The before and after pics fill me with fear….

Singletrack gone

I don;t know the area involved. The work that’s been done looks pretty uninspiring, but I’d wager if Ride Sheffield are involved then there are sound reasons for doing it.

BWs round our way are a shitefest for 11 months of the year and the budgets for maintaining them are now so miniscule that the wholesale sanitisation of singletrack predicted by the doom-merchants is simply never going to come about. These sorts of renovation work always green in and roughen up over time, often in a matter of months.

Also the second “before” pic of said “singletrack” is actually wider than the “after” one. Just sayin’.

@simonm. You’ve clearly never ridden it then. It looked that enticing for maybe one day a year if it hadn’t rained for a month. The rest of the time it was an unrideable boggy mess and the whole track was in danger of slipping down the side of the hill.

is that the “lump” on blacka moor? that track was shite at best

It’s the bridleway round the side of Wimble Holme Hill between Totley Moor and Blacka Moor.

thought so – looked great and was shite

Oh no! They’ve made the first one go up-hill now instead of down!

I follow the Ride Sheffield lads, and they do know what they’re doing. Like Muzzle said, it was a horrid boggy mess pretty much all the time.

The thing to remember though, is that it was going to get resurfaced whatever. Ride Sheffield’s involvement has ensured that it’s as good for us bikers as it can possibly be. By the time it’s bedded in it’ll probably be good fun – without their involvement it would probably just have been a 2m wide fireroad.

Its a fair effort to get rid of a shit fest.
I just think trail design can be more inspired than straight lines. With a bit of thinking you can tick the trail design guidelines, and make the path interesting and inviting to all users.
Even the IMBA guide for building trails talks about making a trail inviting by elevation and direction change.

They were maintaining an existing bridleway, not designing a trail from scratch.

I know… what an opportunity.

….shudders in fear of another post about a trail that was not ridden by the poster.

Yes the work was always going to be done as there was no chance of getting horses up and down safely, yest it looked amazing from a distace, but was aweful for 95% of the time.

Our members have beeing to Eastern Moors meetings for the past 2 years and helped organised 3 volunteer days and were consulted on the spec. It was requested to be 2m wide + passing places.

Yes the before pictures make it look awesome and if i didnt know the reality i would be upset too. Many posters on here will look at the pictures and moan about RS. Awesome – For someone with your experience of advocacy simon, i’m really surprised that you would post something like that up here.

Informed advice and tips always welcome over this way.

Yeh, title was a bit OTT Henry but my point is as I made on FB.

Its just, we made a mess of Wharncliffe trail building in the past. We were inexperienced and rushed into “having a go” at trail building.

Now years later looking back, I think much much more can be achieved, even with fixes like you have undertaken (and I know how much effort barrowing is !) If more thought and planning can be made up front. IMBA Trail solutions has some great examples of interesting and non interesting trails, once given an opportunity to work on a Bridleway, it can be made more interesting to ride AND satisfy local requirements. I have friend who went to work up in Nevis range for FE and they managed to create some great multi use paths. I’m trying to get some pics of the work they achieved as possible inspiration for what can be done.
Your right I need to ride whats been done, however the picture posted shows a pretty straight mundane looking line next to some previous curves and came across as triumphantly straightening a track.

The work has now been completed making the route more enjoyable for walkers, horse riders and cyclists.

Fair play really, as its a bridleway.

not ridden that for years, time to go and have a look!

There’s not much scope for adding ‘twistyness’ to that trail as it skirts the edge of a steep hill. It was an exercise in good balance when ridden in wet conditions.

simonm – Member

Even the IMBA guide for building trails talks about making a trail inviting by elevation and direction change.

Gradient reversals are great for bikers but for walkers it’s not so good.

why not ? Its my exact point. A straight trail is as dull to a walker as it is to a rider.
A great example of an interesting footpath, if you know the area, is part of the parth around Damflask that STW built. It curves, has elevation changes, reveals, small bridges, keeps interesting whilst ensuring access to all users (not bikes in this case).
The point being, some real thought has been put into it rather than hey quick, lets fix that quagmire.

Meanders are good but short gradient reversals add a fair amount of effort for walkers, and make it hard to hit a rhythm. And this looks like a pretty accessible path, and all that goes doubly for people with pushchairs etc

The point being, some real thought has been put into it rather than hey quick, lets fix that quagmire.

do you volunteer?

No Shep, I no longer have time due to family and work commitments but I believe I have served my local trail building duties well.
I dug once a weekend for two years at Wharncliffe. Plus my Company dontated £2000 to the trail bulding at Wharncliffe.

Due to not having time now to help dig, my company continues to donate to trail building in Sheffield by Sponsoring the pro prize for the Steel City Downhill race.

Are you one of the diggers ? I know what hard work man handling barrows is for hours and hours so Can understand peoples animosity when shock horror a view of a non digger is aired 😉

I wasn’t being harsh, sorry if it came across like that.

I don’t do enough, but do go round local unofficial trails in the local woods with a spade and a rake, There are only a couple of us that do this and loads of other that ride it. We only do what our eyes see, or what we have the capacity to do.

All help, sponsorship ideas or two hands or a spade would be appreciated. I think a lot of other trail builders would agree.

Are you one of the diggers ? I know what hard work man handling barrows is for hours and hours so Can understand peoples animosity when shock horror a view of a non digger is aired

Not in that area. Like I said above, wasn’t attempting to shoot you down. If i did that to everyone who rode where I dig they would never turn up to help a load of ****ts.

No worries. I’m not putting my point across well.

All I’m trying to say is through a little planning built trails can be interesting.

it’s a bridleway, deal with it.

Awesome – For someone with your experience of advocacy simon, i’m really surprised that you would post something like that up here.

Northwind – Member

And this looks like a pretty accessible path, and all that goes doubly for people with pushchairs etc

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pushchair on there or ever likely to but you never know. Not sure I’ve ever seen a horse either but that might change now. I rode it a couple of weeks ago and it was a bit sticky, in the summer it will be fine and quite fast. It was getting seriously eroded and not much fun on anything but the driest of days.I think its an improvement and I appreciate the work done here.

Likewise with the permissive bridleway linking devils elbow, I use Blackamoor so much more now. RideSheffield get my vote, some more permissives wouldn’t go a miss as the network is still totally disjointed.

This is a shared use trail in scotland….

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2RtksKLnHU[/video]

Cow Hill’s great fun to ride, but tbh there’s quite a few bits that are fast but with short visibility… Even riding pretty considerately you can come up very fast on pedestrians, but the trail really doesn’t want you to ride cautiously, it’s a wee troublemaker.

I really enjoyed it as a rider but I’m not sure how well executed it is as a multi-use path!

You can only please some of the people some of the time 😆
Same issue around here. Would seem people prefer riding through dirty great puddle or around them than have a trail “repaired”. Been the same since the inception of the Stanes when a few “local” trails were incorporated 🙄
Last years volunteer stuff got the usual mixed response so I am not bothering trying to organise anything this year…..

Pie Run and Magic Mushroom two of the best bits at GT.