# Crossing Fenclines, How to?



## Xenocatalyst (Dec 11, 2011)

Hello,

I've recently bought a property, 83 acres.
Great house, Not far from town and has a shed for my toys.
The newest addition to which is an Ibis Mojo 160 with xt gear.
Havent' had the time to get out and ride it yet with moving house and work and weather.

Across the road is my mum's place, where i lived for 15 years, and it is 112 acres. I plan on creating a private track across both properties.

My only problem is getting passed the fences without having to get off the bike or opening gates. There is going to be stock on these properties or it would be a problem.

Sounds easy, put in a cattle grid....
Nope! That would work for sheep cows and horses but the missus has miniature horses which as she says "More Daring". They will jump cattle grids while a full size horse wouldn't bother.
Also she has a soft spot for goats. We don't have any but I'm sure that its going to happen.

So I'm after some novel ideas to help me keep the paddocks closed to animals but open for pushbikes.


----------



## Cotharyus (Jun 21, 2012)

I had a solution for you, right up til you included goats. I've seen goats walk up a tree branch that fell over a fence (not breaking the fence mind you) and jump off the branch on the other side. So, excluding the goats...

A skinny just off parallel works for everything else.

Also, you can make dismount crossings (I know, you wanted to stay on your bike, but those goats are a deal breaker) by making a section of board fence that will support you as a ladder when you climb it. Climbing wire fence of any kind is bad news long term.

For cattle or full size horses (I can't speak for the miniatures) you can build a tight C or U shaped section that overlaps the fence next to it:

fence ------C-------- (only with some actual overlap INTO the C)

It's fairly easy to do this tight enough that cattle and horses can't navigate it, but a bike can. Again, the goats are a deal breaker here for certain.

That's all I've got for you. So you have some options where you don't have goats...but where you have goats, expect problems.


----------



## bsieb (Aug 23, 2003)

I've seen spring closed gates used but it's not an unobstructed ride through. Close though. There are many types of cattleguards but I don't know that they would work for goats. I can post a drawing for the cattleguards we use (which are FS District approved) if that would be useful.


----------



## Desidus (Jun 27, 2013)

Dont know if it would work.. but what if you did a ramp over the fence done in verticle bars spaced just enough so that you could get over it with your bike but an animal could not. Sort of a ramped up cattle gate I guess. They cant jump over that anymore than they could a fence.

Wonder how hard it would to get over it...


----------



## slocaus (Jul 21, 2005)

Desidus said:


> Dont know if it would work.. but what if you did a ramp over the fence done in verticle bars spaced just enough so that you could get over it with your bike but an animal could not. Sort of a ramped up cattle gate I guess. They cant jump over that anymore than they could a fence.
> 
> Wonder how hard it would to get over it...


Goats will walk right over without slowing down. A cattle guard is a freeway. These are domestic goats in the picture.


----------



## aero901 (Apr 11, 2012)

Given the wide range of animals needing containment, a mechanically actuated gate with a sensor that knows when a bike is approaching sounds like a solution. The sensor could detect the metal in the bike or a RFID badge attached to the bike.

Also check out electrified cattle guards: Gap Zapper

A few of those mats placed side by side might prevent the horses/goats from trying to jump over them.


----------



## Desidus (Jun 27, 2013)

slocaus said:


> Goats will walk right over without slowing down. A cattle guard is a freeway. These are domestic goats in the picture.


Oh yeah I was more referring to other animals not goats... goats you would probably have to have a separate pen/area for them.


----------



## bsieb (Aug 23, 2003)

^that gate zapper looks good if power is available. You could turn it the long narrow way too.


----------



## goodmojo (Sep 12, 2011)

maybe a large see saw that is weighted to be one directional. Or not weighted but you always have to take it both ways. You could have a pull rope to drop it down without getting off your bike if it is balanced and lifted the wrong way.

Alternately a garage door opener actuated gate.

Alternately ramps on both sides that are short of the fence that you get enough speed to gap the fence. The goats can climb the thing but cant get enough speed to gap the fence.


----------



## woodway (Dec 27, 2005)

What about a spring-closing gate with a latch - run the latch cord up a pole to a pulley and then laterally out another pole/pulley such that it's dangling a few feet in front of the gate. When you ride up, you'll grab the latch cord to unlatch the gate right about when your front wheel starts to push the gate open. You let go of the cord, ride through the gate and then the gate swings shut behind you and latches. You could rig one of these up in each direction.


----------



## magnato1 (Apr 26, 2013)

slocaus said:


> Goats will walk right over without slowing down. A cattle guard is a freeway. These are domestic goats in the picture.


Is nobody else completely awed by this picture? What's the deal with goats? Are they really dumb? Fearless? Ninjas?


----------



## Cotharyus (Jun 21, 2012)

magnato1 said:


> Is nobody else completely awed by this picture? What's the deal with goats? Are they really dumb? Fearless? Ninjas?


You almost summed it up there. Goats are to stupid to be afraid of trying to walk over something that's in their way. They aren't quite ninjas, but you did leave out evil. Although I haven't seen this picture before, I can't say it really surprised me at all. My brother in law started keeping goats when one of his son's turned out to be allergic to a protein in bovine milk. He has relatively decent fence up, but I've never been to his house and found all of his goats inside the fence. There is always at least one goat out.


----------



## zrm (Oct 11, 2006)

If the miniature horses are the escape artists that you say they are it doesn't sound like any of the variations of typical livestock barriers that you talk about will do/ Unless you want to spend big bucks on some sort of remote controlled gate (don't forget the clicker!) I'd say you're going to have to endure the hardship of getting of your bike and opening and closing a gate the old fashioned way.


----------



## mtbty (Jun 15, 2012)

do a hamster cage of some kind or a wallride with the fencline right in the middle of the most vert part of the wallride.


----------



## deezler (Jun 21, 2011)

Wallride over the fence, brilliant! Just don't ride it like the guy in the video above.

Why worry about the goats though? You certainly aren't going to have goats roaming free over 200 acres of land. Just make the trail on the other 190+ acres..... right?


----------



## cmc4130 (Jan 30, 2008)

If you wanna see a bmx rider who can boost like he has goat legs.... watch Tom Dugan's part in Bad Idea. Several fence gaps in there too!

Tom Dugan - Empire 'Bad Idea' - YouTube

uh oh... does he make it ?









what about a ladder bridge up and over.... I mean if you spaced the ribs out far from each other, so it's still rideable.... would that scare animals from walking on it ? probably not a goat I guess....










may not be your style.... but imagine the fence was perpendicular to this quarter pipe and went through the hole cutout...... you could carve over it.... a goat is not going to walk sideways on vert.....


----------



## Xenocatalyst (Dec 11, 2011)

Yep the goats are Awesome climbers. 
I got an email with those images and more a while back, just amazing.

Thanks for all your suggestions.
The C shaped passage is interesting, it gives the illusion of being fenced, and know that the illusion is all that a lot of animals need.

I've seen the hamster wheel before, that is incredible, but not quite what I'm after.

The wall ride would be perfect if 1. i had enough speed. and 2. i had the ability/nuts to do it. (especially over a barbed wire fence.)

I was thinking of putting some north shore inspired timber ramps on each side of the fence with a counter balanced bridge spanning the gap over the fence.
So you'd be riding along and hit a pressure plate on the ramp with the wheel which would shift a balanced weight on the bridge to which would tip it over and then as you ride off you it hits another pressure plate which moves the weight back to tip the bridge back up again.

Far fetched but possible i think, however a lot of work.
Would be cool but i dont think its going to happen









Maybe just a latching gate will be all that i can get away with.


----------



## cmc4130 (Jan 30, 2008)

if you have drop skills . . . this to me seems like the most straight forward. ride an up wedge to a platform that is several feet taller than the fence, then gap over the fence to a landing....










it would be easier than a straight launch ramp over the fence to landing.

or maybe animals would be afraid to walk over round steel tubing .... 
How to design a fence a motorbike can traverse easily? - General Dirt Bike Discussion - ThumperTalk


----------



## Xenocatalyst (Dec 11, 2011)

I love the jump ideas but its a little hard to climb a hill and do such things.

However the motorbike solution cmc4130 has posted has some merit.

just got to be careful with the wheels me thinks.


----------



## Oh My Sack! (Aug 21, 2006)

I regularly ride an open space trail that has free-ranging cattle. There are several fence crossings on the property that utilize the identical concept as the motorbike system above however, the tubing is much larger in diameter and the crossing is far more narrow than the one pictured. Essentially, it's designed for bicycle transit. I don't have a goat to test it with, however.


----------

