"Phil W Lee" wrote in message ...

Blackblade considered Tue, 6 Aug 2013
07:24:21 -0700 (PDT) the perfect time to write:

Edward Dolan wrote:
[...]

Yes ... only a few. Most mountain bikes are ridden on streets
and roads as they should be.

Groan. More generalities and inanities. Numbers ? Sources ? Proof ? No ?????

Well, the clue is in the name.
If they were supposed to be used on streets and roads, they wouldn't
be lugging all that weight of suspension and wide tyres around.

Even so, most mountain bikes are ridden on streets and roads. In fact, for awhile road bikes seemed on their way out altogether. Fortunately, they are making a slight comeback.

It is mainly older people who are dying of heart disease. The
fact remains that mountain biking on single track trails is extremely risky.
Only a fool would argue to the contrary.

No, Ed, only someone who had done the maths and figured out the death rate ... which when compared with other activities shows it to be pretty safe.

Safer than not doing it, in fact. At least 6 times safer.

And, unfortunately, no it's not just the old who are dying of heart disease ... the profile of deaths are getting ever younger (source: World Health Organisation).

And the reason is that they don't get out and start doing decent
aerobic exercise at the age they still can. If you leave it until you
need it, it's too late by a decade of two.

Exercise will not save you. However, it is important to keep moving. Too much sitting is deadly.

From Ecclesiastes:

11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

Bicycles on single track trails are an incompatible use which
conflicts with walkers.

On some trails, yes, on the majority no.


Bicycles are mechanical contrivances which go much
faster than anyone can walk.

True. Isn't a reason to ban them though.

Only partially true.
Downhill, they may be faster on a route they know.
Otherwise, they are about the same speed as a fell-runner.
And they are hardly silent when going downhill at full chat on rough
ground, so you can easily hear them coming.

Bicycles are many times faster than anyone walking – period! Bicycles can either be noisy or silent. They do not belong on the same trails as hikers.

Bicycle are destructive of the trails themselves.

No more so than hiking.

Rather less so - a rolling contact is far better than the plodding of
hikers.
In general, the degree of trail damage is proportional to the power
available, but any hard or sharp edges to the footprint magnify
damage, so horses hooves and the heels of hiking boots cause damage
far above the level that would normally be expected for a user of that
power level.

Trails can be so badly damaged by bicycle wheels that hikers have trouble walking on such trails, especially in sharp bends.

The predominate mental attitude of cyclists on trails is one of fun and
games, not appreciation of nature as it is for walkers.

You don't know why all walkers are there and, in any case, it's irrelevant. Whilst you might feel that the only valid use of a trail is for the appreciation of nature it's a free country and not everyone has to think as you do.

And even if that were the only valid reason, it's just as possible to
do so on a bike as on foot. Sometimes easier, since the silence that
is possible at lower speeds (which Dolan-the-Dimwit decries for the
way it might surprise hikers) does not disturb wildlife as much
either.

We have all seen how bikers behave on trails. The only dimwits here are bikers who think they have a right to trails used by hikers. Mr. Vandeman is the world expert on how bikers disturb and damage wildlife, not Phil W Lee.

Cyclists on trails are slobs
and barbarians whereas walkers are gentlemen and civilized.
[...]

He's missing the fact that cyclists HAVE their own trails (which they
willingly share with hikers), and it is him and his pals who are
trying to monopolise them for pedestrian only use. If they want
exclusive trails, they can build them.

We already had our trails from time immemorial. The interlopers are the bikers. The kind of hikers that will want to use biker trails are those who are brain dead. Further, it is an admission that biker trails are different than hiker trails. That is why bikers need to get their own trails which will be expressly designed for wheels.

Ed Dolan the Great
aka
Saint Edward the Great