Mountain biking: A speed-thrill trip

As per the video above, be careful when you hike in McLaren Park in San Francisco.

Mountain bikers have become such a hazard in Marin that park officials are planning more enforcement of a 15 mph speed limit. 

Mountain bikers aren't happy about that (Mountain bikers beware: Marin rangers to use radar guns):

The speed limit for a mountain bike on the Marin County Parks agency’s open space trails is 15 mph. Going uphill, that’s rarely an issue. Going downhill, say mountain bikers, it’s easy to go twice that fast. “They’re going to ruin the sport if they make people go 15 miles an hour,” said Glenn Fiedler, a veteran biker who had come all the way from Austin, Texas, to take a spin on Mount Tamalpais...

Fiedler admitted that he was probably going closer to 30 mph when he lost control and crashed his mountain bike Friday on Old Railroad Grade north of Mill Valley. His arms, hands and knees were bloody, but he smiled and said he was OK. Fiedler said he tries his best to share the trail, even when the trail has other ideas about how to treat him in return. “I’m always polite and say, ‘Howdy,’” he said. “But I also like the excitement of going fast. To keep it at 15 mph when you’re coming down from the top, you’re going to be squeezing your brakes the whole time. What fun is that?”

Fiedler reminds me of the 40 Year Old Hippie from days of yore: "Two hundred trips and they've all been bummers! But I ain't givin' up!!"

But mountain bikers, unlike their urban comrades, are at least more honest about their speed/thrill motivation for riding bikes. I often see their urban counterparts speeding down the streets in this neighborhood---on Haight, Page, McAllister, Golden Gate, etc. Whee!

Fanatical mountain bikers were busted a few years ago when they remodeled park land in Marin and in SF's McLaren Park to suit their juvenile desires.

Like Critical Mass "fun" for mountain bikers is apparently supposed to trump the interests of everyone else.

See also this.