FMX Insider No.16: Munich’s Course

Welcome to our brand new weekly web-exclusive column, Transmoto‘s FMX Insider. Penned each week by South Australian rider, Ben Heidrich, the FMX Insider will present the story-behind-the-stories of the Aussie and international freestyle motocross scenes. 

The evolution of the freestyle motocross course is a major contribution to the movement of the sport. There have been many course variations over the years; from ramp designs to the overall structure, placement and distance of the jumps. But never has there been an FMX course set up on water. Red Bull X-Fighters is known for pushing the evolution of the sport and evidently they will be the first to pioneer the idea!

On July 19, Munich, Germany will hold the fourth stop of the 2014 Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour. The course will be built on top of the lake at the famous Olympic Park. This will be the first time in history that an entire FMX course is built on top of water.

The ramps and dirt will sit on swimming pontoons, which are supported by a scaffolding sub-structure. Red Bull has designed the course to hold 3600 tonnes of dirt and the dirt will sit on 260 pontoons, giving the track an overall length of 520m (1700ft). The course will be set up as one singular track from start to finish with nine jumps in total to play with. The riders will have four regular jumps, two gap jumps, a quarter pipe and a super kicker.

It will be interesting to see how the world’s top riders attack such a foreign course design. The idea of losing your bike in the drink will surely test everyone’s comfort zones.

It’s unbelievable the lengths Red Bull go to keep fresh vibes flowing in the sport. There is always going to be something new that can be achieved and sometimes it takes a revolutionary company such as Red Bull to prove it!