Beaten Tracks is a new series of 90-second mountain bike videos that pack in a ton of action in those few seconds. Check out the first installment in the series here:
In their own description of the video, the editors wrote, “The film is about trail riding in all weathers. We worked closely with a great team of trail riders who know the Surrey Hills very well. The weather was dark and misty, perfect for some fast riding in muddy tracks.”
The one thing that popped into my mind after watching this video is that these guys are absolutely tearing the snot out of these trails. If you ask me, this video should be titled “Beating Tracks” instead of “Beaten Tracks,” as these riders are the ones doing the damage.
What do you think: is it ok to ride wet trails like this?
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Honestly, it seemed like pretty tame riding to me. I didn’t see any skidding and they went through the puddles rather than around them. Really, it was normal trail riding with a lot of hyped up music thrown in to make it seem like they were going harder and faster. Yes, the trails were wet but it’s not always a total sin to ride a wet trail if they are not mushy. I would suggest that the poor design and drainage (several large puddles) was the bigger issue with that trail. In fact, the trail at end of the video almost seemed dry.
With the standing water, I would have to say no on the riding. While they did ride through the puddle instead of around so the trail won’t grow, I still think the tires hitting the fully-saturated ground wouldn’t be good from a trail maintenance viewpoint.
I would agree with GoldenGoose saying it looked like they were doing “normal” trail riding (I had it on mute, so no opinion on the music) but even normal riding on wet, mushy trails can be very hard on the trail…and aggravating to those that work on the trails.
I think this riding is ok.
A lot depends on the soil composition. If it was a certain type of clay, then for sure “no”.
Here in CEntral TExas we have been in a drought, but I can remember years between 1999 and 2002 that there would have been very little riding if one stayed off wet trails.
Like wise in Hawaii–it always rains in the mountains—there would be no riding !
Just use common sense… don’t go after a deluge, ride through rather than around puddles, and try not to skid.
Nice video !
“Just use common sense… don’t go after a deluge, ride through rather than around puddles, and try not to skid.”
My only concern is that’s common sense/knowledge to us, but it’s not necessarily common sense/knowledge to the average mtn biker (or maybe I should raise my opinion of the “average rider”
)
Good points everyone–definitely makes for an interesting discussion.
Under the conditions in the video I wouldn’t be out riding. There certainly were some drainage issues on that trail and, even though they were mostly riding through the puddles, other trail users clearly hadn’t been. But it looked to me that the tread was holding up well and their tires were not sinking in or picking up a lot of the trail surface. I suspect that minimal damage was done that day from what I saw.
The problem with this video is that the average rider will not see the subtleties that we’re talking about in this forum and just take away the message that it is “cool” to ride wet trails.
It’s interesting to think that riding trails when they’re REALLY wet may actually do less damage than when they’re just SORTA wet.
I think these guys’ bikes are may end up suffering more than the trails in this instance. They’ll be cleaning mud out of their drivetrains and frame tubes for a while after this one…
In the article, it says the riders are very familiar with the trails. Hopefully, this means they care fore their trails and do trail work on them. If this is the case, then they should be able to ride on the trails.