Mountain Biking - what's the deal w/ teeter totters?

i see pictures of them in the woods and in peoples front yards.

can you explain them?

Explain what? They are teeter totters. They require balance and other skill points. Originally ladders and planks were put on trails to protect the environment. The evolved into the difficult. Teeters are part of the evolution. Nelson BC has some of the sickest (I can't believe I used that word) teeters in the world HANDS DOWN. North Shore does as well as Whistler and Squamish. The whole man-made thing is HUGE here. It makes it fun and difficult.

Or did you wanna know how to make one?

Originally posted by pnj
i see pictures of them in the woods and in peoples front yards.

can you explain them?

I see posts about them on bikeforums.

Can you explain the link to cycling?:D


(Is it a mountain biking thing? Are you talking about riding MTBs over them or just interested in them in general.)

Teeter totters are fun to ride. I love the feel of them on the way down, its cool. Even better.....the pivoting Teeter totter.

i can dig the protecting the enviroment deal.

are they that hard to ride?

up one side, down the other.....
unless it is made out of one skinny 2x4, looks easy.

i wanna try one

Teeters do require some skill to cross but for a rider with average skills they are not to difficult (depending on the hight). From my experince with them they seem to be more of a mental challange and if placed between to very difficult obstacals or at the end of a technical section it makes them a bit harder to do.
Slainte:beer:

Teeter totters??????????

What??????????????

Speak English, will you, please???????

Huh??????????????

Originally posted by OtheloTheMoor
Teeter totters??????????

What??????????????

Speak English, will you, please???????

Huh??????????????


why is it that everyone else knew what i was talking about but you?

They are difficult depending on the setup. A regular 12" is very easy. But a 12" with a 4 ft centre point is tougher. Make that 8" wide and a lot of bikes fall. Through that same pivot point a 3ft but with a 2x4 1 ft teeter in the centre of it (teeter on a teeter) and you have damn hard. Make that 'spin' 45 degree to get on the rest of the trail and you have a living hell. :)

you are in Seattle. Come play at the shore. You will see why they are fun.

Originally posted by OtheloTheMoor
Teeter totters??????????

What??????????????

Speak English, will you, please???????

Huh??????????????
I'm sort of with you on this one. I only know what a teeter totter is from watching the famous teeter totter episode of the Brady Bunch many many years ago.

Here we call them see saws.

as long as you knew what I was talking about....

Like I said before, PLENTY of people knew what I was asking about.

Maelstrom,

BC sounds pretty cool. I don't think I have the skills yet to be able to
hang up there yet.

Well BC has a tonne to offer any mountain biker. But you can pick and choose spots. I suck at manmade stuff. (personally scared of heights in that kind of situation) but I am a strong climber and good a downhill. It is a great are to refine skills for sure. I heard Oregon is also incredible but haven't had the chance to make it down there yet.

I rode Nelson about 8 weeks back - I rode a few teeters. There was a trail called the climax that had 3 or 4 on top of each other, about 8 feet up. I was in front when we came to it, and chickened out - but so did every one else. i talked with a few locals, and very few people can clean it. Maybe next time....

teeter on a teeter sounds cool!

does it get skinnier at the top?

got any photos?

There's some video's HERE. (http://www.nsmb.com/videos/) I know the video Freeride Heaven has some.

Ha ha, teeter totters, ha ha. I've done them before, just don't ride off the side and you'll be fine. They are really cool, the rush is great.

Want to see someone ride a teeter totter and muck it up? This guy ended up breaking his neck! He pulled a Superman (a.k.a. Christopher Reeve), as in falling right on the top of his head! Broke his neck. Don't know if a helmet would've helped or not. Not paralysed, but will be in a neck brace w/pins into his skull for awhile.

The link to the video clip is toward the bottom of the post!
http://www.northporttrails.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=41

Unfortunately this was just after a ride and this guy was just playing around riding the teeter. He's actually a unicyclist. If you cruise around the site, you can see a video clip of him riding!

The keep to teeters is keeping momentum up and forward direction to prevent you from riding off the edge.

L8R