Contact the landowner for permission, then get up there with some tools and flatten them out. Lot better than moaning about it on here 😉

Oh do be quiet. Do you want me to spell it out? I said it's easy to ride even for an old mincer like me. That's why I'm asking if it's the suspension doing it.

But my wife uses her brakes on any hill even on the road, does this mean she shouldn't ride because she may ruin one of your trails?

jedi – Member
hoon up the otherside? of the rollercoaster? its a roll in, drop over the stump then right hand corner

Yeah that had me confused as well.

Newb question; are braking bumps only formed by locking up the rear wheel (skidz) or do they form even if people aren't locking up their brakes?

A lot of riders brake where they don't need to.

No, they brake where YOU don't need to. Big difference!

No, they brake where YOU don't need to. Big difference!

exactly i don't get why people don't see this,

The only way to stop braking bumps is to stop cycling, Deal with it and quit whining that trails are bumpy OR build your own bloody trails.

Newb question; are braking bumps only formed by locking up the rear wheel (skidz) or do they form even if people aren't locking up their brakes?

My guess is they form anyway. If you are braking then there's a force on the ground from the tyre. When you hit a bump the wheel gets kicked up a bit (even if it doens't leave the ground altogether) so the force is less, then the wheel comes back down and the force is more, so a dip forms after the bump. Then the far side of that dip becomes another bump, so the wheel gets kicked up again and so on and so on, the bumps spread down the trail.

The ground has to be fairly firm for this to happen I think, because otherwise the wheel will tend more to plough through the bump instead of being kicked up by it. Also, suspension changes the dynamic because the wheel goes up and down a lot more. So the bumps get bigger I suspect. That would suggest that the more travel, the larger the bumps and the further apart they are, which is kind of what you see on DH courses. There, the bumps are a lot bigger and more widely spaced than the ones you see opening up on say a 24 hour course where most people are on XC bikes.

hoon up the otherside? of the rollercoaster? its a roll in, drop over the stump then right hand corner

A roll to you Jedi a hoon to me. Don't forget I ride drop bar freemince. Anyway it does drop then goes to the right up tight between the trees no?

yes but you cannot roll it brake less and roll round if you're mincing

A stretch of well used bridleway on a popular mtb route we use is littered with 18 inch deep bumps that started off as braking ripples. Being a natural trail no-one will sort them and they keep getting worse now rain, frosts, snow have acted on them.

It's adds a bit of difficulty but ruined the flow of the trail.

But is it actually braking that causes it or the action of the suspension under brakes?

Anyone who has lived where there are dirt roads will be familiar with corrugations. The whole road is like a series of stutter bumps. These are formed anywhere and not just places where braking action is happening. That suggests to me that the resonance of the suspension may have more to do their formation.

I was trying to think of some way of splitting the course on a marathon and sending all the hard tails down one line and all the full sussers down another to see if there was any difference in braking bumps.
I don't think that would ever work, but what about single speed marathons ?
They have their own events don't they ?
Most of them ride hard tail or fully rigid as well.
What do the courses end up like compared to a normal MTB marathon on similar ground with a similar number of bikes ?

MilitantGraham – Member
…but what about single speed marathons ?
…What do the courses end up like compared to a normal MTB marathon on similar ground with a similar number of bikes ?

Can't tell because of the footprints… 😆