There’s not going to be one right answer, is there… If I hear someone closing fast on me, then frankly they are shifting and it’s no bother to get out of the way.
I do catch more than I am caught though, and all I do is approach once, see if they move over quickly, if they don’t then I don’t want to hover behind them and have my own pace knocked down so I’ll stop for 30 seconds or so.
It’s all just do unto others as you would be done to, really. Race-style passes aren’t on though IMO, even when there’s plenty of space to do it safely it’s a crap thing to do to a less confident rider.
But it’s not so simple… If you’re, frinstance, a relative beginner on Glentress blue being bombed past by a horde of fast riders, that could be pretty damn frustrating. But being followed isn’t much fun either.
And then there’s the dreaded sandbagger… The tools who stand around at the top of a trail section waiting for someone to pass so they can chase them down. Used to get this a lot and frankly- screw ’em. It’s easy to leave a gap between groups and you can usually figure out the pace of a rider quite easily. If they’re choosing to be behind you then behind you they can stay IMO.
If you go to a trail centre and rock up there at 2-3pm on a Sunday afternoon, you’ll probably come across almost nobody on the trails
This, absolutely. I was amazed by the amount of people at Glentress on Sunday, then realised it was because I’d actually got out of bed before noon, and I was mixing with the civilised folks who routinely see 9am at the weekend.