On BBC website.

I know it’s full of inaccuracies in terms of the damage mountain biking causes, but the public will not be sympathetic after reading it….

Trail dismantled at Longleat

How do you repair a ruin?

****** BBC.
The UK have World Cup winners, World Champions and so much talent in mountain biking and the BBC never give it a mention, then some kids build a couple of poxy jumps on some ‘ancient mud’ and this is a story?
Bunch of ****.

+1 for Brakes ^

Bing Maps – it’s here

Isn’t that adjacent to the “Allotment” where the Black Cannon Collective build?

It’s so frustrating; I see the damage that MX bikes do and I know for a fact horses cause more erosion than MTBs in the wrong places, but joe public will read this and get the wrong idea.

maybe Jo public will get the wrong idea, but if people are going to dig jumps and the like and draw attention to themselves then they only have themselves to blame when the s*** starts flying.

It really p***** me off how stupid some people are, if you want to ride and create cheeky trails then don’t go digging f***ing jumps, all your doing is writing a f***ing big ad saying MTBers are c***s and don’t give a s***!!!!!!

Digging trails and jumps on the site on of an ancient hill fort is stupidity of the highest order, it is that behaviour which is damaging mountain biking not the bbc reporting it.

What jam sad. Building trails on a SAM is idiocy!

Digging trails and jumps on the site on of an ancient hill fort is stupidity of the highest order, it is that behaviour which is damaging mountain biking not the bbc reporting it.

+1

As above – the tossers with the spades are either extremely dumb or extremely selfish
I reckon ‘Joe Public’ will get the right idea about them TBH

Well I am a mountain biker but I love to visit ancient and sacred sites and that is terrible. My motto is “leave no trace” 🙂

Over the past few years, two large and up to six smaller jumps have been dug into the Scheduled Monument, a criminal offence under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.

The selfish fools who did this should be prosecuted, frankly.

So MXers have not been anywhere near this?

Just questioning whether mtb’ers should be getting flak.

Yes, my comments were aimed at MTBing in general; it doesn’t cause erosion without spades!

i’ve seen the jumps and trails first hand – it is pretty mind boggeling how anyone could be that ignorant to build them, (it really has done a lot of damage)

but flip side – I have been challenged for riding on the main track that runs straight across the top of the hill fort, the irony that this track has been bulldozed straight through the fort for logging was lost on the person who challenged me!

Digging trails and jumps on the site on of an ancient hill fort is stupidity of the highest order, it is that behaviour which is damaging mountain biking not the bbc reporting it.

+1

****** BBC.
The UK have World Cup winners, World Champions and so much talent in mountain biking and the BBC never give it a mention, then some kids build a couple of poxy jumps on some ‘ancient mud’ and this is a story?
Bunch of ****.

-1, Danny Hart got a mention on the news and East Midlands Today had a section on Friday about the NPS at Sherwood. They report what people are interested in, MTB is a sport that doesn’t appeal to people that don’t do it, unlike football which gets millions of people spectating every weeekend. However if some kits dug up a hill fort to make themselves a 5-a-side pitch, that’d probably be reported too. How thick do you need to be to think building jumps on a ruin isn’t going to piss people off?

“that this track has been bulldozed straight through the fort for logging was lost on the person who challenged me”

Yes, aside from the wrongs of digging holes in ancient hill forts, there is some terrible hypocrisy about trail erosion/damage.

IME, by far the worst culprits for devastating trails/land is farming and logging activities. For example: bridleways poached by hundreds of hoof prints, others with 1ft deep by 10ft wide tractor/landy ruts; a veritable gravel motorway 1km logging track ploughed through a protected woodland combe – where, incidentally, I get ticked off by a “random” for cycling.

But folks are blind to this ‘cos it’s “business” while enjoying the countryside comes second. And MTBers are considered the new environmental vandals for leaving little tyre tracks!

[rant over; feel better]

They report what people are interested in, MTB is a sport that doesn’t appeal to people that don’t do it, unlike football which gets millions of people spectating every weeekend.

yep, and they report the successes AND the failures in football.
all I’m after is a bit of balance, isn’t that what the BBC are supposed to be famous for? Track gets loads of coverage, yet it’s a minorty sport – you might say that it’s a popular sport, but maybe it’s popular because it’s on the TV. Some of the best DHers in the world are British, British cycling is having it’s best period possibly ever, yet they aren’t interested in mountain biking.

there was a report on BBC Breakfast this morning about how low fat biscuits don’t dunk very well FFS. it stinks.

Track gets loads of coverage, yet it’s a minorty sport

How many people do DH racing?

they need a lot more cameras to cover a DH race and it costs a lot more.

Eurosport have the UCI stuff now so the BBC would be doing ‘2nd flight’ stuff which isn;t going to attract thyem, either.

I’m not talking about showing it on TV. I’m talking about them reporting it when we win stuff.

Brakes, MTB looks crap on TV, end of, only 4x has any tv appeal and to be honest that isn’t much and to get it to look crap involves a huge amount of money.

As for some of the best DHers in the world being british your point? no one cares, DH is a minority off shoot of a minority PASTIME, most riders don’t care about it let along the general public. If you want it on TV then feel free to lobby the Beeb. The only cycling that matters is the olympics and the Tour, and that depends on having riders who have a chance of doing well.

I know all that, read my posts. I know most people wouldn’t enjoy it on TV.
Just sick of the same old crap from the BBC.
They do other specialist channels – BBC 3, 4, etc. Why not have a Sports channel/ website dedicated to non-mainstream sports?

I know this is academic to most folk, but the majority of folk who build these kind of jumps aren’t mountain bikers are they? There are some wonderfully built jumps near me that I pass often. One day as I was just exiting the trail that leads to these jumps a load of kids on BMX’s heading to these jumps shouted “Rails not Trails” at me. Eh? I thought we were all into the outdoors and the woods and stuff. Clearly not.

They do other specialist channels – BBC 3, 4, etc. Why not have a Sports channel/ website dedicated to non-mainstream sports?

because it is expensive, has very little appeal, and without sponsors no one is going to pay to televise it. The closest your going to get is what is currently happening with redbull streaming the UCI world cup.

There is a huge demand for road and track, you have to think global markets to justify the costs.

if you think track is a minority sport you need to read up on a little bit of history mate.

might be small scale in the modern days of footy and sky tv but it has some SERIOUS pedigree when it comes to historical audience figures.

Seems to be a bit of a theme in the Longleat Estate of late:

Cyclists banned from Longleat because of crime rates

Cyclist access

He said: “We’ve had some very serious security issues recently which include robberies and vandalism, and on the advice of the police and insurers we’ve tightened security.”

So they are saying cyclists are the cause of robberies & vandalism? wtf??

They only want paying customers in the inner part of longleat now so no access to any one walkers or cyclist (unless you pay)

The new management are making waves with the locals

I thought that Mark Harrison made the point well:
“I’m sure the vast majority of off-road cyclists would be appalled to realise that their activities may have damaged an important archaeological site.”
Which is true. Quite a lot of diggers do damage one way or another but how many of them know about it?

Local press picked up today:

http://www.thisisbath.co.uk/Mountain-bikers-accused-damage-Iron-Age/story-15645460-detail/story.html

Hint that the Black Canon Collective may be forced to move. Hope not after all the effort they’ve put in.

I’ve heard that there may be a bit more to this.
Apparently Lord Baths son has big ideas for the area and wants shot of the MTBers and possibly the public as a whole. Apologies if this is not entirely accurate, or at all true.

Once again we are being treated as imbeciles. Do Longleat Estate/English Heritage seriously believe that adults were responsible rather than the possibility of juveniles?

Sloppy typecasting/sloppy journalism etc etc.

Go back 20 years before Center parcs complex was in existence and that was our playground as my cousin lived in Corsley and we had some excellent trails but all natural and non damageing.
Rode for DJ cycles of midsomer norton and had some cracking times.

bridleways with hoof prints

who’d a thunk it?

/hint: the clue is in the name. now get back under your bridge and sit waiting for the goats.

Heavens above MTBers causing damage not motobikes what ever next 😆

The jumps in question have existed for a while. The main building ceased 2 years ago when Longleat asked if the local club knew who built the jumps (club didn’t know, but put the word around). Funny how this only starts getting press now Longleat want to start restricting access to the estate. English Heritage have been asking Longleat to fix the Fort for years. Oddly no mention of the carnage across much of the Fort atm caused by the recent forestry work. Its PR bollocks, frankly.

As for motorbikes, yes, there are kids on scramblers in those woods quite often. They get reported by local cyclists but never has anything been done.

We have the same here in Gloucestershire jumps made in Cranham woods 10 years ago by local kids in the village new owner buys woods then beep hits the fan.Natural England get all high and mighty.Better the kids make a few jumps than set the woods on fire/drink/drugs.Hay Ho.

Theres now trails and jumps all over Grims Castle in West Berks. Just north of Thatcham.

I love a good hill fort me, but I have to say I have riden them.

To be fair there are actually loads of hill forts and other ancient monuments all around the country. I mean I would nt condone building trails on Uffington Castle or over the White Horse. But Grimsbury castle in now covered in trees which cant be doing it much good.

Funny how this only starts getting press now Longleat want to start restricting access to the estate. English Heritage have been asking Longleat to fix the Fort for years. Oddly no mention of the carnage across much of the Fort atm caused by the recent forestry work. Its PR bollocks, frankly.

This is pretty much what I thought ….nail on the head ….

http://www.blackcanoncollective.co.uk/2012/04/05/bcc-statement-in-response-to-media-coverage-of-damage-to-roddenbury-hillfort/