http://www.ambmag.com.au - 27When I meet people at races who have come from
other disciplines; triathlon, road racing, time-tri-
al...inevitably we end up discussing how relaxed
and friendly the sport of mountain biking is.
Indeed, coming into the sport in my early twenties
I was stoked to suddenly meet 200 new friends
at every local club race that I had the courage to
kit up for and race. Now I am older and slightly
wiser, I feel it’s only fair to return the favour of the
many welcoming arms by saying hello when I see
new people turn up at races.
There’s nothing that makes someone feel more at
ease than a friendly hello and a bit of banter about
bikes.
This, however, is completely at odds with the
trailside behaviour I have witnessed more and
more as time goes on when ‘just riding along’.
Weekends are a nightmare; try being a reasonably
fit female on a very well-used trail network, hunt-
ed down by ‘too cool’ baggy-shorted shredders.
Don’t get me wrong; I have no problem with bag-
gy-shorted shredders, and have even been known
to wear baggies of my own upon occasion, but the
attitude by trail warriors has definitely taken a
nose dive in the seven or so years i’ve been riding.
Anecdotal evidence supports my hypothesis.
I would expect a little bit of ego and wankerdom
from the lycra set when riding on the road, but the
mountains, I thought, would be the last bastion of
kindness and gentlemanly-type behaviour. After
all, we ride to avoid the road, to enjoy time with
friends, to be outside and enjoy the sheer amaze-
balls of nature. We’re all in this together, so why
have people’s attitudes changed so much?One popular theory about the rise of bad attitudes
on the dirt associates Strava with dodgy overtak-
ing moves, lack of communication (or, alternative-
ly, merely yelling ‘track’ while riding someone off
their line) and other antisocial trail activity such
ego-driven chase-downs when a rider has passed
another; total squid behaviour. Strava has been
both hailed as a mountain bike saviour and, iron-
ically, regarded as the scourge of trails as cheat
lines pop up between perfectly good switchbacks,
and the usual post-ride banter and beers are re-
placed with the ‘Stravasshole' package-compar-
ison at the end of a ride as everyone checks their
accounts in the hope of a KOM/QOM. Beep! Urgh.Some people put poor trail etiquette down to the
sheer number increase on local trail networks.
Near head-ons, congestion and egos are products
and causes of trail etiquette disintegration. A
common trend I found when talking to people
about this was that women increasingly felt the
pressure of bad attitudes on the trails. Certainly
it’s not all shredding blokes responsible for this
but when I hear what seems to be almost a uni-
versal experience of women passing riders easily
on technical trails only to be chased down and
passed again and held up, it seems to be a trend.The sheer growth of our sport is surely a great
thing, but if the major trail networks in large
population areas don’t grow with the sport than
we are at risk of losing our friendly mountain
biker reputation. One rider made it akin to drivers
getting their road rage on when stuck in traffic. Ifthere aren’t enough resources to go around then
the little slices of offroad delight we do have will
be shared as best as possible.So what can we do about this poor attitude to
make sure us mountain bikers continue to be
awesome, super friendly and inclusive people?Well, first things first, perhaps sign up for local
trail work and any opportunity to build more
(legal) trails in your local area. They don’t build
themselves and more trails means less conges-
tion so it’s a win-win.Be kind to newbies. We were all there once. Just
because you’re a mad hucker now doesn’t give
you the right to poo-pooh newbies. Plus, if you
ride with some new shredders you have the hon-
ourable position of passing on some knowledge
and skills, like generations of riders prior to you.Say hello. If someone pulls over to let you through
on a trail, say thanks. It’s not hard to do, and can
mean that someone who may think you’re one
allen key short of a toolbag leaves the trail happy
and smiling, and probably thinks you’re a decent
human being. If you let someone through, smile
or say hi (hopefully in response to a ‘thanks’). If
you’re at a race and you see someone who looks
like they are new/out of place/crapping their
pants, go and say hi. Our fraternity is great for
that but it will only stay that way if we continue to
be friendly.And if someone is really rude, go out of your way
to wish them a good day. Nothing like a cold hard
slap of joy to make someone realise they’re acting
like they’re riding on a seatpost with no saddle.Just say hi!
WORDS: ANNA BECK PhOTO: ROBERT CONROy
X FACTOR