Last night out on the very misty moors, rode past one group of military folk pretending to be trees… well sort of and later found another group walking on the road in formation… was very tempted to stop and say they’re hiding over there just for comical value but then remembered they’re packing heat!

Anyone done anything similar to this? or played any tricks on them?

Please dont. Remember they are training and using your tax payers money so dont waste it by cocking up the training. Please just pass on bye and enjoy your ride.

Yeah there was a slight element of humour to my post btw.

or played any tricks on them?

Wow. I bet you’re the life and soul of all the parties…

🙄

Remember it is their office and that their lives depend on their training! Don’t screw it up for them!

I doubt a bloke having a laugh on a bike will ruin there training.

There’s a cadet camp on Cannock Chase it’s hilarious when you’re just riding along off-piste and they all stand up covered in camouflage and paint

Ooops sorry!

Some random bad information from locals would be similar to being in the sand pit anyway.

Most likely TA or cadets anyway and not the regulars if they were just patrolling a road in the open day light.

philfive – Member
I doubt a bloke having a laugh on a bike will ruin there training.

I’m sure it didn’t “improve” the training

random mtber’s will be a PITA, restrict the use of training aids, and be disruptive to the exercise senario. At night it will be worse due to the bright lights we all use

but all that assumes you care

Most likely TA or cadets anyway and not the regulars if they were just patrolling a road in the open day light.

Monday night, so regulars preparing to get shot at for Queen and country

The TA get mobilised these days as well, a lot more serious than a drinking club these days

I had some chaps from a mortar platoon lob a Flashbang at me whilst driving across eppynt range, as I was in the same type of vehicle as the range officers use, once I’d gotten from underneath the dashboard, I went home and changed my pants….. Fuggin fuggers

philfive – Member
I doubt a bloke having a laugh on a bike will ruin there training.

I’m sure it didn’t “improve” the training

random mtber’s will be a PITA, restrict the use of training aids, and be disruptive to the exercise senario. At night it will be worse due to the bright lights we all use

No Phil it wouldn’t ruin their training in the slightest. Bear in mind that it can take months to plan even relatively small exercises and that tax payers’ cash funds it, nevermind the fact that they’re “packing heat”. If a “bloke having a laugh on a bike” ruined an exercise that I’d spent time and effort on planning I’d be pretty fuming, especially given there’s a good chance it’s MST (Mission Specific Training) for deployment and they would have to re-set and go through the whole serial again. And before you tell me to untwist my knickers, it’s already been pointed out that their lives could depend on their training – done that and got the t-shirt (or 3-4)… 😉

or played any tricks on them?

I wouldn’t be trying that on the Brecons, you might get a ‘trick’ played on you.
You never know who your’e playing tricks on.

So to summarise no and I’m a kid for even thinking such thoughts…

dear lord there are some uptight people on here this afternoon…take a chill pill you people.

@steve was it up by ringmore?

thanks Carl thought it was just me! Rode past them up by NewPark wood

Not uptight Carl, but how happy would you be if somebody came to your place of work and tried “playing tricks” on you/disrupting your work? Perhaps you could ask the 3 blokes shot and killed on Sunday whether a chill pill would have helped them rather than uninterrupted training…? 🙂

if a man on a bicycle is enough of an unknown quantity to disrupt an entire training exercise, i don’t hold out particularly much hope for their longevity in the field.

I would seriously hope that their training envisioned the possibility that random mountain bikers goathearders or locals would pass on true and untrue information.

I used to be an infantry man, ex QLR, served in Bosnia amd Ireland and belive me a few people milling around causes no issues at all. in fact it used to be funny surprising them.

now if they stumbled on in to a live fire area, well thats a bit different.

@dave that’s a bit ott bud.

@phil,quite the experience ive had from meeting/interrupting exercises.
ive been bivvying up on the moor with my dog (potato cave)and ended up sharing bivvy with some army type blokes etc all who were really nice and didn’t mind me being there at all, my dog scared the shit out of them as they came up to the cave…no one has ever been killed because they’ve seen a mtb on the moor.

Depends whether that “man on a bicycle” is xc-steve playing tricks or not… 😉

And judging by where he is, I wouldn’t want to be playing tricks and getting on the wrong side of the Cabbage Heads… 😉

Dave, seriously mission secific training bimbling up a road? sounds like a standard platton or section movement. anything specific to missions are done miles away from public right of ways and most training at the moment is done in fibua villages.

So to summarise no and I’m a kid for even thinking such thoughts…

Yep, spot on. 😉

Its not big & its not clever, we ride on MOD land with their permission. If they get p1ssed off by nobs dicking them about they might well withdraw that right. Have a think about that next time you think of having a laugh at their expense…

ps & yes I know that in some areas there are PROW but it only takes one rupert with a bee in his bonnet over mtbrs to kick up a fuss.

I wonder if anyone has stumbled into a training ambush? that would be funny.

Been a lot of stuff recently about access issues and MOD land. Do we think dicking around when they’re training will

a) increase

or

b) decrease

the likelihood of the access situation getting better / not getting worse?

I wonder if anyone has stumbled into a training ambush? that would be funny.

Not as funny as you might think..

It wasn’t MOD land its Dartmoor National Park and I came past one group on the road. Fair enough if it was official training grounds and the red flags were flying.

I wonder if anyone has stumbled into a training ambush?

I’ve accidentally set flares off by riding through trip wires on a night ride. Was on a downhill section and didn’t see the wires.

😳

Phil, yes, seriously MST – for example, the simulated Afghan compound and patrol base on STANTA at Thetford have a public road running right round the side of them, not more than 100m away; the Pennine Way runs right across the top of Otterburn training area; there are a number of public roads and ROW that run across the Epynnt where the Infantry Battle School trains the Infantry’s NCOs and junior officers in preparation for leading troops on ops. Given the IED threat, standard platoon/section movement is quite often by known road/path/trail as the “proven route”… I can speak from personal experience of all of these examples!

And yes having random ramblers, etc, stumble in to an dry ambush is actually quite funny when you see the looks on their faces when they set off the trip flares and initiate the dummy Claymore mines. Moral of the story – red flags and lights are there for a reason! 😀

It is lebowski, i always had vision of hikers falling into the trenches we built 😀

what do you think soldiers do when on exercise? 2 weeks out on the plain is enough to drive you mad.

We once set up camp in a disused barn about 1/2 mile from a building site, we drove down at night when they had gone home and stole there porta loos 😀 that cheered me up 😀

used to love Otterburn, fond memories of playing in the snow up there, Warcop not so much. but we still met loads of people and not once did it ruin anything, which is my point.

Well darn sarf there is currently aggro re: MTB access on MoD training land* due to groups blatting around and disrupting exercises.

* This is on fairly compact MoD land so different kettle of fish to out on huge moors where the public have free reign to wander about.

I recall an early morning walk with my GF on Dartmoor – just ambling along chatting when I noticed a war-painted face staring at me from dry-stone wall. Then another 20, all grinning their asses off! Surprisingly hard to see soldiers when they keep proper still and quiet.

what do you think soldiers do when on exercise?

Ex-army thanks, I know what its like trust me 😉

And yes having random ramblers, etc, stumble in to an dry ambush is actually quite funny when you see the looks on their faces when they set off the trip flares and initiate the dummy Claymore mines.

Funny if youre the on the right end of it for sure..

Well darn sarf there is currently aggro re: MTB access on MoD training land* due to groups blatting around and disrupting exercises.

My point exactly..

Aye, likewise Phil – Otterburn good, Warcop bad; been to both being exercised and as DS… Get your point, up north on the training areas generally loads of room for de-confliction and fewer users due to lower population density; down south’s a different matter though and my point has been much better articulated by others, vis the acces issue – as a keen MTBer and sometime Army racer myself I get to see both sides of the coin but the ACU is currently doing what it can to lobby the powers that be to allow continued goodwill access.

Steve, you’d be surprised – National Parks can be, and are, used as legitimate training areas, especially Dartmoor which is heavily used by the Marines…!

you may be right but i never really had an issue on Salisbury Plain. there were fun moments of getting on to chinooks next to main roads.

Salisbury Plain is HUGE compared to other areas in the SE where mtbrs have permissive access.

Seriously, your bit of light-hearted good humour in one place can be easily be a real PITA & cause lots of issues somewhere else.

An awareness & appreciation of this would be greatly appreciated.

Have a read up here TAG for more info.

mrlebowski – Member

Seriously, your bit of light-hearted good humour in one place can be easily be a real PITA & cause lots of issues somewhere else.

+1 from someone who rides on MoD land.