Porn is an awesome thing. People doing the most incredible things with incredible bodies. Big boobs and cocks going in every direction. Upside down and backwards for hours on end. It is inspiring. It makes folks want to do good deeds. The problem with what we see in porn, and a really big problem for young people these days, is understanding that these are professionals, working in professional environments, working with direction, rules, and (without any doubt) for pay. It’s like a circus performance. You would be crazy if you just started into one of these scenes with a new girlfriend. You could hurt her, ruin your relationship, or get sent to jail. Trying what you see in porn at home takes a lot of talking, practice, and most of all trust….and hopefully it is enjoyable for all.
Mountain biking has a problem with porn today. Not the sexy kind. It’s the porn coming from ‘sick edits’, French enduro racing, and magazines that are too busy selling product to care about what happens on the trails. Taking tricks and techniques that belong on a race course or private parks to the public trails and hurting them. It’s also the porn that makes people believe that they should be able to clean everything on a trail and if they can’t, they can just ride off trail anywhere. Viagra.
For years, mountain biking has been a whipping boy for the Ecos. Their claims of trail damage were largely unfounded as the bikers generally stayed on trail and respected them when they used them. Those days are long gone. Today, with a new completely selfish breed, it has become socially acceptable to cut corners, bushwhack to avoid challenges, and straight-line race trail to win at Strava. Back in the day, cutting a corner would have been a shameful act getting you a scolding from the other riders. Now, just one person cutting a corner gives everyone on the ride an excuse to cut that they seem glad to take. It’s a shame that there are no voices of responsibility in our ranks that are willing to speak about this problem. Trail advocates have given up our moral high ground in trail use and, because of their failure to bring these issues up, mountain bikers have become the enemy of the trails. Rider education (or lack of) is probably the biggest threat to the future of mountain biking that I know of.
Take a look at how GMBN presenter Blake Samson treats the first corner in this clip (0:33). The goal seems to be to annihilate the trail where it is most fragile. No apologies. No care. I’m sure the trail boss at his local spot was heartbroken after seeing what had been started.
I’ve spent years blocking cut lines on my favorite trails in Marin. I even had to install a fence to block a particularly destructive line someone insisted on taking. I wasn’t going to let one passing fool destroy a trail that had been in play for years.
Due to the increased amount of vandalism on the narrow trails in Marin, I’ve begun to take more aggressive action. The race, cut, and novice lines that the off-road cyclists are digging into the hills are decimating the delicate trails we love to ride (legal and not).
This weekend, I had to log two corners in Tamarancho to block cut lines. I also logged a lot of Six Points Trail. That trail has been taking a ton of abuse from the novice riders. One enduro race cut was forming also. The problem is reaching epidemic proportions all over the county. None of this is right and is totally irresponsible.
I will now be stopping more often to block these lines. Please don’t be that rider that continues to clear out this work.
Here’s how I see narrow trail use:
1. RESPECT THE TRAIL! You are a guest of the trail. The trail was here long ago and will be here long after you are gone. Many people will use the trail and it’s up to you to ensure they can.
2. Ride the trail. The actual trail. Don’t cut new lines. If a trail needs to be re-rerouted for legitimate reason, understand that bikes are not the primary user group that the trail should form around. Just because you think there is a faster way down the mountain, it doesn’t mean it should be so.
3. If you make a new route (for the right reasons), close down the old route. This helps the hill stay together and keeps singletrack looking like singletrack. Don’t just add more options to existing paths.
4. If you can’t ride it, hike it. You do not have the right to cut into the woods simply because you are a less skilled rider. Don’t sanitize a section that advanced riders are riding. These trails are not designed to be used for racing or for ease of riding. We enjoy them because of that. Don’t try to make them easy. Don’t go to our black diamonds and try to turn them into your green circles. Learn your skills and come back.
5. Staircases are used by the trail bosses to reduce erosion and hold the trail together. Ride/hike up stairs and ride/hike down them. You don’t have the right to bypass staircases because they slow you down or are ‘hard’ to ride. There are very few trail stairs in Marin that can’t be ridden down.
6. If you see a problem forming on the trail, do something about it. Take action. The earlier this can be done the better it is for the trail. We need to stop thinking that trail maintenance is somebody else’s job. If you ride it, take care of it.
7. The wild stuff you see in videos and at races is not an example of how our local trails can be used. Our trails are delicate and our political environment is even more delicate. Going off trail to set up a corner is simply unacceptable here. You may have to slow down, that’s the point of challenging trail.
8. If you think that you are so-fast and so-pro that none of this applies to you then you should be proving that at the races and not on our local trails. There are plenty of opportunities for you to go AWOL at the enduro and downhill races.
I know a lot of people won’t agree with me and feel that cheating their strava time is more important than caring for our common good but I’m sure there are a lot of others who feel as I do.
Let’s show that we actually care about our trails by riding them with respect and repairing the damage our fellow cyclists are creating.
If you have a problem with any of this, feel free to contact me directly.
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Here’s a magazine article on cheat lines in racing. Racing is about rules.
Crossing the “Enduro Line” – Racers, Cheats, and the Grey In-Between