Hi Jim. I’ve had a chance to ride my Rawland a little on trail and mixed paved/gravel roads and the new, wide Noodle bar you guys added works well. I am struck the gravel roads I ride in northwestern Wisconsin are heterogeneous as far as origins, land ownership and responsibility for maintenance. Some of the roads started as wagon roads from the logging era (tote roads), logging railroads (a tip-off is now having “grade” in its name), farm roads or forest roads put in for multi-uses like logging, lake home, cabin and recreational access, and fire control. Besides unpaved farm roads, I ride on roads in county forests, state forests, a national forest, and privately owned commercial forest land. I took a trip last summer to Keweenaw County in U.P. Michigan and I think most of the forest land was in private land holdings that go back to the time of mining exploration. The biggest change I see with most of these roads over the last twenty years has been general “improvement” in the development sense which means widening, straightening, adding gravel and more grading. Unfortunately it is getting harder to find narrow, twisty roads, that tunnel through the trees. Near here, the Chippewa County Forest trails probably come closest to western style fire trails; narrow, in steep glacial moraine, not overly graded, and not plowed in the winter. According to someone I know who lives in the Blue Hills of western Rusk County, the motivation of the local township board for road widening is fear of liability if a driver runs off a road and hits a tree. Bill- I did some riding on the CAMBA system around Hayward and Seeley last fall (Boedecker and Janet Rd and Phipps Fire Lane) and Phipps Ln in particular looked wider and more built up than it was in the 80’s and 90’s. -Pete
On May 14, 3:32 am, Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery <thill....@gmail.com> wrote: > I've been reading about these "fire trails" in Grant's writings for > years. As far as I know, we don't have fire trails in Minnesota, but > we have thousands of miles of rural gravel roads, and races/rides on > these gravel roads have exploded in popularity. This weekend I, along > with several hundred others, will be riding the Almanzo 100, which is > a free-for-all gravel century. Technically it's a race, but I > seriously doubt that I'm in contention of finishing much better than > middle-of-the-pack. > > It's arguable that Rivendell has played a role (indirectly) in > popularizing this kind of event with Grant's advocacy of tire > clearance and riding "road bikes" on unpaved surfaces. I'll be riding > my Atlantis-inspired Goodrich, and I expect to see lots of Rivendells. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group > athttp://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
