[pct-l] Bikes and trail damage

[jape@xxxxxxxxxxx (jape)]

A while back, a flurry of post were made around the topic of bikes on
the PCT.  A couple of the posts dealt with what bicycle caused trail
damage might be.  After stopping by USENET's rec.backcountry, I picked
up two URL's that I'm passing on *only* FYI, if the topic interests you.

That newsgroup has had a regular poster for at least the last five
years, who is both rabidly anti-bike and anti-car.  Right, wrong or
indifferent, his URL offers input into trail tread damage by bikes, with
photos illustrating his points.  That link is,
http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande/mtb27.htm

His page directed me to a second URL, with more photos detailing damage
to specific trails in a Boston park.  That link is,
http://www.wheeled-locusts.org/

Both make similar points
    1.  That the knobby tires of a bike tend to pulverize the top layer
of dirt of a tread.  The dirt/dust scatters from the tread, and after
repeated scatterings, the tread begins to drop.  Rocks become exposed.
Bike riders swerve to dodge the rocks.  The tread begins to widen.
Repeat.

    2.  Parks tend to identify trails as hiker-only when the tread
becomes difficult to maintain from an erosion control standpoint.  The
characteristics of such trails i.e. steepness, gullies, challenging
terrain, are the very characteristics that make the trail challenging
for bike riding.  Parks which have marked some of their trails as
multi-use, and some as hiking only, find that there is bike damage on
all the trails regardless of their designation.

 http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande/mtb17.htm was another interesting read,
and his determination of the psychology of mountain biking.


Eckert