What's good, what's not

Frank

Sasquatch
Wow, this is a good one. There is no rule, that I'm aware of, with regards to this situation. I would have probably brought the wheel to the Park Office and asked them for some paper to leave a note at the Kiosk. I had the same thing happen many years ago and left a note for a month and no one ever claimed the wheel, so my way didn't work.
 

greeek32

Active Member
I've been riding for a long time and here's what I've noticed as good/bad behavior... BTW I haven't read this entire thread so I might repeat others.

In terms of music... turn it down a bit on park property. Turn it off once your car is parked, sitting in the parking lot with your doors open blasting limp bizkit just makes you look like a fool. Girls don't think its cool, other people don't like your music, and if you're not amped to ride by the time you pull in...too bad. If you want to ride with an iPod that's your business, just don't have it so loud that you can't hear what's going on around you.

You don't want to wear a helmet? That's your business but I'm not gonna ride with you. I don't want to have to bag the pieces of your noodle.

Pick up trash. Even if it's not yours. I bring a bag in my hydro pack for this. People see you picking up trash they think you're rad, like Cru Jones.

In terms of the yellow triangle sign... you don't need it. Just yield to everyone. I'm sorry it's killing your dork-logger times but this is a big reason people complain about bikers.

In general the rule for parking lot and trail behavior is this...its super simple... don't be a d!ck.
 

Frank

Sasquatch
Some words of wisdom from CLIMBs Mike Viti
During the freeze/thaw season in winter, we ask that folks please try to stay off the trails if their tires are making deep ruts over the majority of the trails. 75% dry firm trail is the accepted norm. Some mud is unavoidable but mostly mud will wreck havoc on your bike's expensive components and cause damage to the trail.

There's a new technical term for you during the freeze/thaw cycle...smooshy! (soft-mushy) Here is an attempt at an explanation on the difference between wet and mushy trails.

PLEASE AVOID MUSHY TRAILS!

THE FREEZE/THAW CYCLE AND IT'S EFFECTS ON THE TRAILS:

When temps go into the 20's and lower at night the trail surface starts to freeze from the top down to a few feet below the surface. With a warm spell during the winter, there is a chance for the top layer of the trails to thaw, but the frozen layer underneath keeps the water from draining and causes pudding to form, which will allow deep rutting by wheels or heels to form. Then it freezes over again and becomes a frozen rutted mess.

If you notice this stuff happening on the majority of your ride, please ride somewhere else and choose the more firmer fire roads or paved paths. You will be rewarded with better trails next season and there will be less finger pointing. Basically, frozen trails are good and firmd, dry trails are good and hard, thawing trails are soft and smooshy like an ice cream sunday left out in the sun.

Why is that? The ground underneath the trails are still frozen solid, sometimes to a depth of two or more feet. When the sun warms the first two or three inches and it starts to melt, the water can't drain because of the frozen sub-soil and viola' you have mushy porridge. You will usually find this more common in open field areas not shaded by trees.

Creating ruts may erode the trails and fill up the drains we've built. It will also erode the relationships we have built with the land managers and fill the opponents of mountain biking with ammo to use against us at the next trails meeting even though heels cause almost the same damage.

Let's try to minimize the extra work for our trail stewards and advocates by showing some respect and consideration. Riding in the early morning when the trails are still frozen is an option but avoid the late afternoon if temps are above freezing.

Thanx!

THE REGULAR WARM SEASON WET TRAIL EXPLANATION:

This is totally different than riding mushy trails, riding a lightly wet trail is OK as long as the majority of the trail base is firm. Usually it is acceptable to ride certain trails during or just after a light rain. Usually the trails that are sandy are fine to ride when wet because the moisture packs the sand down and creates a firmer base.

However, if heavy rain occurs or there has been a prolonged period of rain that has caused the trail base to get soft over the majority of the trail...please let the trails dry out for a day or two. Certain trails that have clay based soils such as Cunningham Park will take a longer time to dry out. Cathedral Pines has clay/loam soils that are covered in organic matter, which also does not dry out as quickly.

So basically firm trail base with minimal soft or mushy areas are good to ride...mostly soft mushy trails are not good to ride. Explore the paved paths as an alternative. Otherwise the mud and grit may cause expensive damage to your drive train and suspension.

ALSO: Please stay on the designated trails and do not make short cuts. Try to stay in the middle of the trail and do not trample the plants along the sides of the trails. We would like to keep the trail narrow.
 

Mitch

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Unfortunately it all looks good on paper. Trying to get anyone to adhere to any restraints is like, Quote JP "trying to staple water to a tree". Impossible.
It only takes one set of tires to leave a set of ruts that will stay for the winter. I have more to say on this but will bite my tongue on this for now..
Happy New Year everybody..:D
 

Frank

Sasquatch
I think it's very worthwhile to put this text out there. If it gets only a few to think twice about what they are doing, then it's a win.
 

Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
I had a nice talk with the Appalachian Trail shelter maintainer at Wawayanda park today. I met Gordon last year on one of my hikes. He maintains the shelter on the AT, and also the trail in the park. He came back from his winter vacation and I chatted with him today. Talking about the trail conditions in and around the park. I told him how I recently started posting the status of the Wawayanda trails on the MBNJ website, and that was what I was doing today, checking some trail conditions. He never heard of MBJN or Fatbikes either. I showed him some photos of my Fatty and he was fascinated. He wasn't too fond of mountain bikers because of his work on the trails. That is until I told him about our new link on MBNJ for trail information so we can all see what trails are good for riding and which shouldn't be ridden to avoid dammage. I told him how we are all concerned about trail conditions and maintaining them so they remain in good condition for all of us. He was quite surprised that there were bikers that felt some responsibility towards good trails. I think he has only seen the Yahoo'ers that don't give a damn. It felt good to talk to him and let him know that there are bikers that care about the trails. He said he's seen evidence of bikers on the Appalachian trail and they shouldn't be there. I agreed and said for myself there are enough other trails in the park to ride that I personally didn't need to do the AT. Someone has already posted on here how it's beneficial to be friendly and informative to others we meet on the trails, and I agree, the more people out there that don't resent bikers, the better. It doesn't take that long or that much effort to be friendly and informative. In fact, Gordon thanked me for the information and showing him the pictures and for the nice chat.
 

SpartaBard

Well-Known Member
I had a nice talk with the Appalachian Trail shelter maintainer at Wawayanda park today. I met Gordon last year on one of my hikes. He maintains the shelter on the AT, and also the trail in the park. He came back from his winter vacation and I chatted with him today. Talking about the trail conditions in and around the park. I told him how I recently started posting the status of the Wawayanda trails on the MBNJ website, and that was what I was doing today, checking some trail conditions. He never heard of MBJN or Fatbikes either. I showed him some photos of my Fatty and he was fascinated. He wasn't too fond of mountain bikers because of his work on the trails. That is until I told him about our new link on MBNJ for trail information so we can all see what trails are good for riding and which shouldn't be ridden to avoid dammage. I told him how we are all concerned about trail conditions and maintaining them so they remain in good condition for all of us. He was quite surprised that there were bikers that felt some responsibility towards good trails. I think he has only seen the Yahoo'ers that don't give a damn. It felt good to talk to him and let him know that there are bikers that care about the trails. He said he's seen evidence of bikers on the Appalachian trail and they shouldn't be there. I agreed and said for myself there are enough other trails in the park to ride that I personally didn't need to do the AT. Someone has already posted on here how it's beneficial to be friendly and informative to others we meet on the trails, and I agree, the more people out there that don't resent bikers, the better. It doesn't take that long or that much effort to be friendly and informative. In fact, Gordon thanked me for the information and showing him the pictures and for the nice chat.
I hope you gave him the right website to go to... www.MTBNJ.com

Otherwise, thumbs up!

350px-PearlThumbsUp.jpg
 

huffster

Well-Known Member
Good on you Kaleidopete.

I had a similar positive conversation with a hiker/dog walker the other day. I stopped and talked to him. Initially the fatbike was a fascination for him. I think he walked away from our conversation with a more informed understanding of the MTB community as a whole. I really do think that we all have the opportunity to help inform other trail users that we do care.
 

Frank

Sasquatch
Good stuff Kaleidopete!!! Positive interactions like yours with other user group members can erase a lot of the ill will from not so positive interactions. If everyone did a couple of these, we would all benefit!!

Add a virtual James Pearl thumbs up here!!
 

Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
I met another guy on Easter Sunday. As I was hiking, I came upon a biker, looked like he was waiting for someone. So I asked if he had friends coming to ride with and where they were going. He replied no, no friends coming, they don't ride much anymore. He was about 38 years old. So I told him "time to get some more friends", and I told him about MTBNJ and the website. I said check it out, we're a friendly group and you can find out about upcoming events to join in. I told him about the Fat Fondo I recently attended, and the beach race. We had a nice chat, and I hope he shows up here. He is a nice guy and seemed generally interested.
 
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freshmtb

Active Member
There are small speakers that can be attached on bikes / backpacks being sold on bestbuy. are those of good mtb etiquette to have music blast from those speakers? Instead of using earphones?
 

Chris Nordt

Active Member
There are small speakers that can be attached on bikes / backpacks being sold on bestbuy. are those of good mtb etiquette to have music blast from those speakers? Instead of using earphones?

I actually bought a case to carry my Beats Pill on my camelbak so I could listen to music while riding. You can have it loud enough so you can hear it, but you don't want it so loud you sound like "that guy" in the mcdonalds parking lot with a 96 Civic cranking music trying to look "cool" lol
 
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