balance track in my driveway

[greyhair biker]

One day I got bored....that's usually how it goes right? My driveway is sloped and I like to see how slow I can go and still move...& try to trackstand. SO, I grabbed a spraycan and put a few dots on the drive to ride around. One thing led to another and now I have a driveway full of dots - a balance course that the kids try to do when they come over to the shop. Once you start you can't touch the ground with your foot or you have to start over. If you complete the course you get a waterbottle with my shop logo and lots of bike stickers & swag that fits in the bottle. I have kids try it every day and have only given out two bottles. It's tougher than it looks. here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTDTCJjybg8

[Sombeech]

Cool, I should do something like this.

[PunchKing]

I am amazed you still dare to ride that bike! Your arm is still in the shambles. You should probably stick to downhill, it is safer for you.

[Deathcricket]

That is really cool man! What a simple elegant fun idea. I bet this is the one instance where having a smaller bike would actually be an advantage and not a hinderance, hehe.

[PunchKing]

... one instance where having a smaller ... would actually be an advantage and not a hinderance, hehe.

I don't think smaller is ever better! No matter what your wife/significant other may tell you.

[Deathcricket]

Hey I did have another question. Did you use those upside down marking cans that surveyors use? Or just a regular can of spray paint? I can't find them in any color other than flourescent pink. Working on another project and was wondering.

[tallsteve]

Nice! When I was the Cub Scout leader a couple of years ago, we did something similar for a Den Meeting. The boys had a blast and talked about it for weeks afterward. So much so that we ended up doing it again. One thing we added was a 25 foot, 4 inch wide lane marked out with masking tape. The boys had to ride the lane without touching the masking tape. More difficult than it sounds. I think I made it once out of 20 tries or something. We could never figure out if it was better to ride it fast or slow.

[greyhair biker]

It really is kind of addicting & when you start your own course marking you have to actually walk the bike around where you want to mark.There is a section of about 6 dots that are one foot apart in a line - you have to run your front wheel in and out without touching dots... very tough.
I used regular marking paint but the inverted marking paint would work better. :2thumbs:

[Nick Danger]

Sort of a home-grown version of bike trials. The next step is front & rear hops to make markers that are tighter than the turning radius. Look around YouTube for videos of both bike trials and motorcycle trials. You'll be amazed at what the champion-level riders can do. Also, FWIW, the current motorcycle trials World Champion (Toni Bou) started with bike trials.