This is the first communique from the Singletrack Liberation Front. I rode a favourite trail of mine today and was sad to find that two corners had been straightened by riders who seem incapable of negotiating the natural flow of the trail. It was one of those moments when a man finally says, enough is enough. Be warned, from now on if I find a corner has been ignored or straightened I will block the new line and reinstate the original corner. Therefore, if you go bowling into a corner thinking that you’ll be able to ignore it as usual because speed is everything, beware. I might have put a log there. I might have lugged a great big rock and stuck it right on your line. Granted, it might slow down your run, you might not get KOM but, equally, you might learn some cornering skills. See, I’m only trying to help.

Do you own the trail in question? Who says your line is the right one?

George Orwell – Big Brother is watching!

Indeed.

Sorry, wrong thread. I was looking for The Front for the Liberation of Singletrack.

Splitter

See you nearly managed it but then dropped in Strava at the end…

before you go and “fix” somebody elses trail have a word with the owners/maintainers and try and work out why the corner is getting cut?
Poor visibility?
Does the feature appear out of context with the preceding trail?
Poor Trail Edge definition?

Add some signage saying indicating that the trail has been repaired and an explanation of why.

Biggest causes of corner cuts here on out new trails?
Poor Trail Edge definition especially where the “natural line” is not properly closed off.
Racers racing in races.
Poor Design.

Did we not have this exact thread about 2 weeks ago?

Where a new line damages an existing line, I’ll often trash it. Where the 2 can coexist, I leave it. Also consideration of safety/visibility (ie, whatever fanny it was that built the jump that went straight onto a popular walking path near my house

I’ve mentioned this before but of the organised trailbuilding sessions I’ve done recently, at least half of our time was spent blocking off damaging shortcuts. None were remotely interesting, they were all about avoiding corners. We did leave a couple in place as they weren’t causing a problem and added an interesting option but that’s a rarity. And the effort people put into clearing them once blocked is amazing! We’re not talking about just riding off the line, but moving cubic metres of brash, decent sized trunks, etc.

To be fair, armoured trails are a bit different, as shortcuts cause
permanent damage to the armoured surface.

Have to admit, straightlining bendy trail annoys me. It takes the fun out of a trail to replace with a fast, straight line, normally with a nice collection of braking bumps at the end.

Happy to sign up to the Singletrack Libertation Front. Or the Liberation Front of Singletrack.

On behalf of the peoples front for the liberation of singletrack I must object to something..
Anything will do, we’re not fussy…

Pimpmaster Jazz – Member

Have to admit, straightlining bendy trail annoys me. It takes the fun out of a trail to replace with a fast, straight line,

We have thought that maybe what we need to do is build a new “red” trail at glentress which is just a completely straight, 2 metre wide line, with no features, from the top of spooky woods down to the cafe. Trouble is, the straightliners wouldn’t ride it because there’d be no way to skive bits and delude themselves that they’re fast, so they’d keep riding the red and straightlining the wiggly trails and riding round all the features (then complaining in the cafe that it’s too easy for their Alpine 160 or Enduro Evo 29er)

We have thought that maybe what we need to do is build a new “red” trail at glentress which is just a completely straight, 2 metre wide line, with no features, from the top of spooky woods down to the cafe. Trouble is, the straightliners wouldn’t ride it because there’d be no way to skive bits and delude themselves that they’re fast, so they’d keep riding the red and straightlining the wiggly trails and riding round all the features (then complaining in the cafe that it’s too easy for their Alpine 160 or Enduro Evo 29er)

😆

I’m going to suggest the same at Aston Hill. 😉

Pic may help clarification to see if you have a point or whether you should be stoned by the Singlecrak massif.

Are there any women here?

Women are in The Front for the Singletracking of Liberia.

Desire Lines or user generated pathways

They are the way that the common man can break free, they show he cannot be trammelled into someone elses flawed vision of where he should go.

carve your own path dude!

georgeorwell – Member

He’s not the messiah, he’s a very naughty boy.. 😉

He is the messiah, I should know , I’ve followed a few!

georgeorwell – Member

If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be here

Desire Lines or user generated pathways

They are the way that the common man can break free, they show he cannot be trammelled into someone elses flawed vision of where he should go.

carve your own path dude!

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM8Ss28zjcE[/video]