Ashton & Trail Ettiquette

Chinley Churner

As a "lycra clad racing snake" who does shave his legs, enjoys the company of women and indulges in the dark-sides of cyclocross, road, track and TT's (never got the tribalism thing, a bike's a bike but that's another thread), I like to ride hard, both up and down, but have never had a problem with people letting me through. A clear and polite shout of "passing on your left/right when possible, hold your line" normally does the trick and then always a "thank-you". 99% of the time this works great... communicate early in a polite way and pass where safe.

I don't agree that it's up to the faster rider to slow-up/stop and wait for a gap to form, if I'm out riding, unless I'm doing intervals, I don't want to be stop-going the whole time. Equally, you shouldn't be buzzing the back wheels of slower riders and harassing them. Solution, if you want to ride hard, ride less busy trails or go to trail centres outside of busy times. Turning up to Llandegla on a Bank Holiday weekend is never going to be a good idea.

Thewaylander

I say run them all off there bikes...

Serves them right for not sensing how fantastic i am.

rockmonkeysc

Chinley Churner wrote:

RockmonkeySC wrote:

This thread is confusing me now.
I'm quite fast on descents and through flowing berms, jumps & rollers but slow on climbs.
Should I let lycra clad racing snakes past me on the climbs and the re-pass them on the next descent? Or should I sit behind them on the fun bits so I don't hold them up on the climb? Or should I stay ahead of them on the climbs so I can blast the fun bits?
I just don't know what to do

work on your fitness and eat fewer pies?

I'm working on it, a stone and a half gone since the start of January but my priority is to get fit for downhill racing (yes, downhill racers do need to be fit) so I'm getting fast on short sprints but long climbs are still a bit slow.
Most people are sensible enough to not get in a fight about passing but if you want to ride a trail fast at a trail centre then don't go during peak hours. I only go on weekdays so that I can actually enjoy descents without getting held up.

The Rookie

For the decents I'm comfortable going fasetr on I just pull over and wait for a gap to develop so I can give it some stick,. if I'm catching someone I ease off on a boring section to let them open the gap, if they are tragically slow then I may even stop again.

I enjoy it much more if I'm not getting allhet up about someone else who is doing there best and trying to enjoy it as well.

Having said that when I got injured at Cannock and was slower than normal I was careful to check behind me approaching every passing place to see if I was better off pulling over or carrying on.

Live and let live.

timpop

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Roastie wrote:

But I'm a little surprised by the anti-roadie prejudice on this forum. It makes me sad.

Lycra makes me sad

welshkev

i'm so awesomes that i just bunny hop over the slower riders heads, 60% of the time it works for me every time

miss notax

As someone who can clearly remember being a very slow beginner, I can confirm that most of the time I just didn't hear if anyone was behind me, and if I did realise it usually terrified me so much that I would panic and most often fall off or stumble into the way trying to stop and get out of the way

I'm still pretty slow on the descents so I just let the faster guys go in front - and if I stumble across someone who is slower I just stop until there's a good gap and then carry on. Simples 8)

andyrm

As a Bristol local (well since moving here, I don't have the pirate accent unfortunately), I can honestly say that AC doesn't lend itself particularly well to overtaking. See BikeFest and how hard it can be for even competent racers to get past each other.

Fact is, it's pretty tight and twisty, this "slower" rider who accelerated probably didn't deliberately do it as a blocking move, it was a natural turn of speed.

I ride up at AC a few evenings a week, pushing it as hard as possible as a fast blast ride - but if there's someone slower in front, I have got the sense and courtesy to hold back and wait to a wider section (quarry carpark, gravel climb, or the access road) to make a safe overtaking move without frightening them or putting them off. And 99.999999% of riders do the same.

Stupid harrassment of a slower rider does nothing to help develop the sport or portray mountain bikers in a positive light - and there is already some conflict with other users at AC, so well done OP for not helping matters...... :?

Thewaylander

As said, i just oush people over n ou the way, simples

cooldad

Thewaylander wrote:

As said, i just oush people over n ou the way, simples

You can be excused oushing people as you are obviously brain damaged.

batmo

andyrm wrote:

I have got the sense and courtesy to hold back and wait to a wider section (quarry carpark, gravel climb, or the access road) to make a safe overtaking move without frightening them or putting them off. And 99.999999% of riders do the same.

One discourteous rider in every 10 million? That must be the most polite place on the planet!

tomstickland

If you're that much faster you will overtake at the first opportunity. If you're not then hang back.

rockmonkeysc

Batmo wrote:

andyrm wrote:

I have got the sense and courtesy to hold back and wait to a wider section (quarry carpark, gravel climb, or the access road) to make a safe overtaking move without frightening them or putting them off. And 99.999999% of riders do the same.

One discourteous rider in every 10 million? That must be the most polite place on the planet!

Brizzle is a very polite city. The local language is meaningless to anyone not from the area though. I blame it on too much rough cider and pirates.