Rev on!
Trail Conditions
To Everyone That Loves Their Singletrack,
i wanted to bring up a topic here that i have seen a lot of discussion about other places. That is when its NOT a good idea to ride your bike on trails.
This time of year can be a really frustrating time to get trail rides in. If its not really really cold, then a warm up is under way and the trails have started to thaw into a mushy mess. Believe me I have been as guilty as the next person of seeing a warm(er) sunny day and hitting the trails, only to find out half way in that I was going to bring half the trail surface out on my tires, chain, etc. (but since i was there i rode anyway).
What I have recently learned is that when we ride in these conditions we are potentially ruining the trail surface. I used to think that was all part of the fun, riding and getting muddy, but apparently its just not a hot idea on some trails depending on the soil conditions. I dont know all the scientific details, but the people who spend a lot of time designing and building trails have explained that if you ride when the conditions are really wet, you could actually degrade the surface which would cause major problems down the road for both maintaining the trail and keeping the trails open for use.
The GORC website has had a lot of info about trail usage along with discussions by different parties explaining what freezes and thaws can do to make for poor riding conditions. I would refer you there or the other st. louis cycling sites for more info.
Anyway, I just wanted to make sure that some of this informatin is shared with the riders here as I know none of us would intentially ride when we werent supposed to or want to do something that might make a land manager deny access to riders in the future.
That being said, let me know if anyone wants to ride when its stil freezing out - i think we should be safe to ride then (except for some frozen digits!!) I usually hit up SIUE trails since its close to my house.
(off topic - I volunteer for GORC whenever i can to help build trails and they have a workday scheduled for SIUE first weekend of FEB if anyone wants to help! we are also putting together a mountain bike patrol (associated with IMBA) for the different trails around st. louis if anyone is interested in volunteering for that).
See ya on the (dry) Trials!
gigi
i wanted to bring up a topic here that i have seen a lot of discussion about other places. That is when its NOT a good idea to ride your bike on trails.
This time of year can be a really frustrating time to get trail rides in. If its not really really cold, then a warm up is under way and the trails have started to thaw into a mushy mess. Believe me I have been as guilty as the next person of seeing a warm(er) sunny day and hitting the trails, only to find out half way in that I was going to bring half the trail surface out on my tires, chain, etc. (but since i was there i rode anyway).
What I have recently learned is that when we ride in these conditions we are potentially ruining the trail surface. I used to think that was all part of the fun, riding and getting muddy, but apparently its just not a hot idea on some trails depending on the soil conditions. I dont know all the scientific details, but the people who spend a lot of time designing and building trails have explained that if you ride when the conditions are really wet, you could actually degrade the surface which would cause major problems down the road for both maintaining the trail and keeping the trails open for use.
The GORC website has had a lot of info about trail usage along with discussions by different parties explaining what freezes and thaws can do to make for poor riding conditions. I would refer you there or the other st. louis cycling sites for more info.
Anyway, I just wanted to make sure that some of this informatin is shared with the riders here as I know none of us would intentially ride when we werent supposed to or want to do something that might make a land manager deny access to riders in the future.
That being said, let me know if anyone wants to ride when its stil freezing out - i think we should be safe to ride then (except for some frozen digits!!) I usually hit up SIUE trails since its close to my house.
(off topic - I volunteer for GORC whenever i can to help build trails and they have a workday scheduled for SIUE first weekend of FEB if anyone wants to help! we are also putting together a mountain bike patrol (associated with IMBA) for the different trails around st. louis if anyone is interested in volunteering for that).
See ya on the (dry) Trials!
gigi
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by carrie on
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GiGi-
That could not be better said.. Thank you for helping others understand what trail etiquette is all about. We will have plenty of dry days to ride those trails. We just need everyone to hold their tators and be patient. If all parties who have ridden a muddy trail at some time during their biking enjoyment would work on the trail just once....it would help them understand the perspective of our fellow trailbuilders, and hopefully give the trails the respect they deserve.
It is one thing to ride a trail and it start raining on you, but an entirely different one to go into a ride knowing it has rained and is soft surface or muddy.
Think and ride responsibly.
Keep it real and dry!!!
Thanks again
Car-
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