SA's trail difficulty rating system

[Robbie Stewart]

10 hours ago, Philip Varen said:

Although my original question relates to which rating system we're actually using, your comment does raise a mind boggler to me... Cobra's black feature is a red feature, but if they're using IMBA, there's no red available. But why on earth is Armageddon 8 still black, when they're using reds there? I mean surely 8 is really blue? 

If Armageddon 8 is black then 7 must be double black, and 4 must be a pro only line... The rating on that trail makes no sense whatsoever. This is why I don't normally pay attention to trail ratings. What I normally do on a new trail I've never ridden before is to take the first run slow, stop at the obstacles, walk them and spend some time mulling the lines, roll it a few times and then once I'm happy, I go back to the top for a full run. This way I know what's coming and improve my skills in general in a safe, controlled manner.

[MORNE]

Everything goes up a rating too when you go faster. Too easy? Too tame? Go faster. Jumps not big enough? Go faster.  Thats Of course if the trail allows it. Sometimes they are built in a way that naturally limits the speed you can go. 

i’ll again use red phoenix as an example. Its difficulty is almost directly proportionate to your willingness to let go of your brakes haha. It can get scary and out of control real fast.

Bloemslang…a blue trail, perfectly tame at cruising speeds. But if you’ve managed to go down there in anything under 3mins you’ll know how fast it feels and how much more risky it gets.

i always chuckle when the vlogs come out and they question why there are ‘braking ruts’ on the fast bit….they aren't braking ruts mr trail builders haha. Thats what a assegai or whatever does flat out leaned over on its side knobs

Edited Sunday at 07:59 AM by MORNE

[ChrisF]

1 hour ago, MORNE said:

Snip...

Bloemslang…a blue trail, perfectly tame at cruising speeds. But if you’ve managed to go down there in anything under 3mins you’ll know how fast it feels and how much more risky it gets.

 

 

Last year I did Bloemslang a couple of times ... gradually picking up speed ...

 

Two weeks later I came down there with a personal best time ...

 

Except .... that first hairpin was totally messed up after the turn ... for a few minutes (at least it felt like minutes) I was doing a stppie is one of those dusty holes ....  rear tyre taking its sweet time deciding if it was going to turn me into a scorpion, or just throw me off the side of the trail ....

 

Talk about mind games the next time I did that section ....

 

 

 

 

Lesson learnt .... session a section before letting go of the brakes .... because the trail rating is as reliable as a polititian ...

[Robbie Stewart]

1 hour ago, MORNE said:

….they aren't braking ruts mr trail builders haha. Thats what a assegai or whatever does flat out leaned over on its side knobs

100% and that is directly proportional to the absolute confidence you get to just lean that Assegai over and let it rip, blasting you out onto the straights again at speed, ready for what's coming next. My Stumpy was okayish on its stock Spez rubber, but the moment I fitted the Assegai and Minion DHR the bike just came alive. Dropping the bars in a wild lean into a turn comes naturally now and it's just so much faster. 

[Robbie Stewart]

5 minutes ago, ChrisF said:

Lesson learnt .... session a section before letting go of the brakes .... because the trail rating is as reliable as a polititian ...

This is a fact. Just riding, blindly trusting the "trail rating" is foolish. You're looking for trouble and you're going to find it at some point. To my mind, trail ratings are subjective at best and should only serve as a general guide in terms of what to expect. 

The absolute best choice is to walk the line wherever needed and suss it out before you ride. 

Get the Strava PR when you know how to ride it. Not on the first try.

[Kvrsa]

8 hours ago, Robbie Stewart said:

If Armageddon 8 is black then 7 must be double black, and 4 must be a pro only line... The rating on that trail makes no sense whatsoever. This is why I don't normally pay attention to trail ratings. What I normally do on a new trail I've never ridden before is to take the first run slow, stop at the obstacles, walk them and spend some time mulling the lines, roll it a few times and then once I'm happy, I go back to the top for a full run. This way I know what's coming and improve my skills in general in a safe, controlled manner.

Is 8 not given a black due to the fast speed and exposure… if you get it wrong and go off the side there it’s basically guaranteed (big) troubles. Don’t know if that should form part of the rating criteria though. 

[Robbie Stewart]

3 hours ago, Kvrsa said:

Is 8 not given a black due to the fast speed and exposure… if you get it wrong and go off the side there it’s basically guaranteed (big) troubles. Don’t know if that should form part of the rating criteria though. 

That's likely it. But in reality, to me, 7,6 and 4 are much more risky than 8. Which just, again for me, points to the subjectivity of the system. One rider's black is another rider's blue. 

To add: Also, to use black colours as a rating system at a trail centre like Jonkers is also confusing. Plumber, DH, Armageddon 8, Iron Monkey 5 and Status Quo are all black, but they are vastly different in temperament. 

I have no issues riding those lines apart from Status Quo and Plumber. Not saying I won't ever, but every time I do the math I find I'm firmly in the "too much risk, not enough reward" camp. 

Edited Sunday at 08:04 PM by Robbie Stewart
Adding context

[michaelbiker]

I can’t really speak to the level of difficulty of trails in Jonkershoek but in general I’ve ridden many different trails in Europe. Blue trails should be treated with caution, probably up there in difficulty with our black trails maybe harder. In Spain, for example, blue is barely rideable on an XC bike. Steep, narrow with some features like drops, gap jumps etc. I remember launching into some blue trails near Tremp and having to get off the bike and walk it down some sections. You can see one of the technical sections in the distance in this pic.

Red in Portugal was to be avoided unless you had body armour, an FF helmet and 160mm of travel. In some places in Sintra it wasn’t even worth trying. Black was basically just a bunch of massive step downs and drops through a pine/bluegum forest. It was hard to walk it. I haven’t seen anything like this in SA.

[Robbie Stewart]

6 hours ago, michaelbiker said:

...I haven’t seen anything like this in SA.

That explains the low percentage of SA riders on the European circuit then. Our black is barely blue in Europe and their black is off the charts in SA. I wonder if that is a result of the overall SA mentality towards mountain biking being marathon oriented, and people perceiving events like the Epic to be the extreme side of the sport. And also why the gravity scene in SA is not really picking up noteworthy momentum. 

Any given weekend on the trails around the Cape you tend to see the same faces at the different trails ,which shows how small the gravity segment really is. So why spend massive amounts of money to build trails for the <1% crowd, when the returns of hosting an event for the lycra tigers will yield larger returns.

Seems to me that gravity riding is a dead-end street in SA

[michaelbiker]

12 minutes ago, Robbie Stewart said:

That explains the low percentage of SA riders on the European circuit then. Our black is barely blue in Europe and their black is off the charts in SA. I wonder if that is a result of the overall SA mentality towards mountain biking being marathon oriented, and people perceiving events like the Epic to be the extreme side of the sport. And also why the gravity scene in SA is not really picking up noteworthy momentum. 

Any given weekend on the trails around the Cape you tend to see the same faces at the different trails ,which shows how small the gravity segment really is. So why spend massive amounts of money to build trails for the <1% crowd, when the returns of hosting an event for the lycra tigers will yield larger returns.

Seems to me that gravity riding is a dead-end street in SA

Lycra tigers. Lol! The market is small, but it's also go to do with land rights (not many places that will build trails like this) and the cost of getting into the sport.

This vid of one of the black trails in Tremp, Spain makes my palms sweat. 

 

[Robbie Stewart]

29 minutes ago, michaelbiker said:

Lycra tigers. Lol! The market is small, but it's also go to do with land rights (not many places that will build trails like this) and the cost of getting into the sport.

This vid of one of the black trails in Tremp, Spain makes my palms sweat. 

 

That looks like a great trail. I'd love to ride that.

[Philip Varen]

In 2020, Europe had 14 diverse trail rating systems, each with unique difficulty criteria. To address this inconsistency, IMBA Europe and Swiss Bike Park introduced the International Trail Rating System (ITRS) to standardize ratings and bridge the gap between expectations and reality.

While South Africa may have fewer formally named rating systems in use, it likely shares a similar issue of subjective grading criteria. Without a central authority for advice or certification, trail managers often rely on personal judgment, leading to potential discrepancies in trail difficulty assessments.

[MORNE]

8 hours ago, michaelbiker said:

Lycra tigers. Lol! The market is small, but it's also go to do with land rights (not many places that will build trails like this) and the cost of getting into the sport.

This vid of one of the black trails in Tremp, Spain makes my palms sweat. 

 

Thats just a blue trail skinny with some exposure? 😅

What makes your palms sweat? We 100% have things locally that will test you equally and then some. 
 

ps: back to my original point and already echoed by others…its probably all subjective and purely based off personal opinions and self assessment of skills. One persons black us another's blue.

Edited Wednesday at 04:45 PM by MORNE

[Robbie Stewart]

1 hour ago, MORNE said:

We 100% have things locally that will test you equally and then some. 

Arma 8 springs to mind. Not techy in the true sense, but quite narrow and running beside a pretty steep mountain side that drops away probably 50 meters at places. I rode it a few weeks back and I'm not sure the effort to get there is rewarded sufficiently, unless you drop into Iron Monkey 6. But then you could just drop in there and not go all the way to the top of Armageddon. But is it really black worthy other than the psychological impact of riding such an exposed line that on any other trail would probably be rated green? 

[MORNE]

Status quo 2.0. If you can find it😅. 
i walked down it the other day while being ridiculed by my more skilled brethren🤣 

to paraphrase what someone said up there ‘there are no solf landings, so you better be sure to stay on your bike’

Edited Wednesday at 07:01 PM by MORNE

[Robbie Stewart]

12 hours ago, MORNE said:

Status quo 2.0. If you can find it😅. 
i walked down it the other day while being ridiculed by my more skilled brethren🤣 

to paraphrase what someone said up there ‘there are no solf landings, so you better be sure to stay on your bike’

Ja I've seen a few clips of that line and think it looks doable. Then I watched a guy ride down there when I was at Arma8 and thought "not today" 🤣