BMX Starting Gate

[MeredithJL]

Here's a pic of a starting gate I am building for a local track in my area. It's 26' x 5' deep finished. I haven't built the actual 'gate' yet; this is just the ramp where the bikes sit. I got some great weldable lift-off bullet hinges for mounting the gate when we install it.

My company was kind enough to allow me to use up a bunch of nasty old 1x2 steel tubing and I've also scrounged quite a bit of this thing from our recycling bins.

[FWI]

MeredithJL-

Nice work..

[shinertom]

ABA track?
How will you lift it? We used air cylinders. Our track also used a solenoid powered catch to hold the gate up, the release it.. Finally used a magnet. We could anticipate the gate drop by listening to the mechanism.
The gate will flex a lot at each end, especially when you have a full gate of AA pros pushing on it.
Get the dads off the fence and onto the track on a cruiser. It is one thing to yell at your kid, another thing to do it yourself!
Good luck!

[MeredithJL]

NBL track up in Kingston, NY. They were ABA for a long time but something happened. There's a lot of politics in racing these days. I was nationally ranked in the 15 and over girls in the early/mid 80s, and things were a lot simpler back then, LOL!

Anyways, they have a pneumatic air 'ram' that pushes the gate down and lifts it back up. I have to fashion a heavy duty bracket dead center of the gate for this to mount to with a clevis pin. It's 26' wide (NBL minimum, I've been told), and I know it's going to flex, but I'm framing it out of 1"x2" on face with the hope that it will flex a little less, lol....

Here's a pic of me back in 'the day,' lol..

[shinertom]

I was #1 Cruiser at our ABA track. Best national ranking was 5. That was a good while ago. 45 and older cruiser.
Make you bracket twice as tough as you think you will need. You might think of placing some kind of pocket in both ends of the gate. If you have a cylinder failure, two strong dad volunteers with a steel bar can lift the gate. We made the release magnetic so we would hot have to rely on the cylinders or a solenoid activate hook to drop the gate.

[MeredithJL]

Good suggestion, re handles for manual lifting, LOL! (Glad that won't be me!). I'm going to probably do a D-handle out of 1/2" steel rod welded on both ends. I got my boss to let me use some 11G 1-1/2x1-1/2 box tube for building the actual 'gate,' so that sucker is gonna have some weight and it's gonna fall FAST, lol!

[MeredithJL]

Most Recent Progress

Out of square by 1/16"!