Who thinks a lot of man made single track is boring ?

greenstiles

Old School Grand Master
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I cut my teeth in Wales so had lots of open space and more natural wide and narrow tracks that changed as the ride went on, allowing overtakes and choices in the trail.

I don't like trail centre's that seem to have just very open plain trails for families (which is great for familes) or very narrow single track......with the odd bumpy bit.....where you feel your like on a conveyer belt....looking at the arse in front of you, if your unlucky enough not to be in the front of all the rest of you.......

I don't see where this hunger for ' narrow single track ' came from, apart from it's cheaper to build very narrow track than a wider track with more lines.........where's the deep water, the thick mud, the sheep bums at 40mph, the logs........low branches.......... :cry:
 
Personally I don't like purpose made/altered tracks at all, and the only reason I use some of them is to save the land from damage.

I could live without the low hanging branches though. Quite happily.
 
I know what you mean, but those kind of trails, and trailcentres in general have opened up the sport to a lot more folk who otherwise would never have bothered to get out onto the bridleways and navigate for themselves.

For the more experienced mtb'er they definately are like a conveyor belt, or a gravel covered pavement. It bugs me when people tell me they've done some awesome mountainbiking... at a trail centre, it's just not what I think of when I think of "mountain"biking.

That said though, there are a few very good trail centres, coed-y-brenin for one, plenty of challenging stuff there.
 
jimo746":26f64j3e said:
I know what you mean, but those kind of trails, and trailcentres in general have opened up the sport to a lot more folk who otherwise would never have bothered to get out onto the bridleways and navigate for themselves.

For the more experienced mtb'er they definately are like a conveyor belt, or a gravel covered pavement. It bugs me when people tell me they've done some awesome mountainbiking... at a trail centre, it's just not what I think of when I think of "mountain"biking.

I couldn't put it any better than this ^^^
 
They're not my favourite thing but I can see their place. Good for a quick outing without having to look for anything. Only been to three (Sherwood, Dalby, Grizedale).

I would say the nicer setup is at Grizedale of the three.

Dalby is nice, just wonder off or skip the bits you don't want. Some stupid 'made' bits but you can skip them.
Sherwood I only know what we where shown but looks a nice forest to explore with some bits of Trail to play on.

The bits I don't like. Long sections of Board. Why! That aint natural.
The fashion for Bloody Berms, does my head in, I like the skill of trying to do a corner properly and they get in the way.

All are great with the Family though. Everything you could want is there with young ones as the easier sections are quite well maintained and of course miles from traffic. Of course it can often be found just down the road if you knew it was there. But it's a nice day out.


So if they maintained wooded routes, stopped using fake stuff to build them and move sections to let bit recover all would be good. and at £7 for parking there, the double priced food etc, then it should easily pay for itself ;)
 
My old shop ' greenstiles/dolgellau cycles was near coed y brenin and i did a few interesting months between the old centre and new for our rivals summit cycles after leaving my business partner..........

If was great to see the faces of people who hadn't much biking under their belt come back with grins on their faces....conversly there were a lot of impacient dicks.

Some of the trails are good there, if you mix them up and use other unofficial bits......but so much 'other' riding to be had inthe area.

The Dyfi forest (used to live there 8 years and ride for 17 years there) is a great place to explore thanks to the many years of motorbike trials held there. The climax trail is crap apart from the last down bit...........but the surrounding hill hide many fine rides.
 
The popular tracks are used well and keep the place open. The lesser popular go under. By that standard you can judge the success of a track.
 
All those things like deep mud, changing trails etc are still there in the same places they always were. Trail centres are great for a quick and easy ride after work or in a busy weekend. Just take your choice.

Oh and narrower trails are not cheaper to build, wider are easier with choice of machinery etc.
 
There not there any more for me since i moved :cry: surely it's cheaper to lay a 3 foot track bed than a 5 foot track bed ?........all the shale n stuff they compact down gota be cheaper on a narrow track as you need less of it for the base layer ?? before you stick your rocks in........if laying rocks
 
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