The process is familiar from elsewhere: if you don't have the opportunity to pile up large mounds of earth for your jumps or banked turns, you build the elevation with a different material - usually piles of wood - and cover it with enough earth so that a solid, rideable element is created after it dries out. The Italian company Easypumptracks does not use wood or another proven building material as a support, but cardboard. Yes, that's right, corrugated cardboard, weighing 900 grams per square meter. But doesn't it soften as soon as it gets damp? Davide Reina confirms: "Yes, the material gradually dissolves when it is filled with soil and covered. Our cardboard is biodegradable." By the time this happens, the dirt that has been poured over it has taken on the shape dictated by the cardboard structure and no longer gives way. Easypumptracks is the name of the company from Turin that offers pump tracks in this design, and Davide Reina is its head.
The individual pieces of cardboard are drawn on the computer in such a way that they can be precisely assembled into the required shapes after cutting. Strictly speaking, the cardboard is pre-cut according to the construction plan. Before assembling, the individual parts are broken out of the cardboard sheet and put together according to the plan. According to Davide Reina, the arches for the pump track in the village of Chieri near Turin were stored in a delivery van. They were put together on the site, lined up according to the track layout and then piled up and covered with earth. Excavators and dirt were also needed for the cardboard track. The backfilling took three days, followed by three days of shaping work, says Davide. Finally, a layer of asphalt is laid on top. "Our asphalt is colorless, so our pump tracks don't look like freeways," he praises his process. However, the pump track builder claims that the asphalt can also be colored if desired. He himself comes from the Turin dirt jump scene, has shoveled countless jumps by hand and was also involved in the construction of the largest dirt park in the region, "Il Jurassico". The track design and the cardboard pieces cut to size for a small pump track cost 2000 to 3000 euros. Then there are the costs for the earth and the construction machinery and, if necessary, the land.
The Ride editorial team has not yet been able to find out how the cardboard pump track rides. According to Davide, the pump track is located on private land whose owner wants to build a bike school for children. Before anyone sets off, it's better to contact easypumptracks to make sure you can actually ride the track.
easypumptracks.com