Rather than continue to complain about the braking bumps on my local trails, I was considering going out and doing some spade-work.

Now, I've done some internet searching and found two things…

– Lots of "discussion" that suggests I might get flamed for the very idea of repairing them
– No clear advice on the best way to repair them

So, first off, is repairing the trail a good idea? Personally, I find the braking bumps annoying on a trail that has been a smooth and fast for years. It is singletrack-wide and thick with trees off-trail, so there's not much scope for avoiding the bumps. I used to be able to skim around the edge of them, but they've got so big this summer that they're taking up the whole trail. You could say that they make the trail more "technical", but I would argue that it was originally created as a fast dance through the trees and there is plenty of rooty/bumpy stuff elsewhere. I've also heard plenty of other riders complaining about them.

Second, how to go about repairing them if I do? I did look for information, but didn't turn anything up. Three possible approaches occur to me:

– Bring in material to form a harder surface and fill in the gaps
– Dig material from nearby (not where other users may venture) and fill the gaps
– Cut the tops off and essentially lower the trail

Any ideas?

When ive seen braking bumps i always think that option 3 of yours would be good. Followed by option two. Basically cut the worst of it off and put some harder material in if you can. Of course if its remote the chances of getting some hogging or something out there arent good. Perhaps if there is grass around a nice bit of forest "turf" could work well, routes keep it together innit.

edit: about modifying the trail, if you have any way of contacting the person who built it/manages do that. People get pissed off if you change their trails.

Just leave them for winter, a bit of prolonged rain and cooler weather and they'll flatten out again ready for next year

You have no chance of getting the new dirt to be firm enough, it will just get ripped out by tyres, only chance is to use some form of aggregate & whackaplate it, then soak it regularly, then leave it for several weeks unridden do harden.

Cutting the tops off can work but you'll need to redo the whole corner including drainage.

Whether you should do it depends on local factors. Where is the trail, who is supposed to look after it, if its standard trail centre there will be all sort of H&S issues.

Never really mind braking bumps, maybe I've just not found any big enough to cheese me off. As above, you'll not get the material hard enough to resist bumping again, I suspect it's purely down to the level of traffic on that trail.

The easiest by a country mile is to take the tops off, but has already been said, you'd bring other issues into the equation.

filling is utterly pointless. You may as well dig out foot deep pits and drop single, large boulders in that won't ever move. Then you'll be halfway to stone pitching the whole section, which is really the only way to be sure to prevent braking bumps.

Personally I'd spend my efforts in other places to improve the trail, where your efforts won't be wasted.

are you talking about wash-board / ripple / braking bumps, or big blown out holes in the ground?

whichever it is, they're not 'technical' or a 'feature' they just suck.

ripple-bumps are caused by people dragging the back brake a little – not quite enough to skid, put some more corners in to slow people down without braking.

blownout holes usually appear behind/below things like roots and rocks, these big holes can be filled – depending on how many there are.

I imagine to repair them properly you should rmove the lumps then fill in the whole lot back up to trail level and compact down.

The depth of them varies. In some places it's just slight dips, in others they are at least a couple of inches deep starting way before the corners and going right into them.

Unfortunately, putting in a hard surface and giving it time to bed in isn't really possible as the trail is not part of a centre and will continue to be ridden. It was built by locals years ago, the main force behind building it has moved away.

I'd love to think that the trails will repair themselves, but the bumps beget bigger bumps as they seem to cause more panic braking. The trail is in the worst condition I've ever seen it in.

I could ride elsewhere, or MTFU, but I'd rather make the trail more sustainable.

If you don't repair them, when they get soggy/muddy rather then solve the problem it will make it much worse. It's riding (sometimes poorly) that causes braking bumps – when you soften the trail it simply makes them more pronounced and much worse, assuming the same riders, with the same bad habits go over the same trails. Chop the bumps off and use the excess to fill the dip – that's where it came from! It seems as though it might be a regular repair job though…..

Taking the tops off is easiest (as already said) but they'll come back again given time … is there anywhere before the bumps you could add a 'feature' to gently slow people down so they'll have to brake less before the corner?

Slight chicane/bus stop tends to work quite well.

Bigger stones are good for creating a chicane – look at the trail centres for clues – they do pretty well with trail construction