Building Barriers
For racing, solid boards are really the best way to go. UCI rules require barriers to be 40 cm tall (16 inches) and solid across their entire width, but for training, you want something easy to set up and light enough to move around easily. You also want a practice barrier to be a bit ‘forgiving’. Also, when placing multiple barriers, they must be at least 4 meters apart.
Practice barriers:
For practice, the only thing
that really is the height. Put a 8 foot
wide 2 x 4 on a pile of bricks at about 14" and you'll have a good,cheap
simulation.
Tim McNamara timmcn@minn.net writes: In the races I
promote, I have two sets of barriers.
The first are triangular shaped pieces of plywood with several 2" holes
bored into them vertically, like this:
_
/o\
/ o \
/ o \
/ \
/ \
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An 8' section of 2" PVC
pipe goes between two of these uprights; having a selection of holes allows
compensation for uneven ground to make sure that the barrier is not too high
(no higher than 16"). They're
cheap, quick to set up and work very well.
If someone slams into them, they won't break and the rider won't get
hurt. Double bonus.
Another solution that works
great is two orange traffic cones for each end, cut a hole at the proper height
in each cone, and then place whatever length of 2 1/2" PVC piping in. The benefits of this design for training are
those mentioned above, ie. many of them can fit in any car, and even more so,
if you want to practice bunny hopping the barriers, you can do so without
worrying about damaging your bike, the barriers, or yourself if you miss, as
the barrier just comes apart if you
land on it, while it is still sturdy enough to stay upright otherwise.
The problem with these
"poles on a tripod" type hurdles, is that they are terrible for judging the height when your
stepping over them. The thin poles make it more difficult to judge depth and
work on your timing.
For a simple non-UCI solid barrier;
A simple race barrier is to
take two orange traffic cones/pylons annd cut slits in the top to hold a
board. Simple, easy to set up, and
only takes three pieces per barrier.
/| |\
/ | | \
/
| | \
/
- \
/
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/ \
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Another simple solid barrier:
Get some 2"x10"x8' wood make some practice hurdles out of it. I feel
the design is pretty good for practice but it is not legal for competition.
I made the hurdles
free-standing and easy to (dis)assemble so that I don't have to hammer in
stakes, I can easily transport them (say to a local school yard or soccer
field) and I can move them around to create different hurdle combinations and
force run-ups.
The hurdles are only for practice,
hence they don't need to be as long as competition hurdles. I cut my 8'
sections in half. These 4' cross pieces are held up by triangular
"feet" cut from the 2"x10" stock and attached perpendicular
to the cross pieces. I use 5/16" hanger bolts (used on some table leg
connections, hanger bolts have lag bolt screw threading on one end and standard
bolt threading on the other) to connect the "feet" to the cross
pieces.
Screw the hanger bolts into
the cross pieces like this (use a fixed width font for proper viewing):
The cross piece:
-----------------------------------
|
|
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|--- <-- hanger bolt
|
|
| |
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|---
|
|
-----------------------------------
Then drill holes in the
triangular "feet" so that the threaded ends of the hanger bolts can
pass through.
The "foot":
^
/
\
/
o \ - - - - - -
/
\ |
/
o \ | - - these two holes line up
/ \ | with hanger bolts in cross
/
o - - -\ - - - - piece
/ \
/
o \
/ \
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You can then assemble the
free-standing hurdles with just 4 nuts. I use flared nuts that don't require a
washer. You may have to counter-sink the holes through the "feet" in
order to thread the nut because the hanger bolt may not be long enough to pass
completely through the 2" lumber.
Not only can these hurdles be
assembled easily, but you can see that with proper placement of hanger bolts
and holes in the "feet" you can get hurdles with variable height. I
was able to get 10" and 12" hurdles out of the 2"x10" (measures
1.5"x9") wood I had to work with.
You may need 2"x12"
or 2"x16" wood to reach regulation height. I'm happy with my 12"
max. hurdles (the wood was free). I hope this explanation is clear. If anyone
is interested in more details, contact me.
Glen; email : lelp@xnet.com
UCI Legal Solid Barriers:
A good hurdle is simple to
make. Our are 2" thick, and 14" tall. We have some that are 2 meters
wide, which we double up, and some that are 3 meters wide, which we use in
narrower spots. To put them in the ground, we use 24" pieces of rebar that
get run through metal eyelets that are screwed into the hurdles. They set up in
about 1 minute, and are sturdy enough for people to slam into, and they don't
come down. And, you can paint them, and sell advertising on them.
Technique:
Carry:
Bunny hop:
I usually try a little light footed
bouncing on the pedals as they're horizontal and then let myself drop a bit and
weight the bike such that the tires squish a bit and then do an explosive
pushup with my arms and legs at the same time.
Once in the air, off the bike, your momentum upward will allow you to
lift the bike at the same time the tires are bouncing back. This lightens the bike, in effect, and makes
it easier to lift. Pulling up on the
bars you twist them forward at the same time to help the back wheel off. If you are clipped in it is easy to yank the
back wheel off with your feet.