People riding and walking the wrong way at trail centres

Same as, Kev, i wouldnt do it, even when ive puntured mid berm ive pulled the bike away from the trail.. i hope i have more consideration, but its foolish to expect everyone to act the same

I imagine walkers see the signs and ignore them. It's exactly what I do when I see footpath signs.

But surely if walking and chose to ignore signs pointing out bike trails, you must think to yourself, there may be bikes coming down here at the thick end of 30mph….

The trails may be designed as "bike specific" and that is their sole intended purpose. But, unless they are privately owned and run, private club / membership and on private land, walkers have as much legal right to access and use them as we have…

riiight…are you the Trail Taliban, or am I? I can't quite work it out.

But run 'em over anyway I say

…oh…er…sorry. Actually I'm the Trail Taliban. That was a give away, wasn't it?

I declare Jihad on all people using red routes as picknick areas!

jonb, yup agreed… I ignore footpath signs and ride my bike down them, the difference being is that I'm well aware there maybe people walking and am prepared for it. The people I came across walking /dawdling /blocking a downhill trail section were genuinely surprised to see someone on a bike coming towards them pretty quickly.

I ignored the walkers and went passed them but I did remind the guy on the phone that someone else might come around that corner quicker than me…

Kev

riiight…are you the Trail Taliban, or am I? I can't quite work it out.

I'm no trail fundamentalist…

… but this topic used to get frequent airings on mtb-wales.com 5-6 years ago*. My general line of argument was as many of you above have posted – ignorant, stupid people walking up the wall descent, for example, should not be on mtb trails.

However, it was pointed out by the forum admin / owner (and former trail builder involved in the Penhydd build) that FC could not do anything about walkers etc, other than put up warning signs. There is / was no legal mechanism to exclude walkers from mtb trails.

Compare this with the measures installed by FC (at a similar time) to exclude illegal trail use such as mxers. FC could (and have extensively) put in MX gates at the start of each singletrack section because the legal framework allows this.

The inability to exclude walkers from FC land, which has always been an open access land estate AFAIK, means that walkers and cyclists have to tolerate each other's presence. Mtbers understanding this inconvenient truth is a good start.

Furthermore, as I have posted on here several times, just being on a purpose built mtb trail is not going to absolve a rider of liability if they hit someone whilst riding out of control.

* Possibly because mtb-wales was a healthy, vibrant, argumentative 😉 forum back then, but also perhaps because the S Wales trails were some of the earliest to be built close to centres of population…?)

Bob on “rkk01”….

It seems there’s always a few anecdotes that “prove” how hard done by MTBers are, I’m sure if you go on some other forum there are some equally angry victims of “wheeled woodland menaces” nobody is whiter than white really…

If you want obstruction free, balls out riding then there actually are a few trail centres, uplift/race venues that offer this, otherwise accept that as an MTBer you are just one of a number of different woodland users, that 98% of trail centres are mixed use and due consideration for others is basically just good manners, (and also acts as a bit of self preservation). More signs are not the answer, riders showing a reasonable amount of thought for others and perhaps considering how their conduct reflects on the sport as a whole would probably help more…

Given the fact that trail centres place MTBs nearer the “top of the food chain” and the amount of criticism posted about thoughtless/dangerous drivers on the roads BY STWers; when the situation is somewhat reversed, you’d have thought most cyclists would have more consideration for other trail users, where they become the most dangerous moving thing in the area, But no it’s always someone else’s fault it seems…