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...just ridden by a better, much better, rider than I.
Right you lot, leave it to the locals..
Lovely! Made me laugh though as I gravitate to the area on the CX bike to link together lots of flat muddy bits, basically all the stuff that DIDN'T make his video 😂
That certainly wasn't filmed today.
Wish Scott wouldn't skid though.
Kids thinks it's cool but it wrecks the trail. It's local woods and not a maintained trail centre.
lovely video, beautiful trail and location.
i do enjoy watching videos of good riders riding trails local to me, especially when i’m on the turbo trainer. it’s often less scary than watching normal riders’ efforts.
amusingly, this guy rode trails that were local to me before we moved back to “civilization”.
hope the link works
Wish Scott wouldn’t skid though.
You and I both.
He's nice and generous, my lads are dressed head to toe in his cast off kit. 😎
Skidding...FFS...never big or clever but apparently it makes for great footage. Will get a proper watch shortly though as suspect the scenery is going to be amazing.
Suspect I end up posting on the YouTube video to ask why he can't ride without skidding - but suspect I'll get flamed for that, but I can't not mention it!
A proper grumpy old man attitude but I get properly annoyed at skidding - wrecks the trails, helps the puddles to form and create more erosion and is a great advert for other trail users to know an idiot has been there on their bike.
I really do take our local trails for granted - I’m far too complacent about them.
Nice guy Scotty, except when he ****ing skids. When I skid on the same trails it’s only ‘cos I’ve ballsed up 🙁
Dick - exactly.
And I'm the one who gets dragged into BofA community council meetings every time there's an issue or conflict with bikers of any kind.
I'll give Scott's Mum a call next time - she can go in and defend him and the skidding and the building.
The Mine Woods are owned by the council.
Uni / Hermitage Woods are owned by the Uni - who already have a record of doing everything they can to exclude bikers (blocked routes, narrow gates forcing dismounting etc).
Devil's advocado: the only skidding I really noticed was through a couple of berms, which had been put there specifically by and for MTBers?
The most-jarring thing in the video for me was seeing that trail braiding on Dumyat(?) (which I'd not just blame on bikers BTW).
Anyway, must be nice to see your local trails showcased like this. Imagine how humbling it is when they do it on a gravel bike though...
I ride those trails every few days and occasionally work on those trails. Not sure that skidding makes that much of a difference tbh, certainly not on the witches side. I have seen more damage done in the wet by 25kg ebikes just lapping that loop into winter. I ride dual wetscreams and does not seem to leave much of a mark as you are not sliding everywhere in the current conditions.
/devils advocate mode
The most-jarring thing in the video for me was seeing that trail braiding on Dumyat(?) (which I’d not just blame on bikers BTW).
Which leads to the question of what is worse - skidding or other issues such as over use, riding in wet conditions or constant creation of new lines due to erosion...?
/devils advocate mode off
I ride dual wetscreams
On an eeb? Or are you Chris Hoy in disguise?
what is worse – skidding or other issues such as over use, riding in wet conditions or constant creation of new lines due to erosion…?
No idea TBH, but some people will see that braiding and blame MTBs, while others will blame hikers walking side-by-side and then rain erosion has probably played a role in deepening some into unrideable ruts.
To be fair, it probably doesn't look so ugly when you're on the ground?
On an eeb? Or are you Chris Hoy in disguise?
Banshee Titan. The supertacky compound is hard as rock this time of year.
I ride dual wetscreams and does not seem to leave much of a mark as you are not sliding everywhere in the current conditions.
I put a wetscream on the back of the tandem years ago. It just ripped up the trails. Far more trail damage than a more normal tyre. But then I am not a skidder with either tyre
The worst damage I have seen is from my wtb senderos on my flatbar roadrat. Cuts deep.
I guess anything on the back of a tandem will have a greater impact?
the only skidding I really noticed was through a couple of berms, which had been put there specifically by and for MTBers?
Unfortunately not. I'm a local and there's sections of general trail/path (not built in any way) where he's skidding the back end on. I'm not rewatching the video to get a time stamp, but some S bends on Witches Craig.
Peeing me off this is. No excuse whatsoever for skidding on natural trails (or indeed trail centres), especially ones where there's already known conflict issues with other users - and Scotty will know that. Makes a mockery of the "sustainable" tagline on his video series.
Suspect I end up posting on the YouTube video to ask why he can’t ride without skidding – but suspect I’ll get flamed for that, but I can’t not mention it!
FFS, just seen Scott's response to you where he asks "Where's the skidding". So blind as well as selfish.
Makes a mockery of the “sustainable” tagline on his video series.
TBH that was my very first thought on watching it.
where he asks “Where’s the skidding”. So blind as well as selfish.
Is he trying to distinguish between skidding (back brake on) and drifting/sliding round corners?
Is he trying to distinguish between skidding (back brake on) and drifting/sliding round corners?
probably, I think its a worthy distinction - one is a sign of lack of skill and thought, the other is kind of a byproduct of loose terrain at speed
bigging it up and filming in such a way as to exagerrate it is much less sensible IMHO, as evidenced by the opininons of the others who have replied to the youtube comment
I'm really trying to understand the points made by the Skid Police but I'm missing something.
On a well established trail ridden by hundreds of bikes why does it matter if a few of them slide around a little and move a few grammes of dirt from one place to another? What difference does it make?
There's an almost infinite number of ways to act like a dick and make the world a worse place to be, but doing a skid on a bike in the soil must be somewhere near the bottom.
Then again, this kind of pointless microgrievance is classic STW so I'm not surprised by it.
On a well established trail ridden by hundreds of bikes why does it matter if a few of them slide around a little and move a few grammes of dirt from one place to another? What difference does it make?
because it accelerates erosion hugely and also folk like this youtuber are setting the example - then we are back to skids are cool and wrecked trails
If its OK for one person its OK for everyone and then womp - what was a nice trail turns into an eroded mess
^^ wot TJ says. All about setting an example. Scotty's an "influencer" and impressionable folk will copy what they see = unnecessarily increasing trail erosion.
On a well established trail ridden by hundreds of bikes why does it matter if a few of them slide around a little and move a few grammes of dirt from one place to another? What difference does it make?
Important to remember that the video includes shared-use trails.
Important to remember that the video includes shared-use trails.
kind of like it needs a "pro rider on closed* trails do not attempt" disclaimer
while its all editied together to make a nice flowing trail, every second of riding is going to be multiple takes, practise runs and so on.
so yeah, he's blatting round a blind corner but in his case the cameraman is standing on the corner, and can give a good indication that the run is clear.
his influenced followers may go out and copy it, and end up head on with the local trail running or dog walking group
his influenced followers may go out and copy it, and end up head on with the local trail running or dog walking group
Who is doing a head count this weekend up at the top of Mine Woods?
So slippery maybe we need to set up a fail camera up there.
I enjoyed this tagline...
Juxtaposed with this extensive multi track erosion going off into the distance all down the hillside... 🤔
I like Scotty, but that's a bit of an epic fail 😂
I like Scotty, but that’s a bit of an epic fail
To be fair, he hasn't created that on his own.
Us local riders, some of whom lap those trails 2 or 3 times a week, year around; and of course the volume of local riders and visitors probably contributed far more.
TBF that isn't bikes that did that rutting.
So slippery maybe we need to set up a fail camera up there.
Oooh, fail of the week all from the same spot? 😁
To be fair, he hasn’t created that on his own.
Yeah I know that, of course he hasn't, but it's not really an image I'd put up right after that particular line all the same 😊
TBF that isn’t bikes that did that rutting
True.
But we do contribute a LOT of the erosion in the area on bikes.
He had his BTR rake with him and some tools?
He had his BTR rake with him and some tools?
Yeah, that’s why you need a van to drive to the trails…
Bless him for trying to patch some of the trail. I have a stash up there that usually gets stolen or moved around. Gets annoying. Never seen anyone doing work up there but it usually does not need much.
To be fair to Scotty, he now lives about 15 miles from BofA, so probs justified to drive there rather than ride. Give the lad a bit if a break. I'm not a fan of the skidding either, but he is cracking on down those trails at warp speed (as he needs to do to make the video look "not pedestrian"), and the surface was loose during the period he filmed this. I'm not surprised there was a bit of skidding involved.
He’s not skidding due to braking in the corner. He’s losing traction and controlling the drift through the berm and that is very much an acceptable part of mountain biking, something I’m sure some of you would love to be able to do as well as he has!
To move away from the skidding issue, which we seem to generally be in agreement on, it was a nice reminder of the loops ridden whilst at uni decades ago. I pulled out the Stirling map by chance this week and wished is had a car whilst I was there. As great as the riding from the door was, there was so much I never got to do.
Agreed
Trails have changed since you were here. Lower Dumyat was destroyed by SPEN under the pylon mitigation works so the classic descent is no more.
Witches has had its long rhoddi tunnel trimmed back.
Colsnaur didn't have a trail off until lock down but it is now a clearly defined path that is just wonderful and goes on for 500m or so of vertical descent. Bit boggy getting there but well worth doing when Dumyat is rammed with muggles.
Riding from campus tomorrow if you wish to join us 🙂
Riding from campus tomorrow if you wish to join us.
If only. I figured that, 25 years after the fact, the trails would have evolved somewhat.
If he is loosing traction due to the speed and the loose surface he should damn well slow down. I want to go fast/look good/please the sponsors is never a legtimate reason to screw the surface or impress idiots.
Given that there's a whole series of these (sustainable) videos then I assume we can all look forward to seeing him ripping up a trail near us soon 😂
Ace 8)
The Lawers and Ghlas ride is a classic.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51116505617_b06ae0573a_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51116505617_b06ae0573a_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2kSZsfn ]Beinn Ghlas MTB[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/matt_outandabout/ ]Matt[/url], on Flickr
And Balquiddher is fun...
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50274508733_a60d5239db_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50274508733_a60d5239db_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2jAzZUH ]Lockdown Adventures[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/matt_outandabout/ ]Matt[/url], on Flickr
Was walking up Balquhidder the other week and was impressed with the trails that I saw (although limited to what I could see from the forestry roads). Looked well made.
Balquhidder is nice. Last time I was there I fell in a stream and hit a tree lol