Trail Centre Etiquette: Our Do’s and Don’ts of Trail Centre Riding

The good old trusty trail centre is a part of so many rider’s lives nowadays, be they full-on factory bliged-up sponsored team riders or weekend-warrior hobby riders. Some may use them all the time, some may just be starting out and others may just choose these busy riding spots as training grounds or social meet-ups. Whatever the reason you are at a trail centre, there are some essential rules to follow that will keep you from becoming about as popular as a fart in a lift!

We’ve all seen them at our riding spots, the folk who seem to be on that different wavelength when it comes to manners, fitting in, abiding to the unwritten rules or just plain common sense. It’s time we take a stand and lay down the law!

Pay For Your Parking

When you squeeze your vehicle onto the tight grass verge down the road from the trail centre just to avoid the parking costs, you‘re not doing yourself or the centre any favours. That money goes towards the upkeep of existing and creation of new trails and crowding the surrounding areas with cars can make the trail centre unpopular with their neighbors too.

Don’t Drive Like a Dick

As riders, we would be a lot more impressed with a person who can nail a berm or jump than a driver with a heavy right foot in the car park. No one thinks it’s cool to go flat out giving it the big wheelspins or handbrake turn in the car park, there are often young kids knocking about so save the hooligan behaviour for the trail…

Take Your Litter Home

Believe it or not, that gel, bottle or trail snack becomes considerably smaller and lighter once the contents are consumed. Only a dick drops litter; if you bought it with you, take it home or bin it when you can. You’d be surprised how many full days the trail centre staff put into litter collection, when they could be working on drainage, trail improvements or even new trails, so it’s your loss!

Control Your Dogs

This is certainly a controversial one, even though lots of people love our four legged friends, there is a vast percentage of riders who think they should not be allowed at trail centres at all! So if you are going to bring them, don’t give the haters an excuse to include you in their ramblings and make sure they are well behaved, staying close to you and not running out in front of riders or leaving “special presents” of their own on the trails!

Wear The Right Gear

It’s still a ridiculous sight seeing a rider on a stone trail without a helmet, no matter how hard you may think you are, bone and skin will never be stronger than rock! You don’t look like a hero without a helmet and as well as hurting yourself, you can halt all other rider’s fun, whilst lying on the floor gurgling after a helmetless head strike. When it comes to clothing choice, you need to plan around the predicted weather too.

Ride In The Right Direction

Every trail centre has one direction and it’s easy to follow and understand, if you do have problems and need to nip back to the centre in the wrong direction, then stay close to the edge on or off your bike and just use your intelligence when it comes to blind corners, especially on a downhill.

Don’t Block The Trail

We all have to stop for some reason or another during the ride, sometimes to regroup, others to catch our breath or quite often for a mechanical or that ever-popular social media post! But when you do stop, don’t do it in a dumb place with no consideration for others and get your bike out of the trail. If you need to stop, keep the trail clear.

Be Patient

If you want to race your mates that’s fine, that’s all part of the fun of any ride, but charging down a hill right behind slower riders and huffing and puffing because they can’t immediately move isn’t the best way about it,. Give people more time when waiting to ride a section and if you really want to prove how fast you are, go to a race! When people are in your way, give them a polite “Ok to come by?” followed by a “thanks a lot” or something similar and most will happily let you by.

Give Way To People

If someone does come behind you on a climb or downhill and you notice them, just pull to the side to let them by, most riders will appreciate it and thank you politely if they are decent people.

Don’t Be E-Bike Smug

We at ENDURO Mag love E-bikes, in fact we embrace them as they are a great way for a much more diverse genre of folk to get out riding and invest money into the cycling world! But if you go to a trail centre on an E-bike then don’t go rubbing it in other rider’s faces as you steam past them on the climbs, trying to look smug with any daft comments, it’s just plain annoying!

Be Friendly

The Power of positive thinking is a fantastic thing, be nice to people and most will return the same vibe, we are all riders who love our hobby, whether fast or slow, fit or unfit, so just be friendly to other riders and that friendliness will more often than not be returned.

Don’t Be A Strava Course Cutter

Strava is a fantastically useful tool, great to relive that ride, see how far you went and how you got on against the other riders who’ve been there. But don’t take it too seriously and let it rule your ride, corner cutting is not cool and does the trail builders no favours. These guys want to concentrate on building new trails, not having to take time blocking off those annoying “Strava lines”!

Don’t Leave Bikes Unattended

When you pop into that lovely cafe at the end of the ride for your much needed brew and feast, remember, only a fool leaves an unattended bike in either the bike parking racks, just outside or left on an outer fixed car rack. Thieves nowadays are pretty sharp. They will turn up on a crap bike in riding kit (often equipped with bolt croppers) and quickly get hold of your pride and joy after snipping cheap locks or un-doing bike racks. It only takes seconds for some of the more experienced thieves and they are soon off down the road on your pride and joy!

We don’t want to sound like we are giving it the “Big Brother” commands and ordering the fun from your lives, it’s more about having consideration for others, so we can all enjoy these places in harmony. Next time you are at your local trail centre, give it some thought and enjoy the ride, we assure you it will make the world a brighter place!

Big thanks to Oneplanet Llandegla for having us. coedllandegla.com

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Words: Photos: Doc Ward