[Closed] Today I blocked 5 strava shortcuts

I don't know what that means. I understand all the words, just not in that order.

The OP was riding a trail, probably involves curves i.e. not straight line. Some people have been straightlining said trail, possibly after Strava KOMs and where the straight line route hits the proper, curvy route then there is a mud buildup. This hacked the OP off and so he blocked off the straightline route.

HTH.

Ah.

That makes sense.

Blocking peoples lines on public trails? On my local patch I take all sorts of lines that aren't on the main track. Nothing to do with strava.

Cock.

would have to be a long shortcut (as it were) given that they count, what 75% of a segment, covered as counting?

Make the shortcuts into gap jumps, then fair play if they are a better rider than you.

To be clear, we are talking about MUD on a mountain bike trail?

Sounds lethal.

Not sure how you can tell that Strava has been riding your local trail?

I blame stupid lazy idiots rather than Strava personally.

Either way, well done on the trail fairy work.

Less of that slowrider!
if your lines are to cut corners then it would be you that's at fault.
I'm taking about straightlining because of laziness or chasing a time!

[quote=SOAP said]Less of that slowrider!
if your lines are to cut corners then it would be you that's at fault.
I'm taking about straightlining because of laziness or chasing a time!

+1

Also known as Halfords lines 🙂

Blocking peoples lines on public trails? On my local patch I take all sorts of lines that aren't on the main track. Nothing to do with strava.

Cock.

Idiot.

There's loads of well ridden, and bedded in trails, that some people put time into creating, then some idiot comes along looking to knock 2 seconds of his best time, destroying the trail someone built.

Everyone else then sees this line, rides it, and now instead of lovely swoopy singletrack you end up with straight lines.

OP, slow hand clap from me. Nothing annoys me more than people ruining someone's hard work because they're too lazy to ride properly.

We seem to have to do that, it's not Strava though. We get permission to cut nice trails trying to get the most out of what we have, but it doesn't take long before straight lines dissect all the nice stuff. You see new lines start just trying to avoid a wet patch.
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Okay so it might have lost it's fun factor, but at least it's fast now

Nice one OP. Definitely noticed more trails being cut since strava got a lot more popular.

[IMG] [/IMG]

Idiot.

There's loads of well ridden, and bedded in trails, that some people put time into creating, then some idiot comes along looking to knock 2 seconds of his best time, destroying the trail someone built.

Everyone else then sees this line, rides it, and now instead of lovely swoopy singletrack you end up with straight lines.

OP, slow hand clap from me. Nothing annoys me more than people ruining someone's hard work because they're too lazy to ride properly.

And there's plenty of us who build trails, then modify and evolve them to create multiple lines and sections. Blocking someone else's line is stupid and dangerous.

To be clear, we are talking about MUD on a mountain bike trail?

Sounds lethal.

Exactly.

A guy posted a POV film of him riding a great descent in the Peaks on a "Strave Run", what amused me is he rode around all the technical bits and over the grass at the end - what's the point ?

Good work OP

Regardless of strava times the people riding those new lines are causing errosion away from the main trail and probably getting bikers a ba name amongst the local rambling population.
As long as you've blocked it well (ie obviously, not bopy trapped it!) then fine by me, carry on.

We're talking about sanctioned trails, bridleways and byways they can't be altered. Slowrider we're not talking about places where you have permission to ride anywhere and cut or build anywhere as you have.

The trouble is that straightlines/corner cuts often end up trashing the original trail. Not always, but often. Some shortcut/ alternative lines are clever and interesting, but IME more often than not they are shit and leave a worse trail for everyone else, because some people can't do corners, or find sections too difficult. Or, yep, strava but it's definitely not all down to that.

On a manmade/armoured trail it's a particular problem because leaving and rejoining the surface damages it- at glentress frinstance we now spend a ridiculous amount of time blocking off cut lines in order to preserve the trail. Even on the green route, ffs! And what this shows is that it's not just people riding off the trail- some people will get off the bike and move our obstructions. The effort they put into not riding the trail!

There's clearly a body of riders who'd like every trail to be a perfectly straight line from the top to the bottom, and don't care about the effect that has on others. I see no reason to respect that.

Generally people riding trails faster than they have the skills for seems to cause this sort of problem (been seeing it for years) ill defined corners just make it easier to not see the line.

Generally a issue with crap riders rather than technology, but as always blame something 🙂 I think video nasties have a lot to answer for

Northwind +1. Exactly my thoughts.

Similar vein on a trail near me; it's a semi-sanctioned trail in that it's on mod land but a legacy trail that's been there for donkeys years having originally been cut for a sanctioned event, but being mod land you aren't supposed to build on it.

There are a few off camber rooty corners on it that are quite tricky when wet particularly. Or rather there used to be until someone took it upon themselves to dig out the roots to the new surface underneath, build up some berms on the corners and then when challenged on it declare it's because "that's how they like their trails"

Right to feel slightly aggrieved? If you want to ride miles of swoopy bermed trails, go to swinley and leave the more natural stuff alone.

I found what the OP was looking for...
[img] [/img]

Theotherjohnv, are you talking about p45 at tunnel?

Might be.

Blocked plenty of Strava lines myself- well done OP.

Kinda ruined a big part of that imo.

Thankfully i think they listened to concerns about how the area training people would view their modifications and called a halt before it all got the same treatment. And I'm sure many will / would prefer it with less roots and more flow, so it's not absolute black and white. Putting aside the mod regs aspect, I just feel that character of trails should be left as much as they can be, if you want different you need to make the effort to find and agree where new trails can go and build those to your liking. Time and maintenance often result in evolution anyway, some trails get easier, some harder, forcing change on a trail because it's how you like it isn't right IMHO. You wouldn't walk into the Louvre and change the background of the Mona Lisa because you prefer seascapes, would you?

I thought the trail flowed better before, you just had to know how to ride it.
Now, instead of a tricky root section that was fun and challenging to pump and jump through, you pedal. Meaning you hit the next section faster, brake, and cause more damage.
What gets me is, the amount of work done, is nearly enough to build another trail from scratch.

You wouldn't walk into the Louvre and change the background of the Mona Lisa because you prefer seascapes, would you?

yep, and blame it on some sad geeky internerd game.

I'm just not sure you can blame Strava... People have been missing the point and cutting corners for years.

you will be putting up fishing line and logs across the tracks next

Just put a Sign Saying "KOM Line" on a tree with an arrow then paint one of these...

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[i]Nice one OP. Definitely noticed more trails being cut since strava got a lot more popular. [/i]

It's winter, it's easier to a) cut corners, and b) you notice them more

[i]I'm just not sure you can blame Strava... People have been missing the point and cutting corners for years. [/i]

aye, been riding the same stretches of woodland for over a decade now, lines come and go.

I'll head out and check out your work later, OP. It had better not affect my strava times though 😉

For reference, the trails that the OP is taking about are properly built, armoured trails in areas that tend to get very muddy and trashed if ridden off well built trails due to the type of mud /drainage. I'm not sure that strava can really be blamed as people have always straightlined the trails but it certainly causes long term issues which then requires loads of work to fix.

OP, you're my hero...

#getagrippeople

Theotherjinv, I used to find that bit of trail a pain as i struggled on it, the solution I chose was practice....
I hope you had more that a few choice words with the idiot involved... Maybe getting them to join trail team swinley would be a good suggestion for him/her/them.

So you took time out if your life to block someone elses choice of riding line
Well in man

Well done.

Surprising how many people above don't understand how quickly trails can be ruined by short-cut line.

In case it's of any use my top tip is a way to fix the root of the problem, the ability of people to take the line in the first place. This doesn't mean wack a massive boulder in the way on the corner, because someone will either get hurt or move it out the way again.

IME by placing an obstacle like a squeeze feature or an intimidating looking boulder [i][b]at the edge of[/b][/i] the trail further up the trail you can change the line that is taken further downstream as the riders naturally slow or give the boulder space. Just a small, safe change can restore the natural line and the riders that were shortcutting can't usually be bothered to stop and move your persuader.

If the trails in question were armoured then good man, as Northwind says shortcuting armoured trail destroys them quickly. At Gisburn we also spend a lit of time blocking shortcuts and now try to build in obstacles to discourage it, a tree on the inside of a corner or large rock, pile of logs etc.

We do have idiots who'll still ride around them though, we have one rocky drop you have to go out of your way to ride, the main trail is straight. People still take the optional line and then ride down the mud on the steep banking, mental, ride the feature or use the chicken run.

Swinley is probably the worst (and best) example of people 'creating' lines/trails that are pretty obviously meant to reduce times.

There are a couple of short switchback climbs that to be honest are pretty easy anyway, but people have clearly tried to save a few seconds by creating a line that goes straight up, bypassing the 2 or 3 switchbacks.

What's the point? If you can't ride it then keep riding it until you can, when you can, keep riding it until you get faster...

Stick to bridleways if you want a straight line rather than destroying the wonderful trails people take time to create and maintain - adhoc maintenance by people like the OP is to be applauded. Also good to encourage people to ride through puddles on the trails rather than around them as that just widens them.

Making cheeky trails = good. Making straight lines to cut corners = bad.

I'm with the OP on this, I've blocked a few lines myself, I believe a lot of it is Strava driven though not all.

tragicallyhip - Member
I'm with the OP on this, I've blocked a few lines myself, I believe a lot of it is Strava driven though not all.

The worst thing I see out on the local trials here is racing, proper against the clock racing. Anything that can be straightened is, nothing else matters. After that people who can't actually make the corners, it happens not everyone is a riding god, some come in too hot and skip things. Then there are badly built trails where people put stuff that ruins flow or just doesn't match the trail in front or after it.

But then again it's easier to blame strava

Quite a lots of the Bristol trails suffer this problem - net result is that slippery clay based mud gets dragged onto the armoured stone surface which gets heavily used and so pretty polished, and so can become pretty lethal.

Bear in mind many of the armoured trails are blue graded so are designed to be for all riders, not just leg shaving 29er race heads who seem permanently grumpy/lacking in social skills (who seem to be the worst culprits from what I have seen first hand)........

Bear in mind many of the armoured trails are blue graded so are designed to be for all riders, not just leg shaving 29er race heads who seem permanently grumpy/lacking in social skills (who seem to be the worst culprits from what I have seen first hand)........

i find a bit of dirt on these trails makes them a bit less slippery than just wet polished stone.

For those blaming Strava. Do you also blame guns for killing people? or is it the person using the gun thats at fault?

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For those blaming Strava. Do you also blame guns for killing people? or is it the person using the gun thats at fault?

I get your point, but its not really the same. Strava with Kom's etc encourages certain people to ride unsociably and cut corners. Riders have always done it, but not as many as now because currently there is a carrot in front of them.

Guns don't do that, if there was a strava esq website for killing people then that would be the same.

Assuming the OP is talking Ashton Court and Leigh woods armoured trails, then good work. There's barely any tight corners there, so no excuse for not being able to ride around them. Like it or not, those trails are designed to be ridden like you're on a Scalextric track.

And if they're not challenging enough, then f-off and ride somewhere else, though I doubt the people responsible have the skills to ride the harder stuff in LW for instance, especially at this time of year.

If this was going on at Belmont Woods, then that's pretty inexcusable too, and a sure sign of a lack of gnar skills.

For reference, the trails that the OP is taking about are properly built, armoured trails in areas that tend to get very muddy and trashed if ridden off well built trails due to the type of mud /drainage. I'm not sure that strava can really be blamed as people have always straightlined the trails but it certainly causes long term issues which then requires loads of work to fix.

This.

Funny how this debate seems to neatly divided into people who've never ridden the trails at Ashton Court, but disagree on principle, and local riders who want the trails kept twisty, interesting and (relatively) mud-free.

These trails are [url= http://www.1sw.org.uk/experience/a-measure-of-success-for-ashton-court/ ]some of the busiest in the country [/url]and if everyone rode "their" line they'd be a complete ****ing eyesore. In fact that's exactly what they used to be.

Funny how this debate seems to neatly divided into people who've never ridden the trails at Ashton Court, but disagree on principle, and local riders who want the trails kept twisty, interesting and (relatively) mud-free.

build doubles on all the shortcut lines 🙂

Plenty on GNARRR left in this old dog. I would never touch any off piste/cheeky trails with anything other than rubber!
I'm talking armoured trails in AC and LW and I think I'll carry on doing my bit.
Think the "Strava line" is just phrase but more likely to be laziness+ lack of skill.

I hope you had more that a few choice words with the idiot involved...

Idiot's a bit harsh, I don't think it was done maliciously, but equally wasn't sensitive to the original trail builder's character or to the local situation wrt the mod, etc. And they did some valuable work as well on this and other trails putting / clearing drainage channels where they'd silted up with mud and leaves.

An equal problem was publicising it on Facebook, particularly as other 'features' were being mooted too (like adding tabletops or doubles lower down) - the mod do read social media - which was where someone from TAG rather than me challenged them on the work, and so I believe had dialogue with them offline about the work TAG is trying to do to secure access to these areas. The FB page is now cleared of the 'offending' content which is another important part of the situation on the mod lands, we all have to be careful what goes into the public domain including strava, garmin, etc. to avoid pissing our friends at the mod off.

Well done op

For as long as there has been mountain biking, there have been bikers blocking off cut corners and generally keeping singletrack single (otherwise everything would be road width by now)

Does seem strata is making things worse

dick.

build doubles on all the shortcut lines

Something like this. I personally wouldn't block any other lines as that's somebody's idea of biking fun but if their detours are causing damage to the main trail then something needs to be done. Either fashioning a little jump or two or even fortifying them up with rocks/boulders to make them potentially harder/slower and more sustainable. It might take a bit of time, but if you can be bothered to stop and block them, then it's not a huge leap to be a little more constructive imo.

What a remarkably eloquent and worthwhile post lordmerchent.

With an ability like that may I suggest using your forehead for trail building purposes