Building a Family Bike & Skate Ramp

Today we build a family-friendly kicker ramp for bicycles, skateboards, and scooters. The family ramp is fun for all ages, easy to move, and still capable of some serious boost! Because the curve does involve a little trial and error, I'm leaving rough measurements and materials below. Have fun, and improvise to make your ramp even better than mine.

MATERIALS
1 4x8 sheet of plywood 23/32
4 2x3's
1 5/8 drywall screws
OPTIONAL MATERIALS
Sheet metal
Casters
Finishing washers

MANDATORY TOOLS
Drill
Jigsaw

OPTIONAL TOOLS
Circular saw or Mitre Saw
Sander
Metal cutting blades for jigsaw

DIRECTIONS
Trace the shape of your ramp on the plywood. Mine was 6 feet long and 1 foot high, with the main transition being 4 feet and the back slope at 2. Use the first cut to trace the second, and make sure to use as little of the plywood as possible. If you do it tightly and neatly, you can get a 28" wide surface out of the rest of it.

Cut your beams 1 inch shorter than the surface. I my case the beams were 27" since the surface was 28". Cut as many beams as you can out of the 2x3's, and use them to frame out the ramp. Use two on the bottom and the rest on the transition. Use two drywall screws per beam.

Soak the plywood water, or keep it wet for 2 hours. Lay it flat on the ramp, fasten one end with 4 screws, and work your way up the ramp beam by beam. Bend it slowly and use patience, spraying it down if need be. Going too fast or using too tight of a curve will cause the wood to break.

Cut a piece of sheet metal as wide as the ramp, take off the sharp edges with a file or grinder, and screw it into the bottom of the ramp using the finishing washers. If you are only riding this with bicycles then this may not be necessary, however it does protect the bottom of the ramp.

The easiest way to add casters to the ramp is to screw 3 of them into the side in a triangle configuration. By tilting the ramp on to the casters, you can wheel it around. Optionally, you can add a handle or cutout to make this easier.

Thanks to my sponsors for helping make this video possible
Box Components
Diamondback Bicycles
Slime Sealant

And thanks to additional contributors
Ryobi Tools
#RYOBINationRocks
Park Tool Company

[jennetteperdomo]

The ramp you left/donated at virginia key is my absolute favorite. I've learned to jump on it (falling a few times but finally getting some pretty good air) and I will practice on it for hours. It sucks I never got to meet you personally and thank you for it but hopefully you see this message 😊

[stofzuigzakkie]

Tell me....
WHY ARE ALL YOUR VIDEOS SO RELAXED TO WATCH?!
Your quality = Perfect
Your voice = Chill to listen at
Your editing = Insane man
Camera angles and other stuff = Again... perfect!

I can see that you are putting much time in your videos and that makes it really nice to watch the videos.

[bkxc]

HUCK IT GRANNY! I love this woodworking stuff, dude. You're a mad MTB scientist.

[murf]

Overall great build and ideas, but one thing I believe that might clean things up is on the metal if you counter sink the screws, rolling opposite onto the ramp then metal coping might catch due to those screws sticking out to grab you skateboard wheels. Good job Seth.

[kainpwnsu]

Built this for Christmas 2019 but with swivel castors for extra mobility. My kids hit this every day during the COVID-19 quarantine. Thank you so much for sharing your lightweight, family-friendly design!

They slapped your green circle trail and Drama sticker on the side and call it "No Drama".

[barrymoyles]

Made this yesterday with my 10 year old. We had to improvise the design a little so that I could use material I had in the shed (no shops open due COVID19). Works a treat, the 10 year old and 9 year old love it, the 6 year old is building up the bravery. Thanks for the inspiration.

[legs]

3:27 Hearing the jigsaw start up with the blade in your hand had me pucker up a bit there.

[TheDude]

For reference: drywall screws are super hard and brittle. If things loosen up at all don't be surprised if you start shearing a bunch of them off. I would recommend deck screws all the way.
Sweet wheel system!

[JackmanWorks]

Johnny wouldn't give you any purple heart for his one? :D

[odysseyjzx]

Screw doing homework, Seth uploaded a new video!!

[peterjamesanderson]

Thanks so much Seth - built this ramp for my 4 year old and he loves it! followed your instructions, just changed all the measurements to metric. (we are in France). Love your vids too.

[pedalhard]

Aw man that's so freaking awesome. When I was a kid I made ramps out of whatever scrap we had laying around the farm. Using quality material and a plan seems like a great idea! Lol.

[chase]

Seth could make a whole skatepark out of all the kicker ramps hes made.

[michaelsvr]

I just built one yesterday watching this. The neighbor kids came out and had a blast past dinner time. Thank you

[calummcclintock]

Seth: "I'm not extra"
Also Seth: *fold out wheels on bike ramp*

[Floridaman]

Just built my first ramp. I see many more in my future😂
I opted for 1/4” plywood and 2x2s spaced at 6”. Very strong!
Ratchet strap and weights helped bend it after soaking it. Be careful not to sink screws in too far when the wood is wet 😬
Haven’t attached the plate yet but it definitely would benefit .
Just my two cents. Thanks for the tutorial👍🏻

[Pistachiobabe]

Please do some more work on berm creek !!!!

[stephenswift]

Skills! I especially liked The portability/wheels solution I wouldn’t have thought of that in a month of Sunday’s!

[ultrawarriorgaming]

I think you may have listed the wrong size plywood in the description. I bought that size (23/32) and found it incredibly inflexible. It is 4-ply, and very thick, whereas the plywood in your video looks as though it's only 3-ply, and it is very flexible even without water. All-in-all, my wood snapped and now I need to spend $40 more. So what thickness plywood is appropriate?

[lukenelson]

Thank you seth you have inspired me to make my own bike workshop and ramps. I always watch your videos and hope that you will carry on with youtube.