San Diego Dual Sport Trails Rating

[Guest Hammerin Hammon]

Tonight I wish there was a flasing light warning me that there was a 4 foot hole between the jumps.

[Metal Twister 0]

Tonight I wish there was a flasing light warning me that there was a 4 foot hole between the jumps.

Well ya see, if we would of had those jumps rated it wouldnt of been an issue now would it. Besides what are you doing comming up short on a set of doubles for anyway?

[chickenheart 0]

i think the best way is to actually come up with a survey that way when a group of us go out like we did before the BBQ each person could fill out the survey how they feel the trail was, and rate different aspects also. kinda how they do mountain bike trails. that way like metal said even if different people see a trail differently if we get an average and build some sorta database. anyone could look and say well thing valley is marked as a easy but jacumba is marked difficult and i've ridden both i now know where i fall in to the rating. this is a great tool to have. i'll volunteer to come up with a survey if you want i would just need to know what you guys feel needs to be rated on a trail ie. hill slope (up and down), trail make up(gravel, rocky, sand, hardpack.) etc. another rating could be a hydration factor. thought i would pipe in some thoughts especially since as weve seen the life is growing which means more noobs so this info can be useful so as not to scare anyone off after they ride one hard trail with us. anyway thats my.02 worth

ed

[Metal Twister 0]

i think the best way is to actually come up with a survey that way when a group of us go out like we did before the BBQ each person could fill out the survey how they feel the trail was, and rate different aspects also. kinda how they do mountain bike trails. that way like metal said even if different people see a trail differently if we get an average and build some sorta database. anyone could look and say well thing valley is marked as a easy but jacumba is marked difficult and i've ridden both i now know where i fall in to the rating. this is a great tool to have. i'll volunteer to come up with a survey if you want i would just need to know what you guys feel needs to be rated on a trail ie. hill slope (up and down), trail make up(gravel, rocky, sand, hardpack.) etc. another rating could be a hydration factor. thought i would pipe in some thoughts especially since as weve seen the life is growing which means more noobs so this info can be useful so as not to scare anyone off after they ride one hard trail with us. anyway thats my.02 worth

ed

Im going to kinda of back out of here on this one. I dont have enought computer knowedge to know what is dooable. Maybe a four rating like all other trails to keeping it close to the same as other trails in other parts of the world. It seems that it would be easy to have a open link next to the final rate for the trail for people to verbally add info about the trail. This way a little more can be learned about the trail before riding it. And a big data base dosnt have to be maintained. Seems like the easiest way to do it to me? What do the rest of you think?

[chickenheart 0]

i think the best way is to actually come up with a survey that way when a group of us go out like we did before the BBQ each person could fill out the survey how they feel the trail was, and rate different aspects also. kinda how they do mountain bike trails. that way like metal said even if different people see a trail differently if we get an average and build some sorta database. anyone could look and say well thing valley is marked as a easy but jacumba is marked difficult and i've ridden both i now know where i fall in to the rating. this is a great tool to have. i'll volunteer to come up with a survey if you want i would just need to know what you guys feel needs to be rated on a trail ie. hill slope (up and down), trail make up(gravel, rocky, sand, hardpack.) etc. another rating could be a hydration factor. thought i would pipe in some thoughts especially since as weve seen the life is growing which means more noobs so this info can be useful so as not to scare anyone off after they ride one hard trail with us. anyway thats my.02 worth

ed

Im going to kinda of back out of here on this one. I dont have enought computer knowedge to know what is dooable. Maybe a four rating like all other trails to keeping it close to the same as other trails in other parts of the world. It seems that it would be easy to have a open link next to the final rate for the trail for people to verbally add info about the trail. This way a little more can be learned about the trail before riding it. And a big data base dosnt have to be maintained. Seems like the easiest way to do it to me? What do the rest of you think?

your right! KISS!

i just get on a tangent sometimes it would be a nice ideal to have something like the mountain bikers do though.

[Metal Twister 0]

your right! KISS!

i just get on a tangent sometimes it would be a nice ideal to have something like the mountain bikers do though.

You give in too easy!!!

Im to old to peddle on the trails, and dont know what the mtn. bikes use? Can we just use their stuff?

[chickenheart 0]

your right! KISS!

i just get on a tangent sometimes it would be a nice ideal to have something like the mountain bikers do though.

You give in too easy!!!

Im to old to peddle on the trails, and dont know what the mtn. bikes use? Can we just use their stuff?

i'll post a sample when i get home! i'm sure we can tailor it to our needs though.

[2Wheels 0]

The easy i think should be any two wheel drive road, or should we even rate a dirt road? maybe we should only rate single track, or four wheel drive roads ( Jeep trails)?

If we throw out all the 2wd roads, that's not going to leave us with too much to rate, except in B.C., Mexico. I say we should rate the 2wd roads.

For example, you're wondering how the road is from La Rumorosa to Laguna Hanson. I tell you it's an easy 2wd road except for 100 yards of sand. It seems like that's useful info for anyone who's thinking of taking that road. You may not be interested in a report on Otay Mtn TT because you've been on it too many times, but someone who's never been there may be interested.

[Metal Twister 0]

The easy i think should be any two wheel drive road, or should we even rate a dirt road? maybe we should only rate single track, or four wheel drive roads ( Jeep trails)?

If we throw out all the 2wd roads, that's not going to leave us with too much to rate, except in B.C., Mexico. I say we should rate the 2wd roads.

For example, you're wondering how the road is from La Rumorosa to Laguna Hanson. I tell you it's an easy 2wd road except for 100 yards of sand. It seems like that's useful info for anyone who's thinking of taking that road. You may not be interested in a report on Otay Mtn TT because you've been on it too many times, but someone who's never been there may be interested.

I think you might of misunderstood what i was tring to say. I think truck trails/4 wheel drive trail/ jeep trails should be rated. I just wonder if there is a need for boulder creek road, and proctor valley road to be rated just because they happen to be un paved???? I dont have any answers. Just alot of questions. Heres another, should we stick to just San Diego County for now? Mexico is a big place, Do we want to start tring to rate the mexican trails/ roads too?

[Crawdaddy 96]

It seems that when ever a ride is posted, trail condition is always asked about and described. It also seems to be described by different riders in many different ways, and levels of difficulty. It would be easy to name the different trails here in San Diego. Do a poll for say for 3 months on each trails difficulty. After that time assess a rating on that trail. That way there would be a lot of input from everybody, and the true trail rate would surface. It would also give everybody a way to judge a trail based on Trails that they have ridden on. Does this make since to anybody else? If so maybe we could come up with a list of most often used trails and add to it as time goes on? Maybe a page just for the results? Just a thought and open for discussion.

SDAR TRAIL RATING STANDARD Has this already been done?

I'd suggest adopting the same KISS system currently in use at places like Corral Canyon

Green (lollipop) , Blue (fun) , Black (fun with a bit of intensity)

And blow off trying to rate "roads".....they come with their own rating....."no BFD"

[PastaPilot 17]

This got way too big, too fast. It's almost out of control now. All Twister is looking for is a bell curve for a trail. If 100 people say it's difficult, it's a difficult trail. If 50 say its challenging 25 say difficult, 15 moderate, 10 easy. Well that would make it a challenging trail.

This is simple to do, look Thumper Talk has a whole forum devoted to polling it's members. From what I see most of what is there is crap, but what it allows you to do is start a thread of any title and place your polling options in a list. It also provides a bar graph of what the polling outcome is.

What we need is a new section for trail ratings and the ability to start polling on the SDAR forums. looks like something to place in the forum on website improvements. Also included in the thread should be directions or coordinates to a trail head or major intersection of the road. This should be included by whomever is polling a particular trail. With this people that don't know about a trail can read or see what people think about it and then find it and when they come back rate it and leave perhaps a note about what bike they were on and personal experience.

This is a great idea Metal Twister, I'm really glad you posted it. With a section like this we members would be able to access a number of trails that we didn't know about or how to find. It'll just take a little work by our great administrators to add a little more to this already excellent website.

[Metal Twister 0]

This got way too big, too fast. It's almost out of control now. All Twister is looking for is a bell curve for a trail. If 100 people say it's difficult, it's a difficult trail. If 50 say its challenging 25 say difficult, 15 moderate, 10 easy. Well that would make it a challenging trail.

This is simple to do, look Thumper Talk has a whole forum devoted to polling it's members. From what I see most of what is there is crap, but what it allows you to do is start a thread of any title and place your polling options in a list. It also provides a bar graph of what the polling outcome is.

What we need is a new section for trail ratings and the ability to start polling on the SDAR forums. looks like something to place in the forum on website improvements. Also included in the thread should be directions or coordinates to a trail head or major intersection of the road. This should be included by whomever is polling a particular trail. With this people that don't know about a trail can read or see what people think about it and then find it and when they come back rate it and leave perhaps a note about what bike they were on and personal experience.

This is a great idea Metal Twister, I'm really glad you posted it. With a section like this we members would be able to access a number of trails that we didn't know about or how to find. It'll just take a little work by our great administrators to add a little more to this already excellent website.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU,! Youve said in a few words what its taken me 3 pages to say, and I understand what you are saying! LOL I think this should be done in the members only section to keep it on the up and up! Well put Honda Pilot! thanks again

[bikeslut 1]

OK.. being the computer whiz that I am, i went in a created an excel spreadsheet that listed trails on one axis, rider name on another axis... a grading system was input, allowing each rider's opinions to be viewed, and an average score would show up under each trail name... So if I know, for instance, that bruce is a little bit better than i am in most situations, and he rates a trail (say kernan west) a 3, but motobro is a demigod amongst our two wheeled brothers, and he rates it a 1, i can expect it will be challenging for me. The average score would show up on the bottom, and I could discount motobro's "1", because the average score was a 2.87...

So... being the computer whiz that I am, the spread sheet didn't show up on my replay in any semblance of order... but i think I'm on the right track

[chickenheart 0]

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i think a write up like this might help mind you this is from a mountain biking book.

[carguy 1]

I am riding Jacumba AM tomorrow, need more riders for imput. Must meet at Jacumba Valero 7AM Sat Aug 04. We must rate these trails!

[Metal Twister 0]

'chickenheart'

i think a write up like this might help mind you this is from a mountain biking book.

Wow, there was some time spent on that info book. I Dont know? seems that Honda Pilot had the right idea to me? Start out easy and ramp up, if there is any interest. It could be very easy, or very hard, I vote for easy right now. But if any one wants to make it a project i say go for it. Its more than we have now.

[2Wheels 0]

I just wonder if there is a need for boulder creek road, and proctor valley road to be rated just because they happen to be un paved???? I dont have any answers. Just alot of questions. Heres another, should we stick to just San Diego County for now? Mexico is a big place, Do we want to start tring to rate the mexican trails/ roads too?

I guess if it's a county road, enough said.

But if any one wants to make it a project i say go for it. Its more than we have now.

I'll continue to say something about the difficulty of trails and roads in my ride reports just in case anyone wants to make a project out of rating trails.

[bruceh 0]

Here is my take on the four ratings

Easy = like riding on a street - boring!

Challenging = the fun factor starts getting your attention - you need to start moving your body on the bike

Difficult = I start falling off the bike

Most Difficult = Stuff I'm probably going to avoid riding to keep out of the hospital

[dirt dame 561]

Oh Hey there Bruceh, I think of challenging beginning where you might start falling off of your bike if you aren't paying close attention to every move you make on your bike. If your're moving around, but not in any danger of falling off, then you are consistently making all the right moves easily and there probably is a rather low chance of you falling off. Difficult begins where the stakes get high and so do the odds about whether you can stay glued to the machine, upright and moving in the direction you want to go. Difficult for me starts somewhere just under 50/50 in that respect or maybe a tad lower For instance our Jacumba ride was a challenging or intermediate ride, and I think that the other riders from it would agree, but while it kept me busy, the odds of me having a bad crash or mess-up were low, and in fact I had a stall or two, one plop in the sand and got stuck on one ugly hill. Pretty good day for me, except for my tree-bit arms!

[KTMrad 513]

I posted this reply, before reading the other posts.........

I think there are too many variables as to the different experience levels, different outlooks on what is fun, what is difficult, and what type of bike one rides to clearly rate dirt roads and trails for everyone's use.

I do agree with what someone mentioned, if you do this, probably better to keep it in the "Members Only" Forums.

After reading more of the ideas about how to go about this.......please SEE MY NEXT POST.

[KTMrad 513]

This got way too big, too fast. It's almost out of control now. All Twister is looking for is a bell curve for a trail. If 100 people say it's difficult, it's a difficult trail. If 50 say its challenging 25 say difficult, 15 moderate, 10 easy. Well that would make it a challenging trail.

This is simple to do, look Thumper Talk has a whole forum devoted to polling it's members. From what I see most of what is there is crap, but what it allows you to do is start a thread of any title and place your polling options in a list. It also provides a bar graph of what the polling outcome is.

What we need is a new section for trail ratings and the ability to start polling on the SDAR forums. looks like something to place in the forum on website improvements. Also included in the thread should be directions or coordinates to a trail head or major intersection of the road. This should be included by whomever is polling a particular trail. With this people that don't know about a trail can read or see what people think about it and then find it and when they come back rate it and leave perhaps a note about what bike they were on and personal experience.

This is a great idea Metal Twister, I'm really glad you posted it. With a section like this we members would be able to access a number of trails that we didn't know about or how to find. It'll just take a little work by our great administrators to add a little more to this already excellent website.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU,! Youve said in a few words what its taken me 3 pages to say, and I understand what you are saying! LOL I think this should be done in the members only section to keep it on the up and up! Well put Honda Pilot! thanks again

\

Actually, this idea above makes sense.

[Metal Twister 0]

This got way too big, too fast. It's almost out of control now. All Twister is looking for is a bell curve for a trail. If 100 people say it's difficult, it's a difficult trail. If 50 say its challenging 25 say difficult, 15 moderate, 10 easy. Well that would make it a challenging trail.

This is simple to do, look Thumper Talk has a whole forum devoted to polling it's members. From what I see most of what is there is crap, but what it allows you to do is start a thread of any title and place your polling options in a list. It also provides a bar graph of what the polling outcome is.

What we need is a new section for trail ratings and the ability to start polling on the SDAR forums. looks like something to place in the forum on website improvements. Also included in the thread should be directions or coordinates to a trail head or major intersection of the road. This should be included by whomever is polling a particular trail. With this people that don't know about a trail can read or see what people think about it and then find it and when they come back rate it and leave perhaps a note about what bike they were on and personal experience.

This is a great idea Metal Twister, I'm really glad you posted it. With a section like this we members would be able to access a number of trails that we didn't know about or how to find. It'll just take a little work by our great administrators to add a little more to this already excellent website.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU,! Youve said in a few words what its taken me 3 pages to say, and I understand what you are saying! LOL I think this should be done in the members only section to keep it on the up and up! Well put Honda Pilot! thanks again

\

Actually, this idea above makes sense.

What ya say Chief, can we press foward with this, You already know all the trails anyway!

[KTMrad 513]

What ya say Chief, can we press foward with this, You already know all the trails anyway!

I think the approach Honda Pilot mentioned sounds the best, making it easiest for everyone to figure out on their own based on the Average Rating of a trail from everyone else's input.

I tried figuring out how to do a "Poll" for other posts before, with no luck. I will have to call the actual designers of the forum software to figure out how to do it, may take some time.