Need some advice please.
There must be Thousands of like minded people who ride the ladybower trails who must be wonderering whats happening with our favorite rides but what can we do?
We need some help
We need a man made trail building
Help please!!!!!

eh. i thought the peaks had the best riding in the world already?

Its being slowly sanitised

I think the point is, the best stuff is being "sanitised*"

*Sanitised: (Definition: Ruined)

Exactly right

nature has provided… it will change and it will take away…

adapt and overcome 🙄

"Its being slowly sanitised"

i know about the bottom of Mam Nick, and the track they had the logging stuff up last year, anything else been done then? Been up around Ladybower twice in the last month and didn't notice any more "improvements"

World Downhill champion from Sheffield
Can he help?

Can someone tell me what this means? I was thinking of going for a ride around Ladybower in the next few weeks – living in Cambridgeshire there aren't that many hills.

Am I going to find it's been spoiled since last time I went? Am I just going to spend the whole day feeling annoyed?

Should I just go to Thetford Forest instead 🙁

Thanks

The Peak Park Rangers and Scouts were working on the bridleway round the back of Mam Tor on Saturday.

Like I said Luke I'm only aware of two bits that have been got at The rest is as it was (well it was on Saturday) so I'd reckon come up..

Phew. Thetford's lovely, but there's only so many bomb holes you can go down in a day…

Why on EARTH would you want a purpose built trail in the Peak National Park? Trailcentres are not there principally for the enjoyment of riders, they're there to bring the riders to places that need the income from tourism. The Peak District is already the most heavily visited national park. If you really care, then get involved with Ride The Peak (website looks a bit out of date though)

oh the irony of mountainbikers complaining about sanitised trails and wanting a trail-centre

To be fair JoB those sanitised all user trails won't have any raised wood work will they now?

Maybe we should get Alanis Morrisette to write a protest song to help the cause!

There's already certain parts of various outdoors user groups campaigning for more ghetto-isation, defined areas for motocross and off-roading the last thing MTBer's should be aiming for is to add to that.

As nbt says, the time would be better spent campaigning for more access, more FP upgraded to BW.

The Peak Park Rangers and Scouts were working on the bridleway round the back of Mam Tor on Saturday.

*sob*

oh the irony of mountainbikers complaining about sanitised trails and wanting a trail-centre

LOL – Spot on JoB.

which bit exactly round the back of mam?

my own personal solution to this situation is to trash as many Peak footpaths as possible with wanton skidz so the budget gets spent on repairing them.

keep the Peak lumpy!

Chapple Gate, Castleton Mamm Torr Road and occasionaly Snakes Pass are all proof that however sanitized a trail in that area, nature can and will get rid of it.

If it bothers you that much, go forth and be cheeky 🙂

'Sanitization' of Cut Gate means its better than its been since I first rode it 3 or 4 years back.

Trail centre in the Peaks… brilliant.

Nuff said!

There aren't enough drive thru fast food joints on the dark peak trails though.

Like NBT said, the Peak doesn't need anything that will attract yet more people into an already heavily used and (IMO) congested area.

Facilities on or around the Peak would be more likely. We tried and tried at Wharncliffe but so far haven't had much luck. Besides, how the funk do people think "trail centres" happen. Magic pixies? Get off your arse and do something yourself.

A rant from a weary and cynical (volunteer) trail builder 😎

Not sure I've noticed any sanitised trails in the Peaks? Granted I only seem to ride what seems to be the endless variations of the ladybower loops but they seem the same now as they did 4 to 5 years ago.
The only mess I've noticed in the last few weeks is due to logging or forestry work on the far side of Ladybower and near Lockerbrook farm.

As for trail centres. Not in the Peaks please. The reason I love riding in the Peaks is its natural which provides different challenges and benefits over the trail centres. I do like trail centres to keep my riding varied and they also usually offer quick fixes. Long fireroad climbs, loads of fun downs.

My only complaint about sanitisation is Porter Clough climb that was flattened and resurfaced. Although from what I've read this was done by the local farmer in order for him to access his land.

here's a challenge for you, try and have a conversation about peak district bridleway-singletrack without mentioning 'cutgate' – the conversation will come to an end very quickly.

er, there's the stanage plantation descent with 1 nice corner, and there's a little bit behind mam tor, that quickly turns into a road.

i really don't understand why people travel great distances to ride in the peak district. There are only 2 corners, and barely any singletrack.

(the cheeky footpaths are very nice thankyou, and i understand that there is a special corner in hell reserved for those who ride on them)

This is SINGLETRACK world after all? – i'm talking about SINGLETRACK – you know what i mean, an 8inch wide ribbon of flowing technical lovelyness.

if was going to drive for 3 or 4 hours looking for singletrack, i wouldn't drive to the peak district.

i know i'm wrong, and i'll be hounded out of town for what i've said, so please correct me. where is all this singletrack that i'm missing?

This is SINGLETRACK world after all? – i'm talking about SINGLETRACK – you know what i mean, an 8inch wide ribbon of flowing technical lovelyness.

So we can't talk about the dales either?

Middle moor has loads of singletrack. admittedly, they're all parallel and interweaving 😉

@ahwiles – agree completely, I was always very underwhelmed by both the Dark and White Peaks, other than by the size of the hills in the Dark Peak. Calderdale has more trails and more variety than either.

As for sanitised trails, anyone remember Chapel Gate? That was sanitised in the 90s, but a few winters later, it had eroded back to something 'interesting' and arguably more dangerous than what was there before, i.e. **** deep rain gullies.

Mother Nature will very quickly take back anything short of solid stone or tarmac. If either of those are being used, you have my sympathies.

8 inch wide tracks in Peak District? Not really – but there's still some cracking riding. Apart from plantations there aren't a lot of trees which kind of limits the possibility of really narrow trails (other than some footpaths)

They were widening out and smoothing over the section from the gate on Edale Rd up toward the ridge before it starts to drop down to join the flagged bridleway/footpath coming off of the top of Mam Tor toward Hollins Cross.
They're going to be doing the rutted bridleway section (as above – going toward Hollins Cross) in the coming weeks according to the Ranger who was there on Saturday.

Mother Nature will very quickly take back anything short of solid stone or tarmac

even they aren't immune, chapel gate used to be tarmac, and the broken road on mam tor isn't in the best of nick 🙂

Is someone up there saying the Peaks are sh*t because theres not much 8" wide singletrack?

I don't think this is a thread about the loss of "singletrack", its a thread about someone being scared that the authorities are going to turn all the BWs in the Peaks (of which a lot that I've ridden are multiple line choice rocky mayhem which is mind bogglingly fun to ride) into flat surfaced trails that wouldn't be any fun to ride anymore (and they think the solution is to build a trail centre – odd!).

Like someone else has said above about a trail being "sanitized", one of my favourite trails around here (which I can see out of my office window now) was gravelled and flattened off a few years ago. Twice. Why twice? Because a week after they did it the first time, it poured down and washed everything away, leaving the trail an even faster more technical challenge than it was before. They tried again and it rained again with the same result. Its now one of my favourite trails again 🙂

LOL. I didn't realise we were only allowed to talk about singletrack on here. You're narrowing down your riding enjoyment quite a lot if you refuse to ride anything that isn't singletrack. A rather large proportion of the Peak, Lakes and Dales isn't singletrack but there's still an awful lot of fantastic riding to be had there!

There's plenty of singletrack in the Peaks, you just need to know where to look! And even on more open paths a lot of the trail can actually be quite rutted thus giving you several different singletrack line choices for the price of one!

I have a feeling that some people are defining singletrack as nipping between trees on smooth tracks littered with pine needles tucking your knees and elbows in as you go – that's great too but it doesn't mean a lack of it in the Peak is a bad thing

Trail centre sounds sheeeite.

And I don't like singletrack anywhere near as much as a gurt big wide rock strewn mental-fest with a million lines to choose from.

At the risk of throwing you into an epileptic type frenzy ahwiles, there's some fantastic road riding in the Peak District as well.

road riding is great fun! – i live above Rivelin valley and can quickly escape into a world of quiet roads.

(and even quieter footpaths…)

anyway, yes, i'd like to see new trails created – who wouldn't?