Who here builds trails?

[Wiltshire Warrior]

I initiated this one back in 2007 with a mate from work, with a £10k lottery grant and labour from the probation service, roll on 12 years and the trails are now managed by a club..
http://www.mbswindon.co.uk/croft-trail/croft-trail-maps/
However I don't use it much now as we are blessed with over 600 miles of by-ways in Wiltshire, and honestly I don't think I will ever find all the trails round here, I have been riding them since I moved here in 1996 and seem find new routes every time I am out.

 

[R120]

Where I live in the Surrey Hills there are home made trails pretty much every where. If you see a gap in the trees off the side of the side of a bridleway there a good chance that there's a good trail off it, if its had any maintenance is another matter, and also some of them are pretty serious and you will get in trouble if you hit them blind at pace.

I discovered a sharks fin road gap that some kids had built near me recently, hidden away of a trail I ride most times I go out, and had no idea it was there till I saw one of the kids emerging from the undergrowth down a bank - they are only about 14/15 years old so its good to see the next generation have got the bug too.

 

[theMISSIONARY]

i have done years of trail work(building and maintaining) for free by myself or with the local club which lead onto me gaining employment for three months on a project(wild Mersey Tasmania) that finished a couple of months ago.

currently back to doing trail work for my own enjoyment

 

[Rahr85]

Due to furlough i'm trying to help out with building local trails. it's starting to take shape but my upper body isn't really used to the manual labour. ;D The general idea is to have about 3 main lines with cross linking sections whether that be gaps or hips etc. Nothing huge just enough for your average enthusiastic biker.

need to find a way to turn a rake + bike into a plough to help clear the top layer on new lines.

 

[Rosemount]

Trail building eh ?
Been known to make new trails and maintain existing .

The blow hards who say E Bikes wreck trails obviously just don`t understand ...

The reciprocating saw is a revelation ! I saw Seth the Bike Hacker using one and got inspired . The beauty is you can cut roots and trunks / stems below the ground . Makes for smoother less disturbed soil . Which can be a bonus in places where high rain fall can cause erosion .

Erosion and the least disturbance of the natural surroundings are my main focus . That way less complaints .

Built a few hundred meters more of trail locally in my neighborhood recently .
Made some new features with rocks at the trail centre . Rolling stones gather no moss .

 

[The Hodge]

Looking at the title of the thread ..I can't categorise myself under any of the headings..what I can say is that I used to trail build as a volunteer member of Kielder Trail Reavers for a good few years from its beginnings ..
I was actually at the first meeting in Kielder Castle before a spade was struck in anger when there was the bare outline of a plan .. when Alex MacClellan the new Recreation and Tourism Officer explained his vision. Over the years I have been involved in building new sections ( did the walk through and red flagged the route for Capon Hassock with Ian Bell )..this is the only section of trail which was built purely by hand with no machine in sight and have helped to re-profile and maintain certain sections ( Twist & Shout being the last ).
Unfortunately my knees are no longer up to the job so its been 2 or 3 years since I've done anything at all ..but I retain a certain sense of pride that in a very, very small way ( others have done much ,much more ) I've helped to create a fantastic trail network that has grown from its first small skills area and now totals over 100 miles of purpose built mtb trails which extend and link into the 7 Stanes centre at Newcastleton..

 

[lumpy]

I don't build them, I keep the poison oak and shrubbery at bay

 

[johnf0246]

Well I have been building and maintaining mountain bike trails for over 30 years. I started to build trails soon after I started mountain biking.

My first new trail was in the coastal mountains south of San Francisco. There was a 2,300 acre Open Space Preserve that previously was a motorcycle park. Unfortunately the trails were mostly fall line and had serious erosion problems, so I took it upon myself to eliminate the serious eroded sections and added reroutes to improve the sustainability of the trail.

After several successes with a group of highly skilled riders I built a completely new successful trail which lead to many others in various other areas in the San Francisco Bay Area. I have built trails in Moab, Utah and two in the famous Whistler Bike Park.

I would say they I have personally created over 60 miles of new hand built trail. Many of the trails I have created have been adopted by the local land managers. Some of those trails have had tens of thousands of riders rode them. The most iconic was parts of the Whole Enchilada in Moab, UT.

I have also done thousands of hours of trail maintenance on trails I built and trails I enjoy riding that others have built. I use to do volunteer maintenance for local land managers, but I found that to be very inefficient. So instead I do trail maintenance where I see the need and at my convenience.

I will have to disagree about the damage done to the trail by Ebikes is twice as much as regular mountain bikers. Think about it Ebikers ride twice as far as regular mountain bikers so they do twice as much damage. That is why I still continue to do trail maintenance.

I would say the majority of the maintenance involves: cutting out deadfall, trimming brush encroaching on the trail, clearing or creating water diverters, removing loose rocks in the middle of the trail and reinforcing a blown out edge of a trail.

 

[ajbalfe]

Hands up for me dude I build which I’m sure you’ll know from my Instagram account
Ive spent at least 1 hr a day for last 3 months building my local trail and most of it has been done in the dark with my head torch lol
My aim is to complete my trail ready for spring riding , I’ve made all the jumps rideable for every level riders
I thought I’d share my passion for everyone one here too as it might inspire others to do the same.
I’m 47 so your never to old to be playing in the dirt lol

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That is incredible work. Jumps are wayyyyyy too big for me but they look great.

 

[Rusty]

Kind of don't fit into any of the categories. Build a lot of track when we started our local track and was track manager for 8 or 9 years - out in all sorts of weather cutting felled trees, sorting drainage and such. About 5 or 6 years after we built the original track I redeveloped a lot of it and in places put in different lines - 1 easy and 1 harder. Nothing too gnarly as it has always been a XC race/training track.

First pics are clearing an area. The last 2 are the same area - how it was originally & how it was improved. Is even more built up now so stays pretty dry all year around allowing a good winter race series.

 

[InRustWeTrust]

Me and some friends started building illegal slopes on a local hill at night so as not to be discovered and then we rode a push-bike up and then cycled down.

A few years later, we asked the municipality and landowners for permission to start building paths legally and and use the lift that was on the hill when we were open, which the landowner was skeptical of at first but then after we had been open a few days and he saw how much people it drew every weekend so we finally got free hands.


now about 5 years later we have a bike park with about 8 slopes and we still continue to build and develop our park.


Here is a movie when my mate ride one of the slopes.

 

[Eddy Current]

Some guys that I know turned a hill into a minibikepark in few years. They even buy a fat bike for look and create new lines. If a three falls down in the middle of the trail, there you have a new jump.

 

[The Hodge]

Trail building eh ?
Been known to make new trails and maintain existing .

The blow hards who say E Bikes wreck trails obviously just don`t understand ...

The reciprocating saw is a revelation ! I saw Seth the Bike Hacker using one and got inspired . The beauty is you can cut roots and trunks / stems below the ground . Makes for smoother less disturbed soil . Which can be a bonus in places where high rain fall can cause erosion .

Erosion and the least disturbance of the natural surroundings are my main focus . That way less complaints .
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Built a few hundred meters more of trail locally in my neighborhood recently .
Made some new features with rocks at the trail centre . Rolling stones gather no moss

@Rosemount ..Just a quick question about that reciprocating saw ...what voltage is the one you have ...& how long are you getting out of a full charge ? Thanks .
Thinking it might be a good way to clear an explosion of heather on a local bridleway

 

[InRustWeTrust]

That’s awesome man!!!! Has to be cool being apart of that. Looks pretty cool but for a kid that place is Disney land.

be hard in America to find a land owner willing to take the risk. I mean, in America we have a woman who put industrial glue in her hair (Gorillia Glue) gets $25,000 from public funding, a California doctor giving her free procedures to fix it and she sews the glue maker. She’s 40 btw.

That’s awesome man!!!! Has to be cool being apart of that. Looks pretty cool but for a kid that place is Disney land.

be hard in America to find a land owner willing to take the risk. I mean, in America we have a woman who put industrial glue in her hair (Gorillia Glue) gets $25,000 from public funding, a California doctor giving her free procedures to fix it and she sews the glue maker. She’s 40 btw.

Thanks, yes it is pretty awesome to be a part of this

we who build do it completely free and ideally because we are passionate about cycling, so we spend a hell of a lot of hours of our free time building and maintaining everything.

hahah it sounds like america is a bit weird and give random people money. you probably have even stricter rules, I think when it comes to building things even if you have the landowner's permission?

our landowner gets a% sum of money from our income that we get for lift passes and stuff like that thanks to us being able to use his land and that we share some electricity with him to be able to drive the lift.

 

[Zimmerframe]

It sounds like an amazing group of incredible people!!

It is, they're all single ladies and he's the only bloke.

This reply has been automatically generated to appeal to user:bambamoda

 

[Marley]

Maintained trails for many years.

 

[Zimmerframe]

One huge and important downside that everyone forgets about with separation is when you've spent 100's of hours making your own lockdown bike park in the garden, you don't have access anymore !

So you have to start making a new one ...

We're (me and my trusty K9 assistant) on Day 3 of making a single XC trail along the top, which I can then start making DH trails from.

yeah .. you can't really see much can you crap pictures !

 

[Zimmerframe]

Maintained trails for many years. View attachment 53414

I like how you set your chainsaw up to drive the bike

 

[The Hodge]

One huge and important downside that everyone forgets about with separation is when you've spent 100's of hours making your own lockdown bike park in the garden, you don't have access anymore !

So you have to start making a new one ...

We're (me and my trusty K9 assistant) on Day 3 of making a single XC trail along the top, which I can then start making DH trails from.

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yeah .. you can't really see much can you crap pictures !

Yep even the dog is embarrassed..?

 

[Marley]

I like how you set your chainsaw up to drive the bike

Yes sir, it's a 28cc 2 cycle bike.

 

[Rosemount]

A have a few batteries .

@Rosemount ..Just a quick question about that reciprocating saw ...what voltage is the one you have ...& how long are you getting out of a full charge ? Thanks .
Thinking it might be a good way to clear an explosion of heather on a local bridleway

18 V , 5 aH battery is the biggest .
I have 3 .
It`s a lot like the e bike motor ; work it hard it goes flat more quickly . Cutting branches finger thick out of the eye line or chopping roots it lasts for a cpl of hours . Cut some fallen tree trunks it might last an hour ?
Cpl hundred Oz dollars for that one probably 100 squid in Blighty. Batteries are extra though, but interchangeable with different tools . And I saw a You Tube the other day of battery adapters to mate different brand batteries and tools . Very cool .

 

[Rahr85]

finished off a little beginner line today of which i made a right meal of when recording it, but i blame this on my arms being too dead to hold on properly. The land used to have a lot of jumps and it got flattened at the end of last summer. So we are slowly building it back up.

 

[CBSTD]

You could say I helped create the Golfie ?‍♂ used to ride Scottish enduros at Caberston forest behind Innerleithen after foot and mouth there were no more offroad motorcycles allowed back in the Tweed valley and enduros loss was mountain biking’s gain
I’ve been building in woods behind the house (enduro style stages) first lockdown, when I’m out walking the hairy hooligans I keep seeing more lines but I’m not starting any more till the first 5 are totally finished. I also volunteer at Muckmedden events prior to riding the event

 

[steve_sordy]

............ I mean, in America we have a woman who put industrial glue in her hair (Gorillia Glue) gets $25,000 from public funding, a California doctor giving her free procedures to fix it and she sews the glue maker. She’s 40 btw.

Too many lawyers in USA operating on a "no win, no fee" basis. How can you lose?

At one time, the UK press was full of tales about the more outrageous product liability litigation in the USA. For ex.

• Woman washes her poodle and dries it in the microwave, sues for dead dog and her trauma, wins.
• Person opens a fridge door and stands on the door shelf to reach up higher, fridge falls, person gets hurt and sues, wins.

I am astonished that we never see "Man buys emtb and hurts himself, sues, wins". Although we got close with Simon Cowell! (He may have sued, I dunno).

But as a consequence we can buy a 140mm MTB and be told by the manufacturers not to use it for jumping more than a 2' step.
I would not be surprised to see instructions for my new laptop (that I am about to buy) to the effect that it is not to be used as a hammer or a doorstop!

I have a proposal:
Anyone that comes in the top 100 of the Darwin Awards should be refused an insurance payout.
Edit: That should read their estate should be refused a payout. After all anyone qualifying for the Darwin Awards is dead.

 

[Jeff McD]

For the past couple of years have been using the lightest, one-handed sawsall on the market, which also will pivot into a jigsaw making it even more useful. You don't want to buy it with the dinky 1.5Ah battery that it comes with but rather an aftermarket generic 5Ah battery that gives a good two hours of heavy usage. This sucker only weighs 5 pounds and is so easy to carry in a backpack. On the trail I frequently need to lift a root while cutting the other end, so one-handed is huge improvement. Very good design and durable. Last generic battery cost only 37 bucks:

20v-axis-recip-jig-saw-wx550l-tool-only.html

 

[dobbyhasfriends]

I tend to do a fair bit of tree clearing. I carry a folding bow saw and when I have to, I take a chainsaw chain and work on larger trail blockages bit by bit..

 

[Rosemount]

Discovered a new area out in a back corner of a local park on Friday.
Highest point around with an old switch back track that has been eroded and not drivable. Looking forward to making some lines out there . And only 5 minutes from my door .