“
I’ve been over it on a
BMX and I’m too scared
to do it again
- Nick Franklin on the
big roll-in
”
F YOU’VE PAID ANY
attention to action
sports over the past
18 months, there’s a
very strong chance
you will have seen
videos and photos
from Nick Franklin’s
epic compound in Jed
Mildon’s Red Bullbacked Dirt Dogs BMX
project.
I
Located in the middle of the dairyfarming hub of New Zealand’s North
Island, the world-class compound
is well and truly hidden from prying
eyes at the end of a narrow country
road, just a couple of minutes’ drive
off the busy State Highway 1.
The thing that’s unique about the
Franklin Farm is the fact that it’s not
just for moto: half of the place is
designed with FMX/Speed & Style in
mind and the other half focuses on
BMX dirt. It’s a set-up that you won’t
see replicated anywhere else on the
planet, and as such, it’s capturing
the imagination of action sports
athletes and fans internationally.
FMX landing that’s there now – the
landing hasn’t moved at all, but it’s
got a lot bigger.”
The dirt is constantly shifting and
changing, but at the time of writing,
the compound featured a 75ft ramp
to dirt, a superkicker to dirt, a speed
& style/supercross track, a big
BMX dirt line rolling off the iconic
stacked shipping containers, a new
resi-jump, a pump-track and a foam
pit with a multitude of ramps going
into it.
As well as the ramp set-up, Nick
built a supercross track that he
oc casionally changes up, and he
links it in with a couple of big FMXstyle jumps to make it a speed &
style course.
Interestingly though, until about
18 months ago, the Franklin Farm
wasn’t much different from your
usual compound and grew from less
than humble beginnings.
“When I first started freestyle, I
had a ramp in the back paddock
and it was dug into the hill like a
big tabletop,” Nick recalls. “After
that a big pile of dirt was dumped
in the paddock next to the house
and I started jumping it in 2002.
That actually formed the base of the
One of the cool features of his moto
track is how it passes through an
old barn. This came about less than
a year ago when Jed installed his
container roll-ins and the Dirt Dogs
BMX jumps.
“The track used to go next to the
barn, but it had to be moved for
Jed’s jumps. The hay barn wasn’t
doing much and was only used to
hold a couple of old cars,” Nick
explains. “To tell the truth, the thing
was about to fall down, so we got
some big posts and strengthened
the frame, cut a hole in the back
wall and put a track through it. It
was all pretty natural really.”