Single Track for Dirt Bikes – Clear Definition

Courtesy of Texas Off-Road Forums!

The Single Track

Without question, the best gauge of a rider’s skill is the “single track” trail. In the sixties, we called them “pig” trails. In the seventies, they were “boogie” trails. In the eighties they were the “tight” trails. I missed out on the nineties, but somewhere in there they became “single track” as opposed to “double track” or ATV trails. Then you move to the less challenging “jeep trails” or “fire roads,” and then up to the “hard packed roads” or “red roads,” as they are sometimes called. They all demand a certain skill level to ride. Novice riders find fire roads and hard packed roads challenging. Intermediate level riders move quickly to the double track roads and jeep trails for a fun ride. But the real fun, the real reason to ride dirt bikes is the “single track” trail.

The single track is the sole domain of the dirt bike. No four-wheel drive truck, ATV, mountain bike, or horse can ride the single track. There are single tracks were even a human couldn’t negotiate. But a good rider, on a well set up woods bike, can not only negotiate the sometimes impossible single track, he, or she, can actually fly through the trail at truly unbelievable speeds.

It is always amazing to novice riders how anyone can move through the tight, twisty, trails as such speeds. These lightening fast riders seem impervious to the thousands of obstacles Mother Nature puts it the way of their on-coming machines. Roots, ruts, sandy berms, logs, low hanging limbs, deep powdery sand (moon dust some call it), prickly bushes, sharp cutting wait-a-minute vines, and of course, bike sucking mud are all part of the single track. The fast woods rider deals with them as if they weren’t there. Of course the slower rider deals with them also, it’s just that he knows they are there. Boy does he know it. Ask him and he will tell you elaborate tales of tragedy about mud holes seat deep and up hills straight up to the sky. Ask the fast rider and he will probably comment “Yea, there was a little mud.”

Whether you ride it fast or slow, it is the single track trail that test a riders soul. Most riders can handle the single tack pretty well for a few miles. Maybe even ten miles. But after thirty miles and then forty the single track becomes a relentless, pounding, twisting blur of sharp turns, trees, roots and thicket. It takes on a life of its own. That’s because at this point in an Enduro or Hare Scramble the rider falls into a “Zone”. He is running on sheer natural instincts. He no longer thinks about the next turn or the trail ahead. The body numbs and the mind wanders. Shifting, braking, sliding through turns, all are on automatic. The rider finds himself thinking of the next check point. There are people there. Humans. Something, anything, but the everlasting “single track” threading its way, turn after hairpin turns, mile after mile, towards the end of your misery. You pray for some open double track or jeep trails for a few minutes break. Anything to break the brutality of the “single track”.

But the “single track” knows your weaknesses. It knows how tired you are. It even knows if your having trouble with your bike. If your rear brake is fading, then the “single track” is mostly steep down hills and long straight-aways with sharp 90 degree turns. If your bike is loading up, there is absolutely no place you can get out of 1st gear and hope to clear your engine. It knows if you busted your left hand on a tree, and will continue to put sturdy saplings in just the right spots to whack you again, and again. Ask any rider and they will back me up on this. The “single track” knows.

But just because the “single track” is uncanny in its ability to torture, and relentless in its pressure, that doesn’t mean the “single track” always wins. In fact, more often it is the rider who is eventually the victor. This is because the rider has several potent weapons in his fanny pack. First, there is “experience”. The more time on the trails the easier the “single track” becomes. Stamina, skill and confidence all increase as a rider gains first hand knowledge of what Mother Nature (and the promoters, but that’s another story) can throw at you. Second, is that illusive element which causes the rider to gain any experience in the first place. That solely human trait of conquest. You ride the “single track” because it is difficult, and the more difficult it is, the more you want to ride it.

The “single track” demonstrates the riders skill level. Better riders go faster, and it shows the most on a “single track”. It’s a fact. But more than that, the “single track” is a test of a riders true urge for conquest. We call it, “Fun”, but in fact we are fulfilling out urge to conquer the trail. It doesn’t matter whether you ride it fast or slow, it only matters that you ride it. Every time you finish a loop or a particularly hard section, you feel as though you’ve accomplished something. You’ve been tested and you were victorious.

See You On The Trails!