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Just found some nice singletrack on my local hill has been opened up over winter, but the nettles are starting to take over. I'm thinking of chopping it back myself so that I can continue to use it, it's maybe three hundred metres worth. What would be the best tool for the job? It's not my land so a petrol strimmer isn't an option. Chalk soil if that makes any difference?!
bash them with a stick.
tried and tested by bored 10yr olds for centuries.
Tick glove and machete or sickle.
Get yourself a "switch", which is what my granddad called a newly grown stick cut off a tree. Then waft it about like you are luke skywalker/darth vader.
I use my brush hook, 3rd in from left but an old rake head with the edges of the outside tines filed/ground to an edge will also do a surprisingly decent job when swung left/right through a patch of nettles/briars/ferns
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Tick glove and machete or sickle.
What do you call a man carrying a machete in public?
Possibly the defendant...
Stick works well and dosen't leave you in an awkward situation
Some fine tools there somafunk, I will have to wear a hi viz to avoid arrest!
A scythe would be the perfect tool. Also tried and tested for centuries (millenia?)
just seen a petrol strimmer on screwfix, fasten to to the front forks and away we go..
A chain dog lead. Fits in your pack easily.
Just don't whack yourself in the chops.
I was thinking some nice blades protruding from my hubs would be a nice lazy method, but I would probably end up cutting off my own leg.
Up here in galloway the sight of someone wandering about the woods tooled up with a duff bag filled with an assortment of body disposal tools doesn't raise an eyebrow, even walking up the street with my bush hook hanging from my belt holster doesn't register as out of the ordinary.
you're better just bending nettles over than cutting them - it stops them growing new stalks but the damaged ones stop growing (or something like that). I've tried the cut and bend approaches on different singletrack near me and the folded stuff grew back more slowly so it seems to work.
I use an 'L' shaped stick with base of the L 2 or 3ft across and sort of brush the nettles flat and away from the path at 90 degrees. make sure the stems don't just spring back up by ensuring they're broken near the base but not separated from the bit below.
Sounds like good advice wwaswas!
I took my Australian friend biking.
It didn't occur to me that he'd never seen a stinger in his life. His arms and legs were a mess that evening!
I took my Australian friend biking.
It didn’t occur to me that he’d never seen a stinger in his life. His arms and legs were a mess that evening!
Had similar in Holland on a guided bike ride many years ago. We'd been shown nettle infused cheese in a farm, and then had to explain what nettles were to a Japanese family. On the way back to Amsterdam the boy of the family managed to whack himself and his sister into the biggest, juiciest patch of stingers we'd seen all day.
Me and my mate proceeding to attack them with armfuls of dock-leaves made it all the worse briefly.
Nunchucks
Golok.
Just don't wave it around in sight of other people.
I normally cut a swath through them using whatever exposed parts of my body are available !!!
Tried and tested by us idiots for millennium.
a 16 stone mtber riding in front of you.
Sounds like good advice wwaswas!
+1!
Backpack sprayer and glyphosphate.. little effort, pretty silent and will knock the nettles out nicely
Backpack sprayer and glyphosphate.. little effort, pretty silent and will knock the nettles out nicely
He said it wasn't his land. I'd be furious if someone started spraying that all over my land without asking me.
I just put glyphosphate in my old camelback and take it out with me. What could possibly go wrong?
Pull them out.... So satisfying when you tease one out (heh) and you get the rhizome and every other nettle growing off it in one go. My record so far is a 3m length
Embrace the pain and the lingering tingling feeling. I swear if you ride fast through nettles you don't get stung.
Maybe...
Brushhook for me- a basic Fiskars one but sharpened to ridiculousness (since otherwise, nettles being fibrous, you tend to knock a bunch of htem around and get it in the arm). But I've never tried squishing them, I'll give that a go.
For a really easily portable tool i like this. It's totally rubbish and doesn't hold an edge well but it's great to stick in a pack for a mid ride hacking session, without looking like a deadly weapon.
Some effective looking trail tools there, the Irish slasher looks great, but a little too deadly. Chemicals are out of the question as not very good for the cows. For that money the folding sickle looks worth having and easy to conceal. Did a bit of stomping yesterday, works pretty well.