Managing Mountain Biking

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Foreword. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
About IMBA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
How We Came to Mountain Bike Management 10

CHAPTER 1: What Do Mountain Bikers Want? 13
What Do Mountain Bikers Want? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
How Popular is Mountain Biking? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
The Importance of Singletrack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Types of Mountain Bikers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
IMBA Epic Rides. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Marketing Mountain Biking Trails . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

CHAPTER 2: Planning and Designing Trails 29
Creating a Successful Systemwide Trail Plan . . 30
Bicycle Management Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Shared Use or Single Use? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Experience Zones and Preferred-Use Trails . . . . 39
Should an Existing Trail be Opened to
Mountain Bikers? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Managing Unauthorized Trails. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Creating a Trail Proposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Steps for Designing Great Trails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

CHAPTER 3: Partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
The Importance of Partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
10 Partnership Principles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Coming to an Agreement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Political Savvy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Balancing Trail Access and
Game Land Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

CHAPTER 4: Managing Volunteers . . . . . . . . . 75
Creating Sustainable Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Common Pitfalls Facing Volunteer Groups . . . . 79
Recruiting and Keeping Volunteers. . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Planning Trailwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Tips for Successful Volunteer Workdays . . . . . . . 88

CHAPTER 5: Mountain Biking and the Environment . . 93
Environmental Impacts of Mountain Biking:
Science Review and Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . 94
Principles of Sustainable Trails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
The 11 Essential Elements of Sustainable Trails 115
Working with Cultural Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

CHAPTER 6: Managing User Conflict. . . . . . . 135
Understanding User Conflict. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Types and Causes of Conflict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Practical Solutions to User Conflict . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Information and Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
User Involvement and Partnerships . . . . . . . . . 144
Trail System Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
10 Tactics for Controlling Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Regulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Recreation Conflict Research:
Recent Advances and Implications . . . . . . . . . . 158

CHAPTER 7: Safety and Risk Management 165
Risk Management in Mountain Biking. . . . . . . . . 166
Key Considerations for a Risk Management
Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Negligence and Standard of Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Risk Management Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Managing Safety and Risk with Trail Design . . . 179
Defenses Against Negligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Examples of Related Lawsuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

CHAPTER 8: Mountain Bike Patrols . . . . . . . . 189
What is a Mountain Bike Patrol? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Four Ways Bike Patrols Can Help Manage Trails 192
The Evolution of Mountain Bike Patrolling . . . . 197
Professional Patrols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
10 Traits of Highly Successful Patrols . . . . . . . . . 200
What Every Volunteer Patrol Needs to
Know About Liability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

CHAPTER 9: Signs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
All About Trail Signs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Sign Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Informational/Directional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Regulatory/Warning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Educational/Interpretive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Sign Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Sign Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Trail Difficulty Rating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

CHAPTER 10: Providing Challenging Trails 225
Welcome to the World of Freeriding. . . . . . . . . . . 226
How to Design Challenging Trails . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Three Ways to Create Technical Trail Features. 239
The Emergence of Bike Parks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
15 Steps for Building a Bike Park. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
The Scoop on Dirt Jumps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Pump Tracks 101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254