Well, the big hit monkeys around here are bleating about the “dumbing down” of the local trails, but they are all riding bikes with 150mm + travel and mandatory dropper posts. That’s why people prefer hardtails, more fun. Which is also why I do most of my riding on my gravel bike. Cheap thrills at half the speed.
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Here, people are deliberately “dumbing down” the trails by moving rocks, creating ride-arounds, etc.
Definitely some annoying ride-arounds created in the past year or two on the trail I frequent.
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Seeing a lot of cheater lines here, so I’m dragging a lot of rocks and brush
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Same around here. I’m okay with b lines for large features, but people are moving and removing rocks to make ordinary tech features easier and it drives me mad
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If you want an easier line, pick an easier trail?
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or just fucking realize it’s above your skillset and walk.
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Seems to be a trend, I wonder where its coming from.
this has been a problem for years. it makes me so mad. like irrationally mad. i’m about to bring some huge rocks onto a particular trail and close off the cheater line. it’s a fairly narrow gap through two trees with roots down the line. it is NOT a challenging line, it’s just a mind bender because it’s narrow. the cheater line is so burnt in that it looks like THE line and people keep moving the branches and shit i stack up.
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The lines I’m deconstructing aren’t to make the trail easier, they’re to make them faster for Strava
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We’ve got the problem of dumbing down, but also the far more dangerous problem of sabotage. Like someone dragging a huge gnarly root ball right into the landing zone of a drop where you don’t see it until the last second. It’s all kinds of fucked up.
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I don’t doubt this
We’ve got one area where every feature has a blind landing. I’ve been in the habit of scoping everything on the first pass, if only to find the new hole in the landing. There’s also the occasional downed tree.
Some of that is just part of riding in the woods. It’s just funny to see posts on the graham to the tune of, “Why is everybody getting hurt LOL?”
why don’t people want to just ride the trail the way it IS
yeah I’m mad paranoid about flying off of something into a large piece of debris. I always scope it out if I won’t have much time to abandon the run-up.
Small local trails here seem to have added a lot of family outings type visitors over the last year, accelerating the wheelchair accessibility trend.
Funny, last place I lived it was the opposite: if if there was any way to add a squirrel catcher or death pit, it was only a matter of time.
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!!!
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hat tip to Road Bike Action for printing all their story titles in all caps, which makes the cycling folder of my RSS reader look like:
Cycling Tips: Review of Pinarello Grevil
Bikepacking News: Trails to Camp On
Road Bike Action: WHICH CHAMOIS CREAM IS THE BEST
Like aaaaahh fuck I’m not sure jesus christ
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Not sure where to put this. Looks like there’s been a final run of the Haulin’ Colin Porteur Rack, designed for the riv/soma rack boss standard, and includes the Swift XL Ozette: Porteur Rack — CYCLEFAB, LLC
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