Anything not get rain and staying open today?

ChosenOne wrote on 12/22/14 at 12:20am:

I had a long drawn out response for you but everyone else pretty much summed it up. We remove the leaves every year and the trail is better for it. If you want the novel as to why and how I know that, then we can sit down at the shop with a beer and I'll gladly explain.

Happy Festivus!

I forgot to thank the volunteers from REI for helping me clear the leaves on Norwood Creek earlier this month. Thank you so much!

BBM LNSP was primo Sunday! Thanks so much!

Looks like we're all done here. Come out some and show us how to take care of the trails as we obviously don't know what we're doing. 

BTW you forgot SWDP,  NM, Signal Hill and BYT...

Btw - wasn't there also a post about somebody destroying their frame and dislocacting their shoulder after wiping out on ... wait for it... leaves? Wasn't that at Beatty?

You're only crashing because you never ride in less than perfect conditions. Leaves are the way to develop poor traction riding skills without tearing up the trail.  The road is the trail without leaves, stay on it if you lack skills.  Otherwise we have a velodrome here in RH if you want absolutely controlled conditions, well except for the wind, if that bothers you then it's the trainer in the living room.

Rode leaf covered riverwalk trails all weekend, even a loop on the cyclocross rig

There's only two reasons I clear the leaves at Fisher.

They are:

1. Leaves on top of mud is still mud. You just don't get as much stuck on your tires which I admit does have some merit.  BUT...that is far out weighed by the moisture that is retained on the tread taking longer to dry out and the added organic material that builds up in every turn and drain leaving a mudd, mucky mess through the Winter into early Spring. Which brings be to my first reason...its less total maintanence to blow the majority of the leaves in the late Fall/early Winter than leaving them on and cleaning out the drains and deberming almost every single turn.

For those who may say "You're just talking out you're arse, you don't what you're talking about", actually I do.  Since I base my techniques on actual facts and data I decided in early 2006 after we finished the lower green, blue and black sections to try leaving the leaves on the trail through the Fall and Winter and see how the trail responded. Well...she threw an absolute hissy fit and looked like a 2 bit hooker on a week long john and booze binge without a shower. It took most of April and May to clean it up and repair the damage. Never again.

2.  Removing the leaves from the desired trail also helps stave off tread creep and widening which is the other reaction I observed. I don't know about you but I like my single track single and not 4 feet wide or wandering like an drunk in the woods.

As far as learning how to ride in less than ideal conditions i say...ride Fisher after a light rain when its not closed and see how slick those roots that so many whine about are!


So in closing, I and the other trail coordinators are going to take care of the trails how we feel is best which even means leaving the leaves on at some trails (Beatty). Its up to the individual trail coordinator to figure that out and I support their decision.  If you want to help out, help out. If you want to ride and criticize...

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I understand and appreciate the trail maintenance side of leaf blowing.  It's just fun to go leaf surfing this time of year, and yes you have to use those levers in front of the bars a bit more judiciously.

  I find that the mainly outsloped trails here at RW shed water and leaves fairly well especially with the increased traffic and any fall line tread clears itself, berms tend to be the biggest leaf catching culprits  Leaf covered trails seem to handle the freeze thaw cycle better and after going out and kicking aside some leaves this morning I found the trail dry underneath.  In the spring it's the time to rake/blow off the collected organic material.

  Long term sustainability is not an issue at RW, most of what we're riding on here will soon be erased by a bulldozer anyhow. 

abruzzopat wrote on 12/23/14 at 2:23pm:


We're up to twenty rides a week!? Yeah buddy. 

When are we going to build a downhilll line and a lung busting climb out of that gully? 

And don't worry - I'm bored and on vacation,  I'll make sure some squabbles start on the forums (I know,  I know, trolling is wrong...)

Cycle Path use a lot of cheap hooker analogies huh?