anyone built any “unofficial trails” thinking of starting one just wondering if anyone has done this befor? and what happens if it is discoverd?

Lots of folks & depends what your thinking of building as to wether will be discovered.

Make it full of jumps and berms and it’ll be unmissable. Sculpt it carefully using natural features then leave it to weather in before riding and you might get away with it.

I’ll leave it to a big hitter to explain all about land ownership.

I’ll leave it to a big hitter to explain all about land ownership.

He’s been long term banned.

As above, make it discrete and you may get away with it. Personally, I can’t be arsed with putting lots of time and effort into trail building without land owner permission, but discrete little tweaks here and there to ‘open up’ a trail are worthwhile IMO.

I’ve just made a couple of miles worth of singletrack on MOD land in conifer and beech woodland in a quiet area and it’s turned out awesome, key is low impact trail building i move dead wood and brush leaves out of the way about two feet wide to define the trail absolutely no digging if you don’t own the land, don’t be seen doing it keep your entry and exit points as well hidden as possible and don’t build your trail right to the entry exit so if someone sticks their head in it’s not instantly visable start your trail 15-20 yards in. Once it’s up and running don’t be seen entering exiting by other countryside users if someones milling about ride on by and come back in five mins, main problem in our area is enduro bikes if they find it the trails doomed, goodluck and remember low impact no digging is your best hope of success i’m still riding trails built this way 15-20 years on with little or no complaint on FC and MOD land.

It’s a fact. As long as some spotty Herbert doesn’t decide to add ‘features’ you’ll be ok.

If you want to actually build something then you need to approach the land owner/manager for a chat first or risk wasting your time. I don’t know about you but mines too precious…

Keeping them as out of view an low key as possible helps, but also being prepared to accept that one day you’ll turn up to find half the stuff you built has been pulled down and you either need to rebuild or relocate your trails….

As a good rule of thumb; anything under 1ft seems to get left alone, once a kicker or berm exceeds 1ft though it seems to attract more official attention, its a challenging constraint to try and build interesting trails within, normally things creep over with time…

Discretion is the key. Not just from land owners/walkers/fun spoilers. Bikers can be a pest too. It’s unlikely you’ll be building a fully armoured trail designed for heavy traffic so the less people know about it/ride it the better.

Build whatever features you want to ride, but make them as natural looking as possible (no woodwork). Don’t leave burrow pits everywhere and make any doubles/gaps look ‘safe’. Don’t leave rubbish lying about either – landowners really don’t like that.

I’ve never asked permission and I’ve built all sorts of trails over the years. Most are still about. The jumps tend to be the main target and funnily enough it’s other riders that seem to be the ones wrecking them (i think the size intimidates them 😀 ).

Best tip i can give it sort the drainage out. You don’t want to learn this lesson the hard way.