#!markdown
I don't think the NS sucks, but the direction it is going in definitely does.
I am old school, I will get that out of the way. My personal favourite trails
are all the gnarly ones. Upper Crippler, Grannies, Bookwus, Ladies…. you get
the point. But it seems to me that the number riding said trails is getting
fewer and the ones I mentioned are getting ridden less (which is good or bad,
depending on your point of view). The new school BS of smooth groomed trails
with all flow and no bump is going to, in my opinion, take us in a direction
that I see as the antithesis of what North Shore riding is all about. These
new school trails teach no skills, how to handle roots in the wet, drops,
undulating terrain…. all the things I strive to look for. And once these
skills are lost, the trails that are predominantly as such (gnarly) get
avoided, ridden less, and thus, no work. But the next step, decommission, is a
real possibility if there is few riders. I can guarantee the first trail to be
decommissioned on Fromme will be Pink Starfish. So few go down it that it is
hard to justify why it should be still viable (despite the fact it is one of
my favourites, especially the rockface in the last 1/3 of the trail). Bikes
are getting lighter, more techno….and yet the price goes nothing but up. I
could understand this if the frames were all hand built, but most are not. And
it seems the newer riders just lap it up. I recall why freeride frames were
beefy; my last one (a 2006 Foes Fly) lasted me 7 years before giving up the
ghost, and I am not a rough rider. I wonder if modern bikes, given a steady
diet of old school meat, would last 7 years. I'll stick to the old ways
myself, dying out with them if that is how it turns out, but that is what I
prefer, and I am all for riding of any sort, so long as the past is not
forgotten and left for those of us whom still call it a North Shore standard.
May 23, 2015, 6:55 p.m. - Peter Leeds
#!markdown I don't think the NS sucks, but the direction it is going in definitely does. I am old school, I will get that out of the way. My personal favourite trails are all the gnarly ones. Upper Crippler, Grannies, Bookwus, Ladies…. you get the point. But it seems to me that the number riding said trails is getting fewer and the ones I mentioned are getting ridden less (which is good or bad, depending on your point of view). The new school BS of smooth groomed trails with all flow and no bump is going to, in my opinion, take us in a direction that I see as the antithesis of what North Shore riding is all about. These new school trails teach no skills, how to handle roots in the wet, drops, undulating terrain…. all the things I strive to look for. And once these skills are lost, the trails that are predominantly as such (gnarly) get avoided, ridden less, and thus, no work. But the next step, decommission, is a real possibility if there is few riders. I can guarantee the first trail to be decommissioned on Fromme will be Pink Starfish. So few go down it that it is hard to justify why it should be still viable (despite the fact it is one of my favourites, especially the rockface in the last 1/3 of the trail). Bikes are getting lighter, more techno….and yet the price goes nothing but up. I could understand this if the frames were all hand built, but most are not. And it seems the newer riders just lap it up. I recall why freeride frames were beefy; my last one (a 2006 Foes Fly) lasted me 7 years before giving up the ghost, and I am not a rough rider. I wonder if modern bikes, given a steady diet of old school meat, would last 7 years. I'll stick to the old ways myself, dying out with them if that is how it turns out, but that is what I prefer, and I am all for riding of any sort, so long as the past is not forgotten and left for those of us whom still call it a North Shore standard.