How do you feel about things like wooden wall rides, kickers, drops, and skinnies? Do you think they belong at your local trails or would you much prefer they stick to entirely natural features?
Posted Aug 26, 2019, 11:05 PM UTC
I love them but I highly prefer they be bypassable
Depends on the trail. But I love man made features! They can be a lot of fun if built well!
I share your love for them. Personally I like them from a trail building standpoint because they tend to last longer(no erosion from weather/riding) and give you opportunities that nature rarely provides.
Strongly prefer natural trails, but that’s probably because I’m 41 and can’t jump for shit
There's just some days I'm out to enjoy the woods rather than pin it and looking for the next thing to try a stunt on.
Edit: 34 and may be outgrowing the sidewalk jump.
Dude, start now! I'm 42, it's my second year of riding park and my jumping has progressed a mile. Only getting better and going faster every time I go.
Depends. Bike parks are the perfect place for the man-made features, bike only trails are also good for them. Multi use trails? Nope, keep those primitive.
Where I ride bike specific trails dont really exist but in areas where there are options I would totally agree. We have some jump trails but they are all small dirt kickers but they erode like crazy which really makes me want to get out there and build something more durable.
Love them. Can only go so big with a natural trail. Yeah you can get rowdy with technical descents and large rocks but you need a proper transition or proper jump to catch a good amount of air, and skinnies are just plain fun.
I like all features, man made or natural. Keep em coming.
Love them - esp when they use the materials from the trail clearing and maintenance.
In most cases I come across they are optional - but then sometime they are almost necessary for proper trail maintenance - like a bridge over wetlands.
Why do you ask?
I personally really enjoy them but in my area of the US they are very uncommon out on the trails. I was mostly curious to see what the general opinion of them was because I dont tend to see much discussion of them outside of downhill or dirt jumping.
The reason why they're relatively uncommon in the US is one of liability. I've worked with trail builders before, and wooden features over a certain size had to be approved by an engineer. They also have to be regularly inspected because they do degrade - wood rots, nails/screws rust, etc - and they way that they degrade is less noticeable than a dirt/rock feature. And if they do fail, the potential for injury is much greater.
There isn't an easy answer for me. I have definitly seen some features that I consider a bad fit and I liked the natural one more, but probably more where the man made stuff improved the trail for me.
I dislike it when people cut down healthy trees to build them though.
Yes
I have mixed feelings. One of my local trail systems (Hydrocut) is beginning to add a lot more man-made features, while the previous crew only really added some natural features (rock gardens, log piles, etc.). Although I do like some of these newer features (some larger wooden drops, jumps, etc.) it starts to lose the natural, fast flowing nature the trails used to have. I feel like sometimes the flow and use of natural features, as well as opportunity for fun natural climbs and descents are sometimes lost when features seem to be the main focus
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Fair point. There are other possibilities though for what that section of trail "could have" been if they didn't just cut that fall line route.
The drop at the end of Monkey Boy is honestly one of my favourite features. It's so smooth and the transition is steep enough that I can comfortably send it relatively deep on my hardtail (with only 100mm fork) relatively smoothly. The Sweet Street drop on the other hand I don't care for as the transition is quite flat and the landing isn't too pleasant. There's also a drop on Dead Camel Bend that I've done at least once that's probably 4-5ft to flat, but doable. Haven't hit the Godzilla drop yet just since it's pretty big (compared to what I've done before) and I usually ride alone.
The main trail that to me feels kind of artificial is the newest one (that runs parallel to The Bride). Also not overly happy with the new ending and start at the Glasgow lot. I guess it's better than the big ruts but I still think it could've been a lot better
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the Godzilla drop is so hard to hit at speed, and it's a pretty harsh landing! I've done it on both a FS & Hardtail and much prefer it on a FS haha
I just rode that new trail at the Hydrocut "muddy paws" I thought it was super fun! It's definitely a man made trail, it's like a mini machine groomed bike park trail. I like what the hydrocut has done in general, mixing man made obstacles and natural trails. I do think some of their "filters" or "squirrel catchers" are harder than the actual trails! haha