bigger wooden structures?

Why are so many said stunts left to die in the woods?
Ditch Pig, highway to hell, numerous trails on fromme…
I'm not a big fan of skinnies, but wider platforms and drops I do appreciate for sure. Think "ours" on the sunshine coast or the dentist on eagle.
What is the reason?

Popularity?
Maintenance?
Liability?

I'd be interested to hear opinions.

if you build it, they will come.

if you don't, it won't be there.

I have photos of woodwork that I built in 2005 and tore out in 2013 because it was rotted and falling apart. Just didn't feel like doing that again.

I have photos of woodwork that I built in 2005 and tore out in 2013 because it was rotted and falling apart. Just didn't feel like doing that again.

Please do share. I almost feel it's somewhat of a lost art these days. If I ever have more time on hand beside my ridiculous computer job I will definitely give it a go!

yes, depending on the quality of the build and the quality/thickness of the wood, a lot of stunts have lifetimes of say 10-15 years before they start to get sketchy.

with large dimension high quality wood you can build something to last far longer than 15 years, but this takes a lot more work and doesn't seem to be done that often.

CEDAR

OK, although it's not exactly big, I do think it qualifies as a superfluous structure. I built it, I tore it down because it was a rotted liability to the landowner.

August, 2005- sure, I could have built it better, stronger, etc… that's not the point. I wanted to build something I could start learning drops to falt on. Rockwork was also done at the time, as this was a straightline washed out pile of crap section of trail.

March, 2011 - note the big rock already holding up the failing stringer.

February 2012. Note, she's getting greasy, and leaning to the left. The big rock is still doing it's job.

April 2013 - time to give it a kick while assessing structures on the trail. Shit, the stringer gave way and collapsed. Time to shut it down.

May 2013 - let's clean up the mess, pull out the nails and take them home and return the wood to the forest. (I had some help)

so, moral of the story (IMHO):

1. if you build it, use cedar, and only cedar. make the wood three times thicker than you think you might need.

2. keep an eye on it over the years and shut it down before someone gets hurt.

3. if you built it, clean it up when it's shit.

4. do you really trust that stunt you've been riding forever??

5. the rock berms are still there in the original condition they were built.

most of the big wooden stunts I built 10 or more years ago are still standing but they've got a few inches of moss on the rungs. Nobody has ridden those trails for years and years and it's pretty cool to see nature slowly reclaim them.

Popularity? - I built it for me, and for the fun of building it. 7 years later, I really don't need to be hucking my new xc hardtail that I prefer to pedal up rather than drive up.

Maintenance? - to maintain it means to tear it down and rebuild. why would I rebuild it if I don't want to ride it?

Liability? - you bet. the landowner and mountain biking in general have a responsibility to not injure others due to careless preventable acts.

most of the big wooden stunts I built 10 or more years ago are still standing but they've got a few inches of moss on the rungs. Nobody has ridden those trails for years and years and it's pretty cool to see nature slowly reclaim them.

and I bet if you were to visit them, you'd be scared to even walk on them. (or at least you should be…)

The art is still there, but it's being applied differently, and I actually think the art has gotten far better. The time and effort to get the proper wood outweighs the effort to make it sicker, higher, skinnier.

Good points and hard to disagree. I probably don't even have the balls for most of the stuff I am talking about. But I do love to look at them, the better they are integrate the terrain the more impressive to me.

a few pics from my phone collection:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a1ql41rlimgffn5/2013-04-14%2008.36.43.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mcjakt8f1uv1phk/2013-05-04%2008.10.39.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qfg391ocqq3zwr8/2013-05-18%2008.54.11.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6pvmmvafxy4seqr/2013-06-01%2010.20.19.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ueq7q9k7zvg9quh/2013-08-12%2011.22.29.jpg

I think the answer, although the under lying reasons are complicated, is because Downhill, on the north shore, is almost dead. Large wooden structures are not allowed. It has been relegated to illegal trails on Seymour. You can choose to ride these but face the risk of being ticketed by Park Rangers for ilelgal activity - the only legit DH line on Seymour are the CBC, Pingu/Boogie lines which are slowly being gentrified - everything else is now accessed by pedaling up - and most of those who pedal dont want to ride the C-buster/Severed type lines on the little bikes used for pedalling. The paranoid politics associated with wood structures has basically killed wood. Even simple ladder bridges get the hair up on Landowners backs. Fromme has no full DH lines for big bikes - and Cypress, although currently the only place to ride big DH lines on the shore, is under attack from the powers that be and is slowly being gentrified as well.

You want wood to huck off? Head to squamish or the valley. But dont look for it around here.

I think one of the reasons it's dispersing is all of us that used to ride that are old now. The new school riders don't seem to like that style of riding anymore. Evolution I guess, things change.