breggurns

Today I was riding on the Columbine trail at Anthony Chabot Park in the Bay area California, a fun illegal singletrack, (thats not the point though)at night when I came across a root going across the trail. The thing was about 4.5 inches thick so I decided to wheely over it. I wheelied over it but my rear wheel slammed into it sending me out of control into a log. I nail the log, fly over the bars twisting them all the way around, and fall onto my Camelback protected back. I'm not injured but the impact into the log broke like three spokes on my wheel, forcing me to limp back to the park entrance to call for a ride home. I don't concider myself a bad rider but the crash was probably avoidable. I look at it this way. At least I won't make the same mistake again!

MadMan2k

Whoah.. how fast were you going?

I hit a curb with my back wheel, forgot to bunnyhop it up, I was going about 20mph, all that happened was I kept going with the bike, but the water bottle stayed behind
Maybe you can practice popping the back wheel over little obstacles?

enduro

I had a similar type of crash about a week ago...I'm a real novice at dirt jumping, I've done almost every style of riding but jumping however. Anyway, I was practicing on a really small gap and didn't lift the rear wheel over the lip...whacked it pretty hard, did a nose wheelie for a while, and after a few seconds tumbled over the bars and skidded to a stop in the dust. Pretty dumb, I admit. I'm working on my abysmal technique.


One of my friends whacked his rear wheel on a curb at like 20 mph and got a major flat spot....he was able to hammer it back amazingly enough, and it's true enough to ride with rim brakes.

seely

You had my sympathy till I read that. I think I'm glad you crashed, maybe you will think twice about riding it next time.

Raiyn

Same here.

anthonaut

Sometimes there's no-where else to go. Ask any downhillers here- almost all of them have ridden the tracks at belair. The tracks are illegal but does that stop them? No. They're out there to enjoy biking and they won't let any pointless, fun-killing rules stop them. The tracks will become legal soon anyway but they wouldn't have become legal if people just didn't ride them becuase they're illegal.

Hopper

Anthonaut's right, we do get stooged down here. The area called Belair where all the good tracks are were going to become legal, council, residents and riders agrred on terms and then one stupid new guy moved to Belair. He stuffed it all up and now we have to wait even longer for them to be legal.

To prevent these accidents happening you need to learn how to bunnyhop better. Also the more experience you gain the easier it is to ride over those sought of things.

my58vw

I know exactly what you are going through... I have done that before... sometimes "lega;" routes are safer

seely

That is the stupidest argument I have ever read in my entire life. Tracks become legal by petitioning the governing body's-that-be to make them so. Riding illegally does nothing but piss off legislatures, park services and local government, not to mention it tears up areas not meant for MTBing and promotes erosion (properly designed trails are designed with erosion in mind). You know, your argument is basically like saying if we all go 55mph in a 25mph, they will eventually raise the speedlimit. It doesn't work that way. Eventually they will have cops sitting every 2ft on the road... just like eventually they will kick you out and close the illegal trail permanently. I've seen it happen here many, many times. Its a huge liability to the gov/park service/landowner.

Hopper

I agree with you Seely, but in this case Anthonaut is right. The council don't do anything about us, most residents don't care and they even started to talk and nearly made it all legal BECAUSE we were riding there and they knew we wouldn't stop. The only reason it stopped is because one person moved in and kicked up a fuss. Now there are talks going on again about legalizing it.

Also the state government know what's happening, you know what they did, they special carriges on the train track up to the tracks that are designed to take 30 bikes.

I see where you're coming from, but in this case it works. Hell there are so few legal tracks around that even sponsored pro's can be found to ride their bikes here.

shwa_rider

howcome the singletracks illegal,? were just on bikes...

anthonaut

I agree with hopper.

Raiyn

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=78331
Further proving the REAL effect of illegal trails.

seely

Because you don't own the land or pay the liability insurance.

seely

I put in my 2cents there

anthonaut

Wha..? Okay. Ill stay out of both these threads from now on.

Kidafa

Why tell us about ur 3 spoke braking stack when we can rand on for hours about near braking back stacks like me here ... lol cya

ps learn to bunny hop but not by pumpin up ur remound keep it slow

anthonaut

Yeah, if you rely on your rebound for bunny hopping, thats poor form.

a2psyklnut

I agree that riding illegal trails is wrong, but show some sympathy guys. A little won't hurt!

Sorry about your wheel. Breaking stuff sucks!

Now regarding the issue of illegal trails. I agree with Seely and Raiyn. Riding closed trails just pisses off the people who own the land. Be it private land owners or a governmental agency. The proper way is to organize a group, meet with the landowners and formulate a Win-Win agreement. Offer clean-up crews, a Patrol Group, charge a gate admission and offer a portion of the proceeds...etc. We DON't have a lot of trails in my area. The closest is an hour away. Thank God that the local club met with the State and organized a trail building, trail maintenance and self policing policy. The State has to do little except clean the bathroom facility and empty the trash cans. Heck, the State funded a Parking area, the restrooms facility, a campground, and a picnic area. Of course they charge a gate admission, but we have a pretty good network of trails as a result.

Check out www.imba.com for help.