"Blackblade" wrote in message ...
[...]

Edward Dolan wrote:

For heaven's sakes, almost all cyclists will be riding on
roads. To compare the two modes misses the mark. The only point I am making is
that biking on trails is dangerous whereas hiking on trails is not. The other
point is that biking on trails is stupid because of the nature of the accidents.
Getting hit by a motorist on the road is not quite the same thing as getting hit by
an obstacle in the trail and taking a tumble which can easily leave you
paralyzed or dead.

No Ed, since YOU raised the point regarding which was safer it's precisely on point. Firstly, hiking on trails is not safe as the 1.5million incidents attest. It is safer than mountainbiking in injuries and fatalities per exposure but certainly not totally safe. Secondly, you are quite right, getting hit by a motorist is very different to hitting an obstacle ... and massively MORE dangerous. Overall, road cyclists suffer less accidents and injuries than mountainbikers BUT many more fatalities.

Road cycling has certain inherent dangers from motorists which have been around from day one. I have already told you that bike paths are the answer to that particular problem. But getting hit by an obstacle in the trail is so ****ing stupid as to boggle the rational mind. You like to do dangerous things because you are a fool. Worse yet, you encourage others to do dangerous things which makes you a criminal in my eyes.

I think you have met me half way on this issue of safety. But that is not my main objection to bikes on trails. If fools want to injure and kill themselves, let them! My main objection, as you should well know by now, is the inherent conflict that is present between someone riding a trail and someone walking a trail. That you can’t’ see it from my perspective means that we are at permanent loggerheads. I want to walk a trail in order to enjoy what natural beauty there is. You want to ride a trail for sport. Never the twain shall meet!

Mountain bikers are barbarians and have no right to be on any trail used by hikers – unless they want to get off their god damn ****ing bikes and walk like everyone else. When they crash and injure themselves, I rejoice! If and when they manage to kill themselves, I say good riddance to bad rubbish! Death to mountain biking!

“Tread softly! All the earth is holy ground.”
~ Christina Rossetti (Psalm 24),
from "A Later Life: A Double Sonnet of Sonnets"

Mountain bikes have wheels. Wheels are for roads.

Trails are for walking. What’s the matter? Can’t walk?

Ed Dolan the Great
aka
Saint Edward the Great