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Riding In The Rain
After attending the xc club championships this morning at yarramundee( i went down to help out rather than ride in the rain), this being a rather pointless objective, because rightly wsmtb club did the right thing and called it off, what surprised me were the number of riders turning up to ride socially that didnt care whether it was raining, hailing or a mudbath.
After we talked to these people about the condition of the track after it gets ridden in this sort of rain, they then informed us that they had come from the north shore and were going to ride whether we liked it or not, these were not just ordinary punters riding 500 dollar weekend bikes, these were fellows with very high end mtb's, so i figured they have been around and should know better, you can imagine what we were all thinking, we are all standing around talking about how bad it is and that we cant ride and we may as well watch V8 supercars etc when these guys just waltz on in even after we basically told them about how morally wrong it was and that they could travel another 5 minutes and be on trails that wouldn't be so affected!
!0 minutes after these blokes went in riding, another couple of blokes came along from Bronte to attend the race, after giving them the same spiel they decided that Grose Head/ Blue Gum Swamp would be a morally better choice, these guys i dont blame for travelling this vast distance and still wanting to ride somewhere, what annoyed me were the first blokes that rode Yellowmundee had heaps of wet weather gear so they knew what the conditions were going to be like and were going to ride no matter what!
My opinion is i dont ride on days like this for fear of cutting up tracks, i want to know what eveybody else thinks, do you guys think it's game on no matter the weather, or do you shy away from riding in known wet conditions, i have noticed lately that a lot of people travel up to the mountains every weekend and ride the tracks no matter whether we have days of rain and it's a quagmire, or it's hailing, they feel that the muddier that they get the better, but that only just impacts whatever that has been ridden.
Myself, i am getting very frustrated seeing these people travel up here from the city and beach suburbs and ride these precious resources to only create havoc for others, bear in mind it is only my opinion that has been formed from seeing this a lot.
Feel free to give your opinion!
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I definately don't ride any single track after moderate rain as I know how it will affect the track. I have ridden along Shaws ridge and GHS after fairly heavy rain, but avoid Bluegum as it gets wet and swampy (hence the name I guess). I've also ridden the Oaks in slight rain, but the single track was not very wet at all.
We (some guys from work) ride Yellowmundee almost weekly, but call it off if its been raining. I can understand wanting to get a ride in after driving a fair way, but there are more appropriate places to ride.
In short, its not worth one ride to ruin a track.
Yeah it's like a double edged sword, wanting to ride after making arrangements and driving all that way, but i agree, ghs and blue gum/shaws are more appropriate, it was a stark reminder today of some peoples attitude towards riding!
I also tend to mimmic 'chain suck chuck' in really wet sandy conditions as I found out heading back up the Shaws downhill a few weeks ago.
Nice write up Todd. Can't agree more.
There are a lot of places to ride in the rain where you won't do any damage.. the majority of the Blue Mtns fire trails come under this. But single track usually can't take it and as single track is usually having to be maintained by some poor buggers prepared to give up their time to keep it riding well and not falling apart and becoming an eroded mess, it is just plain rude and arrogant.... especially after being told not to, to ride anyway.
Playing devils advocate ...
I can kinda see that after a long drive, prolly +2hours for them, why they'd go regardless. I've ridden in the rain or on wet tracks, but I kinda know which ones can and can take it. Notwithstanding, given a few of you had explained the track shouldn't be ridden (and prolly gave them alternatives to ride) its bloody rude to head out anyway.
maybe the trail conditions thing I was hesitant about for BMORC and the other GRN could help ?? I doubt it.
I reckon the answer is signage, to close the track ... and fines ... hip pocket impacts are the only way my economist/accounting head sees as effective, as you can never change people's attitudes with a nice discussion.
Otherwise, the Lithgow panther needs feeding.
I would rather go for a jog if it's raining or I might ride up Bennetts Ridge firetrail and return via the Oaks dirt road if I want to ride and it's not to wet. Most single track we have around here at the moment is poorly designed or maintained and suffers badly in the wet, riding on it just makes it all that much worse.
The excuse that they had driven a long way is poor. The weather forecast was for rain and most outdoor people now check the radars, so the odds are they knew it would be wet and still raining. Not to mention that they were asked to not ride and were offered nearby alternatives.
Will be interesting to see if those riders attend the next track day at Yellomundee.
The time will come when popular tracks around here will have OPEN / CLOSED signs on them. BMCC and individual sports clubs currently close sporting fields when it rains and they have a hot-line to check the status.
Nerf- who would do the fining?
It's all about self regulation. Yes it's a pain in the arse to drive for a few hours to find that the trail is too wet to ride, but isn't that what the internerd is used for? Checking weather sites or posting up a question regarding how much rain a certain area has seen is not too hard. I've even rung shops in an area I plan on riding in if the weather has been dubious.
I'm not sure of the time frame you're talking about Mr. Epic (or should that be Evo now?) but the trail status was posted as green/open at 1017hrs on 25/10/2010.
http://nobmob.com/node/17842
I'm assuming the club rounds would have kicked off before that time though.
As chuck posted, if it's wet or raining go for a jog or better yet, sit somewhere cosy with a big block of Cadbury Bubbly.
There are 2 very different issues here
1)Riding int he wet
2)Riding when the land managers, trail crew ask you not too
1)
Depends on the trail and soil base.
And lets face it the UK has trails built through boggs and have been able to make them sustainable under far greater population pressures.
Some of my most memorable rides and races have been in the pissing down rain.
Lidsdale drains well and we've ran some very wet races there. As the guy that does the maintenance there I think it's fine, Ive never known it to cut up more in the wet. Lets face it when the logging machines move in the amount of damage we cause by riding in the wet is going to pale in comparison.
DH wise we've had some sopping state races at both State mine and Hassans walls.
Both tracks required far less repair after a wet race then they did after dry races.
In the wet the slop was basically just pushed around, normally to the outside of a corner where it bermed up nicely for the next race, or into the stutter bumps where it filled in the bumps and baked hard when dry. Get up there before it dries out and push it back where you want it and bobs your uncle
However in the dry, rather than sliding across the surface tyres dug in and the dust blew away on the wind leaving the trails a little worse for wear.
Just have to look at this years state champs. It was wet and we have 220 riders each doing 10 or so runs over the weekend. Afterwards Gun Club track was int he best condition it's been in for years. However a couple of months later, some hot dry weather and it starts developing braking bumps and getting a loose with just a few locals on it.
I've also done a couple very wet races at yellomundi. Most of the trail held up fine.
One of those races used the Shawnos chute areas, that was very slippery when the heavins opened for 20mins just on dark but IMO was more dangerous to the riders then the trail.
The other was the 12hr they called off about halfway through. Again most of the trail was handling it fine (the sandstone sections) but the back end where new trail had been cut down near the farm was horrible. This was on a black soil base and very boggy. A very good decision to call it off.
2.)Riding when land managers and those responsible for maintenance ask you not too.
No two ways about it. This is a C$%^ of an act. Unfortunately there is that section of the MTB community who are selfish toffee-nosed wankers who expect everything handed to them on a plate but refuse to show any responsibility or common sense. It's all about me and my ride...
I agree totally. The tracks are a community resource for all and hard enough as it is for volunteers to maintain . These people are just being selfish and are giving mountain bike riders a bad name. I really hate the sense of "entitlement" people have over community land. I imagine these folks would be the sort never to slow down when passing walkers either.
I'm glad you said that Flynny ... It was gun club we rode recently in the rain ... most fun I've had in ages, although I blew through both front and rear pads and stuffed my 5.10s in terms of the odour stakes. Track held up so well.
re fining ... I would love the power, but thats never gonna happen ... so Rangers will need to do some enforcement. In this day and age, users with photo evidence should be able to give this to enforcement people, but I know this is a whole new argument.
IMO getting the entire community to change their mindset to respect the trails won't get 100% ... regardless. MTB just attracts too broad a cross section of the community to be morally perfect.
I guess this is where sustainable trail design comes in, you have to know people will ride in the wet so you need to design and cater for this.
The thing I find annoying about their whole excuse, is that those same people would probably get shitty if you rocked up at Manly Dam after rain and said the same thing.
I guess the only way to attempt to stop it happening is like what they've done at Manly, with track closure signs & notification of fines for riding when closed.
There are still some people who will ride it anyway (there are always gonna be twats who don't give a crap about anyone but themselves), but people seem to think a bit more if their wallets may be impacted.