Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 (Tek) 9/26/83; site tekigm.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!ihnp4!zehntel!dual!amd!decwrl!decvax!tektronix!tekigm!kenf From: kenf@tekigm.UUCP (Ken Ferschweiler) Newsgroups: net.bicycle Subject: Re: Mountain Bikes & The Environment Message-ID: <218@tekigm.UUCP> Date: Sun, 30-Sep-84 15:43:27 EDT Article-I.D.: tekigm.218 Posted: Sun Sep 30 15:43:27 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 4-Oct-84 03:16:03 EDT Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR Lines: 29 [Waiter, there's a bug in my system...] I object to the use of mountain bikes on hiking trails. While some claim (probably correctly) that a bicycle, carefully handled, has less impact on a trail than does a hiker, the bicyclist has the *potential* for doing much more damage. I have seen mountain bike tracks on trails which would not have shown a bootprint. (I have heard this same claim from trail motorcyclists, yet have never seen a motorcycles-allowed trail which had not been churned into dust and/or muck. You can't assume that people are going to be gentle). I am also concerned about trails being shared by travellers moving at greatly dissimilar speeds; I have had to move off of a trail for mountain bike on a downhill run. To be fair, that particular cyclist slowed down and was quite polite, seemed to be careful of what he was doing; still, it was bothersome to have to move. Will the cyclists, having been forced off the roads by faster-moving cars, now force the slower hikers off the trails? Lest I be accused of looking at only one side of the issue, (that of the hiker), let me say that I have a mountain bike, which I use for commuting, general transportation, and fun on dirt roads. They *are* fun, and I would love to ride on trails, if I thought it fair to the existing denizens of those trails, but I don't, so I won't. (Just kick the horses and motorcyclists out of the woods and give the mountain bikes the trails *they* used to use... Whoever thought up this "multiple use" idea anyway?) Ken Ferschweiler ...tektronix!tekigm!kenf