I don’t take any responsibility about current situation on any listed trail. I don’t take any responsibility about provided data. During the ride you have to follow local and current regulations.
 
 

More asked questions about my MTB rides:

1. Explain your technical difficulty raiting.

2. How to know the aerobic difficulty of the route?

3. How do you measure the elevation profile and distance (length)?

4. How do you measure the elevation gain?

5. How can I enter GPS kml file into my GPS unit and create the route?

6. Where I can get the topographic maps of your area?

7. Why do you suggest UST tires with the sealant?

8. Explain country abbreviation.

9. I would like to rent the bike. Can you recommend the service?

10. I would like to rent the professional MTB guide. Can you recommend the service?

11. How can I check in advance is the region free of mine fields (hazardous areas)?

12. Can I advertise on your pages?

13. I have a question about the listed ride. Can I contact you?

 

1. Explain your technical difficulty rating.

All the routes include a technical difficulty rating. The range is between 1 and 5 points and the rating with 5 points is the most demanding one. It does not mean that all sections & trails of the single route are covered with the same rating. Each MTB route includes the rating of the hardest section between all sections of the complete route. Check the photo gallery, map, overview & description of each route for more details about the sections. To get aerobic difficulty consider elevation profile, distance and technical difficulty together and upon your experience decide if the route is acceptable for you. Any technical difficulty rating can include some short hiking section where the ride is not possible and you will have to hike on with your bike. Consider the description of each route, map and photo gallery to check how long is such section. Check below images and comments to get the overview about my rating levels for technical difficulty of the mountain bike ride:

Technical Difficulty	Short description	Click on the thumbnails below to get the large image
●	Paved & unpaved roads.	Technical Difficulty 1
●●	Dirt roads, carriageways, easy singletracks. Easy rocky or/and muddy terrains.	Technical Difficulty 2
●●●	Singletracks or bridle paths. Very rocky or/and muddy terrains. Still XC class for experienced XC riders.	Technical Difficulty 3
●●●●	Singletracks or bridle paths of all mountain (AM) class.  Full suspension bike and good technical skill of riding is needed for a good and safe ride.	Technical Difficulty 4
●●●●●	Extremely risky ride is still possible or you will have to carry the bike.	Technical Difficulty 5

 

2. How to know the aerobic difficulty of the route?

To get aerobic difficulty you have to consider, elevation gain, elevation profile, distance and technical difficulty all together and upon your experience decide if the route is acceptable for you. For the trained rider the total ascent of the ride in the amount of 2000 meters is easy but for the others even 1000 meters can be very difficult. That is the reason why I don’t want to specify aerobic difficulty as the single value.

3. How do you measure the elevation profile and distance (length)?

There are two ways:

a) With the GPS. Some GPS units like Garmin eTrex Vista HCx use the atmosphere pressure method for recording of elevation data into tracklog but before the start the GPS unit is calibrated with the data calculated from GPS signal. Some other units  likeMagellan eXplorist records the elevation data calculated from GPS signal. Both methods have some + and – but you can count on the difference in final elevation data of my profiles could be in the range of +/- 5%. Most of the GPS tracklogs have been processed with the OziExplorer and Perfils programs to get the final elevation profile including the distance data.

b) With the bike comp that uses only the atmosphere pressure method for elevation data and counting of wheel turns for the distance data. In most cases I use HAC5 from CicloSport. For analysis of recorded data I have used programs CicloTour and HACtronic, both provided with the HAC5 unit.

Between GPS and bike comp methods you can expect the difference in results within the range of +/- 5%.

Regarding long solo rides when I have to make many brakes to shot the photos, the time data have been removed from the elevation profiles.

The units of measurement for elevation and length in my reports are kilometers and meters, not miles and feets.

4. How do you measure the elevation gain?

Elevation gain is the total climb in meters of the route. Elevation gain is calculated from GPS tracklog or recorded file with the bike comp. The files have been analyzed  with programs mentioned above. For GPS data I use the elevation filter of 5 meters and for bike comp the elevation filter is 1 meter. For instance the filter of 5 meters means that any climb which is less than 5 meters high will not be added into elevation gain. Regarding many factors the elevation gain value could be in the range +/- 8%.

5. How can I enter GPS kml file into my GPS unit and create the route?

Kml tracklog file can be opened into Google Earth, the best free viewer of the tracks. Most of the GPS units like Garmin and Magellan use gpx file format. For conversion from kml to gpx you can use GPSBabel (free), OziExplorer or GPS Trackmaker (free). After that you can use the GPS manufacturer application on your personal computer to create the route  and upload the route into your GPS unit. All my GPS tracklogs are recorded with WGS84 datum. If you have mobile equipped with GPS like some Symbian, iPhone, Android or Windows Mobile platform, please find some application for raster maps like PathAway, SmartComGps, OruxMaps etc. With such application and some Utilities for kml file conversion into your default mobile file format you can upload and prepare the route.

6. Where I can get the topographic maps of your area?

Some old military topo maps are available on the web (use google search). I recommend to use kml file available for each route and than create the route in your GPS as it is explained above. Furthermore, consider the Google Earth map included in each route. Click on Map, Satellite (with or without labels) or Terrain modes. With zoom and pan options you can easy find the way how to reach the starting point and how looks some trail.

7. Why do you suggest UST tires with the sealant?