Building and Riding the World's Raddest Pumptrack in Thailand 2

A once in a lifetime experience with Velosolutions in Thailand. Or, a pump track for Christmas for Aranyaprathet!

When I got an email from Thailand, asking about a Velosolutions Pump Track, I thought: How cool would it be if we could build an asphalt pump track in Asia! But really, I didn’t see much chance of this dream coming true.5 months and 120 emails later, Adrien Loron and I (Claudio Caluori) were on the plane to Thailand, to take on one of our most ambitious projects so far.

Knowing how tough it is to build an asphalt pump track even in Europe, we were quite nervous asking ourselves if we were going to manage the heat combined with the hard work. And if it was even possible to build the largest pure pump track I’ve designed so far within one month (Zurich was bigger, but it included a BMX track and a jump track). Will they have the right tools, machines, materials, will they have enough motivated workers, will we even get the asphalt that we ordered?

Well, our boss calmed us down by taking us out for a whiskey right after we arrived in Aranyaprathet, next to the Cambodian border. And another one. And another one. Oh well, we had to finish that bottle.

First morning on site, our main concern was not actually the construction, but just getting our heads straight again. Soon we realized that this was the pattern for every day for the whole month. Our livers must have been loving it.

But also, we soon realized that even though everything seemed to be chilled (except for the weather), everything also seemed to run smooth, easy, and without any stress. People were friendly, happy, always with a smile on their face and we were advancing faster than ever before. Adrian and I could not explain why we never seemed to get tired even though we didn’t sleep at night, why everybody always seemed to be in a good mood, the Thai workers were happy working barefooted, we were never in a hurry, but the pump track became reality just like on the drawing, quicker than we would have dared to dream.

If we needed couple of rakes, they welded 10 for us, if we needed a truck modified, they modified 2 of them. We couldn’t believe how easy they made it for us.

Still, I must say, I’ve never sweated so much in my entire life. Adrian and I sometimes had to step away from the asphalt for a couple of seconds, just to make sure to not pass out due to the heat, before attacking it again. Soon, we became addicted to the spicy Thai food that also kept us sweating during breakfast, lunch and dinner, and last but not least, I had to work hard to escape from the ladyboys pretty much every night, so the sweating was going on 24/7.

You might be asking who we were building this huge pump track for. Who could actually afford a bike to ride it. In fact, I was wondering the same thing. There is a shanty town right next to the pump track, and it felt quiet awkward building such an expensive track next to it.

But in fact, the kids from the shanty town were the first ones to take over the pump track and ride it all day long, on their trash bikes, with broken off pedals, barefooted on the axle.

I asked the boss (who doesn’t want to be named here) if he was going to leave this open and free for everybody, even when he builds a hotel next to it. He said yes, he will. This pump track is for the whole town. There is only one thing I can say. Thank you.

-Claudio Caluori, Velosolutions