trail building tips????

I have some woods near my house a few bikers ride there but i have never
seen them only there markings!Anyway can anyone give me some pointers on
making a smaller(eg lower,easier and not so long) north shore type stuff
on my back door step??can it be against the law to make it? Phil do you
want to help?
Ben


--
thinuniking - we met a tree hugger(he rode a bike

MUNI MILITIA now in the uk!
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Yeah , I also have the plan near me, it would be illegal- at least
tresspasing and depending what you did vandalism so it might be best too
ask first. I dont have the link but you can get some tips from the
people at whistler mountain bike park, which someone might have a link
to...
aaron


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pluto - Muni obsesive

www.freeborn.co.uk

www.cumbriamuni.com


one or two wheels
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You need an axe, a hammer, a big box of 6" or 8" nails, and a smallish
chainsaw.
You will get in trouble if anyone catches you, as they call it criminal
damage.
If they don't catch you making it, you'll find it pulled down before too
long. The forestry commission certainly don't like them!

Now, if you can get the landowners permission that's a different story.


Like all construction the key is thinking in triangles, oh and remember
that trees are much stronger than any post you can bang in.

When I was a kid, i helped a few of my mates (skaters) build a half pipe
in the woods (without permission of course!). They found a really dense
coppice, and cut the desired shape into the trees that stood there to
leave supports. A lot of plywood was found hanging around a building
site, which was nailed straight onto the tree trunks. It was remarkably
sturdy, and worked well despite unsymetrical transitions. It caused much
pain and amusement until it mysteriously disappeared after a month or
two...


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joemc - borderline sociopath
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thinuniking wrote:
*I have some woods near my house a few bikers ride there but i have
never seen them only there markings!Anyway can anyone give me some
pointers on making a smaller(eg lower,easier and not so long) north
shore type stuff on my back door step??can it be against the law to
make it? Phil do you want to help?
Ben *

It can be illegal. I'm no lawyer and I know zilch about the laws in the
UK, but yeah, you can get in big trouble for building trails on random
land.

The 'North Shore Mountain Bike Association' (http://www.nsmba.bc.ca/)
has some info on building North Shore style trail obstacles. Go to
Trail Info Trail Tips.

The 'IMBA' (http://www.imba.com/) has an 'IMBA Freeriding Guide'
(http://www.imba.com/resources/freeriding/index.html) that has lots of
information on freeriding and how to build trails and stunts.

If you build anything make sure you know what you're getting in to if
it's public land or private land. You could find yourself in big
trouble. Don't cut down live trees. Don't nail anything in to live
trees. I see stunts built on some local trails that are nailed to live
trees. That is bad, very bad. It will get torn down and deserves to
get torn down.


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john_childs - Guinness Mojo

john_childs (at) hotmail (dot) com
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thinuniking wrote:
*I have some woods near my house a few bikers ride there but i have
never seen them only there markings!Anyway can anyone give me some
pointers on making a smaller(eg lower,easier and not so long) north
shore type stuff on my back door step??can it be against the law to
make it? Phil do you want to help?
Ben *

It can be illegal. I'm no lawyer and I know zilch about the laws in the
UK, but yeah, you can get in big trouble for building trails on random
land.

The 'North Shore Mountain Bike Association' (http://www.nsmba.bc.ca/)
has some info on building North Shore style trail obstacles. Go to
Trail Info Trail Tips.

The 'IMBA' (http://www.imba.com/) has an 'IMBA Freeriding Guide'
(http://www.imba.com/resources/freeriding/index.html) that has lots of
information on freeriding and how to build trails and stunts.

If you build anything make sure you know what you're getting in to if
it's public land or private land. You could find yourself in big
trouble. Don't cut down live trees. Don't nail anything in to live
trees. I see stunts built on some local trails that are nailed to live
trees. That is bad, very bad. It will get torn down and deserves to
get torn down.


--
john_childs - Guinness Mojo

john_childs (at) hotmail (dot) com
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john_childs wrote:
*
The 'IMBA' (http://www.imba.com/) has an 'IMBA Freeriding Guide'
(http://www.imba.com/resources/freeriding/index.html) that has lots of
information on freeriding and how to build trails and stunts.

*


I just picked up the IMBA Freeride Guide yesterday and it does have a
lot of info. I got it for free at the bike shop.

Mojoe


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Mojoe - DILLIGAF

Nothing to see here... move along.
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john_childs wrote:
*
The 'IMBA' (http://www.imba.com/) has an 'IMBA Freeriding Guide'
(http://www.imba.com/resources/freeriding/index.html) that has lots of
information on freeriding and how to build trails and stunts.

*


I just picked up the IMBA Freeride Guide yesterday and it does have a
lot of info. I got it for free at the bike shop.

Mojoe


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Nothing to see here... move along.
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Mojoe wrote:
*

I just picked up the IMBA Freeride Guide yesterday and it does have a
lot of info. I got it for free at the bike shop.

Mojoe *

If you were an IMBA member it would have been mailed to you.
IMBA membership isn't just for two wheels.


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In the UK there are a few relevant laws to do with illegal building.

Firstly, even if the woods are open access for pedestrians you're
probably not supposed to ride off bridleways, so you're trespassing.
This is a civil offence though, so it's not like the police can haul you
in for it. Also riding is unofficially tolerated in a lot of areas
anyway. Basically if you're allowed to walk your dog in the woods, this
isn't too much to worry about it.

Next up, if you damage trees, you're potentially up for criminal damage.
However, unless it's a commercial woods and you've destroyed tons and
tons of trees, this isn't ever likely to happen to anyone.

The most important one though, is that the landowner of the woods has a
legal duty of care to people who are in the woods. What this means, is
that if the landowner knows there are dangerous structures in the woods
and someone falls off them, there's a possibility that the landowner
could be sued for it. Because of this, if the landowner finds out about
anything you build without permission in the woods, they'll probably
chainsaw it down.

The best thing to do is to try and find out about any legal
trail-building near you, maybe ask in bikeshops, or ask local mountain
bikers. However, it's quite likely that this will not be north-shore,
because it requires quite a lot of organisation to get allowed to
legally build structures. That's why only 3 or 4 of the forestry
trailbuilding sites have got permission to build north shore yet.

However, if you're building illegally, the most important thing is that
it should be hard to find. It shouldn't be near any obvious paths or
visible from any of the main paths in the woods. You need it to be made
so that dog walkers don't come across it and tell someone. You should
also keep quiet about exactly where it is and definately never post the
exact location on the internet.

If you get told by the landowner to stop building, or if stuff gets torn
down, it's not worth building any more in the same location, it'll just
get chainsawed.

Practical things to remember when building

1) Only use dead wood (fallen down), best is wood you got from somewhere
else.(*)
2) Don't use really rotted up wood
3) If you're using a live tree as a support, if possible don't nail into
it, use forks in the tree as support points.
4) Expect illegal building to get pulled down at some point, don't spend
too much time on it.

You need a saw, lots and lots of nails and maybe an axe. A chainsaw is
nice if you have one, but not really vital.

Don't forget, even if the wood costs nothing, nails cost money, so
building shore isn't totally free. The stuff in
http://www.unicyclist.com/gallery/albuo83 apparently had several hundred
pounds worth of nails in it.

Joe
(*) Building sites often have skips full of wood going for nothing if
you ask.


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One other thing is that if you clear trails on the ground, as opposed to
northshore, they're a lot less likely to get closed down. It's also much
quicker to build than north shore.

Obviously it just isn't the same and isn't up in the trees, but you can
still make trails that are really good fun to ride.

You can go halfway between full on north shore and normal trails, by
building trails on the ground and building small stunts along the way,
skinnies, see-saws, drops etc. This way even if the stunts get killed,
you've still got the trail to ride. Low down stunts like that are also
much much less likely to get torn down, as they're much less likely to
make the landowner worry about liability.

Joe


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