[pct-l] Some bikes are better than others - trail damage

[Edward Anderson]

 I now live in Agua Dulce. I have lived here for nearly six years.
 
I came from Mendocino. I lived there 34 years, and have hiked and ridden horses extensively on the trails and dirt roads on the Mendocino coast and throughout the coast range in Mendocino County. I have observed tread damage caused by erosion. The surfaces are often fairly soft because we had about 50" average rainfall per year. It is TIRES that cause the greatest damage. They create lineal groves on downhill tread. This is especially a problem when they brake hard and SKID downhill (as some thrill-seeking MB'ers do). Of course, rain water will naturally run down those grooves - creating ruts - which gradually deepen and become ditches. Then new trails emerge parallel to the ruts and ditches. By contrast, on the same fairly soft surfaces, a horse's hooves make shallow holes, and because of their much greater weight, horses COMPRESS the soil - pack it in, tamp it down. Yes, rainwater will collect in the holes, but there is no linear, downhill,
 groves for it to run down.
 
Just my observations.
 
MendoRider-Hiker
 

________________________________
 From: Nathan Dreon <ndreon at yahoo.com>
To: Pct-L at backcountry.net 
Sent: Friday, October 26, 2012 7:24 PM
Subject: [pct-l] Some bikes are better than others.
  
I am not a fan of bikes on dirt and riding fast in rolling forest is asking for trouble, even if there are no walkers on the trail, there will be slower bikes and bikes coming the other way.  I would like to keep bikes off of the PCT because I hope to walk it one day and don't want to contend with that danger.

Where I live the trails are often moist and the narrow tires sink in, so the trail holds more water, leading to more damage.  The bikers generally deny that tires cause damage, even when they are standing next to dozens of tire ruts.  The theory is that horses come and tear up the trail, then the bikes sink in the mess, obscure the horse damage and get blamed.

So I found it refreshing to read of a group of bikers who believe that mountain bikes do damage the trails and they have a solution, Fat bikes.  Four inch wide tires with 10psi, very low impact.  The claim is that they actually undo some of the damage other users do to the trail by smoothing out the ruts and foot prints.  They may be correct, hard to say but the impact is clearly much lower than regular 2 inch tires.

I doubt that most bikers will switch to 4 inch tires, they are heavy, hard to pedal and don't go as fast.  I think it would be grand if they did switch though.

http://forums.mtbr.com/fat-bikes/trail-damage-thread-why-fatbikes-better-than-walkers-689389.html
_______________________________________________
Pct-L mailing list
Pct-L at backcountry.net
To unsubcribe, or change options visit:
http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l

List Archives:
http://mailman.backcountry.net/pipermail/pct-l/
All content is copyrighted by the respective authors. 
Reproduction is prohibited without express permission.