Mountain Biking - where can I ride?

hey, I live in a small town, no one rides around here, so i have nowhere to ride. can anyone sugest what to do? i need somewhere to build some dirt jumps, but my back yard wont work. any ideas? should i ask the town people? thanks for any help!

Learn to use the natural features in your area.

ive tried, but theyre is nothing you can get enough air on to do anything. simple tweaks you can, but i can hop to do that. there is a random mound of dirt thats been there for ever, maybe if i can where it down enough so i can get air, right now all you do is 'hover' over it.

any more ideas?

Math is hard... (http://www.google.com/search?q=nova+scotia+mountain+biking&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=com.google:en-US:official&client=firefox-a)

That, and go find some topo maps of stuff around you. Explore. If it isn't there in the open, you'll either have to find it or build it.

I ride around my downtown when I'm bored. Try finding a skatepark to play in with a MTB.

well my mom wont let me go up to the town that has the skatepark, i only go with my friends, but im not tha good at riding in skateparks, so i dont ever do anything unless its empty, which is rare.

none of those trails are in my town area. theres trails i know about around here, but i can only go with friends, and i dont remember 100% where they all go.

i really want dirt jumps, but where can i put them?

You could go talk to your town leaders and and see if they will work with you on a riding area. Gastro did this where he lives and they now have a great jump park.

well i never used to have this problem, because where i used to live (theres 4 riders there that are my friends) there was plenty of natural stuff, and a bunch of unused land we fooled around on. but i cant go there everytime i want to ride, because my friends have to be availible and i have to get a drive down. everyone in my town either thinks im crazy, or an idiot, because they see me out riding some trials. but i want to get better at dirt jumping. i guess ill contact the town leaders. how do i go about that?

yeah you should contact the town leader ... that's what we did and everything has been fine until a bunch of kids found the dirt jump track and start modifying them .... we now have like 10 piles of compacted earth... Dahhh I hate those kids ruining everything we try to do :(

often times the trails won't be right there in your town. If you can't drive just ask someone to bring you like once a weekend or something.

but i have to have someone to ride with, and a lot of the time my friends dont want to go on trails. i guess i should go to town hall then?

I don't know how big or small Middleton, NS is, but if you have a LBS in town go there and find out if they have organized rides that you can join. That will be a first step. Talk to the locals about where they ride and if you can organize rides with them. See if there are any bike clubs in the area you can join. Your LBS may know of a couple.

Maybe you can help organize a ride similar to what mtnbiker66 organizes. He can give you some pointers on that. You'll need the help of an adult and maybe you can talk one of your teachers into doing this. The benefit of this is that it will get the other kids in your area interested in the same type of riding as you. IMBA has a "Take a kid mountain biking" program. See if you can use the resources available there to help you: http://www.imba.com/resources/kids/index.html

As for building stuff, start with your LBS and the clubs again. Also check with IMBA Canada (http://imba.com/canada/). I don't see a Representative for Nova Scotia so you may have to contact someone at the national level. This link does show some IMBA related clubs and LBSs but I don't know how close to you they are: http://www.imba.com/contacts/near_you/nova_scotia.html

Good luck and don't give up. If you pursue this you'll learn a lot and the skills you'll learn here to make this happen will serve you well in the future.

Old guy with farm, semi retired...perfect dj/feature park

well, a friend who isnt into biking, but knows the town way better than me, took me back to this old dump on the edge of town. we went along the railroad tracks (that have been taking out, years ago) and theres lots of concrete/ashphalt lying around in chucks, so that would give a good base to build a jump on. theres also a roll in. the only problems are that the sand is that really thick stuff which is hard to bike through, but if we pack it really well, will it work? and that 4 wheelers always go back there, so how do we keep them from being destroyed?

are there powerlines(the big towers with like ten lines) around, sometimes they have grassy area underneath them. grass means good soil, so build jumps then let it rain and then ride. make sure they are well covered, so nobody sees you building.

...... make sure they are well covered, so nobody sees you building.

:rolleyes: Whats the point in going through the proper channels if you're gonna build bogus trails? Yes Pete, I'm thinking you are right on the money.

Building bogus illegal trails makes everyone look bad. Do it right and you will never run into problems. Do it wrong and you could affect riding in your area for a long time, just by being stupid

Building bogus illegal trails makes everyone look bad. Do it right and you will never run into problems. Do it wrong and you could affect riding in your area for a long time, just by being stupid

Agreed.

well there wouldnt be anything to affect, since there is no biking here. and i dont want to really build trails, but dj's, which are just piles of dirt, with the right shape.

That's what those are? I thought they were aqueducts. :/

That's what those are? I thought they were aqueducts. :/

Me too, glad we cleared that up. Quiet mtnbiker66 and Pete, this thread is informative, useful and in no way at all going in circles.

well you pile dirt, then pack and shape it. so dj's are piles of dirt with the right shape

Quiet mtnbiker66 and Pete, this thread is informative, useful and in no way at all going in circles.

No one said it was. He wanted some info and got it. Building bogus trails results in all of us catching crap.

i feel, if they don't take care of there trails, why can't eye take care of them, nobody and i mean nobody uses the trail i would build on, its a pain to get to, and impossible to find on purpose!

There is great riding in your area.

What we have here is a failure of the imagination.

well theres some decent stuff here, its just that everything here is to hard or too easy for me. ive found several awesome lines that i wish i could ride, but i cant, so i need somewhere to ride. so im building it

well there wouldnt be anything to affect, since there is no biking here. and i dont want to really build trails, but dj's, which are just piles of dirt, with the right shape.

Thats the wrong way to look at it. But I don't feel like arguing.

i understand its not the correct way to look at it, but its a simple way of putting it. what i mean by that is if i move some dirt to build a jump, and someone goes to the dump and sees us there, we can just put the dirt back. its a lot easy then hiding a trail,especially if you dont dig holes.

i understand its not the correct way to look at it, but its a simple way of putting it. what i mean by that is if i move some dirt to build a jump, and someone goes to the dump and sees us there, we can just put the dirt back. its a lot easy then hiding a trail,especially if you dont dig holes.

You are looking at it from your perspective. Look at it from the land owner, the gov't or the party you are interfering with.

hey i live in midleton ns also and i had the same problem so me and my friends built some dirt jumps if your interested let me know

I had the same problem when I first started. I google-mapped a MTB trail, drove there, and it turned out to be City Hall..confusing. Anyways, there were some awesome 2-6 step stariways, so I felt crazy and started jumping/riding down them. I started with 2, then 3, all the way to 6 steps my first time. VERY fun. Urban MTBing can be tons of fun. Limitless possibilities. You can find stuff anywhere! Go for it.

http://yozh.org/images/zombie-thread.png

There is great riding in your area.

What we have here is a failure of the imagination.

So......What are some of the things folks have come up with? I'm in the same boat as the OP. I'm seriously thinking or making a path on some unused Federal flood plain. The powers-that-be around here HATE bicycles because they see us as an encroachment on their (public) hunting lands. But, it is a common practice for hunters to cut trails to their blinds with their illegal 4 wheelers. No one says anything about those trails - it is a common, accepted practice to make them. I would ride their trails more if they weren't mostly in deep, loose sand.

What are some of the things you all have done?

All hail NORCO!

Google Earth is a great program that has allowed me to find power line roads, horse trails, paths around golf courses (find some lost PRO V's, +1) and old mining locations. Your county BLM should also post some trail links online, or just give them a call. BLMs have been more fun than imagined government people would be.

So......What are some of the things folks have come up with?

The OP on this ancient thread lives (lived?) less than two miles from a 700 foot+ wooded mountain x-crossed by overgrown ATV paths, closed road allowances, and old gravel pits. People in Toronto drive 3 hours for that kind of vertical. On the other side of said mountain is a lava-rock beach.

Given my local knowledge of the area, I was suggesting that the OP needed to step out of the *mountain biking=dirt jumping* mindset and explore the natural features that his area of the country was blessed with.

The OP on this ancient thread lives (lived?) less than two miles from a 700 foot+ wooded mountain x-crossed by overgrown ATV paths, closed road allowances, and old gravel pits. People in Toronto drive 3 hours for that kind of vertical. On the other side of said mountain is a lava-rock beach.

Given my local knowledge of the area, I was suggesting that the OP needed to step out of the *mountain biking=dirt jumping* mindset and explore the natural features that his area of the country was blessed with.

I guess I was asking if anyone had experience "carving" a bike path/route somewhere - somewhere where it is legally acceptable. I'm going to try and turn an existing game trail into an mtb trail. I know deer hunters use the area I've got my sights on, but I've only once actually seen people there. I never see footprints, beer cans, etc. Figure I might as well use it. And no, there are no laws specifically prohibiting cyclists.

This is funny, I would have never imagined meeting someone from Middleton!?
I used to live there about 5~6 years ago. I still have some friends there. Small world eh?

As for the trails, I used to bike everywhere when I was there. My friend knew all the trails and he took me, basically where all the ATVs and Dirt Bikers go to. Its a small town, but if you look around, there are plenty of things to do there. At least it was like that when I was there, although they didn't have any LBS back then (Maybe things have changed?).

Hey i live in middleton ns also and i have dirt jumps. if your interested email me at axis.3@hotmail.com