[cmc]

one of them, probably 11, small for his age. full suspension walmart mtb looks massive under him. starts pedaling with all his strength at the double.

should i yell and tell him to stop??

he's going to smash his face, cry and bleed everywhere!!

then his dad will show up and yell. and ask me was i the one built these dangerous obstacles.....

damn.

as he's pedaling the bike is shaking all over, the chain is about to fall off.

he hits the jump. goes straight up. back end starts to swing to the side. bars are turning. uh oh this will be bad.

..............

then i realize he's doing a perfect moto whip. peaks, nosedives into the landing.

right behind him the other kid does the same thing. mirror image moto whip.

..............

later one of them tells me, i don't want to brag but me and my brother are like really good at motocross. we go to all the races and stuff, since i was 4.

.....
impressive.

 

[Arkayne]

 

[jonKranked]

convince them to get on real bikes and let them go nuts

 

[Cru Jones]

Yeah, you never know what you're going to get. Two kids I had never seen showed up to our trails on Saturday. One cased and bailed like crazy. The other dressed like he was the lead singer of MGMT and landed a double tailwhip, multiple 3s, and a flip...

 

[jonKranked]

The other dressed like he was the lead singer of MGMT

Complete with manscara?

 

[t1maglio]

I can't say the local groms are as talented as Cru's, but I'm always impressed by some of the kids that show up at my trails. When I was elem/middle school age I wouldn't have been ballsy enough to hit the small jumps we have and I've got kids that are in 2nd/3rd grade hitting little DODs (3ft lips/5ft gaps) not to mention some middle school aged kids hitting the bigger sets (5ft lips with 10ft gaps). They aren't smooth, though some of them are getting there. I just know that when I built in a town 5 miles away when I was in college the middle school age kids would tear down anything that was DOD because they were pansies.

I do have to say, some kids with moto backgrounds are worthless. I had a kid tell me his moto background helped him know about balance points. This came about because he had some sweet Chi town style bars and was doing the ugliest pencil wheelies down the bike path and I suggested he move his bars back a little bit. Then again, when your that age why would you listen to the 29 year old that is still riding little kids bikes.

 

[jonKranked]

what does DOD refer to? I've never heard this term (then again I'm not really into the DJ scene).

 

[kidwoo]

I've even got chick pants on and just dyed my hair black, white handlebars and rims....the works........and I still don't know what DOD means.

 

[r464]

Department of Defense?

 

[basikbiker]

do or die

 

[jonKranked]

do or die

oh so shark pits?

 

[t1maglio]

Lol, ya, "Do or dies" is what I was referring to. I should know better then to shorten stuff up.

Shark pits would work fine as well, but out in the midwest we don't really have salt water to support that sort of aquatic life

 

[Windowlicker]

when we were building up at this one spot, these XC'ers came along pedaling up the trail and chated with us about how fun it would be to hit them and one of them started telling us what to do and then busted out with the line , "oh yeah bro, tell me when these are done, its gonna be legit."
we kinda just laughed and they rode down the hill all fingers on their brakes and bowlegged.
another time some kids came up with their bikes and watched a couple of us hit them for a while until one of them got on his bike, and tried to hit the first one but he skidded all the way to the lip and tipped over and landed on his side. they left after that
we always had poachers

sadly, where that spot was deforested and everything was destroyed over there as far as we know

 

[Cru Jones]

I have never heard of that... so, it's like any jump that's not a table?

Yeah, we usually get randoms that would never even think of trying the jumps. They can be pretty intimidating... you walk through the gap of the 2nd jump on the way into the trails, it's kinda big (6' tall, very steep lip and about a 15 foot gap to a 7' tall landing). So, most get freaked out and don't even try. I know most of the rippers in the area, but had never run into this kid. I guess he's kind of known in the area for being a park rat, foam pit kid. He had tricks, but no style. And he wasn't nearly as cool as you should be when you show up to somebody else's trails. No wonder everybody I asked about him said they didn't like him.

 

[aeffertz]

do or die

Oh... So, if you don't do them, someone kills you?

That's not nice...

 

[jonKranked]

some friends of mine were riding XC one day in the Finger Lakes region near Ithaca... they somehow stumbled across what they figured were the FBM secret jump stash. They reported that the smallest jump there was 10' tall. FWIW my friends who stumbled across these have a DH background, and they admitted they would be scared to hit jumps that big.

Its a good tactic... build jumps so enormous it scares most people away.

 

[t1maglio]

Exactly! I got some big sharp shovels.

Cru, its a repeated topic, but it blows my mind that when people see you everyday digging, or maybe they just show up at your trails, and then don't at least act a little appreciative or at the minimum respectful. I was ready to level a kid with a shovel one day when he started riding around a roller/berm section I was building. Ya know, if I ask you to stay clear for at least until I'm done working that would be great. I invest my free time to moving dirt and when a person can't even wait for me to get out of they way before they start riding thats about the time a shovel might collide with a random body part (my trails are in a city park so I sadly can not regulate as many of you trailbosses do).

 

[stino]

some of them will never get it.. mostly those that only ride but never take up the shovels theirselves.
worst I encountered was this: finished shaping a huge table (30hours of work, all by myself), put branches all around to indicate it's not ready for being ridden (dirst was way to moist), only to arrive next day and see a 3inch deep trace cut into the lip, plus a completely cased landing. The guy obviously tried to make it over the table time and time again, but never got it. Sad.