MTB Mag- required reading!!!

[Vibrato]

Just got my new Mountain Bike magazine, (Rodale publishing, cheap and good mag, like a shiny dirt rag, beer and bikes, baby!) and the 1st article in it should be required reading for anyone before they are allowed to purchase anything with knobby tires!! (the side bar in the mag is quoted at the bottom of this after the article- It's beautiful!) Check it out-

**The NOT-SO-SLIPPERY SLOPE, Clearing an obstacle doesn't mean removing it from the trail.**

"It's probably some guy who's been riding for a few years and thinks he's good" grumbled Bowman. The handful of us hanging out at the shop could offer up only a sad kind of laughter in response, the kind that at once said "yeah, we see the humor," and "Crap, we dread the implication." All of us, having been around mountain biking, trail building and the nuances of public land usage long enough, could see the inevitability of our situation.

We used to have a delightfully wobbly, reasonably sized log in the middle of a rock garden that marked a fork in the trail on our local mountain. You'd clean it, skitter across some roots on the other side, then choose between a great, newly cut singletrack with a huge boulder step up, or the rockiest decent on the hill. The log wasn't close to being the hardest obstacle on the trail, but still someone saw fit to cut it up and move it into the weeds. To make things easier, I guess. The removal or modification of a couple other noteworthy trail features followed- a rock here, a log there. Some of the mountains toughest and most entertaining riding was being wiped out because it was apparently too hard.

Then things got really bad. Near the peak of our local mountain, there was a line leading to a larger rock step up and drop off. All jagged rocks and weird corners on the entry. it was tough, but rideable, the kind of stretch that doesn't require you to be a trials king, just a committed, skilled trail rider. Now? Well, a log and many rocks have been rearranged such that they provide for an almost paved riding surface around the step up, a good 30 feet of trail now smoother that some dirt roads.

As Bowman grumbled in the bike shop, we collectively and individually harbored a just barely internalized rage. It was pretty easy to fantasize about releasing that anger in a nose-shattering head butt toward the person who moved a log off the trail- a silly, irrational notion, to be sure. Over time, riders- whether log moving strangers or those you consider peers- make trails gradually easier to ride. It's inevitable. The dirt becomes packed and smooth with use. Corners are pushed out or tightened up by wear patterns and essentially self adjust for speed and flow. And users actively making changes to the trails, in some cases, making the riding more fun.

But on our hill things only got worse- or better if you're the guy making the changes I suppose. This is one of the ways that the riding population can be divided, right? There are those who work hard to become better riders, and those who would rather see the trails made easier so they can clean everything and feel good about what great mountain bikers they are. Which group would you rather be in?

Then the sidebar say this:
A CLUE
To would-be trail-repair Heroes: If it's rideable, leave it alone. If you can't ride it? learn. It'll make you feel good about yourself. I promise. And it will keep other riders from wanting to smash your nose with their forehead.

And, as the great sage and imminent alcoholic "Vibrato" has said- Removing obstacles makes everyone fast, if YOU want to be fast, leave the obstacles and learn how to ride them.

Sign on MTB trail: "Improve your skill, not the trail".

[jimithng23]

[dru_b]

x3................ comeon, we're not riding the roads. there's plenty of paved paths around these parts ifn that's what yer looking for. leave the trails alone.......