Mountain Biking - Some interesting ideas

Just been reading over a few mountain biking websites, and I found some interesting pointers for you to consider next time you head out for a ride to your local trail or wherever you ride. Some really good infomation and ideas, just to keep you thinking about how you can not only assist yourself when out there enjoying yourself, but can make everyone else's time much more enjoyable. Here they are:

Pedal from home to the trailhead and give your car a well deserved rest.
Actually stop and dismount once in a while to talk with hikers or horseback riders you meet on the trail.
Do a trash ride by carrying a small garbage bag and filling it with discarded energy bar wrappers, cans, tyre tubes and other items you find along the trail.
Write a letter to a local newspaper praising a local land management agency for their positive efforts to provide high quality trail experiences.
Write a letter to a local newspaper chastising a local land management agency for their failure to provide high quality trail experiences for everyone.
Take a teenage neighbour who has never ridden off-road on a bike.
Donate your old bike to a community or youth group.
Volunteer for trailwork a few times a year. It's fun.
If you can't find a local cycling club, start one.
Make something useful out of hopelessly shredded tyre tubes. A chair? Stretching bands? A stabilising brace for a recently planted sapling? Use your imagination.
Kick out the leaves from a clogged waterbar or water drain. If your foot-repairs help remove water efficiently off the trailbed, you're probably reducing trail erosion.
Resist the temptation to ride your favourite trails immediately after a period of heavy rain. Ride on the road to improve fitness, leg speed and cornering skills. Go for a run - dare we suggest it - take a day off training.
Study topographic maps to find new trails ad roads to ride. Careful analysis will almost always reveal previously unknown opportunities.
Ride fast, but when you pause for a rest, stop. Put your bike down. Step away from the trail. Look and listen. Don't feel compelled to get back in the saddle once you're breathing easily.
Don't overact to rumours about potential trail closings. Get the facts before you get angry.
When you're riding or training for races at high speed, pick your trails carefully. Stay away from crowded trails that are shared with hikers, particularly in early evening and on weekends when they are most likely to be crowded.
Double check your saddlebag, or bumbag. Make sure you've got a working pump, a good extra tube, a patch kit and a chain tool. Being self-reliant is part of the satisfaction of being a mountain biker.
Work on your trails skills in a parking lot or at a trailhead. The better you balance, the stronger you'll ride on difficult trails.
Stay off your rear brake as much as possible in tight corners and switchbacks. It's easy to skid around sharp turns but light braking is better for the trail.
Think twice before riding through fresh water. Chain lube, grease and other oils certainly don't improve water quality.
Consider all twenty of the suggestions listed here but don't get too serious about any of them. Mountain biking is nothing if it's not fun, spontaneous and relatively free.

Some good advice - thanks :)

Not a problem :)

Good find. :)

Good stuff!!! Thanks!:beer:

Great stuff. I like the tip on volunteering for trailwork. Give a little back to the trail you love. :)

I love working on a trail, its the best way to meet riders in your area. This is especially true in areas where MTBing isnt as popular, like the midwest. Meeting people who ride the same stuff you do is awesome because you can always find somebody to ride with. Oftentimes I'll exchange #'s with a couple of people or atleast find out when the usually ride and where.

plus you really learn to respect a trail and the amount of time it takes to make/maintain it.

Do a trash ride by carrying a small garbage bag and filling it with discarded energy bar wrappers, cans, tyre tubes and other items you find along the trail.

Very good post Aggressor!

Garbage in the wilderness is something I cannot tolerate and I find it hard to believe that “nature lovers” will desecrate mother earth with powerbar wrappers, beer cans and other camping waste. So I will clean every backwoods campsite I camp at or stop at for lunch and I will carry out or burn the garbage.

Originally posted by Aggressor
Just been reading over a few mountain biking websites, and I found some interesting pointers for you to consider next time you head out for a ride to your local trail or wherever you ride. Some really good infomation and ideas, just to keep you thinking about how you can not only assist yourself when out there enjoying yourself, but can make everyone else's time much more enjoyable. Here they are:

Excellent ideas. Could you perhaps weave it into a song? Call it Everybody's Free to Ride Offroad or something? I'm trying to think up a roadie version I plan on entitling Everybody's Free to Wear Lycra. :D

Originally posted by Gordon P
Very good post Aggressor!

Garbage in the wilderness is something I cannot tolerate and I find it hard to believe that “nature lovers” will desecrate mother earth with powerbar wrappers, beer cans and other camping waste. So I will clean every backwoods campsite I camp at or stop at for lunch and I will carry out or burn the garbage.

While I am not disagreeing with you, I just don't see where you would get the idea all mtbikers are nature lovers. It can and is just a sport to some people and doesn't always represent someones lifestyle.

I still think they should clean up after themselves though.

Originally posted by mightypudge
Great stuff. I like the tip on volunteering for trailwork. Give a little back to the trail you love. :)

Great tip...trailwork can be so much fun :) Esepcially if you are one of the first three to ride a totally new section (or in my case sometimes stunts)

Great tips ... something every beginner should read and refer to.

While I am not disagreeing with you, I just don't see where you would get the idea all mtbikers are nature lovers. It can and is just a sport to some people and doesn't always represent someones lifestyle.

I wasn’t pointing fingers at any outdoor user group in particular just making the point that people in general are pigs. For example, I was canoeing in a very remote area of Quebec and I found fast food waste in the middle of #%$& nowhere! How does this happen? :confused:

Gross...totally disrespectful of the area. I ensure I bring out what I bring in.

Originally posted by Maelstrom
Gross...totally disrespectful of the area. I ensure I bring out what I bring in.

If everyone had this attitude, no-one would have to clean up after other people, therefore be named 'nature-lovers'.

Originally posted by Gordon P
Very good post Aggressor!

Garbage in the wilderness is something I cannot tolerate and I find it hard to believe that “nature lovers” will desecrate mother earth with powerbar wrappers, beer cans and other camping waste. So I will clean every backwoods campsite I camp at or stop at for lunch and I will carry out or burn the garbage.

I don't think that the "nature lovers" are the ones that throw the beer cans. I've seen a lot of stupid kids smoking mary jane and what not, on trail with the ghetto-ish bike. The one i saw had: no front brake, slightly taco'ed wheel, no helmet. From that description, you clearly know that they aren't real cyclists.

Exactly. I see younger kids doing plenty of illegal things at our tracks, and it really gets to me. I've spoken to the landowners and he seems to have stopped it a bit, but even having to request permission to use certain land doesnt stop those sneaky youngins :o

Wrappers? Fast food trash? I ride oustide of town, or in town sometimes (it's pretty rural here in the high desert), and we have loveseats, sofas, refridgerators, and complete truckloads of trash that people have dumped, and not to mention the countless tires! Come one, it only costs ten bucks to go to the dump, which is no more than 10 miles out of town. From one day to the next, I found a complete truckload of trash dumped right on the downhill side of a steep climb. How much effort must it have been to get a truck (had to be 4wd) up there in the first place? Needless to say, I get pretty ticked off.

it completely ruins the experience of ur ride if every couple of metres u come along a peice of rubbish.... nice adbice there aggressor :)

bmadau - Sounds like a terrible situation, you should really speak to your local council about the problem.


Originally posted by Transparent
it completely ruins the experience of ur ride if every couple of metres u come along a peice of rubbish.... nice adbice there aggressor :)

Yeah, I agree, and thanks :)