Trail Talk: Stop Braking Bumps Before They Happen
Welcome riders, builders, and readers alike. My name is Sean Collins, and I am a full-time employed trail builder here on Vancouver Island, where I was born and raised. Vancouver Island is where I have been lucky enough to call home for the last 37 years. I am passionate about creating and spending time in the rugged deep backwoods of British Columbia. I feel this is why I enjoy the process of trail building so much. Here on South Vancouver Island, we are in a temperate rainforest that allows us to dig and ride all year. We don’t really have an off-season for building or riding. On days off, it’s usually right back to the woods to dig and ride in our local backcountry zone.
With these experiences in mind, I am excited to announce that I have teamed up with Trail Builder Mag to give readers valuable and relatable content that hopefully will provide insight into the trail building world. Maybe you just want to learn about the industry and current trends or tools being used. Or perhaps you are a rouge backwoods builder, a weekend warrior, or a full-time pro builder. I think you will find value and entertainment in this series.
In these segments, I am calling “Trail Talk,” I hope to provide entertaining, relatable, and helpful information every month. I will share stories from hectic situations we have put ourselves in and how we got out. I will write about the times we have failed and how we overcame the issue. I will share my thoughts on the industry and points of view from my experience in sanctioned and unsanctioned trail networks.
But enough about me. Let us dive right into a topic that has all of us builders and riders alike cursing the trail we are riding. What is this dreaded issue I am referring to, you may ask? As a rider, they can throw you off course, put you over the bars, or even worse. These horrible little suckers can throw off your YouTube clips making the content shaky and blurry. (Sorry YouTubers … kidding, not kidding.) Yes, I am talking about the infamous BRAKING BUMPS. We have all seen them on the trail, before a fantastic steep corner, or on the landing of your favorite drop. People are hard on the brakes, and some may say these people are riding trails out of their comfort zone and causing excessive braking leading to a series of ruts that will continue to worsen over time. This process will continue until multiple deep potholes are in a row. Once this process starts, trail gods help us; it will only get worse and worse until even the more experienced riders are on their brakes in these rough sections.
But slower riders and beginners, don’t be discouraged. I have some amazing news that most trail builders may not want to hear. Braking bumps are NOT your fault. Ok, well, maybe you are a contributing factor. But I hate to break it to all the builders cursing the novice riders for causing this damage to the trails; I will say it is mainly the builder’s fault. Yes, that’s right, the builder.
Every time you see a nice hard-packed flow trail and a rut is starting to form, take a step back and look. There will almost always be a “root” to the problem. See what I did there? But seriously, these bumps usually start from a protruding root just under the soil. Or often, it can be a rock that the builders could not remove, so they packed an extra 3 inches of dirt on top and called it a day. I have done this many times and then realized a month later the dirt will always fall away due to weather and general riding. So if possible, permanently remove rocks and roots that may cause this issue when building the trail.
So now we have an exposed rock or root that the tire will skip and hop over, causing it to get slightly airborne as it rolls over the protrusion. When this happens, even if a pinch of brake is applied, the tire will elevate and land in a slight skid, starting the process I described above. These first few ruts will not be so bad at the beginning but, in time, will get severely worse. Just filling the breaking bumps will not last and will only cause the issue to reoccur if the “root” of the problem is not fixed. I recommend grabbing your favorite pickaxe, electric saw, or whatever other tools you think you need, throwing them on your back, and removing the rock or root. If you were lucky enough to remove the cause of the problem, you are now ready to fix these ruts once and for all. If you remove all rocks and roots from the ride line, the braking bumps should not reappear.
For everyone using a plate packer out there or working with dirt that has been plate-packed, you first will need to remove this top layer before bothering to fix anything. New dirt will not stick to plate-packed or hard-slapped dirt. The process is similar to painting a car; paint will not stick to a smooth surface, so the painter will prep the car by roughing the surface so the new paint will stick. This also applies to dirt.
After roughing up the surface and removing the humps between the ruts, you can lay down some fresh dirt and start raking and packing. Grab a bucket and your strongest shovel, and find some good dirt. We call this the dig hole. Make sure your dig hole is out of sight and that you cover it back up with organics when you are done to help restore the ground you just disturbed. With the ruts smoothed out and the humps removed, you can now rake the surface and lay down your new dirt. Dirt will need moisture, just like concrete, so it will pack and stick as you slap it. Too much moisture, and it will turn into muck soup.
On the other hand, if your soil is super dry, you will have to pack in water to the spot. If hiking to the site or dealing with steep terrain, use a fire backpack to carry your water. These packs hold a good amount of water and have a pump sprayer on the end, allowing you to add moisture to the dirt you pack evenly. Another way to get water to the spot is to store some rain barrels in the woods mid-winter. Put these barrels close to problem areas such as big berms and jumps. This way, you will have an ample water supply when the creeks dry up in the summer. But please, if you are not building on a sanctioned network, do not ever leave plastics out in the woods long term.
At this point, you should be well on your way to having these ruts filled. If you are lucky enough to work for a company or a trail organization and have access to a plate packer, please use it. Two guys and a rope tied to the front of the packer will make this job go much faster. If you don’t have this option, you will need to slap-pack this 2-3 times to ensure it won’t be a problem in the future. Last but not least, an essential thing any experienced trail builder will tell you is you must test-ride your hard work!
In conclusion, fixing or preventing braking bumps is grueling hard, dirty work, but with the proper techniques and tools, these can be fixed or, in some cases, avoided altogether. Happy building, and remember, when the building gets tough, the tough get building.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sean Collins
Sean lives on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. He’s 37 years old and a full-time trail builder (although he’s been digging for fun since childhood). Sean’s favorite tool is a 2.5lb pick axe. Favorite trails? Loam line and Bloodline. His current bike is a Norco Range.
