FRANKLIN FARM
tower. One drops into the foam pit,
while the other sees the BMX riders
hammering into the biggest dirt
jumps in the world, the Dirt Dogs.
This tower has quickly become one
of the most iconic set-ups in twowheeled action sports.
£ The notorious Franklin
Farm foam pit
“The idea was to have the same
roll-in and angle each way, so you
could dial your tricks into the foam
pit, then turn around and send the
same tricks to dirt,” explains Jed.
“A huge amount of man-hours
have gone into this, and we’ve had
some rad sponsors who have lent
us machinery, which has been a
massive help.”
As well as the infamous Dirt Dogs
jumps, there’s another poppy trick
line descending the hill next to
the foam pit. At the time of writing
Jed was pulling them down and
reshaping them.
The whole moto track is one of
Nick’s favourite aspects of the entire
compound. He wanted to build
a track that a slower rider could
negotiate and link together, but also
one a guy with moderate racing
skills (such as Nick) could go out
and find some new combinations
and rhythms on. There’s more scope
for top-level riders as well.
“There are advanced sections out
there that I still haven’t jumped yet,”
Nick admits. “When the better riders
like Ben Townley come out, they’ll
be able to jump through an entirely
different line, and that’s what I’m
most stoked about; I’ve built a track
that really can cater for everyone.”
The partnership between Jed and
Nick began as the two flew to the
Farm Jam a few years back. They
got talking and Jed began sharing
his crazy, visionary ideas (remember,
this was before the Triple Flip) of
what he wanted to do. Nick instantly
jumped on board and the pair began
working on a scaffolding set-up to
practice the Triple Flip.
Hiring scaffolding for several
months quickly burnt a hole in their
pockets and they realised a more
permanent option was needed.
“I’m not sure whose idea it was to
use stacked shipping containers to
build a roll-in, but it was just one of
those ideas that was thrown out at
the time,” Jed says. “As it turned
out, soon after, a big freighter ship
got was shipwrecked on a reef
off the coast not far from here,
and a sh*tload of containers went
overboard and were damaged.
They weren’t super-cheap, but
in the long run we knew it’d be a
great investment. It’s sick to have a
permanent set-up like that, where
I can just go and send it without
having to worry about anything.”
A 5000-Tonne crane was brought
in to balance the three containers
against each other perfectly,
forming two roll-ins from the same
“Those jumps were fun to ride and
were big, but it was a technical
line to ride and not many people
could trick them because of it,” Jed
explains. “We’re going to rebuild
them so they’re just as big, but will
be easier to send tricks on.” “I’ll tell
you one thing though: that big roll-in
is scary,” Nick adds with conviction.
“I’ve been over it on a BMX and
I’m too scared to do it again. The
platform at the top is only long
enough to get in half a pedal stroke
before you’re at the point of no
return. If your balance is off, bro, it’s
a long way to fall off the side!”
One of the most well-utilised parts
of the Franklin Farm is the foampit. Where most set-ups have two,
possibly three ramps leading into the
pit, Nick and Jed built a multitude
of options to choose from: there
are two 9m radius ramps, a super
kicker, a quarter pipe, a dirt hit, the
container roll-in, and two other BMX
roll-ins and ramps.
“It’s a big enough foam pit that it can
handle that many ramps going into
it,” explains Nick. “It’s good do have
it and build up the compound to be
a world-class training facility for both
moto and BMX.”
One of the other key features of the
compound is a huge, super-poppy
dirt double with an 8m radius takeoff that Farm regular FMXer Luke
Price has dubbed “The Orbiter”. u
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