Riding in the Peak yesterday, I’ve never seen so many riders, during daylight, ride footpaths. We weren’t the only group atop Winhill, I saw 10 or so ride the front way off Winstonelee, other paths are littered with tyre tracks, there are DH tracks in the woods.
There appears to be a massive change in riders attitude, a quite storm rebelling against ridiculous laws for access in England ?

Its good to see us taking the Peak !

😐
Didn’t get enough attention for yesterdays ‘everyone must need a FS post’?

oops, am I being too provocative ?

Provocative wasn’t the word that sprung to mind….

No. Just too predictable.

how can I be predictable to you when you don’t know me ? or do you mean the subject matter ?

Come on, given the choice would you like to be allowed, legally, to a) ride footpaths or b) not ride footpaths ?

There is such lethargy within our sport to tackle this subject head on, the previous 3 replies to this thread highlight this.

he’s had his weetabix

Sport?
As TJ once said, its pony trekking on bikes for frustrated middle aged men.

Sport my arse.

Who’s been eating trollabix?

There appears to be a massive change in riders attitude, a quite storm rebelling against ridiculous laws for access in England ?

There appear to be a lot of really thick, overweight, middle-aged men riding around on expensive full sussers who, in reality, don’t know the difference between a footpath, a bridleway and the M6.

/\ Brilliant 😀

oops, am I being too provocative ?

Were you wearing a dress as you typed this? If so, then maybe….

Come on, given the choice would you like to be allowed, legally, to a) ride footpaths or b) not ride footpaths ?

More seriously – I don’t care, I ride where I want anyway. How do you think that lots of folk riding footpaths on busy summer weekends will change our ridiculous rights of way legislation? Is there some arcane law that states if loads of people break the rules they change them?

How would legalising riding on footpaths change anything really other than allowing guidebook writers and magazine journos to do something other than endessly re-hashing the same old Peak ‘classics’?

I actually quite like things as they are, keeps the non-bridleways quiet. 😉

I’m kind of half and half on this. I ride footpaths but I like to think I do so with care, having endless people ride some of the more sensitive ones helps no one.

I think we’re less likely to gain better access and more likely to gain cheesed off locals who cause disruption

Maybe it’s folks who ain from round ere that don’t give a f… To be honest I don’t but where I am I can see that getting closed to the public very soon …..

there are a lot of locals posting vids, that really doesn’t help matters.

I know a chap who is a National Park Ranger for the Peak. He has told me on more than one occasion that he and his compatriots tend to turn a blind eye to cyclists on FP nowadays. Depending on the FP of course, their thoughts are thus :- if it is already worn down to rock and not likely to be eroded by passing cyclists they will ignore the trespass, if it is a FP that is soft peat etc then they will be all over you.
It’s not a view that is shared by all the rangers though.

Thats great for park rangers but a lot of the areas round langsett are neither owned or regulated by the peak the odd time I’ve been accosted by a rambler who informed me it was I politely told em to f… Off

Why would you need a FP around Langsett?

Mmm I’m a footpath rider too (in the Peak). However on the busy weekends in the holiday season in good weather, I personally wouldn’t.
However on the weekday around tea time, free for all I say.

Just be sensible about it.

Bwd, that’s the rider I wld have expected to see but, they weren’t, guy on a very old turner 5 spot….and even a guy on an old hardtail(what a fool for riding that in the Peak !)

The whole right to footpaths has worked well in scotland hasn’t it ? Not heard of walkers up in arms across scotland demanding repeal of the laws.

I think legally opening up the paths, especially in honey pots like the Peak, would help to dissovle the concentration of bikes you see on the bridleways, making fp and bw use to all more pleasant.

he’s had his weetabix

Better, three shreded wheat….

I agree with opening stuff up but I’d like to see it nation wide not just the peak, its already overcrowded on sunny days, if just the peak got opened I think it’d do more harm than good

For years we had sat, drinking expensive coffee, communicating using our iPads. Emasculated, impotent, we sat under the mountains and we felt only shame.

We were crushed, our spirits shattered, ground into the dust by the laws of our country; we could ride on the way of the bridle, but the way of the foot was denied to us.

The rambling tribes laughed at us, they had freedom, but we were denied.

Plans began to form, a resistance movement, an underground organisation, slowly our courage grew, and after buying bicycles for £2000, helmets for £100, shorts for £70, gloves for £15, knee pads for £30, and other assorted sundries to make sure we could identify each other, we decided that we could arise, we could ride on the path of the foot.

We waited, the weather was auspicious, for the rain seemed to seep into our very bones and make our new bikes dirty. One Saturday, in the summer, after checking with the womenfolk of our tribe, we went forth to take our place, to reclaim our rights, to take the Peak…

Later, loading our mighty steeds into our Audis, we felt the warm glow of satisfaction, no longer would the girls in the office laugh at us, or our womenfolk say to their elders ‘He’s out on his bike with all his spoddy mates’, No longer, for we had ridden on the path of the foot…

Like I said, pony trekking by bike…

“Why would you need a FP around Langsett?”

Im talking about the area in general i just class langsett as the route up to the peak for myself.

For years we had sat, drinking expensive coffee, communicating using our iPads. Emasculated, impotent, we sat under the mountains and we felt only shame.

We were crushed, our spirits shattered, ground into the dust by the laws of our country; we could ride on the way of the bridle, but the way of the foot was denied to us.

The rambling tribes laughed at us, they had freedom, but we were denied.

Plans began to form, a resistance movement, an underground organisation, slowly our courage grew, and after buying bicycles for £2000, helmets for £100, shorts for £70, gloves for £15, knee pads for £30, and other assorted sundries to make sure we could identify each other, we decided that we could arise, we could ride on the path of the foot.

We waited, the weather was auspicious, for the rain seemed to seep into our very bones and make our new bikes dirty. One Saturday, in the summer, after checking with the womenfolk of our tribe, we went forth to take our place, to reclaim our rights, to take the Peak…

Later, loading our mighty steeds into our Audis, we felt the warm glow of satisfaction, no longer would the girls in the office laugh at us, or our womenfolk say to their elders ‘He’s out on his bike with all his spoddy mates’, No longer, for we had ridden on the path of the foot…

Genius 😀

i once got shit for riding on a foot path, a woman had a real go at me, then i pointed out that it was my family’s farm and she should really **** off… it was quite funny!

For years we had sat, drinking expensive coffee, communicating using our iPads. Emasculated, impotent, we sat under the mountains and we felt only shame.

We were crushed, our spirits shattered, ground into the dust by the laws of our country; we could ride on the way of the bridle, but the way of the foot was denied to us.

The rambling tribes laughed at us, they had freedom, but we were denied.

Plans began to form, a resistance movement, an underground organisation, slowly our courage grew, and after buying bicycles for £2000, helmets for £100, shorts for £70, gloves for £15, knee pads for £30, and other assorted sundries to make sure we could identify each other, we decided that we could arise, we could ride on the path of the foot.

We waited, the weather was auspicious, for the rain seemed to seep into our very bones and make our new bikes dirty. One Saturday, in the summer, after checking with the womenfolk of our tribe, we went forth to take our place, to reclaim our rights, to take the Peak…

Later, loading our mighty steeds into our Audis, we felt the warm glow of satisfaction, no longer would the girls in the office laugh at us, or our womenfolk say to their elders ‘He’s out on his bike with all his spoddy mates’, No longer, for we had ridden on the path of the foot…

Like I said, pony trekking by bike…

Wasted on this thread! 😀

(no offence intended OP)

Is that not just the start of some crappy 80s movie with mtbing bits added to it ?

I agree with opening stuff up but I’d like to see it nation wide not just the peak, its already overcrowded on sunny days, if just the peak got opened I think it’d do more harm than good

Fantasytrackworld lives then… I would like to see a world where candy floss grows wild in the streets, where cats carry can openers for easy access to sardines which would be provided by the state and 4x4s were torched on sight by the police. I would like a world where everyone was given a free bike on their 16th birthday and the roads were genuinely cycle friendly. I would like to see free ice cream handed out to everyone as soon as temperatures hit 20?C.

But I really don’t care about legalising riding on footpaths. And as it’s never going to happen, I don’t lie awake worrying about it either.

The whole ‘Oooh let’s ride on footpaths because the law is wrong and we can stick it to the man’ is a wee bit sad in my opinion. I’ve been on the telly, on that Granada Reports many years ago talking about exactly the same thing, and pointing out that there are so many ‘legal’ trails out there that we don’t actually need to ride on footpaths.

It tends to be people who ride in one small area, who start to want to ride on footpaths because they see stuff that they haven’t ridden and think that they can/should/will ride there.

You could always start riding further afield, away from the ‘honeypot’ of the Peak, and expand your riding in a sensible, sustainable way…

But that would, of course, require rather more commitment, a bit more planning, and even, God Forbid, actually riding your bike to explore places instead of treating a popular area of the world as your own personal trail centre.

It’s a Ragley, right?

It tends to be people who ride in one small area, who start to want to ride on footpaths because they see stuff that they haven’t ridden and think that they can/should/will ride there.

Nah, in my experience almost everyone is happy to ride on some footpaths some of the time. Locals a bit more as they are more familiar with the footpaths available.

Crikey – i take on board your comments and agree to a degree, BUT the point of living in the peak is that it is a great place. What is the point in travelling (by car when diesel etc is expensive) to discover new trails when there are great ones that some prick has decided can only be walked upon?

If a footpath is either not busy, wide enough, good then rid eit. Its not up there with rape, buggery, and murder as a crime in reality is it.

Crikey – i take on board your comments and agree to a degree,

What bit do you agree with?

Bwd – paragraph 2

BUT the point of living in the peak is that it is a great place.
I agree to some extent, but the problem with the Peak and to a lesser extent the Lakes, Rivington and so on, is that deliberate riding on footpaths simply plays into the hands of those who would see mountain bikes banned.

It is easy to argue ‘So what’, the idea that no-one will take action, that essentially we are free to ride where ever without consequence, but as the great outdoors comes under ever more pressure, we are in danger of being seen as much of a nuisance as 4 wheel drive vehicles and trail bikes.

The Peak is great. It’s a super place to ride, and I have been doing so for about 20 years now….but…but….

I see it as a special place, as a real treat, not somewhere to go every week, not as my own special place. It is what it is because it is shared, and insensitive use will see more antagonism, more restrictions and less access, not more.

Maybe it’s me, my own prejudice, but I really don’t like what ‘mountain biking’ is becoming, that drive everywhere, ignorant, I will because I can, take it while you can, style of thinking.

The Peak is in danger for mountain bikers precisely because no-one has the fore-sight to see that at some point in the future access will become a big issue, and if we are seen to disregard the current legislation, we will not be allowed a serious voice in the future.

Might get a pony…

What evidence do you have that anyone is trying to ban mountain biking in the Peak? Hard facts? Come on.

As for ‘a serious voice in the future’, that’s about something completely different which is the lack of any viable representative body representing mountain bikers.

And finally, the existing rights of way legislation is cobblers, not least because it’s all about random historical precedent rather than suitability for use or sustainability. So a peaty, vulnerable track like the one below Kinder Low for example, which cuts up really easily, is a bridleway and legally useable all year round, while the paved track, say, from Chunal to Mill Hill which is to all intents and purposes, indestructible in any conditions, is a footpath.

How does that make any sense?

I have no evidence at all.

Just my own opinion, which as valid or not as anyone elses. I would welcome alternative viewpoints, incidentally..