What The Fcuk Is Wrong With People...

Angus Young

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/woman-arre ... -2015.html

And it seems from the comments section that no-one is particularly surprised.

bennett_346

Seen it happen plenty here too. It'll never stop happening. If you're clever you'll check your trails before descending them. It's even worse in this country as there is no public land so you have to sue the landowner not the perpetrator.

Angus Young

bennett_346 wrote:

... so you have to sue the landowner not the perpetrator.

Really? Wow!

ilovedirt

She should be charged with attempted murder, make an example of these morons that think it's okay to put dangerous objects on bike trails with the intention to hurt people. Or even worse, to inconvenience people and are too fucking stupid to even bother to think about the consequences.

bennett_346

Angus Young wrote:

bennett_346 wrote:

... so you have to sue the landowner not the perpetrator.

Really? Wow!

Yep. It's legally the landowners responsibility to ensure people aren't injured on his land, i believe the landowner in this situation would have to prove it was the third party who placed the obstacles and caused the injury. Which is why landowners are keen to get rid of even the most well reasoned mountain bikers from their land.

peter413

bennett_346 wrote:

Angus Young wrote:

bennett_346 wrote:

... so you have to sue the landowner not the perpetrator.

Really? Wow!

Yep. It's legally the landowners responsibility to ensure people aren't injured on his land, i believe the landowner in this situation would have to prove it was the third party who placed the obstacles and caused the injury. Which is why landowners are keen to get rid of even the most well reasoned mountain bikers from their land.

Surely in this case that shouldn't be too difficult with video footage?

Thankfully I've never heard of this happening in the Tweed Valley but most walkers actually tend to be pretty decent as well. MTBers and walkers do seem to respect each other around here for the most part. Of course there's still the odd twat. I still remember the rope incident at Hamsterly though which is only a few hours away.

BloggingFit

Had a few cases of this on trails my way but only tree branches placed strategically which causes inconvenience rather than outright danger. Strange thing is it's on MOD land which has many organised races taking place and not a major walking spot.

bennett_346

peter413 wrote:

bennett_346 wrote:

Angus Young wrote:

bennett_346 wrote:

... so you have to sue the landowner not the perpetrator.

Really? Wow!

Yep. It's legally the landowners responsibility to ensure people aren't injured on his land, i believe the landowner in this situation would have to prove it was the third party who placed the obstacles and caused the injury. Which is why landowners are keen to get rid of even the most well reasoned mountain bikers from their land.

Surely in this case that shouldn't be too difficult with video footage?

Thankfully I've never heard of this happening in the Tweed Valley but most walkers actually tend to be pretty decent as well. MTBers and walkers do seem to respect each other around here for the most part. Of course there's still the odd fool. I still remember the rope incident at Hamsterly though which is only a few hours away.

I'm not talking about this case; that was in Canada, i was explaining how the situation is even worse here.

peter413

Ok I get you now. Still, surely if the same evidence was provided for a case here it should be enough to convict the individual and not the landowner?

lawman

Shit like this happens all the time on my trails back home. I rode down one of the trails last year and it was fine, saw a chap walking half way down, slowed right up and all the rest, 20 minutes later I rode back up the trail and found a decent sized log right in the middle of a fast, blind corner. Could have been nasty had I been going the other way, as you can normally hit this particular corner flat out. There's been other instances as well with logs/branches strategically placed to stop/injure cyclists. There are a lot of trails that we shouldn't ride on and there is some debate between where we are allowed to go, but normally these obstructions are along a trail that we know we can ride legally. The situation is improving though, we've recently noticed a nature park that has some awesome trails in is now open to all, which is awesome and hopefully should show locals that trails can and should be shared fairly if there is a mutual respect from both sides. It's still frustrating that the minority out there are trying to ruin the countryside for everyone else with such selfish acts of vandalism.

larkim

bennett_346 wrote:

Angus Young wrote:

bennett_346 wrote:

... so you have to sue the landowner not the perpetrator.

Really? Wow!

Yep. It's legally the landowners responsibility to ensure people aren't injured on his land, i believe the landowner in this situation would have to prove it was the third party who placed the obstacles and caused the injury. Which is why landowners are keen to get rid of even the most well reasoned mountain bikers from their land.

You're right that a landowner has duties to take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of those (including trespassers) who access their land. But that wouldn't stop a deliberate act by a third party intended to cause harm to an individual being a criminal matter against the third party / perpetrator (and nor would it necessarily make the landowner suable, as they could well argue that it was not reasonable to expect to have to monitor their entire land portfolio for deliberate acts of potential sabotage which they were unaware of).

The Rookie

We have one wood we ride often where logs are frequently placed across the trail, mostly they are easily visible and harmless, but we have had a few offs were they are placed just round corners and not easily visible in the dark in time.

One of our riders caught someone setting such a trap, rather than having a slanging match he decieded on a polite 'why' the person said he was trying to stop motocross riders riding there (which probably explains why my mate could approach and talk to him), he had mistaken the MTB tyre tracks (we have a few fat bikes in the club as well) for MX tyres and while he'd never seen them was trying to discourage them, after having it explained to him he did say he wasn't going to do it anymore now he knew they weren't MX bikes.

Caveman_Chris

'Mischief to property'?

Had a rope across the trail at chopwell a few years ago, hurt someone quite badly from what I remember.

The only objects that the locals leave on the proper trail is themselves. Quite annoying.

schmako

Could be worse! (clip could also be fake though)

robertpb

You've seen it all when you've ridden the same trails for 50 years.

A trail next to a Golf Club blocked with old golf trolleys, near a housing estate old metal chairs.

The worst has been barbed wire across the trail, also barbed wire buried in the trail, someone who doesn't care about animals.

Once a trail had so many logs across it every 10-20 feet dragged from some distance away one could only admire the sheer effort that had been put in, but I must have upset whoever it was as I cleared the whole lot off the trail.

swod1

and most people hate cyclists on roads so what are we to do not ride our bikes anywhere that we are legally allowed to?

I've not had any problem around where I live but will keep a look out for anything like this.

there's just a select few that want to spoil it for the rest of us.

Angus Young

Schmako wrote:

clip could also be fake though

You think?

ben@31

Was out on the MTB a few days ago. I parked my car in a lay-by opposite a farm near where the bridleway starts.

I did not damage anything or do anything illegal. I don't think I was obstructing anyone.

When I got back to my car and set off for home, a few metres down the B-road the steering went bad. I found someone had fcuked around with one of the tyres.

They may think they're being funny or smart by tricking me. But you could kill or seriously injure someone by fcuking around with someones car. Doesn't just have to be the owner of the car that gets killed if they cause a collision with someone else.

*EDIT. There was 0 air in one of the tyres, a car garage removed the tyre and inspected it, they could not find any puncture or damage for it to have suddenly lost all pressure.

The Rookie

Should be reported as courts have found that deflating tyres amounts to criminal damage.

diy

Its daft though - cos the one thing you were likely to have was a pump.

Worth logging a call on the 101 number and reporting the location, if plod keep getting reports of tyres being let down they may send someone out to knock on a few doors. Word might then get out.

peat

ben@31 wrote:

I parked my car in a lay-by opposite a farm near where the bridleway starts.

Lay-by's are not naturally occurring. Are you sure it wasn't a field entrance/gateway.

I grew up on a farm and the number of times people would abandon their cars in our gateways, even our driveway was infuriating.

ben@31

Peat wrote:

Lay-by's are not naturally occurring. Are you sure it wasn't a field entrance/gateway.

I grew up on a farm and the number of times people would abandon their cars in our gateways, even our driveway was infuriating.

Even if it was a field entrance, that does not make it acceptable to potentially kill / seriously injure someone by tampering with their car.

The Rookie

Erm, a bit of excessive melodrama there? A totally deflated tyre is pretty obvious as soon as you pull away.....

batmo

robertpb wrote:

Once a trail had so many logs across it every 10-20 feet dragged from some distance away one could only admire the sheer effort that had been put in, but I must have upset whoever it was as I cleared the whole lot off the trail.

I too have encountered this, but the intent was not to block the trail for cyclists. The logs were placed by a group of teenage girls to make mini-jumps for their ponies.

Angus Young

Batmo wrote:

robertpb wrote:

The logs were placed by a group of teenage girls to make mini-jumps for their ponies.

That's kinda sweet.

ben@31

The Rookie wrote:

Erm, a bit of excessive melodrama there? A totally deflated tyre is pretty obvious as soon as you pull away.....

Depending on the tyre, no. Thats why cars now have tyre pressure warning systems. Even a run-flat tyre will disintegrate after a certain distance or above a certain speed, the run-flat tyres are just to get you to the nearest safe place to change it

ben@31

The Rookie wrote:

Erm, a bit of excessive melodrama there? A totally deflated tyre is pretty obvious as soon as you pull away.....

Depending on the tyre, no. Thats why cars now have tyre pressure monitoring systems. Even a run-flat tyre will disintegrate after a certain distance or above a certain speed, the run-flat tyres are just to get you to the nearest safe place to change it, because you have the flat might be unsafe to f' around on the road (for example, busy B-road at night with no stopping places).

Rookie, If it's just melodramatic... Put you're wife and kids in your car and have someone tamper with your car.

The Rookie

Bit churlish when it appears you'd already committed one criminal offence? (If you don't know which one, maybe do a big of research before asking).

ben@31

Rookie would you put your wife and kids in the car and think it is acceptable that somebody has tampered with it ? Yes or no ?

Doesn't matter what I've done it doesn't make it acceptable for them to potentially kill or seriously injure someone (lose control in a car and it doesn't have to be me thats killed or injured, could be someone else... pedestrian... car coming the other way...).

Angus Young

The Rookie wrote:

Bit churlish when it appears you'd already committed one criminal offence? (If you don't know which one, maybe do a big of research before asking).

ben@31 wrote:

Rookie would you put your wife and kids in the car and think it is acceptable that somebody has tampered with it ? Yes or no ?

Doesn't matter what I've done it doesn't make it acceptable for them to potentially kill or seriously injure someone (lose control in a car and it doesn't have to be me thats killed or injured, could be someone else... pedestrian... car coming the other way...).

That's a fair point.

The Rookie

Thousands of cars get punctures, it's very rare for anyone to even have an incident let alone anything dangerous.

I'm not saying what they did was right, two wrongs don't make a right, but I think you are being over melodramatic about it.

My worst blowout (and I mean blowout) was at 110mph (German autobahn) in a heavily laden car, I just braked to a halt on the hard shoulder, no drama, no accident, no swerving around.