Show off your Mountain Bike!!!

Interesting. I'm a big fan of that, sustainability is key.

 

Back in the St Louis area, the St Charles County parks would regularly close and open trails for different activities (like totally closed, open for hiking but not biking, or totally open) based on surface condition. Their trails typically stayed in great shape. But, one of my favorite trail systems was mixed use and popular with equestrians. There were a bunch of trails on one side that weren't great for biking but great for horses, and the bikers would typically stay away from that side. However, the horse people would go anywhere in any conditions. The MTB community partnered with the park system to build quite a bit of new trail, and the equestrians would just go post-hole it in the mud. Signs were at all trail heads, but totally ignored -- and you would never see the horse people out doing trail maintenance. Pissed us off, but it's more due to ignorance than anything. The damage they caused didn't really affect their ability to use the trails, so they really didn't give it a thought.

Fast forward a bit, and a new trail system was built near this same area. Built for mountain biking by mountain bikers, mostly to IMBA standards. AND the city puts in a huge circular parking lot for horse trailer access. And we still have no access to trails in wilderness areas, while horses are free to go tear up those places.

Sorry, I'm better now. The community where I live nowre is all about mountain biking, need to post some pics of some of the cool stuff they have built -- and they just keep adding stuff!

 

No offense to any horse people on here... but horses are the worst for trails... They shit everywhere and tear the trails up when they are wet far worse then a mountain bike... gotta pick up your dogs poop... but not the giant steaming mound from your horse...

I lived out in the San Fran area for the last few years, and Marin county (the birthplace of mountain biking) is pretty much entirely closed to mountain bikes due to the equestrians and old grumpy hikers... super frustrating that we get the brunt of the restrictions, when mountain bikers in general are fairly courteous and due a large part of the trail maintenance. Santa Cruz has a few mixed use trails and they actually work really well, the MTB'ers self police and for the most part always pull off for equestrians and hikers --- although most the hikers will step aside before you even get to stop or slow for them... everyone says hi and thanks and all is well. For the most part everyone respects the stay off the trails when wet mentality to.

 

I've heard so many mixed reviews of the Bentonville scene. Nevertheless, regardless of the riding style, the shear number of miles is awesome out there!

 

Haha, steamroller!

 

I come from a horse family and this is 100% accurate

 

Hmm, what have you heard? Here's my take:

The local stuff is easily accessed and has a lot of man-made flow trail with features, connected by some singletrack. They're probably leaning a bit too heavy in the flow trail and feature direction and could use more singletrack, but most of the flow trails are built using existing terrain features. The Back 40 in Bella Vista is just a few minutes north and has a good amount of singletrack and very little of the flow trail stuff. There are plenty of places within about an hour drive for the remote backwoodsy feel, too -- but I wish there was more backwoodsy stuff closer.

 

I think that is what I am referencing. While there is a lot of riding it's not really good riding, in the opinions of people I have talked to. The videos all are epic with Wal-Mart money pushing the narrative of a mountain bike haven whereas that may not be the actual experience of a lot of out-of-towners. I've heard your description from others often and my preferred riding style I really enjoy hard, advanced riding; long days in the saddle with plenty of climbing and intense downhills.

Granted, nothing beats easy access with fun trails outside of your back door which I really think is the niche Bentonville provides

 

The Back 40 in Bella Vista (less than 10 miles north of here) does have some challenging singletrack (plenty of technical sections, extended climbs and downhills), and they are planning a bunch more on the west side. It's a good size loop with various connectors that you can turn into a long day and not ride anything twice. Not as convenient to me as the town trails, but only a scenic 10-15 minute drive from my house. But, for that more epic feeling you gotta drive to the Ozarks or Ouachitas. The Womble is an IMBA Epic that I have not done yet, but I hear it is awesome.

Part of the problem with the trails in town is that they keep adding trail faster than they can keep the maps updated. With much of it being in town, sometimes you have to cross a street to connect trails, and if you don't know they are there you may miss some good riding. I had to have an out-of-towner show me around once.

I think if you come to just ride the Bentonville trails, you may be a bit disappointed. You will surely have some fun, but you'll need to venture further out to make the trip here worthwhile.

 

horses destroy single track or pretty much any trails they trot down. I use to train on a loop
where yahoos riding their horses would sneak on to. I would go from 14 mphs to pretty much
2 mphs. My Rock Shox didn't enjoy a million pot holes left by horses.

 

We’re lucky in Santa Cruz to have a huge and very well coordinated trail building and maintenance community. Well, not just luck, a lot of hard work. Better yet, it’s mostly mountain bikers and hikers on the single track ... the horses seem to stick to fire roads even where the single track is built to horse standards of width - and height! On the Silicon Valley side of the hill, most of the local agencies have seasonal or storm closures, posted or even with gates, but here it’s honor system and fairly well adhered to. Frankly, the biggest problem is runoff on the fireroads which creates huge ruts that don’t seem to get fixed for years. And MTB trail builders don’t do fire road but we gotta ride it sometime as a connector.

 

Thought I’d post my new “very old” bike shed on this thread as well. Very proud of it!!!

 

My 26" Banshee Rune. Love the bike, but sad how much money I put into building a 26" bike right before 27.5 became a big thing.

 

I have a friend with both 26 and 27.5 bikes - a VERY skilled rider - and he ultimately likes his 26” Mojo best. That said (and I don’t want to get into a political argument), I’m seeing more and more traction for 29” lately. People I know close to the industry, at least out here, seem to think that 29 and 27.5+ will be the new normal, but not regular 27.5. Oh well, isn’t it about time for a new axle standard?

 

Anyone own or ridden a Vitus bike?

 

The people on horse's in our area are terrible. The trails are shared, but you'd never know it from the looks you get from people on horse's. I used to always talk so the horses don't get spooked. But lately, they're so rude, so I just stand there as they walk by. They can initiate the conversation if they want.

 

First ride since the new truck.

 

I am finding that to be true as well. Where in PNW are you at?

 

Spokane

 

Any particular trails you recommend in ouachita?

Sucks to hear that about bentonville... I was really looking forward to see what it has to offer. Being in Houston I feel like bentonville was the closest place to get some actual good riding.