Apologies if this has already been done, but I read this earlier and, to me, it makes a lot of sense. It certainly fits in with the tips and skills I’ve picked up while working with professional trail builders.

However there still seems to be people that disagree, for one reason or another.

What are your thoughts? Ride everything all the time, cut corners and go round puddles? Or consider where you ride depending on conditions and the impact of what you’re doing (probably even more relevant if you’re partial to those legally grey paths that litter England and Wales)?

Opinion: STOP Riding Like This! Ease the Impact of Mountain Biking on the Environment

Stop Riding in Mud

I bloody wish.

I still go out but I try not to skirt puddles. They’re often at their ‘dryest’ in the bottoms anyway, in terms of having a solid base and traction.

Puddles? I’m more likely to ride through them at this time of year as I’m probably already muddy and they are at their widest so avoiding them causes maximum erosion.

Stop Riding in Mud

Yeah, that’s what I thought when I started reading it.

But there is more to it than that… 🙂

round here people tend to build a ramp up to a fallen tree 🙂

consider where you ride depending on conditions and the impact of what you’re doing

This^^

See also here

There’s loads of local trails I don’t ride in winter, and I spend a fair amount of time making sure drains stay open and unblocked and adding new ones where necessary. Ultimately, I like my singletrack single, so I’m prepared to forsake using it for the wettest months of the year, so it’s still great come summer. I wish other trails users (and it’s not just bikers) also showed the same level of respect.

Just reading over that Sheff article now.

consider where you ride depending on conditions and the impact of what you’re doing

Theres another way?

Oh and psst – http://www.dirtfactory.org

It’s like English, but I’m not sure it actually is.

It’s like English, but I’m not sure it actually is.

It’s by an American. Similar, but different. 😉

The International Mountain Bicycling Association advises that a trail’s steepness should not exceed half the grade of the hillside nor an overall 10% grade.

That made me cry inside. A lot.

Theres another way?

I think that’s the problem in the UK. It’s far from being cut and dried. I suppose the easiest way to start drawing fairly direct comparisons is to relate the article to cheeky trails on private land.

Do you avoid certain more delicate cheeky trails when very wet? If it’s unavoidable, do you ride with the longevity of the trail in mind? Or, because it’s cheeky anyway and you can always make a new one, should you just ride regardless?

That made me cry inside. A lot.

😆

There there. It’s only a guide. 😉

(Actually I think it’s referring more to the gradient of switchbacking bench cut trails in steeper environments. Don’t get too worried!)

No, in simple terms in summer I ride 50/50 trail centre and ‘natural’ trails, which are manmade, just not officially.

In Winter it’s all trail centres.

I live in South Wales, I’ve got 15 or so official, waymarked, 12 months a year ridable trails that are both robustly built and maintained to be used all year around to choose 20-60 mins from my house (by car). I only get out once a week in Winter so I can ride a different trail every weekend for nearly 4 months and if I get bored with that there’s BPW 30 mins up the road.

My local trails are pretty grim in winter, a slippery bog of bike destroying mud that either grinds you to a halt or sends you sliding down the mountain praying it would. Most of them are unofficially, officially classified as “tolerated”, but I’m sure whoever decided to turn a blind eye to them will become far less tolerant if riders destroy the woods by fighting through them all, but if I was honest it’s the unpleasantness of them that keeps me away in the dark months.

A fall line, … the steepest possible line on a given descent … and not fun to ride anyway.

Eh! That’s usually the line that’s going to be the MOST fun, isn’t it?

http://www.singletracks.com/blog/trail-advocacy/opinion-stop-riding-like-this-ease-the-impact-of-mountain-biking-on-the-environment/

OK I’m not trying to be mean, but that was a very difficult read and the guy could certainly use an editor.

I’d say some of his points are basic etiquette and others simply don’t apply in much of the UK.

By contrast John H’s bit for RideShffield linked above is simple, to the point and totally non-patronising.

I try to do my bit but then the foresters come in or there’s a landslide and I wonder why I bother

I try to do my bit but then the foresters come in or there’s a landslide and I wonder why I bother

Precisely. I do most of my riding on forestry commision land. Once you’ve seen what a timber harvester does to a trail you tend to stop worrying too much about your own impact!

I’ve got 15 or so official, waymarked, 12 months a year ridable trails that are both robustly built and maintained to be used all year around to choose 20-60 mins from my house (by car). I only get out once a week in Winter so I can ride a different trail every weekend for nearly 4 months and if I get bored with that there’s BPW 30 mins up the road.

You lucky lucky lucky bastard. I have one steep slippery wood of small DH runs 15 minutes ride from home and one flatter Somme-like quagmire of singletrack within 10 minutes’ pedal. Though I do get to ride the former on the way to work most days. 🙂

Aren’t IMBA the same halfwits that insist the descending rider give way to the ascending rider? Speaking as someone who suffers pedalling up a lot of hills to have fun riding down them, the last thing I want for other riders like me is to interrupt their flow downhill – I practically throw myself into the bushes if I’m going up a trail and I see someone coming down!

They were lovely for about 20 minutes yesterday morning cgg before it warmed up a bit 😉

They were lovely for about 20 minutes yesterday morning cgg before it warmed up a bit

I had planned to get out for a ride – until it snowed and then it was my fatherly duty to teach the toddler about snowball fights! 😉

OK I’m not trying to be mean, but that was a very difficult read and the guy could certainly use an editor.

I’d say some of his points are basic etiquette and others simply don’t apply in much of the UK.

By contrast John H’s bit for RideShffield linked above is simple, to the point and totally non-patronising.

Nope, agreed.

The original article just caught my eye as an interesting piece. Certainly near me there are issues on trails d’cheek with lines getting straighter and corners being cut where elements of the article are applicable, but it’s conversely arguable that this is purely the nature or change, and that because they’re cheeky trails that ethics and responsibilities don’t apply. Similarly there’s plenty of bridleways which are technically awful pieces of trail from a design point of view (straight down a fall line etc.) but they are there, legal and accessible, if not churned to pieces by horses or motorised traffic.

To my mind the original article applies more to sections of cheek in England and Wales, a bit like the final element of John H’s piece. Overall though I think the ethics and responsibility is something that we – as a group – could arguably be better at.

teach the toddler about snowball fights

Good prioritisation there 🙂

Aren’t IMBA the same halfwits that insist the descending rider give way to the ascending rider? Speaking as someone who suffers pedalling up a lot of hills to have fun riding down them, the last thing I want for other riders like me is to interrupt their flow downhill – I practically throw myself into the bushes if I’m going up a trail and I see someone coming down!

Yes… and no.

I’m no expert, but my knowledge of them is an organisation that has tried to be the first global, unified group to represent riders and make positive noises for better rider access. As well as access it also delves into best practice for trailbuilding and other ideal world trail issues, rider priority being just one.

From a UK-as-part-of-the-world perspective, this is a huge – arguably impossible – task, given the complex RoWs we have here in England and Wales (Scotland – you lucky b*sta*ds!), not to mention the sheer variation of elements that need to be covered when dealing with a subject where almost every variable will be different, depending where you are in the world.

There was a UK arm set-up, but I don’t know whether it still exists – it certainly went on hiatus a while back.

I had planned to get out for a ride – until it snowed and then it was my fatherly duty to teach the toddler about snowball fights!

It’s your father duty. 😉

Ecky-Thump – Member

“A fall line, … the steepest possible line on a given descent … and not fun to ride anyway”

Eh! That’s usually the line that’s going to be the MOST fun, isn’t it?

no, imho.

the fall line is just that, a straight line. In the shortest distance to the bottom of the hill. No corners, minimum duration.

once a trail like that has been ridden a few times, it forms a drainage channel for rainwater. and that’s bad for flooding.

in other words, instead of spending £hundredsofmillions building flood barriers, we should spend the money on swoopy singletrack…

Pimpmaster Jazz – Member
That made me cry inside. A lot.

There there. It’s only a guide.
That’s good. I don’t think I’ve ever built a trail that’s been shallower than -20% gradient! Haha

Not so much. The problem up here is that many riders haven’t grasped the concept of “responsible” access and started to consider whether widening paths and/or riding them when vulnerable is such a good idea.

Some of those points I read about before, but they’re the kind of points which need to be continually re-iterated before they sink in and become the instinctual way of riding. I’m guilty of puddle and mud avoidance, was told many times by my parents not to walk/ride through puddles? I’m not blaming my parents, just saying eight out of ten times my reaction is to avoid them.

Generally I do agree with some of the points, but also, it seems another case of humans failing to remember how dynamic the environment is, as well as wanting to control the dynamicism of human behaviour.

If a tree falls over a trail, the trail moves around it, and new growth returns underneath the protection offered by the fallen tree.

And it really wasn’t difficult reading.

The Peak district gets 10million visitors a year.

Is the author of ^^ article going to approach rambler associations, Duke of Edinburgh etc etc and ask them to stop walking most of the year in the area?

Abit of a naive idea.

There’s a lot of trails I don’t ride in winter because I don’t like the impact- even if it’s just that it gets hard to manage traction and you skid more. OTOH it’s not just winter, there’s trails I know that go crumbly and break up terribly in the dry, which stick together well in the wet.

Never going to be any concensus on this though is there?

The problem up here is that many riders haven’t grasped the concept of “responsible” access and started to consider whether widening paths and/or riding them when vulnerable is such a good idea.

– you been sneaking into our local stuff at Mugdock Colin ? 😀

This does really sum it up tho – it only takes a few thoughtless folk to undo all the good of others.

hora – Member
The Peak district gets 10million visitors a year.

Is the author of ^^ article going to approach rambler associations, Duke of Edinburgh etc etc and ask them to stop walking most of the year in the area?

Abit of a naive idea.
Why is it? It’s part of responsible access which is exactly the sort of thing DofE and the Ramblers association should be promoting. I remember back in DofE days doing route planning and having to consider what you were walking through and when.

It boils my piss that people thing that it’s all fine to go and rip up a path or BW in winter as it’s a Right to be there, with rights comes responsibility.
If a loop or ride is in bad conditions go somewhere else, plan around it or try a different loop.

The points made are decent, when people say they don’t apply where they live it sounds more selfish than anything else.

I ride eveything all year as almost all my ridig is on cheeky stuff and i have the opinion these trails ride better over time the more they wear. Granted, they’ll churn up and be horrible at times, but once weather and a touch of maintenance sort them out they’re usually better.

What we need is more riders ready to spend an hour every 6 months just doing a little maintenance.

Riding a fatbike on soft trails massively reduces damage. You’l be flattening out muddy ruts instead of creating them.

I think the horses and the ranger’s 4 wheel drive have made a bit more mud than me.
It gets muddy,it dries out,the ruts get flattened, it gets muddy…

I love riding in wet muddy conditions as I think , but nowadays I tend to avoid riding where I’ll wreck trails or areas that are just deep and near unridable. There’s plenty of trail centres and rocky trails to ride that can survive being ridden in the wet so I tend to use those instead. Places like FOD and BPW with armoured surfaces hold up much better than a more natural trails.

Tom KP