What will we look back at and say 'now that was stupid'?

cee

Antony_de_H wrote:

I also think we're going to look back in amazement at the time when we used to drive for two or three hours to ride a 45 minute loop in a forest somewhere.

people really do that?

I think we will look back and wonder why we thought £300 for a light was a good deal!

Paul 8v

Adjustable height seatposts

(Runs and hides)

Well at least the ones with no boot on them to stop them from mucking up

Kiblams

How about the recent obsesion with curvy top/down tubes on frames? Disgusting IMO :x

(Also runs and hides)

Northwind

Antony_de_H wrote:

I also think we're going to look back in amazement at the time when we used to drive for two or three hours to ride a 45 minute loop in a forest somewhere.

I'm going to look in amazement today and anyone who does that, sounds awful. If you do only have a short loop, time to to laps.

bails87

Northwind wrote:

Antony_de_H wrote:

I also think we're going to look back in amazement at the time when we used to drive for two or three hours to ride a 45 minute loop in a forest somewhere.

I'm going to look in amazement today and anyone who does that, sounds awful. If you do only have a short loop, time to to laps.

I have to drive an hour to get to Follow The Dog, which I can get round in 45 minutes.

I do more than one lap though

jayson

I'd like to see someone come up with a truly workable gps trackin system for bikes that really does work and cant be removed/deactivated without destroyin the bike.

The only problem is powerin the thing, technology is there to make it small enough but powerin the device is the biggest hurdle.

Im sure in another 10 years though someone will have cracked it and become a very wealthy man indeed.

Antony_de_H

I have to drive an hour to get to Follow The Dog, which I can get round in 45 minutes.

There's a similar situation here in Bristol with Cwm Carn. Personally I've never wanted to do more than one lap of that though. ;-)

What I'm getting at is that at the moment MTB is seen as something you jump in the car and drive way into to the countryside to do. Sometimes you get somewhere and the facilties can be pretty limited - Cannock has been mentioned, Sherwood Pines is another example. I don't think it has to be that way and I'd like to see that change.

In the UK, places like Bristol, Dorking and Hebden Bridge have great trails 15 minutes from the city centre. I stayed in a town in the US over Christmas where they had built three graded MTB trails, from green to red, plus a pump track, in a park. It wasn't massive but it was fun.

bails87

The whole RoW system needs reworking. As that's the big problem. I live in an area where I can ride for 5 minutes and be in the countryside, but the vast, vast majority of RoWs are footpaths, not bridleways.

With considerate use, you could ride a bike down 90% and not cause any conflict with other users. I suspect the main problem is the stiles and small gates. You'd have to either replace these, or lift bikes over them. If someone lifts a bike over, falls off and gets a bar end up the wazoo, there'll be all kinds of litigation issues.

What happened in Scotland? With the open acces laws, are the stiles/bike trapping gates still there? (slighlty off topic, so apologies!)

cee

bails87 wrote:

What happened in Scotland? With the open acces laws, are the stiles/bike trapping gates still there? (slighlty off topic, so apologies!)

in my experience, we have tonnes of stiles, not as many bike trapping gates as down there....

do landowners in england have an issue with litigation from walkers falling off stiles?

Antony_de_H

No, but there have been some steps to encourage the installation of more disabled-friendly gates and barriers where appropriate. Which were met with a very huffy editorial in a national newspaper. :roll:

Back on topic - white bits!