………..do you go for the brambles on the left or the nettles on the right ?

brambles everytime for me 😯

whats your pleasure ?

and are we all good at spotting nettles and brambles amongst the multitude of other plants encroaching on the trails ?

I go for whatever's on the fastest line!

far too racing minded

Brambles.

I go behind a fatfecker like Don.
He can clear the trail of both with his huge wok.

I'll take the nettles. I quite like the tingling sensation of stings, much better than getting ripped to shreds by brambles.

There were face height nettles on the canal ride home last night intespersed with hawthorn branches.

I do not wish to be whipped in the face with either in all honesty so proabably looked like a bit of a contortionist. 🙂

I get off and moan.

Depends on what I'm wearing. If legs and arms covered, nettles. If not, see above.

I'm nettle phobic. Don't get me wrong, I can blast through a nettle patch and take stings better than the next man. But I take the war to them. 'Trail Maintenance' sessions include mucho nettle beating. There is something very cathartic about it.

I agrre with lowey – there is something nice about the nettle sting tingle and I'm always on antihistamines for hayfever so the itching doesn't really happen. I've had a few brambles really hook in to give the self harm look. Nettles evey time!

I go behind a fatfecker like Don.

thats a double edged sword as he takes all the undulation out of the trails too.

i bet he's getting back up to his fighting weight looking at what he's been eating on flickr
Hi Don( i know you'll be reading this) 8)

I've had a few brambles really hook in to give the self harm look. Nettles evey time!

got taken aside by a friend and quite seriously asked if i had been self harming last summer!!

nettles. Brambles snag and try to rag you off the bike.

Nettles every time! Says he with bramble scratches down both arms… Hmmm

Funniest sight in ages was mate ploughing through a fresh patch of nettles with his legs practically round his ears 🙂

For me the question is what's your fave cure for nettle rash – Piriton, Beer or MTFU?!

MTFU obviously.

Nettles for me.
The epping brambles at the moment make you(me) look like a serial self harmer….
" another little paper cut….ooohhh nice"

did a week in spain recently – their brambles are horrendous.

What suffer a couple of minor stings I wont even remember I've got in 15 mins. Or have my forearms ripped to shreds so I look like some kinda manic self harmer ?

Brambles. They hurt much less than nettles for me. i should MTFU really.

Nettles every time with a dose of MTFU

I seem to get a mixture on both sides. The nettle stings on my just bramble/gorse lacerated shins still itch after 4 days. And my arms look like I have a barbed wire bondage fetish from all the brambles/gorse/hawthorn. As much as I enjoy having my "secret" singletrack to myself I wish they got enough traffic to keep the triffids back.

RealMan, massive misnomer.

Beer is the cure for nettles, MTFU to deal with the day after.

Its the summer singletrackers look, brown scratched to buggery forearms.

You know, we have a bramble/nettle/overgrowth riddled set of trails as my local and to be honest I hate riding it. In summer it's wet, slippy, spikey and stingy. It's just bobbins. So, if I'm up in Fife at this time of year the MTB goes away unless I can get to a proper trail and the road bike comes out.

Rocks and bramble free trails for the win.

Just stick some dock leaves in your camelbak, nettle sting cure a go go!

Brambles everytime!

Rocks and bramble free trails for the win.

You don't like rocky trails?

I'm fine with nettles, but yesterday I still tried to avoid some, hipchecked a tree and went down. Into some nettles. 😕

Lesson learnt.

So as nettles are apparently now soft and cuddly, how about brambles on one side & gorse on the other?

I like to aim for the brambles and pick the blackberries, all at full gnar

I like rocks, not brambles and smooth singletrack.

Gorse, it doesn't rip your clothes like brambles can. Plus picking little bits of gorse out of your knuckles can be quite satisfying.