Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance is back again - this time with a video showing what many consider to be a tremendous threat to the mountain biking universe as we know it. Watch as pro rider Billy Lewis demonstrates exactly what this threat is – and how to avoid it and help ensure we keep getting more sweet trails to ride.
Video by: Kevin Philbin
254 Comments
That said, I do agree, a thousand pound animal tends to wear the trail more... Count your blessings, at least there is access
Stay classy
my mum sent me a pic of her and her friends out on a ride and the ground looked soooo soft and it was steepish. no bikes alowed on the trails though.
you may hate what horses do to trails but they hate us just as much, horses are terrified of everything, including bikes.
the horse issue is a seperate issue...when push comes to shove horses arent the problem..its the riders ...they're just bizzare people we all knew that girl in school who rode horses and she was a total weird-ball. fact! and why is it ok for them to shit everywhere?
I don't know 'bout you, buddy, but when nature calls...
on a side note horses make great glue! (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_glue).
@jimbsport: if the guy owns the property then he can do whatever he wants as it is HIS and not YOURS....
When you pass a horse on the trails politely remind them to
"please clean up your messes"
to at least make them feel guilty.
While it is annoying it really is just grass and maybe it makes you a better rider for having to dodge and jump over while ripping a trail. Look on the bright side! At least you have a shit covered trail to ride, some people dont even have that.
multi use trails are a shit show anyway better to just avoid
I mean wtf??...
Case in point: I unload 3500-5000 bales of hay every year for a guy who does custom haying at a horse barn (since these people don't own any land except for their beat-to-piss pastures). These people sweat money! They show no respect to the people that are there to supply the very thing their animal survives on, and are totally oblivious to the hazards around them. Sure they work hard on training their animals, but most don't even have to muck their own stalls. On top of that, they b*****d and moaned when their boarding costs soared due to the drought and expect everyone to have a big pity party for them when real farmers were/are going through MUCH worse. Who do you think has more money to buy hay, a suburbanite who visits her horse once a week, or a farmer trying to scratch a living in the dirt?
Also, it does not matter that a horse doesn't have a motor. That's totally irrelevant to their ability to wreck singletrack. Read what I wrote above and see who needs to drop the ego...
TL;DR Horse people need to realize that all their money doesn't make them better than anyone else. But yeah, turn the other cheek and all that...
1. Middle-aged hippies, wearing Jack Wolfskin or North Face hiking outfits, who drive their Audis into the woods until it gets too muddy, then get out and hike. Always in couples, mostly with matching jackets. They litter, never clear the way and give you the 'Evil Eye of Disapproval'. They probably haven't had a decent orgasm in years, which causes them to have that throbbing vein on the side of their necks, and the tense look of frustration, screaming "it's the weekend, and I want my recreation time NOW!"
2. Green soldiers with wild beards, wearing Teva sandals and retro backpacks. They carry binoculars and an iPhone. I call them 'wood-be hipsters'.
3. Hot chicks on horses. They don't bother me. I use the emergency whistle on my backpack as soon as I see a horse, and they get out of the way. We politely say hello and go our seperate ways. I never see men on horses though... Maybe they're out working a second job to support their wife's expensive hobby?
4. 'Man hating lezbos' walking dogs. Always bitches. The dogs, I mean. Their sexual preference is none of my concern. They're rocking the most wild hairstyles, which makes me laugh... And laughing is never a bad thing.
5. Trailrunners in a complete Salomon outfit. They're too out of breath to complain.
6. Geocachers. So focused on their GPS, they will die of cardiac arrest when you pass them unannounced. Approach with caution!
7. XC-riders on 29ers who got lost following their Garmin. They never greet and leave Powerbar wrappings everywhere.
That's about it...
I have two speeds .Stop and fast.
buuut... that said, I did have a slight moment of major internal rage when I was forced to stop down Fort William WC DH track, due to 3! sets of walkers walking up (past the "sever cyclist route, walkers find alternative route" signs.
just lucky I am slow...
The mountain biker crux of wanting to maintain flow & speed on a multi use trail is irrelevant to other users who feel their safety is threatened by mountain bikers. We are not on level ground with all other users. We have to kill them with kindness. We're some of the last groups to show up for the multi use trail-party.
Take the long view & just play nice. It's good for all of us riders.
Unfortunately when I come along and am nice to the Babe-Joggers , I get pissed on for being another ignorant biker :-( .
I hope all you lot out there read this and stop screwing up the trails out there before they ban us completely !
And yes those trails are steep, fast and flowy, with quite a few jumps, and still see a lot horse use (always courteous to me and vice versa). I once saw a guy on a horse halfway up KGB, crazy.
He had the balls to tell me to come to a complete stop and get off the trail. He was quite ignorant and started cussing at me in front of his wife. She apologized to me for his behaviour and for being such an ass.
Screw sharing trails! Ban horses on mtb trails! Besides horse riders don't ever clean the tonne of smelly $hit off the trail and the horses completely destroy trails.
(Dibs on yellow top)
And really, don't skid? why is my bike equipped with hydraulic disc brakes?
Rider up ! Rider up! LOL
Great video to get a good message in a funny way out to those that need to see it.
no sex on the end!!