Two pitfalls we experience :
1. The rating does not account for wet or dry. Mostly not an issue. But some trails are on clay types that becomes super slippery when wet .... When a new rider relies on "blue" and encounters "black" unexpectedly, it questions the systems.
MAYBE - a notice board at the trail entrance .... "Due to current weather, and trail wear, the rating is elevated from Blue to Red.
OR - Normally Blue trail, expect Red/Black in adverse weather conditions.
The tricky bit being that a good many trails are built to deal better with rain, and the rating does not change significantly, thus you just know until you have tried the trail in different conditions ... and is this not the exact purpose of a trail rating system ?
2. Maintenance .... or the lack thereof ..... some straight corridors where where highways never mind green has become so eroded that pedal strikes become common place. Once spot that used be a corridor with "the odd tree route", is now washes away to the point that most tree routes are above ground level ... what ever rating they had is no longer applicable. (Protea corridor, Tygerberg club, just as one example). SURE, I actually enjoy this routed section, but also mindful of all the new riders that might find this intimidating.
A different issue, and one for which I dont seem to understand the ratings, if it exists. Sometimes to you see three red arrows, noting a dangerous section ahead, typically just a particular feature in an otherwise blue or red trail. Saw this sign at an event, and treated it as such, except it was nothing more than a section of farm road, slightly loose surface at worst. Around the bend one more of these tripple red arrows, but clearly just the same farm road. After the third bend it became apparent what was happening ... we climbed to the top using single tracks, and was now simple speeding down a road .... and overheating the brakes !! My brakes eventually glazed over, bike speeding up, and I ended in the medics tent for a few hours ... for what was no more than one enormously long very steep downhill. And here I thought the tripple red arrow was just "for an obstacle". In a case like that a printed board stating "steep drop next 3km" might have been more appropriate.
