What next?

sounds like a good idea, though having seen the police at wharncliffe trying to tackle MXers I’m not sure what they plan to do!

Aren’t quad bikes illegal up there?

hexamstu – Glentress is private land not a road – so with the landowners permission you can ride them

They might be road legal ones as well- such a thing is possible

What next is obvious – motor bike gates at the start at end of all the singletrack sections like Cwmcarn :roll:. So hopefully the motorbike riders get the message and piss off!

How big a problem is it? I’ve never seen any evidence, or heard anyone say they have seen a MXer at GT, but presumably it is fairly common if they are getting the police in.

Are we sure it’s not people on Pugsleys with cereal box toys in the spokes?

pahhhh, thats nothing, in typical southern style I was followed by the police through tunnle hill last night. However the southern bit is that they were in an X3 or X5 and got stuck 🙂

No idea what they were doing there.

Or else what?

MX’ers who ride illegally either ride with tiny numberplates or remove them once off road.

They wont park their vans anywhere near where they ride either.

In addition, they’ll ride very early or later on – hit and run.

They’ll also laugh and think its funny that their cheeky was a close-run recently.

I came across 3 such riders at Lee Quarry. None had numberplates, 2 could barely ride capably and after 10mins playing they left over the moors again. I phoned and reported the ‘incident’ and a day later I received a call back saying ‘crime solved’. How? You mean ‘case closed thats how we ‘solve’ crimes’?

I’m not sure how big a problem it is at Glentress itself, but certainly have seen the odd motorised hero on some of the old-skool/natural/xc/whatever-they-maybe tracks in the area, and damage caused by motorbike use at various points around there. Maybe it’s just a convenient base for the police to hold their kit?

A friend and I once had three MXers behind us on the Black, on one of the first sections after the top carpark. We rode it as slow as possible so they couldnt get a good run at it. Partly to annoy them and partly so that we kept in their line of sight so they didn’t collect us as they came round a corner at speed. Not sure if it was the right thing to do or not but felt like the best course of action at the time.

There used to be a couple of police bikers on massive MX bikes here in Sunderland. When we phoned to report local chavs on (stolen?) bikes razzing about the site, scaring kids and dogs on the footpaths, these burly police types would show up, chase them down and kick the perps off their bikes. Was awesome to watch but these days they’d probably get sued 🙁

I wish we had that round our way. Last time I was out scrotes on MXs were riding the wrong way up the new berm section and ripping it to bits.

Bring it on.

Ridden at GT for 20+ years, never come across a Quad or MX bike, although I have been told they do ride there.

The problem is where can they legally ride up here? Down south there’s green lanes and rights of way but up here there’s nothing. The only way is to join a club and compete but how many STWers would still be into mtbing if the ONLY time you could ride your bike was when racing?
When my Dad passed away I got his old trials bike. It’d be great to get out and have a play but I’m not interested in competing so it just lies in the garage.

MX’ers who ride illegally either ride with tiny numberplates or remove them once off road.

MX bikes, by definition, do not have number plates and are not road legal.

birkey – actually in the borders around the tweed valley is one of the few areas with legal routes for motorised off road is my understanding.

FE are willing to meet and discuss quad & MXers needs in the same way as they do with every other user group. ie form a legitimate club etc. There is a 4×4 club that uses the D&G forests regularly;
http://www.ae4x4.org.uk/mirror1/mirror1site/index.html

Most of the poeople I see on MX bikes round our way are basically Chav Scum, they’re normally riding what look like un-maintained stolen bikes, on foot paths to get to a bit of local wasteland in order to in-expertly tackle some lumps of Earth, with any luck most of them will kill themselves without managing to take anyone else out and we’ll all be a lot happier…

I say good luck to the Rozzers trying to catch the little Scrotes…

Can’t say I’ve seen much dirt bike sign up glentress, they’ve had a few people using quads as sneaky uplifts at innerleithen lately though I think.

Imagine the scene, you’re just having a nice relaxing ride and suddenly 2 coppers on quads screech up beside you, “FREEZE, Mincer squad, I’m arresting you for riding a 6 inch travel bike on Electric Blue while talking about tyres.”

I saw a MXer on the black at GT once, on his own, stopped to look at the view and smoke a fag. He did act a bit sheepish.

We should feel some gratitude tho, many of the trails we now ride so sanctimoniously were put in by motorbike Enduro riders Back In The Day, around Tweed Valley way anyways.

MXers are a pain near me, they ride all the litlle single tracky bits in the woods chewing it up which then turns to sludge when it rains. The also create little gullies where they’ve wheelspun up the hill which makes the descent on a mtb a bit interesting- especially when it has frozen solid. Wish the police’d do something about them here.