Builders discussion and rant zone

PB Forum :: Trail Building
Builders discussion and rant zone
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flag dualcrownscottspark
O+
Posted: Apr 14, 2021 at 6:16 Quote
FloridaHasMTBToo wrote:
Are your trails legal? At my, admittedly illegal, trails I deal with quite a few crackheads and drinks who don't seem to take to kindly to me building a small drop, a berm, and a jump. I've just accepted that this will keep happening as long as I build there. If your trails are legal and sanctioned, you could probably make a complaint to your local Parks Department or the land manager.

Unfortunately they’re unsanctioned. I know who it is now, and might see if I can have a word with them. They’re apparently trying to “make the trails safer” but instead they’re making them kinda dangerous.
flag Venturebikes
Posted: Apr 14, 2021 at 10:14 Quote
dualcrownscottspark wrote:
Semi-big rant coming up:

So, we handbuild skinnies with a saw and hatchet, so it takes a while. We built this very low, and very long skinny. It probably took almost 2 hours to build. We placed it in the middle of the trail. (it had literally no consequences) We also built another skinny, this time high consequence, and very optional. Somebody removed the big, long, no consequence skinny, AND HID IT. They actually moved it off into the woods, and then continued to cover it up with sticks and leaves. The other skinny was also tampered with. So, basically this skinny goes over this super steep rock. If you fall over on it, your frame is gonna get scratched, same thing if you don't make it onto the skinny on the other side. What does this person do? They took ONE side of the skinny off. Yes, one. This made the skinny super dangerous, as if you didn't see that of the skinny was gone, you're going OTB. I never found the other side of this skinny, and had to remove the remaining side.

We built a drop, meant for those who want to start progressing onto bigger drops. It had a rubber mat on it to keep it from eroding. If it wasn't on there, we'd have to rebuild the drop at least monthly. The rubber mat and the drop went on through winter, until now maintenance free. Then someone stole the mat, with the rebar we secured the mat with. Seeing that the mat was stolen we knew we had to fix the drop so that it didn't start eroding. We decided to armour it with rocks. It looked really nice, and seemed hold up really well, while still keeping the takeoff smooth and predictable. A few days ago, these rocks got taken out of the takeoff. I thought it would be ok until we could get out and repair it, but it wasn't. The drop got even worse, as the person almost finished taking all of the rocks out of the drop. It continued to erode rapidly, and quickly got a rut in the takeoff. You can now see a lot of the dirt on top of the landing. I still don't know who the person is, and there isn't much I can do with the land being public. Hopefully I can get out and reopen the drop, and the person will stop destroying our features.

I've had people do borderline psychopathic things to features I've built. Yes, they were illegal but on undeveloped overgrown land (technically we're all trespassers then, right?).
The feature which has been the main target of vandalism is a 20 foot wooden creek gap. It was built by a professional trades carpenter, so it is probably the best built feature on the whole trail. I'm talking bike-park quality. It's by no means a sketchy build. The run-up is a long fast berm into a short run-up. You're pretty much spotting your landing after you jump.
Last fall someone put a whole dead tree across the landing. It was by the grace of the MTB Gods I happened to accidentally overshoot which saved me a high speed jump to faceplant.
Two weeks ago I was once again ripping down and had to pull out a massive stop after a very motivated someone took a hacksaw to the thing and cut it in half. They didn't just cut the jump apart, they wedged the cut lower half under the upper half creating a nice OTB to 9 foot fall into shallow creek.
flag dualcrownscottspark
O+
Posted: Apr 14, 2021 at 13:10 Quote
We fixed up the drop really nice today, and put up a "caution drop" sign to hopefully satisfy the person who tried to "make it safer". We're going to work on getting the trails sanctioned, and I'm going to try and talk the town into letting us put up real signs.

Here is a picture of the drop after we fixed it up:
photo
flag p-m-z
Posted: Apr 14, 2021 at 14:09 Quote
I came to the state of this landing the other day
Came to this destruction of one of my landings today. Grrrrrrrrrrrr
It used to be a 5+ foot tall landing(out of insanely rocky glacial till) until some kids came in and wreaked it. grrrrrr
flag FloridaHasMTBToo
Posted: Apr 16, 2021 at 18:55 Quote
Pulled up to my local spot to dig today and I found the high school pothead and his buddies just sitting on my flyout lip like it was a park bench. Dude was fidgeting with his feet and was tearing away at the surface. I was gonna confront him but figured three vs. one didn't give me very good odds. I just waited 'till they left and when they came back I told them to "Get out the way or get run over," which worked better than I thought it would. I'm debating cutting my losses and moving to another spot that is less trafficked and about a mile away, but it has less elevation and would take a lot more work to clear out. I'm thinking I'll just hold out at this spot until I get my license and then I'll go build in Clermont off the interstate, where there are actual hills.
flag Griffin-McLinn
Posted: Apr 18, 2021 at 9:02 Quote
FloridaHasMTBToo wrote:
Pulled up to my local spot to dig today and I found the high school pothead and his buddies just sitting on my flyout lip like it was a park bench. Dude was fidgeting with his feet and was tearing away at the surface. I was gonna confront him but figured three vs. one didn't give me very good odds. I just waited 'till they left and when they came back I told them to "Get out the way or get run over," which worked better than I thought it would. I'm debating cutting my losses and moving to another spot that is less trafficked and about a mile away, but it has less elevation and would take a lot more work to clear out. I'm thinking I'll just hold out at this spot until I get my license and then I'll go build in Clermont off the interstate, where there are actual hills.
Sounds like a good plan, you're lucky you have options on where to build, I sure don't.
flag p-m-z
Posted: Apr 20, 2021 at 11:25 Quote
Welp, I have a new pet peeveRolleyes ...

I recently have been working on a massive jump line that goes through a gully and there have been tons of sketchy meth heads that have been setting up camp on the trail. I just finished a 30 ft step down and It's a little sad to see it go to waste. Maybe they will move...
flag FloridaHasMTBToo
Posted: Apr 20, 2021 at 11:50 Quote
If I've learned one thing from building, its to not mess with meth heads/homeless people. They are mostly belligerent and don't want to cooperate. Good luck getting them to move, maybe having a larger group of people to build with might help.
flag p-m-z
Posted: Apr 20, 2021 at 15:08 Quote
FloridaHasMTBToo wrote:
If I've learned one thing from building, its to not mess with meth heads/homeless people. They are mostly belligerent and don't want to cooperate. Good luck getting them to move, maybe having a larger group of people to build with might help.

Yup, I'm hoping that they'll move onto a new location like they usually do. I've had them throw things at me and threaten me so I usually don't mess with em. Fingers crossed that they'll move
flag turco999
Posted: May 11, 2021 at 11:14 Quote
Husky and/or Stihl chainsaw reccomendations for trail building? Mostly for clearing deadfall, and the occasional dead tree that needs to come down (nothing bigger than 20") Maybe will be used 3 to 6 days a year for trail work. Will be hauled in and out of the spot, so something not too heavy.
flag p-m-z
Posted: May 11, 2021 at 11:23 Quote
I usually use a Husqvarna 455 Rancher chainsaw with a 20-inch bar for smaller trees and an Oregon 50 inch bar for the bigger stuff. The Husqvarna chainsaw works ready well and my dad has one that has lasted him 14 years.
flag tomich1
Posted: May 14, 2021 at 9:15 Quote
I use. Stihl ms170. It's easy use and pack up the trails but has to be sharpened quite often.
Grab a 2 in 1 file if you get it... best sharpening tool ever.

Ive owned It 3 years and no issues the only things I've replaced are spark plug, gas filter and air filter.
And chains of course Big Grin
flag turco999
Posted: May 17, 2021 at 20:57 Quote
tomich1 wrote:
I use. Stihl ms170. It's easy use and pack up the trails but has to be sharpened quite often.
Grab a 2 in 1 file if you get it... best sharpening tool ever.

Ive owned It 3 years and no issues the only things I've replaced are spark plug, gas filter and air filter.
And chains of course Big Grin

MS170 on paper seems like it would be underpowered for the West Coast. Are you felling with it? Or just to clear-cut?

@pmz the 455 Ranch was one of the first ones I thought of, but honestly for most East Coast work, a smaller saw can slice through almost everything. Ended up going with the 435 (lots of positive reviews). Will probably pick up a 455 when I move out to BC.

Also, if you guys have .325 chain reccomendations, let me know.
flag tomich1
Posted: May 27, 2021 at 19:03 Quote
turco999 wrote:
tomich1 wrote:
I use. Stihl ms170. It's easy use and pack up the trails but has to be sharpened quite often.
Grab a 2 in 1 file if you get it... best sharpening tool ever.

Ive owned It 3 years and no issues the only things I've replaced are spark plug, gas filter and air filter.
And chains of course Big Grin

MS170 on paper seems like it would be underpowered for the West Coast. Are you felling with it? Or just to clear-cut?

@pmz the 455 Ranch was one of the first ones I thought of, but honestly for most East Coast work, a smaller saw can slice through almost everything. Ended up going with the 435 (lots of positive reviews). Will probably pick up a 455 when I move out to BC.

Also, if you guys have .325 chain reccomendations, let me know.

Not felling, just clearing... It can do most things I want it to for trail clearing and straps to the quad nicely, BUT it would be nice to have a bigger saw with an Alaskan mill for wooden features.
flag zsandstrom
O+
Posted: Jun 26, 2021 at 17:22 Quote
Working on my first trail, and there is an unavoidable section of the hillside that is extremely steep--close to 40* incline in places. I'm planning to bench cut across it. Can I get any recommendations on cribbing strategies? Soil is a mix of sand, organic material, and some loam in places.

 


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