Overtaking on Trailcentre singletrack - Whats the etiquette?

pseymour

While riding Cwmcarn yesterday, I started the trail behind a party of 7 riders. Slightly annoying, but everyones entitled to the trail. Anyway, I'm used to riders slowing and pulling over to let me pass. Most of the riders did this, apart from the guy at the front who seemed to think of himself as a trail leader. While riding for about 100 metres on his back wheel (at a polite distance I hasten to add), he kept saying, "Do you want to go". Which I presume meant would you like to pass. But what confused me was the lack of slowing down, or moving over. In the end I squeezed past, but it raised the question of what is the correct protocol for overtaking on singletrack.

If someone is up my arse, I feel it polite to get over and let them pass as soon as possible, otherwise it spoils your ride and annoys the quicker rider.

Opinions welcome….

cee

the etiquette is....

you should let them know that you would like to pass at their convenience, in a safe place.

Sometimes, people are happy to cruise along behind so if you didn't say anything to him, he couldn't assume what you wanted.

A polite shout of "Rider...." is usually enough.

omegas

Just shout coming through on your right (when it is safe to) so your not just pushing someone off the trail .

Anonymous

pseymour wrote:

he kept saying, "Do you want to go". Which I presume meant would you like to pass. But what confused me was the lack of slowing down, or moving over.

Maybe you should have answered him.

Why should there be a "protocol" for this? Just be friendly, and use common sense.

pseymour

Yeehaamcgee, I did answer him, I was friendly and did use common sense. And I'm interested in peoples opinions on what other people do in these circumstances.

tenfoot

I would just ask if I could pass, if he didn't move over.

This has happened to me before, but usually the person I want to get round pulls over at the nearest fire road or somewhere convenient. My front brake whistles a bit, which is useful for making people aware I'm behind them.

1mancity2

I usually say rider left or right and usual thats enough, most see you/or hear you coming up behind them and slow down and let you through but a thank you as you pass always helps.

Anonymous

Well, you went to great lengths to explain what happened, but neglected to mention your response.

If you're behind slower riders on singletrack, just hang back a bit. Life isn't a race.
If you really want to gun it, why not pull over for a minute yourself, to give them time to move on, and give yourself a clear run at it?

bluechair84

If there's a big group likely to hold you up, don't spoil yours and their enjoyment of a fluid ride, let em get ahead for a few minutes. That way no-one has to interrupt their flow. Then overtake them on a fireroad.
If you come up behind them however, two polite dings of your bike bell will help but yes, it's polite for a slower rider to give way safely and at their convenience to faster riders behind. It isn't polite to force them (no insinuation here).

Anonymous

bluechair84 wrote:

If there's a big group likely to hold you up, don't spoil yours and their enjoyment of a fluid ride, let em get ahead for a few minutes. That way no-one has to interrupt their flow. Then overtake them on a fireroad.

+1

Main thing that bugs me is impatience. If you want to blast down without interruption, give people space and go when you know it'll be fine. Works the other way if you're starting off and people are behind, just chat with them and work out who's going to be fastest. If you know you're a slow group, give them fair warning to wait a bit or let them go first.

The only real etiquette that applies on the trails is just everyone gets on with each other.

pseymour

Thanks guys. But just to re-iterate, i'm not interested in a critique of my actions. I'm interested in what others do when passing others on narrow singletrack. Being polite is an obvious given as we're all out for a fun ride.

tlw1

elbows out & a d-lock ready for a quick swipe if they dont move over quick enough..........

Or a polite shout of "coming through on your left/right"

Anonymous

pseymour wrote:

Thanks guys. But just to re-iterate, i'm not interested in a critique of my actions. I'm interested in what others do when passing others on narrow singletrack.

And plenty of people have told you how they handle it.

Thewaylander

Depends if i have somoene dive out to get in front of me for a section, I generally go right up behind them skidding loudly, and whistle as i'm bored

If there already going down the section and it's very tight i just stop n wait for a minute, or give a call hoping there is a point to get by

Anonymous

To be fair, there are a few MTBers who won't be able to hear you anyway. Some deaf guys I've come across, having a great time blasting down the trails, but obviously they're not going to hear someone behind.

Though if it's just guys plugged into an iPod then they get what they deserve (not least for buying Apple :P ).

cee

deadkenny wrote:

To be fair, there are a few MTBers who won't be able to hear you anyway. Some deaf guys I've come across, having a great time blasting down the trails, but obviously they're not going to hear someone behind.

And if it happens to be crawfy, it won't matter, 'cos you won't catch him anyway!

welshkev

just out of interest which part of cwmcarn was it?

Stiff_Orange

Get a Hope rear hub. If i come up behind anybody with the hub freewheeling at full volume people usually move over pretty quickly.

Anonymous

Yep, to shove their fingers in their ears whilst they laugh at the dedicated follower of fashion going past.

bluechair84

Or maybe give two liitle dabs of your hope brakes to make their ears bleed so they fall off the cliff edge and out of your way.

Northwind

Wait til an apportunity to pass safely presents itself then give a clear call "Passing on your right" or similiar, then of course a big "thanks" as you pass. It's not always practical to pass at all though, in which case, the rider in front might choose to stop to let you by (I usually do if it happens, I hate having someone behind me, it messes with my concentration). If they don't, then the best thing for the faster rider to do is stop- put some distance between you.

The other thing, which some people seem to miss, is that you can control the situation right from the word go- if another group's just ridden into a trail, give them a gap. Usually if someone does catch up, I try to let them by since they're obviously pretty handy but when someone's chosen to chase after me straight after I started into a trail, that's their stupid fault. Obviously you can't tell how fast a rider is just by looking so I leave a sensible gap at all times- sometimes you catch up anyway, other times the guy in front turns out to be a missile and it makes no difference, but it never hurts.

TrailGuru

Stiff_Orange wrote:

Get a Hope rear hub. If i come up behind anybody with the hub freewheeling at full volume people usually move over pretty quickly.

Ah you beat me to this comment... I find the Hope hub incredibly effective for this sort of thing. Its like a very expensive bell

Anonymous

TrailGuru wrote:

Stiff_Orange wrote:

Get a Hope rear hub. If i come up behind anybody with the hub freewheeling at full volume people usually move over pretty quickly.

Ah you beat me to this comment... I find the Hope hub incredibly effective for this sort of thing. Its like a very expensive bell

This is precisely why we laugh at Hope owners. Because we know that's what they're thinking.
Trouble is, there's far more expensive, and far noisier hubs, so all they're really showing off is their annoyingly loud, mid-range componentry

Briggo

If some idiot was riding my back wheel I wouldn't move over either, I'd treat you like the common BMW driver and just sit there.

I'm surprised you even have to ask what should you do, as mentioned before its common sense... excuse me goes a long way.

Oh and hope hubs work a treat usually

kinmofo

most people have answered, there is another option of timing. what time u go out? if you're leaving it till mid day sunday or so, then you are gonna get held up in traffic.

you could get out at first light, be the first on the trails. then if ur the only one there, the only person holding you back is your self

bennett_346

To me, and every single rider i've seen in the alps, the idea is that if you're slower than the person behind, you pull over at your earliest convenience. It's a bit like driving with a caravan, you just accept you have to let people past now and again. However don't be pulling over all the time or killing yourself trying to get out the way (unless its a frenchman on a downhill bike - they don't stop if you don't move).

I think it's only fair that the slower rider pulls over when they can.

Anonymous

bennett_346 wrote:

It's a bit like driving with a caravan, you just accept you have to let people past now and again.

I have never, ever seen a caravan pull over to allow traffic past. We're inundated with hundreds and hundreds of the damned things here all summer, and I have never seen one pull over.

TrailGuru

Has anyone ridden the new Ashton court trails in Bristol recently? Its hectic! You'd be lucky to encounter much in the way of etiquette there. Good for the Bristol bike scene though and pretty cool trails.

miss notax

As someone who can remember what it's like to be a slow and steady beginner, can I just add not to get too close to the person that you're behind (unless you have said that you're passing them)? It used to really stress me out to hear someone close behind me when I didn't know what they were doing - I would panic about finding somewhere to stop (not always that easy in your average UK trail centre centre) and about 50% of the time it would end up with me having an off and wondering if I was about to get ridden over :?

I try to remember this as i'm now the person riding up behind people and I really do try to listen to my own advice and not freak people out! As someone said earlier, I think a cheery 'excuse me' goes a long way

Anonymous

yeehaamcgee wrote:

I have never, ever seen a caravan pull over to allow traffic past. We're inundated with hundreds and hundreds of the damned things here all summer, and I have never seen one pull over.

Built up a hatred for the things when I lived in Cornwall. Few roads in and out of the county and come summer the damn things would clog the roads on single carriageway sections causing massive tailbacks and jams.

And yeah, they'd never pull over. Same with tractors, even though there were bylaws down there about holding up a queue of traffic (it's in the highway code for all slow vehicles but not always enforceable I think).

allen.coulson

I used to do competitive biathlon which is XC ski and shooting. The protocol there was that as you came closer to a skier in front of you you called 'track' and they would get out of the track and let you pass. However in the comps - which could be up to 60km races you would be out in the country and you would use the opportunity to stab the person with your pole with the purely comptitive motive of reducing the competition. Slightly less competitively spirited would be shooting the tw@ but it did cross my mind as I ground my pole ever deeper into ...

Anyway you can extrapolate my advice. But really there are people who think that it is a war that they have to win which is a pity. One that I remember was a guy and his girl were going on the track near me at her speed and I politely overtook them and the guy got really pssd about that - I guess because he was not happy bout riding (scuse) at his gf best sped which as slower than his -I would have flamethrowered him or warthogged him if I had a flamethrower or warthog and was mad.