A tree blew down across one of my favorite little pieces of singletrack this summer, and when nobody cleared it with a chain saw, some freeride types built a ramp stunt over it. On one hand, this pisses me off because I'm not a fan of unnecessary structures on trails. On the other hand, it was fun to watch Pete B. and a couple of other young guys riding over it on their singlespeeds one night last week.The whole "North Shore" style of riding doesn't appeal to me. I like my trails as natural as possible (although I do enjoy the ramp on Brown Bear) and scrap lumber is an affront to the beauty of natural forms.
I also like staying close to the ground. I can fall hard enough from saddle height, thank you very much.
Several years ago in his Mountain Bike magazine column, Dan Koeppel wrote about some formula he uses for catching air. I don't remember exactly what the formula was, but it somehow involved one's age having an inverse relationship to the number of inches their tires should be above the ground.
It seemed clever at the time. It seems wiser with every passing year.
3 comments:
It looks preferable to hopping off your bike and lifting it up and over that tree. However, if I were to attempt to ride over that ramp, I'd probably end up like the guy pictured in your last post.
I think piling up rocks or smaller logs in front of a fallen log is safer...and made from stuff in the woods. A lot of the built stuff I run across isn't safe. It looks like it was built by kids. Broken rungs, rickety platforms...reminiscent of the ramps we'd build as kids. You know, the ones we got hurt on!
I can never understand the obsession with becoming airborne on a bicycle; I guess Evil Knievel started it all back in the 1970s.
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