your favourite trail feature

It seems that I have a very different view of how a trail should be compared to many of the other builders and riders of the trails that I ride away from my home trails, judging by the layout of said trails. As long as my slower riding buddies hate the trails I build I'm happy, it means it's a difficult track and that only advanced riders are capable of making it down the whole track. Oh and it has to be steep, rocky and technical. I would prefer to build and ride technical trail features and drops rather than jumps any day.
 
Wow that's a lo of response. Thanks for the input! I'm seeing a lot of call for:
- berms (damn straight! Big high fuckers up to my waist please!)
- flow (@Driftking - ii even like my xc tracks to flow.)
- jumps (I'm pretty sure there is a little bmx bandit in all of us!)
- rocks/roots (bit of a surprise how much this was there)

I was a bit hurt that nobody asked for brake bumps. How rad is it when you hit the fast straight on a trail and it is just chopped out by brakes...

For me I like a trail that blends in with the natural terrain. Uses features/obstacles from what is there - pop off the rock, jump over a log, and so on.
 
No braking bumps can piss right off haha.

My favourite trails are ones that are easy to ride but hard to ride fast and just pushes you mentally like crazy getting wild in the rocks yiew.
 
Flow is the game

I entirely agree with the flow part.
This doesn't mean I'd want a trail where you ride round with no effort or you can murder it at 25km'h for the whole thing.
Ideally you'd be building a section of trail knowing where you want it to go next. Nothing worse than blasting an amazing line that you know everyone will love, only to have it disintegrate into nothing for the next section.

I think I'm suggesting forward thinking?
 
Planning? In a trail? I remember in the old days just finding a spot it felt good to put a jump and doing it only to have it all suddenly go nowhere. More than once. A good walk through helps a lot.
 
Any feature that makes the most of the limitations of the terrain. Our own XC course has a gradient of sod all and yet various track design amateurs over the years have come up with some entertaining ways to make our track 'interesting'. And we are always looking at new ways of creating more mayhem using whatever we have to hand.

Personally I don't mind things like flat corners, tight trees and intricate technical features - things that test your skill...not just your endurance. Jumps are great but on our track you have to pedal hard on all but one feature to get any sort of air...

Flow is of course...just bloody lovely. Even when it's on flat ground...
 
One way signs ;). Had a couple of close calls just recently. As a newb can someone tell me the etiquette for oncoming traffic, if someone is flying down, I get out of the bloody way if I'm on a slow climb. Had a couple of times where the gumby just didn't budge and I had to go off into the boonies to avoid a head on. Perhaps they were just inattentive so I wasn't fused but It got me thinking perhaps as a novice I've got it wrong?
 
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Duane said:
One way signs ;). Had a couple of close calls just recently. As a newb can someone tell me the etiquette for oncoming traffic, if someone is flying down, I get out of the bloody way if I'm on a slow climb. Had a couple of times where the gumby just didn't budge and I had to go off into the boonies to avoid a head on. Perhaps they were just inattentive so I wasn't fused but It got me thinking perhaps as a novice I've got it wrong?
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The commonly accepted rule is downhill riders give way to uphill, but it is a stupid rule based on driving on icy roads. Sure it can be hard restarting on an upslope, but when you have worked for the downhill section, you should be able to enjoy it without being on notice to stop in every circumstance. My personal opinion is that all trails should be marked give way in both directions and leave it to riders to do the right thing - like you have been doing.

Just a comment on the berms. One of the early posts asked for really steep berms. They do look good, but they also blow out because they physically keep almost all wheels on a line limited by the steep face. So you get a trench forming above the gorby line, but lower than ideal for a fast rider. Progressive, but not greater than 45 degree faces are best. They can still be big.

My vote is for flow, good scenery and a variety of natural and manufactured features that challenge all riders, if at different speeds and on different line options. I like trails that make you smile rather than hurt.
 
scblack said:
NNNOOO! There was a steep right hand switchback on the Lithgow state mine track I could not do well at all.

Lets make all corners left handers - I turn left better.
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The ones on pony express goes left. We built it with you in mind
 
That hard right straight after the rock drop on the State Mine track was difficult but awesome.

Man, I really miss that track. That and Thredbo were my all-time fav tracks.
 
Duane said:
One way signs ;). Had a couple of close calls just recently. As a newb can someone tell me the etiquette for oncoming traffic, if someone is flying down, I get out of the bloody way if I'm on a slow climb. Had a couple of times where the gumby just didn't budge and I had to go off into the boonies to avoid a head on. Perhaps they were just inattentive so I wasn't fused but It got me thinking perhaps as a novice I've got it wrong?
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Personally I think signs should stay in the street. Now I admit we haven't got the same number of riders as some urban tracks but unless it's a dh track the whole idea of only ever riding a track in one direction is strange to me.

Go to your favourite track. Ride it in the reversed direction to what you normally do. You will get to know it better. The bits you were zipping down you're now polishing up with more time to get a good look. You'll spot lines and get a better idea of where you want to be exiting the corners....


Thecat says no to one way signs.
 
Fair enough Cat, I ride a lot of trails in both directions so my "sign" suggestion was a bit tongue in cheek, I just wasn't sure of the etiquette as I seem to be doing a lot of giving way without it being reciprocated.
I guess it's giving me extra practice at alternative lines, even when they don't exist. I'll continue to happily give way to those on a downhill charge as it's not my job to be the one to slow down their fun.

Thanks for the clarification though Ridenparadise, probably explains a couple of close ones when I passed off in the trees, :D
 
All good.

Another tip for trail freatures

It sounds a bit too simple but use what's there. Before you even lift the rake or shovel have a good look around for what natural features are present and then think about how they can be used and linked up.

Get imaginative. Sometimes you find something a little unique

Eg
http://vimeo.com/81308040
[video=vimeo;81308040]http://vimeo.com/81308040[/video]
 
Cats "before you pick up a rake or shovel" reminded me of the most important thing.

Trail planning, make sure you have it planned to include drainage and good gradient to reduce rain damage.
A track without drainage is a bad one and a pita to maintain.
 
Search Youtube for Rude Rock in New Zealand and build that trail on every hill you can imagine. The world will be a happy place.
 
Nice tree Cat. We will (hopefully get final permission to) start building a new section of trail that bypasses a bunch of eroded crap near the trailhead in Nerang national Park in the next couple of weeks. A lot of it is in relatively flat terrain, but we can make it interesting by having creek views until the steeper bit starts.

There are a couple of tree features we plan to use. One is a large old tree that was obviously given a presidential pardon after the loggers (it was Department of Natural resources land prior to QPWS) started to cut it with an axe. It has survived and will look pretty funky next to the trail. The other is 2 trees growing almost from the same point, but bending away from each other so the gap widens with height. We plan to run the trail through the trees and add a little kicker for better riders to launch the gap. It's just for fun, but it is on a green section of trail leading to an intersection with a blue trail that a lot of good riders use to return from harder loops farther out.

We also have what we call the roo lick tree because it looks like critters lick sap leaking along a growth from the trunk and next to a future section is the platypus tree. It is a sort of stringy bark with a platypus shaped form at the base. It looks like he is swimming through the twisty bark strands. Riders do take in views and that's why I think scenery is an important feature on any trail.
 
Cock Rock

Dozer said:
Search Youtube for Rude Rock in New Zealand and build that trail on every hill you can imagine. The world will be a happy place.
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I think the natural terain makes Rude Rock awesome, and by not overbuilding the trail, they've made this trail a lot of fun to interpret.

It's great that trail builders put a lot of effort in, but don't overdo it making it too predicable. I like trails that have more time spent on the landings than the take offs. You can always improvise a new launch making the trail more difficult, but I find that the landings and run outs are what limit trails (IMO).
 
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