Antony was a latecomer to the joys of riding off-road, and he’s continued to be a late adopter of many of his favourite things, including full suspension, dropper posts, 29ers, and adult responsibility. At some point he decided to compensate for his lack of natural riding talent by organising maintenance days on his local trails. This led, inadvertently, to writing for Singletrack, after one of his online rants about lazy, spoilt mountain bikers who never fix trails was spotted and reprinted on this website during a particularly slow news week.
Now based just up the road from the magazine in West Yorkshire, he’s expanded his remit to include reviews and features as well as rants. He’s also moved on from filling holes in the woods to campaigning for changes to the UK’s antiquated land access laws, and probing the relationship between mountain biking and the places we ride.
He’s a firm believer in bringing mountain biking to the people, whether that’s through affordable bikes, accessible trails, enabling technology, or supportive networks. He’s also studied sustainable transport, and will happily explain to anyone who’ll listen why the UK is a terrible place for everyday utility cycling, even though it shouldn’t be.
If that all sounds a bit worthy, he’s also happy to share tales of rides gone awry, or delicate bike parts burst asunder by ham-fisted maintenance. Because ultimately, there are enough talented professionals in mountain bike journalism, and it needs more rank amateurs.
More posts from Antony
Excellent article. In Canada we’re also having the same issue currently. A poor snow season means people are hitting the dirt early and causing quite a bit of damage on purpose built trails despite pleas from some corners to let them dry out.
“Man-made berms and jumps are not mandatory for mountain biking, and the chances are that your town has a plentiful supply of them at its BMX track, but some people still feel the urge to shoehorn them into the woods, like the Cargo Cults of Melanesia, erecting ceremonial structures to please the Gods of Rad.” THIS x1000
Great article – some people need constant reminders how to conduct themselves in a responsible manner – some trails around here are like the m6 and there is not much “north (ern) shore” activity fortunately – there is a fair bit of rock intermingled with a lot of the tracks which does weatherproof the surface. Trails and their ethical use is a key point and with more newbie mountain bikers out there this may be one of the issues we face – more awareness needed I might suggest
The armoured trail centres help to give a false sense of appropriateness to all other trails.
The thing is “they” don’t give a f*ck. Our local moorland “trails” are trashed. We used to have summer only rides. Now there are dozens riding around us and personally I’m taking a step away from it all. Most don’t seem to realise that we share the land with walkers, fell runners etc. Us mountain bikers have a very bad name around here. (Exact location kept private!)
Well said that man.
We have a similar situation in my neck of the woods too. Wiggly single track now looking like a cycling version of the Somme and no appreciation of what does and doesn’t make a trail winter proof
It probably doesn’t help that wiggly piece of singletrack you used to have to be shown by someone in the know, now shows up on a f***** STRAVA heatmap or someone idiot makes it a segment and thus is basically viewable from space!
I’m not sure that it is as black and white as you suggest. And it might change significantly by country too.
Got some tame (by MTB standard) non-harvested woodland trails locally and one of the biggest erosions of the environment is an annual running event that is late winter/early spring and the trails have still not recovered.
If the forest is harvested then who cares? Have you seen the mess the subsequent mechanisation makes?
But there is a time and a place for ditching the natural and confining riding to trail centres – certainly not hanging the bike up. That means that come the recent dry weather we’ve had there is sod-all fitness in the box.
But then it is a Singletrack forum and it’s not clear whether trail centres are approved-of, or the spawn of satan!
Well said…
Hear hear.
Unfortunately the people who need to read this, won’t be!
read it but dont agree
Agree 100%. See Jo Burt’s article in Privateer issue 5 and “every piece of woodland seems to have become fair game to be do-what-we-like plundered into an unofficial mountain bike playground.”
If your unfortunate enough to live somewhere where you can’t get out off road all through the year without trashing the landscape then go and do something else – buy a road bike. I apply that equally to other users, horses in particular.
Great article capturing the problem that is occurring on many ‘local trails’ across the UK where ground conditions (soil types) are unsuitable for winter use.
Telling people to go to a trail centre if they must ride in the winter, or ‘buy a road bike’ isn’t going to cut it , & assumes they have access to a trail centre or funds for a road bike, & the desire to ride on the road.
I think the real solution here is for the cycling organisations to step up and support mountain bikers on a local level , encourage more local mtb clubs and help them engage with land owners, educate mountain bikers and identify all year round places to ride, club trips to trail centres.
The only way you sort this out id by providing a viable alternative.
Excellent article, very well said. It is a selfish mentality to modify natural trails, and to assume a right to use them when it is not appropriate. It’s a matter of personal responsibility and sensitivity to the trails we are lucky enough to ride, some take ‘right of way’ too literally. I also get tired of seeing countless MTB videos with riders ‘roosting’ and generally steering with their back wheels.
Or get in touch with your local trail assocaition, they may be able to help you legally do some trail repair / improvement 🙂