Stones can make even the most beautiful of tracks a misery to ride and they don't have to be big to cause significant problems. At very stony venues its not just the bikes that suffer from smashed pipes and punctures, but very often its the riders that end up losing teeth or having fingers, noses and even collarbones broken. Unfortunately there is no easy or inexpensive solution to the problem. Over the years we have tried many different methods of de-stoning from stone burriers or rakes to stone crushers. Not all are methods are effective and in the case of stone crushing you can very often make the problem worse. In our experience there is only one truly comprehensive way of getting rid of stones and that is through soil screening.

There are three main methods that we have used for soil screening. The first method we have tried was the one used to de-stoned Matterley Basin. We first had to remove the surface of the track layout to a depth of 12 inches. This soil was transported to the start straight in dumpers and then put through a 35 tonne power screener. The screen had three conveyor belts with different sized product - large stone, small stone and fine soil which was screened down to 10mm. The incredible amount of stone in the soil meant that we only had enough screened soil to complete half the track! This meant we had to gather extra soil from around the estate to finish the job. It was incredibly labour intensive and the costs incurred ran well into a five figure sum. Here is an example of a power screener at work - as you can see it takes up a lot of room.

The second method we have tried is to use the method common in de-stoning potato fields. This was by far the fastest way, but also the least thorough. The problems that arise with this method are that the attachment (which is towed by a tractor) only works on relatively flat ground and was also hard to use in corners or over sharp changes in slope. If the soil wasn't powder dry it would also remove a lot of the soil on the waste belts. It was not possible to use this attachment on a camber as the soil would collect on one side of the screening belts and was unable to pass through them. Here is an example of a de-stoner in use.

The final method we have used and the option that we can now provide to the public is with our very own star screening bucket. This is attached to a 13 tonne excavator which makes it by far the most versatile. The great advantage of this is that it can screen in situ and absolutely anywhere you can reach with the excavator. As with all methods it remains very labour intensive, but it is far more thorough than the attachment method explained above. The bucket can screen to 20mm and a track will take a few weeks to complete

COST - as is always the case costs can vary with track length, but to give some indication of price we have previously de-stoned a 1600 meter track. It was completed over a number of weeks and was screened at a foot depth, the cost was £7000 and included everything from machine hire to accommodation. Not all clients will be looking to get the entire track screened and focusing on smaller sections can work out cheaper.