I’ve found this amazing little valley just north of Swansea, so close to home. Loads of old miners trails and tramways just calling out to be ridden. With the added attraction of having the boggy areas being fitted with boardwalks. There are a few bridleways, a few `routes with public access’. And loads of amazing paths, some are rights of way, many are just sheeptracks or ancient paths. All in all, massively tempting but VERY not allowed – it’s an NNR.

Has anybody else been presented with a comparable situation?

in a NNR without knowing anything more I would not ride it but your call you wont do much more damage than a walker and possibly nil if you stick to the trails and tramways

Do it! Just don’t draw attention to yourself and don’t ride like a tool.

Had to look up NNR’s (If your not sure) So long as the tracks are hard wearing and your not tearing it up have fun, avoid on weekends usual rules apply

Go VERY early. Nobody will ever know.

Ride it carefully and considerately. And at night?

I’ve ridden SSSIs before if that makes you feel better 😉

Sure its an NNR? Not that many to the north of Swansea. You can check the CCW web site for all sorts protected areas. I sometimes ride a nature reserve near to home (Glais) thats just north of Swansea but go just on quiet evenings in the week.

and people wonder why we are not liked 🙄

Cwm Clydach

and people wonder why we are not liked

Why if we leave no trace?

That would be it!

Why if we leave no trace?

because try as you might mtbs do leave a trace, they do get noticed. And british being british like to whinge about law braking by others whilst ignoring their mistakes. Other problem is you get one good mtber riding sensibly then someone else comes along and sees someone else riding there thinks it is fair game, and seeing what keeps happening near me someone then goes and builds some jumps just to advertise to everyone that mtbers are using the land.

Only takes one old codger writing to the papers/council/mp/police/etc for the situation to get completely blown out of proportion.

As to the OP, pick your time, use your head, if the ground is muddy your presence will be known, If you go on a bank holiday weekend your likely to get seen.

well as noted leaving no trace is impossible unless it is all hard packed or you some how float over everything.
You can ignore all the rules if you wish but if we all did this then we would have to also accept walkers ambling up trail centres and having picnics on the trail. We dont like it when walkers ignore those rules do we and imagine if they took their dogs 😯
I do support greater access for MTB ers but if you think riding on NNR or SSSI will help our cause you are mistaken.

Where i live there are old doubletrack horse and cart routes that are footpaths and I am happy to ignore this as the impact is close to zero. I tend to avoid the moor footpaths unless very dry or frozen. When I ride them it is full of MTB tyre tracks.

I often ride in a nnr, apparently it’s completely natural and formed over the millennia.
Apart of course, from all the routes put in for the quarrying that took place I over the last 300 years and the footpaths all over the shop to go see the old mine entrances…
So I ride it, am curtious to walkers, avoid it in the wet and stuck to worn trails. Never had a moments bother.

Oh look, there’s a NNR in the Wyre Forest. I’ve ridden through it. More than once.

If it wasn’t for people ignoring the rules we wouldnt be allowed anywhere off road (Kinder trespass 1932) everyone should know this?

Why not call Natural England and ask if anyone in theorganisaiton is into bikes. Have a chat. Sorted.

If it wasn’t for people ignoring the rules we wouldnt be allowed anywhere off road (Kinder trespass 1932) everyone should know this?

Firstly this is actually b*****ks, there is a very clear historical access in the UK, just a lot of land was never accessible and a lot of land is still inaccessible. All the Kinder trespass did was eventually result in a little bit more land being accessible

brief partial history

What there is now is force of numbers, lots of walkers, a clear organisation ramblers association, lots of politicians who are interested in this.

Now compare to cyclists, the devils spawn, jumping red lights, running down pedestrians, a not very strong representation where it matters.

Could be worse try being a trail bike rider….

Freedom to roam was the word, the individuals concept of this is less uniform but that’s metaphysics (priori reasoning).And er yep been a trail biker (Have you joined the TRF?) and seen the byways restricted whilst the hills are removed 30 tons per load to be sold to the construction industry because the planner knows the quarry groups chairman.But that’s by the way, if people didn’t challenge authority then men and women of colour would still be traded slaves and little kids would clean your chimney, oh and you would be called Heir and not MR. Are you saying that’s how it should be?
As long as we are courteous and polite I don’t see how it can be an issue and the majority rule in a democracy so the more people do it the better chance we have of a change in the rules. Ipso facto

If it wasn’t for people ignoring the rules we wouldnt be allowed anywhere off road

your right mass trespass of SSSI and NNR’s is the only way to improve the perception of MTBers and to improve our access.
Given our numbers and the general perception of cyclists what could possibly go wrong?

EDIT: if you wish to bandy around philosophical terms could you do so accurately ? it is not priori reasoning it is a priori reasoning and it relates to Epistemology [ the nature of knowledge] not metaphysics[ explaining the nature of being]. Where a priori is knowledge without experience – ie it is not conditional on observation or “science”. To test wither it is individual [freedom to roam] i would need to ask people thereby making it posteriori and not a priori. TBH I dont know what point you were trying to make was either but irresponsible riding by the minority of countryside users wont make the majority of users change their opinion of us. We have to win hearts and minds and this IMHO wont help.

There are so many site specific factors involved in this sort of ‘to ride or not to ride’ you can’t really apply a simple rule to it.

My own personal take is to ride where I please, applying sensitivity and discretion where appropriate. You have to be your own judge in this. This isn’t a point of principle, I’m not looking for conflict, just a good ride. I’m happy to adjust my route if I know someone is in a sensitive area to avoid the conflict that may arise, but if I’m challenged I’m upfront about knowing I shouldn’t be there and always polite. That said, sometimes its easier to play it dumb, say sorry and carry on.

If you look at the facts, being good little boys won’t ever provide any pressure to improve access rights, and what progress there is is so glacially slow, I’m not really prepared to wait my whole life for the possibility of riding somewhere.

On the trail, if you’re aware of the sensitivity of where you are and have planned accordingly, you should really be in a position to not be noticed. Fact is, there’s precious little in the way of enforcement across most places, and the statutory instruments of enforcement and punishment are so weak as to be difficult to pursue in court and are virtually un-enforceable on the trail.

Faced with those facts, why, wouldn’t you ride where you chose?

And er yep been a trail biker (Have you joined the TRF?) and seen the byways restricted whilst the hills are removed 30 tons per load to be sold to the construction industry because the planner knows the quarry groups chairman.But that’s by the way

But its not by the by is it, it is not what you know, it is who you know. Land in England is the right of the privileged has been for centuries, think of the Normans seizing the land for hunting forests or the enclosures acts, a little bit of land has always been available for getting from a to b, we call them footpaths and bridleways these days.

I guess in someways this comes back to the question of what is mountain biking, is it playing in the woods or riding from a to b?

If you want land to play on and build jumps, this isn’t going to happen unless you can get a landowner to let you or you become the landowner, if you want to ride from a to b then even this is going to be hard, but the only chance with the perception of cyclists being as it is, is for cyclists to act with total impropriety, put a foot wrong and it will be used against you. Yes ride where you like, ride on footpaths, bridleways etc. but leave as little indication of passing as possible, no litter, no jumps, as few tyre tracks as possible, and certainly don’t run peoples dogs over or scare horse riders.

Eventually cyclists might get more access, but as the ramblers are already coming out against the welsh assembly proposals i am not holding my breath.

I referred to individual interpretation of comunication wich makes it metaphysical and not Epistemological (don’t know why the capital E was used)and thus is a priori. But I agree we need to win people over hence the word courtesy.
My point about the trespass was if it never happened then how much access would we have now?

Doesn’t bare thinking about does it?

So well done to the few who paved the way for the many in that case and feel sorry for the sheep because we all know what happens to them.

Evidently Ramblers Cymru have been misrepresented in media coverage, I’m waiting for a reply with a bit more substance on their exact viewpoint.

What’s the NNR and what is it an NNR for are the question that needs answering.

A large part of the South Pennines are SSSI and we regularly ride there…

Sounds like a good find Ambrose. 😀

gps track it, share it with your friends, build some jumps and berm some corners, post up some rad as funk pics….

all walkers, runners, dog walkers, horse riders and MXrs should be told to naff orf.

or just enjoy it quietly to yourself