(playful music)
(door creaks)
(playful music)
- This is a rather large front door.
In fact, it was the front door
to my house up until recently.
We got a new one
and as the installers were hauling this off
to relieve us of the burden of dealing with it,
I said not so fast.
Yes, I think if we put our minds to it
we can build a crazy mountain bike feature
out of this thing.
It's a serious chunk of wood.
It's Knotty Alder,
which is a very strong and durable hardwood.
But if you leave it out in the woods
it will rot away eventually.
And so we have to treat this for the outdoors
and we have to do something about those windows
and I wanna keep them
but I wanna also be able to ride over them.
And so I think I have a solution for that.
What I do know is that moving this door is a bummer.
(upbeat music)
So these windows are made from a really thick glass.
And the framing here seems
more than stiff enough to ride a bike over.
But just for some extra stiffness
I'm gonna add steel braces to the opposite side.
Just so it can't crack all the way through.
I don't think that's gonna be a problem
but I'm gonna play it safe.
(upbeat music)
So we got this extra bracing back here.
Now let's treat the door
and I'll show you what I'm gonna do about the glass.
(upbeat music)
So the nature of our feature
doesn't make me too worried about traction
but just for good measure,
we're gonna add this 80 grit sand to the door
to give it a little bit more grip.
Maybe if I thought this through,
I could have mixed it in with the paint beforehand,
but this should work.
Okay, so here's my plan for the windows.
Two part epoxy.
I'm gonna mix this stuff together.
We're gonna pour it in there.
It's gonna be crystal clear.
I hope it makes it stronger.
And if it doesn't, then it's gonna break
and it'll be on video.
But if it holds up, it's gonna be pretty cool.
(upbeat music)
Oh, that definitely pops the bubbles.
So I would imagine that every time you mix
and pour epoxy you get a little bit better at it.
That was my first time.
And so it'll be the worst one I've ever done
but that's okay because this is gonna be outside
and we're gonna ride bikes over it.
So as long as it's semi transparent, I think we're happy.
(upbeat music)
So it looks like everything is cured and dry.
I did a little grip test with my axial micro crawler
and it looks like the sand was a pretty good idea.
And I think with that, we can build something with this.
So I'm loading up the Gator
to transport some materials down the hill.
Then I'm gonna show you what I actually have planned
for this door feature.
(playful music)
So this double roller right here is kind of a Huck
if you want to clear it.
You've gotta take a bunch of pedal strokes
and yank really hard.
When Kevin and I built this
our eyes were bigger than her stomachs.
I'm gonna make a pucker pad, on, off, up box
whatever you wanna call it with the door in between these
and then we should be able to approach it.
And then we should be able to approach it at trail speed,
pop off the door and make the landing.
And if you're feeling lucky
you can crank at it and clear the whole door.
So it'll be kind of a double feature.
So I gotta set some posts in the ground
and try and get this mostly built before it starts raining
so that we can ride it tomorrow.
(post hole digger buzzing)
(playful music)
(thunder rumbling)
Uh-oh, we better get outta here.
(thunder rumbling)
There's nothing we can do about the weather
except work around it.
And once it's dry, we'll come back out,
nail this sucker down, take it for a spin.
(upbeat music)
So the gap onto the door is really small
and the gap off of the door is quite substantial
and that's what we want.
But the angle is a little bit too aggressive.
Probably doesn't look it on video, but it is.
(upbeat music)
So this lip over here
was designed to take you all the way to the landing.
And it's just way too steep to skip off this door.
And so we want to mellow it out,
but we also still want to be able to clear
the entire double.
And so what I'm gonna do is take this big hump of dirt
and move it over to the right side of the lip.
This way, the left is nice and mellow.
It's at the same angle as the door.
So you can skip off of it.
And the right is still lippy.
And we can get up in the air.
(upbeat music)
We've reshaped the lips.
I think this will work.
Looks easy,
but there's something really bad that could happen.
If I kind of take off this lip too much
and I land too far down the door
I'm gonna break my collarbone.
So I'm gonna try and hit it real easy and give her a go.
(rock music)
That was one of the most chill things
I've ever hit on Berm Peak.
It felt really smooth and it was really fun.
Like it felt good.
We can go hit it again.
(rock music)
This is really fun,
especially 'cause you have three hits in a row.
You have the door, the banana cannon and the Benjamin jump.
That's what we've been calling it.
The Benjamin jump
because it was when wood was really expensive
and we got a $100 2 x 12.
But as you remember, we added a lip to the right side
so you could just totally clear the door
and we've gotta see if that works.
So, let's give it a try.
(rock music)
Kind of chickened out a little bit.
I took the low side of the landing
and I felt like I had the speed for it.
So I gotta try and at least go a little bit over the door.
(rock music)
So this is as good of an outcome as I could have hoped for.
I chose this feature this week
because it was gonna be nonstop rain.
Not only did I get it done,
but the trails held up great
and the glass didn't shatter.
The epoxy worked.
It's a little cloudy, but whatever.
We're gonna ride bikes over it.
It's actually a really easy feature to ride.
And it's really, really fun.
It just feels good.
But with the addition of that door
I feel like Berm Peak is really tied together.
And now we can just work after the Benjamin jump
and add features there.
What are we gonna call it?
The Hodor, the Mordor?.
I hope you had fun building with me today.
I hope you learned something
and if you didn't I hope you were at least entertained.
Thanks for riding with me today.
And I'll see you next time.
(upbeat jazz music)