What do people use to avoid the MTB tattoo? Football shin pads? Long trousers? Cycling tights? Road riding?

Seasonal routes, and a bill hook.

Put up with it.

Nothing. Just put up with it and get out there. My arms look like I’ve self harming for years 🙁

I love this time of year.

+1 for man up.

Makes you look hard and manly

+2 for man up.

Makes you look hard and manly like you self-harm

Assume the position?

(High pitched squealing optional)

Carry some secateurs, and stop to trim back the worst.

1) Brambles don’t die back in winter, they just grow slow enough for the trail pixies to catch up.

2) we need more trail pixies

3) if we want acces to more trails, do something useful to help win the argument.

I’ve adopted the stop and prune approach recently. It doesn’t take too long and is pretty helpful to everyone who uses the tracks. If it’s local I’ll head back with a spade or plank of wood to flatten the offending shrubs.

Man up or get busy with the secateurs

Mountain biking is a kind of low level self harm in lots of ways, not just brambles. I too carry secateurs and a pruning saw at this time of year

My way of thinking is if your looking at an on coming bramble and thinking this might hurt a bit, your not moving fast enough..

My way of thinking is if your looking at an on coming bramble and thinking this might hurt a bit, your not moving fast enough.

+1

I wear my scratches with pride, it means I’ve actually managed to get out for a ride.

I too revel in coming home from a ride with my forearms in tatters, covered with congealed blood and scratches. Moar Gnar than endyoooro Shirley?

What perchy said but I substitute a stream of swear words for the shrieking.

took the dog and some secateurs for a walk this morning for an hour. came back two and a half hours later. 😐

Moar Gnar than endyoooro Shirley?

😆 😆

Why not just ziptie a machete to your toptube?

PJay has the best answer.

I cut back my local woods (Lotts) with a hedge trimmer but I’m not sure I’ce got time to clear the whole of the Chilterns.

My ride today consisted of lots of the Evil Trinity, brambles, nettles and gorse! My legs are twanging as I write, is there anything you can do about nettle stings or is it just down to waiting it out? The dock thing never works for me.

In my mobile Zombie apocalypse disposal kit that i carry in my van i find the two billhook items in the centre of the pic below are quite useful in clearing brambles, every now n’ then i throw the billhooks, silky saw and rake in the duff bag and go for a spin through the woods clearing as i go.

Mid-week trips with a Ryobi battery hedge trimmer here, awesome piece of kit, cleared a few previously impassable sections recently, and £3.99 secateurs from Asda in the Camelback on normal group rides. If you wait for somebody else to clear them, you’ll probably end up cut to ribbons.

The dock thing never works for me.

That’s because it’s bollocks.

Plant a few Geocaches along the affected routes. The walkers keep the place clear for you 8)

Funnily enough I spent an hour clearing 20 odd meters of seriously overgrown bridleway today. I have the nettle stings and scratches to prove it. Large folding saw did the trick.

If I’m honest clearing the trail knackered me out more than the 30 miles on the bike.

Course the other option is to get a mate to ride in front of you with bar ends…..

I needed a machete on yesterday’s ‘exploratory’ ride. Bracken was well over my head, vestiges of a trail totally obscured, and near the bottom of the hill it became mixed with brambles. Seriously, if they had only a bit more tensile strength a person could get stuck in there, like barbed wire.

Used my bike to force my way through, which resulted in my LH pedal apparently being torn off by a bramble vine or something. Had to get rescued. Got some blisters on my left hand too where some kind of plant sap or something has done something.

Seriously, if they had only a bit more tensile strength a person could get stuck in there, like barbed wire.

Sheep can, and frequently do, get stuck in them. I’ve had to cut loads free, luckily I usually carry a folding saw.