seymour1910

Got this article as an alert on my phone today. This guy was on his MTB, but it looks like a cross bike or road bike could be used on this MUP. The article says the wire was at neck height. I don't know why it still shocks me how cruel people can be, but it does.

Barbed wire 'boobytrap' discovered at throat height by cyclist on footpath

chaadster

OMG, that's really crazy. Only a totally sociopathic sicko could do that kind of thing. I hope they find the monster responsible and get them off the street.

Dave Cutter

I hate it when my experience makes me sound (read?) like an old skeptic. But somehow.... I wouldn't invest a great deal of trust with the guy who "found" the trap and posted it on-line for thousands of views.

chaadster

What experience do you have that leads you to not trust the guy who found it?

Sure, it could be the guy fabricating the story for attention, but that's barely less crazy than those who actually do boobytrap trails, like this guy: Jackson Dempsey: Psychiatrist pleads guilty to bobby-trapping mountain bike trails with ropes and nails | Daily Mail Online

There are lots of stories of people setting various booby traps on paths, roads, and trails, so I'm curious what kind of experience you have which suggests the story is a sham? Needless to say, I'd be relieved if it were, but I'm under no illusions regarding the malicious things people can do.

CNC2204

They did the same thing for snowmobiles back in the day.

topflightpro

Things like this happen with some frequency on mountain bike trails. "Ecoterrorists" claim that mountain bikers are ruining the land and hurting the wildlife.

seymour1910

Wow, at those speeds (snowmobiles) you're talking about killing someone.

CNC2204

Decap ....

Local farmers did it where i grew up by Wisconsin.

There was another farmer that woulds shoot rock salt at you with a shotgun.

Ratzinger

The best thing for nature is to get people out there who love being outside and have a stake in protecting it. IMO that includes getting people into cycling.

Inpd

True, but this isn't a mountain bike trail, its a "country lane" as the story describes and the pictures show. It's flat and running b/w two fields.

dr_lha

I believe it can happen, but I also understand skepticism that it may be made up in this attention driven / viral age.

I myself have come across curious outcroppings of thumbtacks on some of our bike routes where there might be considered to be some tension between cars and cyclists, so I know that there are some proper arseholes out there.

Seattle Forrest

Just a month ago, some lady in British Columbia was sentenced for booby trapping a mountain bike trail. It's unfortunately not unheard of.

popeye

Mike Vandeman.

TheRef

Last summer the police was investigating lots of glass half dug on the MTB path that's also used for hiking and horse riding on the south suburbs of Chicago. Suspisions pointed to a disgruntled horse rider but last I hear no arrests were made.
The local police was very involved and took the incidents seriously.

I don't know what goes in the mind of an individual to do such a thing. It's a shame.

PepeM

The son of a friend of my father died that way. On a dirtbike, not a bicycle, but still.

Darth Lefty 

Wrong forum!

Shimagnolo

65-Year-Old Canadian Woman Sentenced After Being Filmed Booby Trapping Mountain Bike Trails in British Columbia - Mpora

Dave Cutter

I am familiar with that report. Unfortunately... as some people age... their minds don't function well. Her actions were very likely related to a form of dementia. She mostly dragged big sticks/small logs into the pathways very near her home. A crude action in response to her internally generated anger. That was sad.

And as was in the story:
North Vancouver provincial court Judge John Milne ruled that a sentence was needed to make anyone else in a similar state of mind “sit up and take notice”, with the three year probation and 150 hours of community service being eventually decided upon, though unfortunately those hours will not be spend sculpting berms.

Often times the courts will sentence (victims?) of dementia to "house arrest"... knowing full well that they won't ever serve any sentence whatsoever. When the brain dies... the body stops moving. She likely isn't capable of any "community service" and surly won't live three years.

Rarely... in any human endeavor does anyone exert real effort (like a well constructed booby-trap).... with no chance of reward. Where is the reward in setting up such a barbed-wire trap.... and then just walking away? I would never stop near a booby-trapped area... as the stopping and dismounting would likely be the exact behavior the guys (with baseball bats) that set up the trap want you to do.

Or... maybe someone desperately hoping for a few thousand new facebook friends, and/or YouTube hits... is just trying to get attention.

I don't know! It could be a real wacko that set-up the trap. Or a demented near-by home owner (with good motor skills?). Maybe a park ranger or local cop... hoping to get a bit of over-time out of a (risk-free) new community danger. Who knows.

Inpd

I read some of these articles and its interesting.

Do these activist want riders off:

i) All trails since they cause too much damage to the environment.
ii) Off some walkable trails since its a safety issue.

ii) I can understand as I've nearly cleaned up a few riders on my MUP.

i) I don't know. Is there some sort of study showing that riders cause a lot of damage.

Looigi

I'm thinking there's a decent chance that whoever strung up that barb wire thought they were protecting nature.

RPK79

What's the other option? Bunny hop the barbed wire and hope the next poor schmuck to come along sees it and has mad bunny hopping skills too?

Seattle Forrest

Has nothing to do with protecting "nature." It's about protecting a man-made structure: a trail. A trail is a band of dead area with little or no plants growing out of it, in contrast to the life all around it. They're ugly and stand out like a sore thumb. But they're very useful to people (and also to big animals, a lot of them use trails too).

Wheels can cause erosion on trails, which already have problems with erosion because trails aren't natural. That's why a lot of MTB people do volunteer work to build and maintain trails.

Wanderer

I frequently see deer, coyotes, foxes, racoons, muskrats, woodchucks, even a mother beaver and two kits, using the paved trail along the fox river......

Dan333SP

When I was still in Miami, some d-bags threw a box full of thumbtacks all over the bikelanes on the most popular weekend riding route in the city, knowing full well that there would be a few hundred cyclists riding at dawn the next morning. I got one flat, but there were literally 30-40 people stopped on the side of the road changing tubes since a large shop ride hit the patch at the same time and virtually all of them ended up flatting. Some good Samaritans came back with big brooms and cleared the paths, but I don't think anyone ever figured out who threw the tacks down.

softreset

Had a similar issue on a popular trail in Sacramento as well

Bicyclist Encounters Booby Trap on American River Bike Trail | FOX40