the top—you know, to keep things interesting.
At the bottom I added a rock to finish up
the transition.
Bobo has never sent this thing, so I was wondering if he’d consider trying
the new bypass.
Since the steep transition can actually catch your chainring, Bobo was a little apprehensive.
So I gave it a couple of tries on his bike to make sure it would work.
Indeed, his chainring did make contact with the wood, but not badly enough to be dangerous.
And
with that, we achieved pretty much every objective.
The new smoother approach makes the drop more fun to ride overall, and the new roll in option
is a fun alternative to sending the whole thing.
I really don’t like sterilizing things just for the sake of accessibility, so a bypass
like this should be just as fun as the original.
In fact, some might argue that the bypass is scarier.
So that’s it
on Berm Creek for a little while.
We made a lot of changes and upgrades this summer which have totally transformed my backyard
trail system.
If this is the first berm Creek video you’ve seen, check the playlist at the end to get
up to speed.
Until I have a reason to build something else here, thanks for riding with me today and
I’ll see you next time.