[pct-l] Some bikes are better than others.

[Nathan Dreon]

I am not a fan of bikes on dirt and riding fast in rolling forest is asking for trouble, even if there are no walkers on the trail, there will be slower bikes and bikes coming the other way.  I would like to keep bikes off of the PCT because I hope to walk it one day and don't want to contend with that danger.

Where I live the trails are often moist and the narrow tires sink in, so the trail holds more water, leading to more damage.  The bikers generally deny that tires cause damage, even when they are standing next to dozens of tire ruts.  The theory is that horses come and tear up the trail, then the bikes sink in the mess, obscure the horse damage and get blamed.

So I found it refreshing to read of a group of bikers who believe that mountain bikes do damage the trails and they have a solution, Fat bikes.  Four inch wide tires with 10psi, very low impact.  The claim is that they actually undo some of the damage other users do to the trail by smoothing out the ruts and foot prints.  They may be correct, hard to say but the impact is clearly much lower than regular 2 inch tires.

I doubt that most bikers will switch to 4 inch tires, they are heavy, hard to pedal and don't go as fast.  I think it would be grand if they did switch though.

http://forums.mtbr.com/fat-bikes/trail-damage-thread-why-fatbikes-better-than-walkers-689389.html