A friend of mine from Coldharbour, Leith Hill who walks their dog through Redlands gave me some chilling news yesterday. A number of wires have been strung between trees along some of the mountain bike trails in the forest there. Apparently somebody was very badly hurt last week, ambulances were spotted along Coldhabour Lane to assist the injured.

Sorry to sound alarmist but thought I’d better post this up quick. I’ve been riding in there quite a bit recently myself as there are some pretty tasty new trails in there at the moment.

I have no other details I’m afraid, only that a number of hand-made signs have been put up asking for anyone in the know to shop who is responsible, and asking for an address – no questions asked!

Does anyone here know any more about this? I’ve searched here and other forums and can see no mention?

Isn’t riding in the Redland out of bounds?

Still though stringing wires etc is stupid and reckless.

It’s Forestry Commission land, leased to somebody. A lot of movies battle scenes have been filmed in there the last few years. There are a number of footpaths and bridleways that criss-cross through it so it is not a complete exclusion zone but obviously you’re not meant to be riding off of those.

There’s a pheasant shoot just off of the forest but with loads of feeders throughout, it is mainly used for the birds I think.

Yep, I didn’t want to post about the rights and wrongs of cheeky trails, or another rant about how stupid the people that lay these wires can be – just to issue a warning to anyone that rides there to be careful.

This always sends shivers …

Nasty pieces of work these wire setters.

Thanks for the heads up Tealeith.

Great forum name BTW

Never been across that far. But often spooks me as I redid cheeky stuff on my own a lot

Suspect it’s the same knob who has been interfering with lots of the trails recently..

**** hell. Rhetorical question but has this dick thought it through? I.e happy to have basically a fatality on his/her hands? Can a motion-trigger camera be rigged up?

Am sure motion trigger cameras are ok to rig up but only if land owner allows this to happen.

Maybe worth seeing if the police can put in to buy some and set them up.

I thought the Surrey Hills was immune to this sorts of tactics but I think something similar was discovered over on Pitch Hill / Winterfold a month or so ago too.

Scary.

tuskaloosa – Member
Isn’t riding in the Redland out of bounds?

Signs were placed by the FC in various places saying specifically that and to keep to bridleways, along with a stock “friendly” sign the FC puts up in a number of their forests about putting illegal trails out of use, though last I looked some of these signs had “gone missing” 😉

Redlands has always been contentious and now and again things come to a head. Threats have been made to get the police involved with riders there and more specifically the digging (which is the only thing the police would really get involved with as that’s a criminal offence, trespass is not). FC/landowner are very clear – bikes are not welcome in Redlands.

FC and landowner however would not have done this.

Not everything is as malicious as people think though. If it’s on private land and other uses going on then a wire could be up for a reason other than to kill mountain bikers. This occurs more so on military land (which this isn’t however), where they rope or wire off an area at times or use tripwires for their operations. There is the shooting zone where they might do stuff like this perhaps, and as mentioned filming goes on there sometimes and maybe they leave things up (though likely not as anything would need a H&S risk assessment which would have to cover the potential of anyone trespassing and them thus being liable).

In this case though, if it’s on the bike trails it would be very odd to be a malicious walker as they are mostly quite unsuitable & difficult for walking.

I know everyone here thinks of psychopaths and serial killers when this happens, but the first thing I think of is local kids.. primary school age

School holidays, setting traps up the woods.. too young to consider the possible consequences

I know we did when I was a kid (usually to each other mind)

It would be very helpful if the finder reported this sort of thing to the police in a timely fashion, noting the exact location, even if it is across an unsanctioned trail.
If the wire is across an unsanctioned trail there may be no offence against the highways acts and it would then be into the realms of civil law.

I can’t see it being kids, too much faff to get there.

The ROWs are very lightly frequented by walkers or horses, doubt they’re bothered, and the trails are well separated.

So who’s in the area with good local knowledge, tools and materials, and perhaps motivation?

I live right below Redlands and I’m in there all the time walking, riding or running. Haven’t come across anything but I will keep a look out !

This continues – a friend hit head-height tape across a trail a couple of days ago up there, resulting in an off. I don’t know the exact location but it was mid-trail on a blind spot, not at a trail start to block access.

Eyes open up there guys.

Will do mattjg.

Incidentally, anyone know who’s been working on the first section of the original Summer Lightning recently, ie. the trail that’s been there for the last 10 years? The beginning section had some tasty rocky/rooty drops that had got bigger and bigger over the last year or so, I imagine due to wear and possibly weather.

I rode down there the other night to discover the first few sections have been worked on and graded down, with some easy to roll sandstone transitions instead now. It probably makes sense since it is meant to be an official trail with potential newbies on it.

Have been told there is logging due on Redlands – that might explain the red/white tape, as a warning, rather than more malicious wire of other occasions.

yep, the little jump that could go wrong if you landed on the roots and ended up in the big fir on LHS has gone completely!

@matt thanks for the update

Summer Lightening. Ask Richard at B1KE, I’ll have a look on fb. Similar work was done on Golden Birdies/BKB to remove the best rooty bits including the original epic finish. Once the trails become official they get sanitised.

I miss the old rooty ending to BKB. Much better than the braking bump berms.

Lots of tape and signs in Redlands, with trees marked for felling…probably get decimated this winter. 🙁

‘ow do…
Excuse my ignorance, but where abouts is redlands?
Ride from peaslake regularly but not the most knowledgeable about all the names, unfortunately far more knowledgeable about the names of the strave segments – sad but true 🙂

Johnytaka it’s two hills over off Leith..

We had the same problem on our local trails mostly trail saboutage and obstacles placed across the trail before stepping up to a wire strung across the trail. We all chipped in £10 each and purchased 2 badger cams but we caught him red handed and his excuse was that a mtb had hurt his dog,

@johny take a look at an OS map, it was one of the original areas but now what trails there are are pretty well hidden.

Officially out of bounds. There are signs up about bikes sticking to rights of way only.

And yeah, saw tape up other week and there’s a lot of paint markers on trees, sadly in some of the good old school areas, so think trees are coming down.