[spacemanspiff06]

here's the story. there are a good many miles of llegal trails around me but the downhills are short and everything is tame. is it ok to use foot traffic only trails, that are in abundence around me, and offer much longer downhills and more techy/fun riding, given that i would use them:
-in isolated, low traffic sections
-on non-crowded days
-get off the bike and walk around hikers
-and ride without locking my brakes/other destructive actions.

 

[skinny mike]

it is never ok to ride a hikers only trail. all it takes is one person to see you just walking your bike on that trail for a ****storm to occur.

 

[DaveW]

And how many walkers on a bike trail does it take for said ****storm to occur?.... just currious.

 

[BurlyShirley]

Do whatever you want. You pay the fine, let the hikers whine. All the more reason to build more bike trails.

 

[spacemanspiff06]

every hiker but one so far has been plesent to us. it helps to be plesent and friendly to them.

 

[CHOP]

Hey Space there should be plenty of badass legal trails in the Roanoke area to keep you satisfied. Whatever happened to those places that Castle was working on? I remember him talking about them and posting pics. One places had a ton of land and he was scoping it out on four wheelers and such. One place looked like it was kinda of a open area and it went downhill into some nice berms and jumps. Pretty big stuff and looked like all the dirt was brought in.

 

[untitledsince89]

yea well riding illegal trails is ur own business, but do it if u like and no one objects than cool, I just build my own

 

[SK6]

Just wait til Snowshoe opens...

And when it does...






GO FVCKING NUTS!

 

[SXtrailrider]

i would also tell you to get a bell.

 

[zmtber]

no don't coming from a rider of sb where hiker are a@#@# i don't resomend it, they might take your stupid mistake and turn it around kicking you guys off the trail that you ride now

 

[Castle]

Space- Probably be better off finding a secret spot to put in for the time being.

Chop- One Spot got torn down, One Spot owner didn't work out, other Spot became really over grown and the owner didn't like all the kids at his place

So yeah in search of a good spot to ride/work on. As of right now we have a number of people riding around town with really nowhere to ride except the regular xc (for lack of better terms) trails (which are good but not very entertaining in the way of jumps/drops). Considering approaching the city if I can figure out who the hell to really talk to get something done.

 

[Jabuttri]

i would also tell you to get a bell.

preferably one of the cookie monster ones on little kids bikes

 

[johnbryanpeters]

I voted no, but I can't swear I wouldn't cheat on occasion while scrambling to find some legal turf...

 

[TreeSaw]

I voted no, but I can't swear I wouldn't cheat on occasion while scrambling to find some legal turf...

 

[hooples3]

id say stay off of them... all it takes is one person to put in a complaint and things escalate. a lot of places have legal and illegal trails... one person acting foolishly on an illegal trail can close all the trails, its not worth the risk.

 

[splat]

Now I voted No, but this was assuming that as it sounds like in your description that it is an area that is already shared with other users and has trails that are legal to riding. because the may be other factors as to why they are not open to bikes ( erossion issues most likely ). and by riding those you threaten the legal one.

now as for riding othe type of illegal trails , ones were really nobody is techiclly allowed on them ( read tresspessing ) but people have been riding them for years, and nothing has ever been said . then yes I ride those.

 

[binary visions]

I voted no as well, but would just say that I would take into account where the trail is, how frequented it is, how likely it is that I'll get in trouble and/or damage the trail... If I was unlikely to get caught and unlikely to damage anything, I might poach an illegal trail when I had no other riding options.

Which I know makes me hypocritical since I don't agree with riding illegal trails, but there it is

 

[HypNoTic]

The IMBA rep in me have to answer "No way in hell!" but I must also admit that we are sometime forced to "discover" new path and those are not always legit.

In fact, one of the best trailday we had so far was illegal. The work we did made some land owner realise that we are the one maintaining the trail they hike and it actually made a difference. That trail system is going to be legal sooner than we tought possible.

-HypNo
Quebec IMBA rep
ADSVMQ.org prez

 

[spacemanspiff06]

Now I voted No, but this was assuming that as it sounds like in your description that it is an area that is already shared with other users and has trails that are legal to riding. because the may be other factors as to why they are not open to bikes ( erossion issues most likely ). and by riding those you threaten the legal one.

now as for riding othe type of illegal trails , ones were really nobody is techiclly allowed on them ( read tresspessing ) but people have been riding them for years, and nothing has ever been said . then yes I ride those.

the trials in question are foot traffic only illegal, not trespasing illegal. hiking trails you can play dumb and sweet-talk the ranger, since they are amost always not labeled as such. terspassing, you gotta deal with unlce jeb's shotgun, and since they are usualy marked, you can't play dumb.
actualy, the one time i ran into a ranger there, he just waved and said hi.

 

[Tenchiro]

I think it mainly depends how much sand your local hikers have in their panties. If they are super bitchy, then either stay off the trails. (or carry a bottle of Midol and hand it out when they bitch)

I am not adverse to the occasional poaching of trails, but I try to be smart about it.

 

[OGRipper]

Illegal trails should only be ridden at night, when nobody else is using them.

 

[Downhiller]

here at my country allmost every trial is illegal, nobody gives a fck for bikers, so we build illegal in city woods and if somebody destroy them we build another on other place and that story goes in circle...

old trialswhere people walk their dogs or just walk we go down like crazy and shout to move to side, its common thing in my city when we go ride...

 

[johnbryanpeters]

...old trialswhere people walk their dogs or just walk we go down like crazy and shout to move to side, its common thing in my city when we go ride...

It may be a common thing, but if you behave like this you'll lose the trails in the long run. Show some R3SPECT - slow down or stop for the other users.

 

[Zark]

This thread makes us all look bad. Don't ride illegal-hiker only trails. Be respectful to your fellow trail users and yield trail to uphill users. We have to be squeaky clean or we loose it all.

Not happy about the options you have for riding? Do something about it! Join IMBA, join a local IMBA bike club and talk to land managers. Make new stuff and help you don't loose the trail you already have.

 

[spacemanspiff06]

IMBA has a large voice in this area, but all they do is build more tame XC trails. we're always on the lookout for land with potential, but everything has fallen through.(see castle's post)
i'ld like to think that hikers we run into (not literaly) on illegal trails think better of mtn. bikers after them meet us. we always stop, dismount and wait for them to walk past. we say hi, say how cute their dog is, offer the ones that look thirsty water, offer the old ones a hand comming down the steps at the end of a bridge, ect.
thankfuly SWVA, unlike SB has a low sandanties ratio among hikers.

 

[bluebug32]

just curious as to what the fine/punishment is for getting caught on an illegal trail?

 

[Ciaran]

I miss those days back when I first started MTBing. There were no illegal trails. I used to ride through oil company land by my house all the time. They would catch us and marvel at the bikes and what we were doing. We used to take our BMX bikes up into the hills and canyons by our houses and push to the top and ride down (this was in the 80's) Back before the Sierra Club knew what the hell a mountain bike was.

Trail access issues suck.

 

[skinny mike]

IMBA has a large voice in this area, but all they do is build more tame XC trails. we're always on the lookout for land with potential, but everything has fallen through.(see castle's post)

well maybe if more freeriders joined imba while voicing their opinion on what should be done in the area there would be more technical trails built. why should imba build freeride trails when there are no freeriders in the area who care enough to join imba to help whether or not freeride trails are built. they arent going to do all of this stuff just for you guys to say thanks and then ignore them until you want more trails. so why not join and voice your opinion so something can actually be done.

 

[downhill66]

all depends where

 

[mackster23]

there are quite a few trails near us that are not legal, but not really illegal. I am going to ride them till i die, ain't no forest trooper gonna stop me, they did try though.