Wow what a clusterfuck that was. *sports *wtf

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Are you fucking kidding me?! Was this trail designed with slow riding in mind or by a dungeon master?

This is why you walk the course before riding it.

"I meant to do that." *fail

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You can clearly see the trail turn a sharp left in the video long before it's too late to slow. Lead rider could have been more observant;)

*timeshift

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Not the kind of "unexpected turn pileup" I was expecting.

More like "unexpected trail disappearance".

Ya, 30ft ahead of there would have been a good place for a sign.

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that guys jacket says it all:

ARG

Yeah, I was preparing to say, "And *that's* why you do a pre-ride of a course kids." Or not design them idiotically in the first place, I suppose.

Um . . . walking a mountain biking trail is dangerous and stupid.

There should be a WARNING posted very clearly about what's coming up. Simple as that.

This trail doesn't appear to lend itself to a slow pre-ride. More technical trails tend to only be ridable at speed. Our joke is usually that if you fall, you weren't riding fast enough. Speed is your friend, especially with a lot of those drops.

If you weren't going fast enough, you'd have to stop of risk serious injury over nothing. Then, that guy riding behind you at speed who knows the trail finally caught up to you and wham. Now both of you are injured.

Again, signage is amazing for avoiding stupid things like this.

Although, I admit, I'd be laughing my ass off if this happened in one of my groups. Although, as the ride leader, I'd be the first one over those bushes lol But then again, I also read up on new trails before we go for a ride . . . assuming we didn't find out about the trail right before we got there.

I don't ride trails, but would love to one day. So I still just can't understand why bikers would not take the two cautions following;
1. Recon. Just know the map. I mean, no F1 driver (I can't say Nascar that's just a loop) or any kind of rally/track driver would just drive head-first on a track he doesn't know anything about.

2. Why ride 7-10 feet after eachother? It's not a race, seems dangerous if one guy falls and you have little time to break.
Only reason I see is that the riders after can see what the guy infront does and take notes/lesson, but that seems flawed because this second guy obviously just flew over as well, so that doesn't seem to work anyway.

My first thought is Lemmings.

Watching with the sound off, it seems like they did it on purpose for entertainments sake

Mostly because most people are lazy honestly lol Which is ironic when you think about it. But generally speaking, most well marked trails will warn you of sudden changes like this. Part of the IMBA trail building guide is designing courses so they flow the way the rider would expect.

Honestly, in this case it does seem like a bout of stupidity mixed in with failure to properly mark the course. It would have been product to ask a LBS about the trail before riding it, as to avoid mistakes like this, or a sudden trail condition like a washout or avalanche.

In my own personal opinion: they were riding too fast for that section. It's like when a New Yorker comes down to Florida . . . they just fly on the interstates because they can. A smart rider knows when to speed up, and more importantly, when to slow down.

With drops and banks like these, they're not ultra expert by any means, but it certainly would be good as you said to know the map.

As for riders ride close, well, it varies. On road, it's drafting. Off road, you're not going to get the same wind resistance so it mostly just becomes a skill challenge. Many riders will ride ultra close like that so they can learn each others rhythms and ride better together. So in the event they do race, they're prepared.

When I lead rides, I always know who's going to up on my wheel and who's going to lag back. The ones who lag are the ones taking lessons and notes, and the ones right on my wheel are challenging themselves to keep up. I'm a very aggressive rider and frankly, I do some seriously stupid stuff. The ones on my wheel, either make it or don't. And there's been plenty of don'ts. The ones lagging behind are the safer ones. But that's not always the case in a fast changing course. If you want to know what the trail ahead is doing, you follow a leader who knows the course. They can tell you what's about to come up, or if they do something wrong they can warn you.

But you are correct in thinking that riding close like that can really be risky if the person in front falls. It's a give/take thing. Determine the amount of risk that's acceptable and prepare for that.

*dead

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