No, half the appeal is the cheeky bit.

Well I’ve been riding Bridleways exclusively for 25 years and I’m not stopping now. I’ve never been to a trail centre, personally the less people I see on a ride the better. The great appeal to me about riding is that it starts and ends on my doorstep, I don’t want to have to travel somewhere to then ride. I’m lucky in that I live right on the edge of the South Downs, only 15 minutes riding from the SDW and there are miles and miles of bridleways and I’ve never found myself tired of it in all that time. I can cover the 6 miles to work using 5 miles of bridleways though most days, at least when the weathers good, I take a longer route.

(with the apparent exception of BOATs which coucils have a propensity to steamroller 3.5m wide, then put TROs on them).

Round our way the Boats are about the hardest thing to ride as the ****** off roaders smash the arse out of them and leave ruts so deep they are practically unridable.

Let me clear my earlier post up please.

Draconian Laws.. I think they are, sorry but I do. I sometimes ride on footpaths and cheeky trails to get to and from, why not. It’s just what I do and will continue to do.
The trails that are not marked near me consist of small runs through lanes and river paths, off bridalways and to woods.. the sort of thing that has been laid down for years upon years, where dog walkers go and families.. therefore I can go along them too.

I won’t use paths that go through farms or house gardens for instance, because I’d not like it if they came and rode over my front lawn, but I see these as only links to/from other offroad venues rather than the main venue see.

But I don’t really need to justify myself nor my actions, I just answered the question.

But… we can only ride on bridleways anyway?

There are loads of things you could do, sneaking a few features onto your local bridleways in a safety conscious manner would be one. I can guarantee it would be ignored in my parish 😉

I can see a great new magazine “Bridleway World” all the thrills of riding your radcore MTB on a motorway

Some of my local bridleways:

Dipton Burn Descent by ir_bandito, on Flickr

Dipton Burn Descent by ir_bandito, on Flickr

Moorland Singletrack by ir_bandito, on Flickr

Draconian? Does that not mean the death penalty for minor offences?

So, why does a ride have to be ‘technically challenging’ to be good/worth doing anyway? Some of the best rides I’ve ever done had nothing technical in them at all. It’s not all about rocks and GNARRRR! you know…..

This was utterly wonderful, it’s 4-5 years ago now and I can still remember it…

cake 009 by PeterPoddy, on Flickr

No GNAR on this wonderful decent into Corfe:

IMG_2017 by PeterPoddy, on Flickr

And sometimes the best bits don’t even need a bike 🙂

IMG_8448_1 by PeterPoddy, on Flickr

I would probably ride less overall. In a way, my use/abuse of the many worthwhile cheeky trails on the Mendip has sustained my interest. But there is enough fun bridleway on the Mendip, Qs and Exmoor to make it worthwhile. For example:

winterfold – Member
But… we can only ride on bridleways anyway?

It depends on where you live.

Where I live in Wales there isn’t a huge network of bridleways because there isn’t that big middle/upperclass horse-owning class that you get in England.

Also we have a lot of reclaimed industrial land with no real rights of way for ANY user. I can ride out of my front door, be off road in 2 minutes and ride for a good couple of hours without touching an actual right of way of any description. I’ll just be riding paths that dogwalkers, motocrossers, horses yes, bikes, etc have developed through replanted woods or wherever. And of course there isn’t much conflict between users, because nobody really has any right to be there, if you know what I mean.

That’s not to say that there aren’t bridleways around, and some of them are very good.

there isn’t much conflict between users, because nobody really has any right to be there

Yeah interesting point. If all rights of way in England were deleted… hmmm

Silly question there. 🙂

Some good pics from Mr Poddy – middle one is Dorset and last one is the Chilterns. Both great rides with fun trails. I could never ever get bored of riding in the Chilterns and, yes, there is some techy stuff there.

buzz – where is that second pic taken please?