Mountain Biking - Wheeled-locusts.org

Just found this site after reading about it in the newest issue of BIKE. Anyone been to the site before? Some of the pics show heavily used areas that they claim are closed to bikes, but it is hard to believe that the amount of damage they claim was caused by riders is truly due solely to mountain bikes. Many of the areas appear to be eroded across wide faces of hills without much vegetation. I find it hard to believe that an area as wide as some of those in the pics could be eroded completely down to nothing by people riding. Many assumptions were made, and it was clear that the people who run the site have a very biased view towards any type of mountain biker, responsible or not, to begin with. The author of the articles all but completely portrayed every mountain biker as irresponsible, un-environmentally aware, and as a careless daredevil. Anyone had a run-in with these people on the trail? What do you think of the pics they have and the assumptions they have made? They even went as far as to compare the damage done by cyclists to the damage done by dirt bikes. It's clear that none of these people have ridden with a responsible, environmentally aware rider.

I am in no way defending any cyclist who was on a trail clearly closed to mountain bikers or that was in a condtion that would only lead to further erosion or destruction (real muddy, wet, too steep, etc.). Just wondering how active this group really is out on the trails opened to cyclists. It seemed as though some of their pics were of already eroded (by water) areas that happened to have a set of tracks through them. Have they seen any horse paths lately?


-Moab

Actually you can see where mtbers went around the difficult section and created a runoff section. Those chutes look mtb created. This would have been a prime trail for some shore style work to protect the ground. I don't know if 100% of the damage is done via bikes but I can definately see bike damage there.


But you are right with a skilled environmentally aware rider these would have been fine. Damn those poor trails look like hell...:(...sorry man those trails should be closed to mtbers, expecially that doubletrack. My biggest issue is in almost every picture you have trail (rocks and roots) and then around the trailyou have tired tread where unskilled riders bypassed the trail. That is disturbing and VERY damaging to the trail especially in a water logged area.

Oh and as for the tire strewn BOG (:)) I bet that used to be a single track that kept growing because riders would avoid going through the deep puddles and made that section grow very large. That is where the most damage is caused from mtbers.

Bummer.

I just look at that, and gotta admit that some of it is damaging to the cause. BUT most of looks like water damage since there's no way that a trail going across the side of the hill can cause the whole top half to erode like that and if the impact of MTB's are so "devastating" why do they need the red dots in some of those pictures. There's good number in there that if you just looked at them you would never have seen the trail. If those exposed roots were ridden by bikers they'd have tire marks all over them. They totally mis-represent MTB'ers in there with their bad defination of freeriding. All though there is no clear defination to freeriding it's not "riding a mountain bike totally off trail" Something else that becomes clear is that they only show high impact areas where the land is damaged by any traffic, bike of foot. What i want to know though is how do bikes "exert" a lot more force on the ground than hikers.

That whole site is dedicated to showing propaganda and mis-representing MTB'ers. Note they dont mention any sort of land managment headed my Bikers, and land advocacy groups that bikers participate in

That place has the biggest percentage of idiots to smart people, 100-0

100% idot to 0% smart.

Its frustrating to see stuff like this. Every time I see it I can be certain that some foolish zealot will petition the county to close a few more trails in the name of humanity. Around here we don't get enough rain to damage the trails with a pick axe, let alone a bicycle tire. I understand that there are cases in which it is a huge problem, and in those cases I gladly grant their wishes.

Just a few months ago a woman in Sedona almost single handedly cut off all two-wheeled access to one of the cooler arch trails. She told a story about how she had just been captivated by the arches when some maniacal biker came around the corner (I know now that was at the turn out of a very technical downhill), rocks and dirt flying everywhich way; undoubtedly crushing innocent bugs with every stroke of his pedals. He left a track in the rocks where he had come through. She took a picture of it and showed the Mayor and other assorted city officials. She made it sound as if the Earth cried a red tear for every rock he displaced. The city sided with her, and now we've one less trail to ride.

Frustrating.

To be honest I think the trail should have been closed. I can personally see a lot of damage caused immediately and future damage will be immense (whether or not it is 100% biker damage would be difficult to prove). However instead of closng it off forever, they could do a lot to help preserve it. Restrict riding off trail to the sides would be the number one thing. Force people into riding the obstacles or walking them. Correct some drainage problems with rock gardens (and force riders to ride it) and potentially some laddars/skinnies to keep the tires off of any roots in a drainage position. To fix that mud fireroad would require tonnes of work but could also be done...I have just never fixed something of that size so I can't think of a way to do it right now and maintain proper drainage haha ;)

I didn't read what the actual website said just examined the pictures. That would be a closed trail in BC as well, except here it would have been fixed up in a similar manner to what I described. There is no need to be anti bike just anti-dumbass bikers.