[Closed] Trail Centre weekend riding group rant

I think that was quite reasonable behaviour. People who stand around on the trail are real pain in the arse.

thegeneralist - Member

I think that was quite reasonable behaviour. People who stand around on the trail are real pain in the arse.

Posted 12 seconds ago # Report-Post

THIS .

Is there still a massive clearing at the top of Red1?

If so, they should have been in it, not in the middle of the trail.

Yes, still a massive clearing at the top of Red1 but it was a bit muddy. Probably why they decided not to wait there.

At least I feel better now.

Don't think you'll get flamed,I'd have done the same. It's just common sense to wait at the side of the trail,maybe they were a bit thick?..

probably had orange 5's lol

Try riding in Leogang, the Germans love having a 5 minute meeting on the start platform and block anyone behind from getting through. I just hammer at them shouting vorsicht now.

Should've bunny hopped in to the puddle! Sometimes people can be a bit mindless without any bad intent. Don't worry about it we all lose our rags a bit from time to time.

I have ridden over bikes.In my defence I was still flat chat as exited the singletrack for the steep uphill fire road section (not Strava....33/17 ss momentum is everything) and had the choice of that or exit stage left into the trees.
Proof that 29er DO roll over bikes better than 26.

Bit like skiing/snowboarding - nothing boils my p1ss faster than a group stood in the middle of a run..

Didn't they hear your bell ...

Happens at busy places. Just about to hit the jump after the corner on red 15 at Swinley and some Arseclown had left their bike on the landing. Luckily they managed to shift it before I landed on it.

Don't need a bell, I have Pro II hubs on my bike which they should have heard.

Not unique to MTBers, roadies do it too. Wait at the top of a hill to regroup and they'll be milling round all over the place, bikes at various random angles into the road.
Or the first rider will pull into a layby then everyone else will bunch up around it, spilling out across the road.

But then people do that at the supermarket too, stand obliviously in the middle of the aisle chatting, their trolleys blocking everything.

Must be some sort of human grouping thing. Crap design, whatever it is.

to be fair I thought the complaint was going to be about catching a stationary group who then all desperately set off seconds before you reach them in a bid to stay ahead of you, despite the fact the reason you've caught them is because [i]you've been riding more quickly than them[/i].

If I get caught like that I'll invite them to pass; last thing I want is someone getting frustrated behind me, spoiling their ride and distracting me from mine.

Bit like skiing/snowboarding - nothing boils my p1ss faster than a group stood in the middle of a run..

isn't the term for parked snowboarders a seal colony?

I am always staggered at the general lack of spacial awareness and respect for others in this country sometimes.

Dont knock yourself out over it bud , i find it happens a lot at trail centers these days. when i ride i like to flow through the whole section not stop and have a debate about it halfway. ok there are times when you might get a flat tyre or whatever but you pull over out of the way , its all about good trail manners.

I ended up having a bit of a rant at a group in Cannock for this exact reason... caught the back markers up the climb, but it was near enough the top so didn't make any attempt to get past, rest of group stop at the top just before a big clearing and the back markers stop in the middle of the trail.

Yes I ride a Santa Cruz, no I don't drive a black audi 8)

Yes a number of the group were on a mix of Fives and Alpine 160s 🙄

I read something once about a study into groups of people and how many had to be in the group before they became oblivious to their surroundings and their impacts on other people. It wasn't many, 4 or 5 I think was enough in many cases.

Don't think it's bike related. It's just people being selfish / not considering others / being oblivious to their surroundings.

As has been said, supermarkets are a good place to observe this, as are train stations (why stand on the stairs or stop at the bottom to gawp at the signs - move forwards to let others get off the stairs!), pavements (phone zombies! They're everywhere), roads (middle lane hoggers anyone?), bridleways, etc, etc.

The only common denominator is people.

Si

Notice this all the time working at a train station. 22 doors open on a Pendolino and everyone gets in a queue for one or two doors.

Trail centres are a bit like marked snow pistes IMO. So you can expect people who don't perhaps know or think about the correct conduct/behaviour. Though I can sympathise with the OP I think would have reacted along the lines of live and let live.

Though it does remind me of a situation last winter when a woman started screaming at me in the local forest becuase I had 'splashed' her boots with mud as I rode past. I started complaining back at her saying that she should look at the state of my boots and tights. Her bewildered reaction was a joy to behold!

I've missed this site while I've been away riding.

crashtestmonkey - Member
to be fair I thought the complaint was going to be about catching a stationary group who then all desperately set off seconds before you reach them in a bid to stay ahead of you, despite the fact the reason you've caught them is because you've been riding more quickly than them.
If I get caught like that I'll invite them to pass; last thing I want is someone getting frustrated behind me, spoiling their ride and distracting me from mine

Talking of which, had a hilarious one the other week. A group of riders saw me approach, they scrambled to get in front of the middle aged man on ratty old hardtail. To try and stay in front on the climb they shortcut the switchbacks.

I read something once about a study into groups of people and how many had to be in the group before they became oblivious to their surroundings and their impacts on other people. It wasn't many, 4 or 5 I think was enough in many cases.

This is it really. Pretty sure it's not intentional just a facet of human behaviour.

I read something once about a study into groups of people

does seem that the collective IQ shows exponential decay with increasing group size. Most recent encounter like this was an airport parking bus - I opened the trailer with all the bags in as the driver was busy doing f-- all and people just stood and stared like it was the Ark of the Covenant. Oh that's not my bag right in front of me I couldn't possibly lift it out and pass it to the person next to me, I'll just stand here gawping until somehow my bag which is buried 10 deep appears at my feet.

It happens in the Summer all the time in the South Wales centres and BPW - the hairpin just before the very last part of The Wall is a favoured spot for a full on Granny Meeting - judging by thier accents they're not local, I always assumed they're down for a weekend and are more used to riding in local woods and having the place to themselves - they always move if I ask/shout/plead - depending on how fast or out of control I am at the time.

Back in the dark ages I used to ride the DH at Cwmcarn a lot, the XC used to pass the DH track right at the point of a decent sized drop off a fireroad - you'd be heading down at warp speed (or my level of warp speed anyway) into a sea of lads stood at the edge of it, either peering down mouthing "fuuuu that" or looking at you to entertain them - I was always scared to death of that drop at the best of times and having to shout to be able to see it didn't help!

They've moved the XC now thank bawls.

airport baggage reclaim. stand a foot or so back from the line around the belt, then more people can easily see, and fit, at least if we all did it, and just step forward and grab the bag as it goes by. but no. stand in front of me, i'm just passing the time of day, after all.... 👿

Human nature when it comes to flying and airports in general utterly, utterly baffles me - from the fight / queue to get on the plane to your assigned seat first, to the fight to get off the the hateful thing first and yes the ruck to stand with your shins resting on the carousel just in case some bandit steals your bag or as if proximity will will your bag off first.

The maddest thing is the worst culprits are on package holidays when however quickly you manage to get out of the airport you've got to wait for the slowest, can't-go-three-hours-without-a-fag muppet to get aboard the 'come and see what you could have won' bus anyway.

I've been on my one and only package holiday, I don't want to do that again.

Trail Etiquette - people really struggle with it

I was riding with a big group in the alps last summer and when we'd stop (....lots in a group of 16) people would just stop on the trail

I became quite vocal on several occasions, reminding people that there are riders hammering down the trail

After about 3 days it started to sink in with people (and i still get ribbed about it!!)

I share your pain fella!!

Did you not think to say "excuse me" on the way up to them before getting angry?

A group of friends having a nice day out enjoying themselves are bound to be oblivious to what's going on outside the group.

We've probably all done it but at least you've felt the shame 🙂

I think it's fine.. We all need to stop for a chat, drink whatever sometimes but you don't block the trail.. You need to allow people to pass through so you take your bikes and bodies off to one side to allow people to pass.

I suppose the exception would be if someone has had an equipment failure that's just happened so they and thier company might not have had time to move off the trail. Depends on the circumstances really..

I've had it a few times, I tend to shout out in good time a polite warning 'excuse me chaps Comming through!' generally seems to work.

I've had exactly the same experience at trail centres. Worst one was when a group of maybe 8 or 10 are stopped, covering the entire fire road. Despite a polite hello and excuse me, not one of them acknowledged my presence and I literally had to ride off the road to get round them. 5 minutes later they overtake me, I say hello.....not one hello in return, excuse me...nothing. Slightly further up they're stood in the middle of the road again. There's at least a little bit of space to get round, but after two attempts at speaking to them and being blanked both times I sail through silently deciding not to make any further effort. It's only after passing that I hear a very loud and sarcastic hello - I'm actually getting heckled for not acknowledging THEM.

If I was a tough guy, I would've went straight back and lamped him. But I'm not, so I just rode on in a quiet rage.

Two gnar lads smirked at my new fully rigid sspeed today and raced off to keep ahead of me. I'd already been round on my proper bike and as it was in the van, thought I'd have a quick blast as it was delivered only yesterday. I felt a bit bad when they had to let me by. We're all there to have fun....

Two gnar lads smirked at my new fully rigid sspeed today and raced off to keep ahead of me. I'd already been round on my proper bike and as it was in the van, thought I'd have a quick blast as it was delivered only yesterday. I felt a bit bad when they had to let me by.

Swoons

Hands off.....he's mine ,you harlot.

Not too unreasonable, it gets pretty annoying. Last time I was at Woburn there was a large gaggle of neon-clad middle aged enduro-ers who kept gathering at the top of the dh trails. All got in the way when people were waiting to take runs, didn't affect me luckily so I kept my nose out but would have been annoying if they kept getting in the way, seemingly oblivious. Perhaps they can't see our tiny 26" wheels.

Swoons

On a road ride last year I accidently got onto a Sportive route - didn't even know the event was going on until I saw some signage.

Coming down a tiny lane with a sharp dogleg bend in it and, right on the exit of the corner was a rider with his bike upside down fixing a puncture. I missed him by inches - simply couldn't see him until you were on the corner exit taking the obvious line and he was right on it.

I stopped a few metres further up where there was a small layby and suggested he might want to move his bike into there but he just said he was nearly done and carried on. As I turned to ride off he bent over double, his arse sticking right out as he started pumping his tyre up.

I rode off and next thing I heard from behind me was a soft thump and a crash as the next rider came round the corner and went right into him. Total idiot - zero spatial awareness of what the road was like and what a dangerous position he'd put himself into.

You get use to it seems to be happening a lot more than it use to which is a bit strange where there are less people MTbiking these days.You come cross it a bit in the Forest of Dean one day start the 2K run guy sat on this bike on the first little jump having a sack unbelievable like no one else is going to use the trail just have to go round him and miss the jump great.Have bunny hopped a bike in the passed down there which was led across a trail guy wasn't happy never touch the bike though told him get it off the trail plenty of trees to put it against.
Does make your blood boil at times.

Blatting down A-line in whistler and finding riders standing on the big rock drop/roll is guaranteed to cause brown pants

More recently? People standing in front of supermarket baskets / underground station entrances / elevator door completely absorbed by tapping away on smartphone

Yeah but...

It's a trail centre y'know? It's pretty much always guaranteed to happen.

At Llandegla on New Years Day, I arrived at the start of the boardwalk section of the B-line and there was a couple standing looking at it and saying it was too difficult..... and then they let Mr Pea go, before nipping in front of me to walk! I gave them a few minutes head start, then rode the section of boardwalk, to find them standing right in my way on the end of the boardwalk, looking at it. I shouted "watch out, I'm coming through" and scattered them. Berks.

crashtestmonkey - Member

to be fair I thought the complaint was going to be about catching a stationary group who then all desperately set off seconds before you reach them in a bid to stay ahead of you, despite the fact the reason you've caught them is because you've been riding more quickly than them.

OK, you realise what's actually happened there? They've assumed you're going to stop, so they've moved away quickly to preserve a gap. It's the best option, [i]if[/i] you were going to stop as most people do between descents at trail centres.

Think it was Alp D'huez. 2nd week of a3 week Euro road trip. Wanging it down a track, hit a jump and a couple of dudes had left a bike in the landing.
My mate hit it, crashed and broke his wrist. Ended his holiday right there.
👿 👿 👿

[i]airport baggage reclaim. stand a foot or so back from the line around the belt, then more people can easily see, and fit, at least if we all did it, and just step forward and grab the bag as it goes by. but no. stand in front of me, i'm just passing the time of day, after all.... [/i]

Ohh this winds me up too. There is even a painted line to tell people where to stand ffs. Glad it's not just me. I reach through, grab my bag and drag it through the crowd. Who probably don't notice as they are so oblivious.

Trolleys in supermarkets too, argh... Oh god I'm getting infuriated now as I'm thinking about people who don't indicate when driving, or don't acknowledge me when I've let them in/out, or when I've held the door open, or they remember they've forgotten something when the cashier has rung up their shop, or.... (walks away to calm down)

(comes back a bit later) No flaming from me, I want to congratulate you (op). Common problem at trail centres though, and only replaced by pedestrians out in the wild though.

Yes I am an intolerant sod.

Try the Alpine skier monkey screech

Works best with trolley-chatters in tescos

Singletrack surfer you are missing people who leave their car at the petrol pump whilst they go and do a big shop in the forecourt mini-mart.

Utter ****-ends.

Came across a couple of blokes walking their dog straight down the red at dalby one morning.

And me getting incredulous looks because I didn't beep..seriously

Kooks, everywhere I see Kooks.

Try the Alpine skier monkey screech

I'm going to try this nice time i go to a trail centre...but then back it up with a cheery hello.

 

How about Singletrack doing an article on trail etiquette? I don't necessarily mean some of the finer points but just the basic stuff?

How about Singletrack doing an article on trail etiquette? I don't necessarily mean some of the finer points but just the basic stuff?

"Don't be a dick."

Now where do I collect my royalties?

Supermarket trolleys.
If they are left unattended I like to move them to the next aisle then wander back to see the ensuing confusion and panic 😆

"Don't be a dick."
Now where do I collect my royalties?

You don't know till you ask.....

Much talk about gear, is there much talk about safe & responsible riding?....

Someone needs to make a gnar edit on riding responsibly....

Much talk about gear, is there much talk about safe & responsible riding?....

I do a fair bit of ride-leading, including a LEJOG event and this is by far the main problem on it. Everyone knows all about the gear, their power meter readings, heart rate, Garmin, Strava, blah blah.

It gets to the riding bikes part of it and many of them simply have zero idea of things like road positioning, spatial awareness, bunch riding...even things as basic as gear selection.
All their "training" has been done on the turbo, they can smash out big gear intervals and watch the power meter numbers rise but sadly that doesn't translate to actually being able to turn corners or descend on a wet road.

I suspect that translates pretty well across most types of cycling - MTBers will have seen all the videos of shredding the gnar and the magazine articles about how to roost/schralp/shred/rail/hammer* but nothing about minor things like where to stand while you're waiting for your mates or discussing how rad you all were on that previous section.

*delete as required depending on your levels of gnarr-core.

More recently? People standing in front of supermarket baskets / underground station entrances / elevator door completely absorbed by tapping away on smartphone

This ^^^

It's not limited to trail centres - just about every walk of life is becoming more and more compromised by people who have absolutely no awareness of what's going on around them - even when you bring it to their attention.
I'm coming to the conclusion that evolution has gone into reverse.

@MuddyDwarf - to really have fun, move the trolley as far away as possible, and put loads if expensive stuff in it on the way ( whisky, disposable razors, caviar) and embarrassing stuff (pile cream, precnancy tests, a gross of condoms and a dozen tubes of KY jelly)
Make sure to hide these under other items, so that they aren't discovered until they reach the checkout.

mrlebowski - Member

Much talk about gear, is there much talk about safe & responsible riding?...

The trouble is, there's no one accepted version. Like, chap on p1 was annoyed because another rider at a trail centre did something which would, in most circumstances, be the best thing to do. And we had a big argy bargy about giving way to climbers or descenders. And IMBA say it's bad to ride in the rain.

Not blocking trails is pretty bloody obvious though.

That bloke on the skiing vid makes all those monkey noises to shift folk on the way down, then stops and stands right in the middle of the bloody trail at the end. Fin de cloche!

In general trail etiquette threads tend to get about 5-10 pages of entrenched views mostly resonating around people being sick of other people doing what other people do. What is the right thing for some is seen as a deep and cutting insult to both their manhood and entire family...

The last one I remember was about leaving a gap/waiting at a trail entrance for slower riders.
One side found it awful that somebody would tell them what to do or even make a suggestion about pausing (as they knew a slower rider was ahead) the other couldn't get why somebody would want to hammer on and then run into the back of the guy in front.

The only sensible alternative is just to have a pre booked slot on the trail with set times at a number of checkpoints. We could reduce unemployment by then recruiting marshalls to check your paperwork at set points to ensure you were not encroaching or lagging behind, if you fell off schedule you would then be diverted either a short cut to make up time or back to the car park so that nobody else had their day ruined. You should also have to be able to prove with verifiable evidence that you can complete the loop in a certain time limit or be made to do the blue instead.

Sounds reasonable to me

mikewsmith - Member

One side found it awful that somebody would tell them what to do or even make a suggestion about pausing (as they knew a slower rider was ahead) the other couldn't get why somebody would want to hammer on and then run into the back of the guy in front.

It's because catching people is rad to the power of sick. It's exactly the same bullshit as you get in trackdays where fast guys go in beginners so they can spend the whole session passing people then bang on about it to their mates. Speed is too relative for some people, they can't feel fast unless something else is going slow. So they set up a situation where they'll get held up, then complain about it as if it wasn't exactly what they wanted.

It doesn't happen often to me any more tbh but if some dude comes down a trail centre trail and catches me, they can **** off, they's getting held up. Not because I'm too big a deal to move over but because he could have avoided it and chose not to. And therefore, if I catch someone on a trailcentre trail, it stands to reason that I should stop or check my speed. Person behind is in control of all parts of the situation from the start.

Basically. Everything everyone except me ever does, it's because they're a cock.

Two gnar lads smirked at my new fully rigid sspeed today and raced off to keep ahead of me. I'd already been round on my proper bike and as it was in the van, thought I'd have a quick blast as it was delivered only yesterday. I felt a bit bad when they had to let me by.

This, every flipin time at Swinley.

I've stopped being polite when I catch people on the Fat bike (they can definitely hear it coming!) and just say things like "Sorry for, I'd have left more space but I though't you'd be faster", or "no, no, don't pull over, you'll definitely be quicker on the next bit".

I ride it as an XC loop, so don't stop before each section.

I'm not gnarrr, I'm definitely not fit, I just opt not to dawdle at every flipin' signpost.

This, every flipin time at Swinley.

The trick at Swinley is to keep off the waymarked stuff 8)

I was quite looking forward to going to Llandegla this coming weekend, for a change.

Not so sure now.

🙁

My two cents: I tend to assume people are just being ignorant and I'll make a remark like "don't take up the whole trail mate, I'm not that slim anymore" and smile.

The more I read about Swinley the less I want to visit

It's fine as a quick 90min XC route, I struggle to comprehend the need to stop at each of the 50+ signposts on a route that short.

The trick at Swinley is to keep off the waymarked stuff

The advantage of the new trails is actually the old stuff that links up with the main trail seems to be holding up Ok through the winter, like the trails over New England hill. Downside is a lot of the stuff away from the main trail seems to be disappearing completely, or ironically being straight-lined more and more? Guess there's less people 'policing' it moving branches back to mark corners etc.

It's not the riding I was talking about TINAS, just seems to have an elevated number of people who don't get Rule 1

did these people not realise how important you were,absolute scum,deaths too good for some 😯

Did you not think to say "excuse me" on the way up to them before getting angry?

This would seem the most sensible course of action.

, I struggle to comprehend the need to stop at each of the 50+ signposts on a route that short.

So that you can read the secret messages. You do know about the messages on the Swinley sign posts don't you?? 8)

The very worst bit of riding I've seen at Swinley was a couple of months ago. I was riding with a couple of mates and leading on what I think is called The whole nine yards, when we got to the climb there was a young family with bikes near the top so I slowed to a sensible speed to give them space and at that point a rider barged past narrowly missing the small child standing at the side of the trail. The father was understandably horrified and kid looked terrified, Really not cool.