Are manmade trails the saviour or scourge of mountain biking? We don’t have the answer, but we have collected some strong opinions on the topic.
From the Archives – Singletrack Issue 26 – 2006
How do you like your mountain biking? Lumpy? Long and twisty? Chilled? Soft scoop?
Here in the UK, we have an abundance of historical trails – bridleways, old trade routes and forestry trails all in a geographically tiny area. We also have a large number of new, custom built trail centres for mountain biking – something that is rare to find, even in the States.
On the surface, these new trails can only be a good thing. They’re self contained little treasures of mountain bike trails – signposted and graded according to difficulty. But is such self segregation a good thing? Will the Powers that Be soon insist that we adhere to this self-ghettoisation? Or is a good thing that encourages riders to get out on predictable, walker-free trails?
We asked around some of our contributors what they thought of man made trails…
Sphincter tightening? Sometimes…
“Man-made trails have their place and their overall design is improving. Sometimes a trail can be a whooping, breathtaking, sphincter- tightening, smile inducing affair and sometimes a gravelly, washboard misery with water running freely down in a stream.
“They are definitely encouraging trail use, mountain bike use and family exposure
to mountain biking, but maybe they’re a little sterile and paternal for the adventure/ backcountry set.” – Dr Jon Meredith
Trails that I trust
“It would seem that I’ve never really ridden a bad or boring man-made trail. But maybe I’m just easily amused. It would seem to me that I encounter more challenging technical trail features (jumps, drops, wooden obstacles and the like) on man-made trails, and the knowledge that the obstacle was built by a skilled trail builder often gives me the confidence to attempt more advanced lines. What you don’t typically find on man-made trails are obstructions that ruin the trail’s flow-things like mud pits, sand traps and downed trees. And man-made trails are especially resistant to weather damage. While I readily admit a fondness for riding natural trails – downed trees and water crossings are par for the course in Pennsylvania – trails made without a working knowledge of proper trail construction typically have either a limited riding season or a short life span.” – Jeff Guerrero
Count yourselves lucky
“I like man-made trails. Simple reason, really. People who make trails for public use are creating opportunities for riding, particularly for people who are more on the recreational side (vs. the ‘lifestyle’ side) of the sport. That is definitely something that I wish existed here in the States, and it doesn’t.
“All that being said, I feel like there is a different vibe when riding in a trail center vs. a natural trail. I can only speak for myself, but the natural trail always seems to have that degree of ‘positive uncertainty’ to it. It could be the feeling that you are actually going somewhere, or could go somewhere, instead of just riding around in circles. Maybe it’s the idea that a natural trail is wild and untamed, and even though it’s probably not true, you almost get the feeling that you (and your friends) are the only ones who can really appreciate what it’s like to ride those slabs, or descend that hill. You know that’s not the case with a man-made trail, with a parking lot full of cars.” – Chris Garrison
A bit of a rant
“OK, for the moment let’s forget the stampede of ‘Cars are the Devil’s chariots, except when there’s a mountain bike on the roof-rack’ riders driving an eight hour round trip to ride all of two hours, speeding past endless miles of an existing, underused and disappearing trail network as they go. Let’s skirt round all those self-satisfied altruistic bikers ‘helping the local economy’ on their American designed, Taiwanese made bikes, bejeweled with the finest mail-order parts while their local bike shop slowly slips beneath the waves. Let’s conveniently brush past all the willful and selfish segregation of trails – we want to ride our bikes everywhere you can go, oh, but we’re not going to help with any trail access or maintenance issues, we’re going to build our own trails, and you’re not allowed to walk or hoof on them, so there.
“Putting aside all those hoary old issues, why do they all man-made trails look the bloody same?
“I was looking at some pictures of some man-made trail the other day and it looked all rather familiar. I was certain, absolutely certain that I’d ridden one of the corners in the photos. “That’s Afan that is, the nice switchback on the steep side of the hill, view across the valley over your right shoulder… And that photo of a mountainbiker pedalling along a scar hacked out the side of a recently clear-cut mountainside, done that too, ages ago.”
“Turns out the pictures were taken on a recently opened trail, somewhere I’d never been, ever. Somewhere I couldn’t even pronounce. But it all looked so horribly frighteningly similar.
“Seems man-made trails really are off-road Scalextric; trailbuilders get a big kit in a box. 15 bits of straight, 10 corners, and if you can afford the posh version you get a bit of decking, and flags. Look, there’s the traverse through the trees with the gently undulating trail, kinking sweetly round freshly-felled tree- stumps, there’s the large rocks on the inside of the corner so you can’t cut it. wide-mouthed switchbacks snaking across scruffy long grass and deadfall, done all of those, many times, in several places. And don’t forget the cut-and- paste crowd-pleasing whoopy descent down to the finish.
“Why is it all the same? It just debases mountainbiking akin to walking along any High Street in Britain. You know you’re going to get a Dixons, a Top Shop, a W.H. Smiths and a McDonalds, but just in a slightly different order from town to town. Similarily all these man-made trails have the same cookie-cutter features, shuffled about a bit from place to place, just so you can wander around brain- dead on a Saturday.
“Oh, and don’t get me started on people building ‘North Shore’ (I use the term in the broadest sense) on public use land and then throwing their toys out the pram when it gets torn down.” – Jo Burt
Off the cuff.
“‘Give me convenience or give me death’ (Dead Kennedys) has become the universal modern mantra and ready-made trails are as tempting as takeaways. Fantastic when you just want a quick fill of a certain type of riding, and great if you’ve got loads of mates coming and can’t be bothered to cook up a route yourself. There’s nowt more disappointing than a bad one though, so you need to choose carefully.
“They’ve also kicked general riding standards up the arse by pushing people into situations they wouldn’t ride in the wild but will because of the ‘peer pressure’ of them being on a designated mountain bike route.
“There’s nothing like the satisfaction of creating your own route from threading favourite sections together with ‘hope this is OK’ gambles though, and wild riding demands a lot more attention to surface, weather, environment and navigation. That’s probably a ball ache to those who get their kicks from the whoops not the “Where next?” though.
“At the end of the day they undoubtedly get more people riding for more of the year and reduce traffic on the natural trails too. That can never be a bad thing, whatever your other opinions.Sorry that turned out more of a sleeve than a cuff….” – Guy Kesteven
Swords
“If humans left routes as nature intended, most of our riding would be in riverbeds. Modern trail centres simply get a little more care and attention than other human or other mammal formed routes. Like roads, their supposed predictability makes them great products to use from time to time. But like cycle lanes at the side of roads, they’re double edged sword.” – Steve Worland
All weathered
“My first ever off road experience was at a race (at Eastway in East London). I had a mountain bike and it was the easiest way of finding a way to ride when I was in London. All I needed to do was find the venue and follow the stripy tape. For the next two or three years, much of my riding revolved around the race scene. I would find a convoluted way out of London, via the train and lifts from friends. I would have a weekend of sociable fun in a field somewhere far flung; the Lakes, the Peaks, Middlesborough(!) and at some point, I’d ride the course, do the race and head home, happy with my mountain biking fill for that weekend.
“While friends of mine (with cars) spent weekends in the Peaks, exploring routes, I was racing – not because I was any good, but because that was the catalyst to getting me out of London and into the hills. I followed the stripy tape in the same way that riders today follow the blue arrows. They are both one-way, traffic free, slices of mountain biking that you ride in the knowledge that there’s ‘real’ riding all around, but this is a convenient way of sampling it for the moment.
“Since those days, I’ve done less and less racing and more and more exploration of the hills, but sometimes there’s something to be said for the opportunity of blatting down a great trail, knowing that there won’t be a spookable horse or six-deep family group. And man-made trails have the advantage of being consistently rideable in all weathers. If it’s stair-rodding outside, then I’m happy to take off to CyB or wherever.
“In the meantime, though, I’m going to try and get a little more lost this year, ride some more local trails the ‘wrong’ way and do a lot more ‘where does this go?’ riding. Perhaps I’ll even ignore some of the blue arrows in the woods and make up my own Rainbow Route…” – Chipps
McTrails
“I tend to subscribe to the fast food/’real’ food comparison, but it’s unsatisfactory and falls short in several ways.
“As built trails have stipulations put upon them (a need to drain well, resist wear, etc) they have a tendency to feel similar to each other differing only in the other elements around them (the type of trees in that area, the shape of the terrain, weather conditions) when ‘natural’ trails are more individual and dependent entirely on the local conditions; bogginess might occur, the trail might be quite different from one season to the next, even change direction over time like a river (oxbow trails?).
“A better analogy might be to TV/internet – manmade is comparatively passive; there aren’t many route deviations, you follow the arrows and arrive where you started, the experience is more predictable (this might be a good thing depending on your mood) where as the natural trail is less predictable; a new detour might crop up, options for cake and beer are greater, that bit down by the river might be impassable – potentially more frustrating or more rewarding.” – Dean Taylor
