Sculpting fire trails?

[bpow]

Can fire trails be turned into fun mountain biking trails?
Been on a few rides in some beautiful National Parks and while its been fun it has been mostly on fire trails. These trails get a bit boring (in my opinion) and after a while I begin to crave a few nice berms, rollers, drops and single track type stuff. It seems National Parks wont let many single tracks be built but has anyone had any experience turning a fire trail into a fun trail? Would the Parks allow fire trails so be sculpted a little to make riding them more fun? One local area I ride has lots of windy up and down hill sections that could be fun if a single flowy line was cut in the trail. I know it couldn't replace a sweet single track but could it be a option?

 

[Moggio]

Glenrock has a really well known conversion done by World Trail and the GTA for NPWS. Its in this video from 2mins till 3mins. Its pretty good fun as an intro trail to the network.

[video=youtube;q8I-Te-ZotY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8I-Te-ZotY[/video]

So a converted fire trail or double track usually won't be as good as a purpose planned mtb trail but they are vastly better than the original fire trail.

Also an old unused trail you may know of can be surreptitiously changed into single track just pulling branches over sections, adding rocks and basically forcing a single line to appear. This can also help reduce erosion problems on the trail as it can be routed to get water off better as well. If no one ever uses it for anything else vegetation even begins to grow back and you have inversely "built" a trail by rehabing. This also usually helps keep out dumpers, motos, 4WDers etc.

 

[willsy01]

Would the Parks allow fire trails so be sculpted a little to make riding them more fun?

I'd very much doubt it. Fire trails are cut to allow vehicular passage during fires......as such, they've gotta be relatively smooth. The most you'll get is a new waterbars on sections with some decent gradient.

 

[Ridenparadise]

I thought of Glenrock too, but that is a specific case of a disused trail being converted.

Fire trails are generally direct lines to allow rapid access. They have to be wide enough for trucks and also mostly go directly up the falline unless it is just too steep for a 4WD truck. For those reasons, fire roads are a poor choice for MTB and parks would not generally consider modification. Our local rangers have requested closure of a fire road gap jump. They don't want any chance of an accident involving authorised vehicle access. Bikes still ride the fire roads though and have always been allowed to, so it is a bit of an odd issue where MTB trails come into conflict with access roads.

 

[bpow]

Wow Glenrock looks like fun.
Just was thinking about it on a ride I had. Thought if they wont let us build new trails they might be more inclined to let us change the fire trails a little to make them a more enjoyable ride.
Anyway, It was just a thought.

 

[bikesarefun]

Can fire trails be turned into fun mountain biking trails?
Been on a few rides in some beautiful National Parks and while its been fun it has been mostly on fire trails. These trails get a bit boring (in my opinion) and after a while I begin to crave a few nice berms, rollers, drops and single track type stuff. It seems National Parks wont let many single tracks be built but has anyone had any experience turning a fire trail into a fun trail? Would the Parks allow fire trails so be sculpted a little to make riding them more fun? One local area I ride has lots of windy up and down hill sections that could be fun if a single flowy line was cut in the trail. I know it couldn't replace a sweet single track but could it be a option?

I reckon you could get out with a shovel and do it subtly enough that The Man wouldn't notice. Just make it look "natural" like it was caused by erosion or bulldozer damage or something. But getting real permission would be a multi-year process.

 

[geoff_tewierik]

FWIW the South Boundary fire road up to Mt Nebo basically has a single trail running along it due to the sheer amount of riders that traverse it. There's always a clear, almost rock free, line to follow.

 

[retroenduro]

YES YOU TOTALLY CAN! im glad somebody asked this.

I've seen heaps of examples in Europe where features have been added to fire trails/roads to make them really fun. The trick is to create a line that meanders across the fire road, i.e from side to side and even just quickly diving off it for say 20 m to hit a feature. So as long as you keep the actual track clear and flat you can build little berms and rollers at the side. It also means these trails are fast. I've ridden some awesome ones in the Alps.

Even Mt Buller has used this on the Delatite river descent.

 

[bpow]

YES YOU TOTALLY CAN! im glad somebody asked this.

I've seen heaps of examples in Europe where features have been added to fire trails/roads to make them really fun. The trick is to create a line that meanders across the fire road, i.e from side to side and even just quickly diving off it for say 20 m to hit a feature. So as long as you keep the actual track clear and flat you can build little berms and rollers at the side. It also means these trails are fast. I've ridden some awesome ones in the Alps.

Even Mt Buller has used this on the Delatite river descent.

Sounds cool retroenduro. Yeah that's what I was thinking just trail that flows along a fire trail instead of going straight down with a few features along the side without affecting vehicle access. One trail I have ridden has banks on the side which could easily be smoothed into berms etc. Other areas could be made into smooth fast carving style trails with a roller here and there.
Got any pics? Or a video like Moggio's?

 

[nrthrnben]

Delatite at Mount Buller

[video=youtube;6owT7WbrNwY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6owT7WbrNwY[/video]
One of my Fav trails in oz, so fast, jumps all the way down with not much uphill and the firetrail has been somewhat sculpted for mountain biking + shuttle service/cafe at the bottom! DH Firetrtail from 7mins

 

[bpow]

Cool. Thanks for that video. Does that trail get ridden much? Seems that once a trail is scratched out it would need a lot of use to get it bed in and the line kept clear. The fire trail that got me thinking has some sections that look similar to the terrain on the video.
So it that trail at the Mt Buller ski resort?

 

[chinski]

Our local rangers have requested closure of a fire road gap jump.

is that the one on Norco Flow ?