Trail Building

ropey

Hi all,
I have just started my first attempt at trail building(with forrestry owners permission),only problem is,the area I am building in is near trails used by MX riders.I dont want to put in a load of hours work only to find that the place may be ripped up by the MX bikes.

Does anyone have any tips on making mtb trails MX proof(other than hiding behind a tree with a mallet and waiting an MX rider to come along )

The piece of land I am building on is on the side of a valley if that helps give a picture.

Cheers

GHill

Other than put fences up that don't let an MX bike through (like at Afan for example), I'm not sure there's a whole lot you can do.

Hercule Q

just put stuff in thats too tight for an mx bike and run narrow bars

nah gates where you have to put your bike on its back wheel to get through is probally the best option

colintrav

ropey wrote:

Hi all,
I have just started my first attempt at trail building(with forrestry owners permission),only problem is,the area I am building in is near trails used by MX riders.I dont want to put in a load of hours work only to find that the place may be ripped up by the MX bikes.

Does anyone have any tips on making mtb trails MX proof(other than hiding behind a tree with a mallet and waiting an MX rider to come along )

The piece of land I am building on is on the side of a valley if that helps give a picture.

Cheers

Mark out the course with discreet peg's because most people aren't really all that observant when out on a bike

doug@basqueMTB.com

When I lived in the UK we'd try to make 10m's of trail at the start that's not obvious which we normally walk to avoid making it obvious. Also, having very tight sections in the trail, like trialsy balancy stuff very tight through the trees if possible.

I don't think that you need to mark it out either. If you've made it then you should be able to remember where it goes!

cat_with_no_tail

I'd like to think that they are fairly decent people. Build it, and if they start using it, stick up a polite notice pointing out that these trails were built for MTBs and are not built to stand up to the kind of abuse handed out by MX bikes. Please use the MX trails already constructed.

Then if that dosent work, D-lock the cnuts

Alex

There are three options if you want to keep people on motorbikes off your mountainbike trails.

1. "The fence and gate"
As used to great effect at Afan Argoed. It very effectively keeps motorbikes off. They just can't get in. On the downside, it's a very in-your-face method, interrupts the flow of your route and is very expensive to install. You can't leave ANY gaps.

2. Design your trail so that the beginning and end are too tight to get a motorbike round. Very cheap, fairly effective, probably the best solution for a low use trail. Does require that you compromise your trail for the purpose of keeping them off though.

3. Build your trail really really well, make it bloody brilliant so that there's very regular use. If MXers meet a bunch of angry MTBers coming the other way every time they use a trail, they stop using it. This worked to great effect at Cannock.

ropey

Its looking like a fence is the best option.You have to get off the bike at the end of the trail anyway because of the way it links on to the next track(the one the MX guys use),and the start of the trail has an earth mound stopping MX access(they dont have permission to use any part of the forrestry).

Unfortunatly I dont think appealing to their better nature will work somehow!I have already dug a good few drains around the place to take large pools of water off the existing tracks only to find them riden over and destroyed,even though I made them VERY obvious and made sure they could be avoided, causing the water to build back up again.Traction through a pool of mud just isn't as much as a problem on an MX bike so why worry about it I reckon is their thinking :roll:

Does anybody happen to have a pic of one of the gates at Afan Argoed or something similar that they could post up?I'm from Ireland so its not exactly an option to pop round and have a look at it

joshtp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPyQwXRZ0hk
you can see one of the gates at the start of that vid. you can see the shorter bit of wood at the bottom? there should be another one opposite it on the other upright.so it makes a kind of v shape. infact, some of the older gates at afan are two pieces of wood into the ground at angles, in a " V " shape.

ropey

Thanks for that joshtp,should be able to rustle up something like that.

Nice looking trail centre there...is that a common Welsh hand cleaning technique there half way through the vid?

joshtp

ropey wrote:

Thanks for that joshtp,should be able to rustle up something like that.

Nice looking trail centre there...is that a common Welsh hand cleaning technique there half way through the vid?

ye, tis a pretty sorted center, im lucky to live about 20 mins away.
as for the hand cleaning, well, yes, its a ritual that must be followed by the leader of the group when riding hidden valley.

where abouts do you live in Ireland? my parents lived there for 20 years, so we go over quite alot to see old friends, did a bit of riding last time i was there. pretty good!

ropey

Cork.If your over again and down this side you should check out Dafydd Davis handy work in the Ballyhoura trails if you haven't been there already

joshtp

ropey wrote:

Cork.If your over again and down this side you should check out Dafydd Davis handy work in the Ballyhoura trails if you haven't been there already

no way, ballyhoura was top of my list to ride last time, but mum and dad had some major tea drinking with old friends to do we were staying in Fermoy, and i discovered some pretty cool trails over and around Corin hill, must have been the holy influence! there were certainly some heavenly singletracks. (i hope you arnt offended by my riding around a holy hill.....)
unfortunately i snapped my mech hanger on day 3, and i didnt have a spare, and the old fella in the bike shop in Fermoy was completely baffled, id bent it around into a kind of Q shape, and the guy spent 10 mins blinding and cursing about how bad it was, then turned around, told me they didnt have one, and said he might be able to order one in 2 months.
i didnt realise that the ballyhoura trails were a dafydd davis project, ill def have to check them now....

ropey

joshtp/mbukman wrote:

(i hope you arnt offended by my riding around a holy hill.....)
quote]

Not at all,was only there myself last week, only live about 10min away from it!
Small world!!

There is bike hire available in the Ballyhoura centre if your over without your bike next time,you would probably be better off to have it booked though

joshtp

No way, tis a mental small world. i was born in wales, shortly after my parents and sisters moved back to wales in 94, but before that my mum and dad lived there for 20 years, well, actually in fermoy for about 11, they lived in dundalk (is that how you spell it? ) and lough ray (again, is that how you spell it?) aswell. was cool to see all the places mum and dad lived, worked, and so on.... the last time we went to galway, lough ray... so i was only about hmmm, 8-9 last time i was in fermoy, before this year. tis a stunning place, the blackwater has got to be one of my fave rivers of all time.....! that valley is just beutifull, only problem, is that, as an mtber, your always thinking "hmmm, i wnder if there are any trail over there...."

ropey

joshtp/mbukman wrote:

only problem, is that, as an mtber, your always thinking "hmmm, i wnder if there are any trail over there...."

Yeah,thats a bit of an affliction that comes with MTBing......right up there with a CRC habit!

Northwind

ropey wrote:

Unfortunatly I dont think appealing to their better nature will work somehow!I have already dug a good few drains around the place to take large pools of water off the existing tracks only to find them riden over and destroyed,even though I made them VERY obvious and made sure they could be avoided, causing the water to build back up again.Traction through a pool of mud just isn't as much as a problem on an MX bike so why worry about it I reckon is their thinking :roll:

Still worth a try- what I've found since I started doing trailbuilding is that most people who damage a trail just don't really know what they're doing wrong. Not all, sure, some just don't care but you'll most likely find it's thoughtlessness rather than malice, and thoughtlessness can sometimes be sorted.