[Closed] Are trail centres becoming the McDonalds of MTBing?

Not really.

Uplifts are great.

Nah - there Nando's. Full of chickens. 😀

Trololol
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Ooooooooofffff!

Minty chocolatey biscuit anyone?
Anyway OP, they've always been the McDonalds of mountainbiking. Maybe your tastes have just become a bit more sophisticated. Doesn't mean you shouldn't enjoy one now and again though.

Viscount?

In fact - just stop. We can't be having two McDonalds trolls in the same week. Wait your turn chap.

Lol nandos my favourite 😆

In fact - just stop. We can't be having two McDonalds trolls in the same week. Wait your turn chap.

Paging Binners..

I though then it was going to be "i took my frineds child there with mine and they had such fun as they are only alowed track riding at home..."

Are trail centres vegan friendly?

anything that promotes and increases cycling is a good thing - people complain about paying parking everywhere but don't have an issue spending X amount on their bike. Glentress is £5 for the day and I have no issue paying that unless Lewis turns into a grumpy wee shit lol

so long as the actual trails are worth it then paying a few bucks for parking ain't an issue

so what are you doing there you lardy arse chavvy swearing douche bag.

or is that not you?

seems rather self centred post to me.
maybe worry less about what other people are doing and think more about what you want to do, is there are a reason you are not riding the same trail with friends, like the other lads?

Charlie Sheen has the answers
//www.youtube.com/embed/H19uKs99vIw

Have they started handing out kids toys?

No one has ever said "Have a nice day"* to me.

*to be fair I've usually just screamed "get the f@#& out may you f@$£(@g morons"

On the way home from swinley I always treat myself to a box meal with gravy from the colonel.

Because I am worth it.

Real vegans do trail quests not trail centres.

Real vegans do trail quests not trail centres.

Do you have to dress up for a trail quest?

If you want to jambo, if you want to.

Are mountain bikers becoming the new whiney girls of whiney girldom.

To be honest I find mountain bike snobs more like McDonalds, pop up everywhere, sometimes 2 or 3 in one place, always sound the same. They seem to manage to describe things that will never exist and leave you hoping you never have to spend any time with them.

Quite like McDonalds. Masquerades as food/riding, but isn't really.

But, from time to time, when we are passing we nip in for a quick fix. We immediately feel dirty and we don't tell anyone, but we do it nonetheless.

I like maccy D's and I like trail centres. I also like other food establishments and other types of riding.

McD's always has ample parking, clean toilets and fresh relatively cheap coffee. What's not to like.?

devbrix - Member

What next, being driven to the top of a hill so you can coast your lardy arse down?

Sort of comment often made by people who've not done an uplift tbh.

It's just biking innit?

McDonalds do cheap, shit food. Trail centres often have genuinely testing interesting trails.

So in answer to the question...no!

God I hope not. I narrowly missed contracting new variant CJD in the early 90's from eating burgers before becoming a veggie. Don't say I'm at risk again after riding Spooky?

Viscount?

Mmmm haven't had one of those in years, yum!

devbrix - Member
What next, being driven to the top of a hill so you can coast your lardy arse down?

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Uplifted trail centres what a terrible idea... being able to do a huge amount of fun trails in a day without stressing.

McD's always has ample parking, clean toilets and fresh relatively cheap coffee. What's not to like.?

****s who just throw their litter out the car window expecting someone else to pick it up despite being parked directly in front of a bin.

God I hope not. I narrowly missed contracting new variant CJD in the early 90's from eating burgers before becoming a veggie. Don't say I'm at risk again after riding Spooky?

If you ate school dinners or hospital food in the 80s/90s it's only a matter of time before your brain turns to Swiss cheese. 😀

If you ate school dinners or hospital food in the 80s/90s it's only a matter of time before your brain turns to Swiss cheese.

The same can be said for the tablets and acid that was knocking around at the same time. 😯

The same can be said for the tablets and acid that was knocking around at the same time.

That was what my psychiatrist said when he diagnosed my split personality Disorder.

But I disagreed with him, and so did I. 😀

At lease they paid the parking, unlike certain people at a certain trail centre that park on a residential street just outside the carpark to avoid paying towards the facilities they use on a regular basis.

It's worth 75p each just to ride the skills course. My last trip there cost me a LOT more than £3. Didn't have a mismatched Stans Crest on the front of one of their bikes did they? 😉

Snob.
Trail centres are great, especially in winter.
Minimal mud! Showers! Cafe!

To be fair I have a moan about the parking every time I drive up to Haldon..

I remember when it was all bloody fields and they used to pay us to go there..
So I park my car at my sister's down the bottom of the hill and ride up.. That way not only do I get to ride back down to the bottom along St Andrews wotsit, but I also stand a good chance of getting some good vegan grub at the end of the ride, and a cuppa.. all for free just like in the olden days

I can't recommend this course of action to everyone though as I'm sure some of you wouldn't like the almond milk, or mouse milk or whatever it is that she puts in the tea.. and her kids are very irritating

. and her kids are very irritating

this thread needs a contribution from Ronald McDonald and the power of the internet finds this one:
(poss NSFW loud swearing)

£3 to park

They should go to Llandegla, £4.50! for frankly average trails

or whinlatter where's it's £5.80 for 4 hours iirc or a whooping £6.90 for all day.

I love natural trails and I also love trail centres, they're loads of fun, lots of gnar, loads of swoopy crank spankingly good fun. But to continue the analogy No they're not like McDonalds because they don't deliver on their promises (the burger never looks like the picture) but trail centres do.

Anyone dodging the parking needs a hard slap. At Cannock I was advised to park down the road mid-ride as it was free. Why?!

Multiple reasons for paying. If someone bregrudges upto £5 to park yet will happily spunk £20 in petrol/diesel and X money on a bike/kit- why freeload on all that hardwork?

Binners calls me the tight Yorkshireman at the bar. Aye, only tight in certain social circumstances 😀

Yep, fee dodging is wrong, but what if you use your bike to get to the trail centre, is that theft?

A kind of different- in that case as long as you put money into the facilities provided- bike wash and/or cafe IMO.

I.e. contribute something.

Did I miss something - Didn't the OP say he was riding the trail himself before the torrent of abuse directed towards people who ride trail centers?

****HYPOCRITE WARNING***
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are forestry commission trail centres self supporting now then..?
do the parking fees actually pay for the upkeep of the trails?

Or are they just a small part of a larger industry.. a good money spinner..?

Trail centres aren't for me; I last went to one over 10 years ago, LLandegla.

However, I went to Whinlatter last weekend and loved it. Trail centres aren't something you could do every week but like a McDonanlds, every now and again is ok.

The only real issue I had was the vast numbers of middle-classes along with their awful middle-class children.

About 80% of the board then - or with our 4/5 k's worth of toys are we upper middle class !

are forestry commission trail centres self supporting now then..?
do the parking fees actually pay for the upkeep of the trails?

Or are they just a small part of a larger industry.. a good money spinner..?

some may use the carpark as both a visual and an indicator for visitor figures to argue for continuing or even increasing funding.

Abit of a far out example but- If alot of visitors sneaked straight onto the trail with an emptish hub area - what impression would it give?

I don't think they are doing toooo bad at [url= http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/active_england_haldon_site_report.pdf/$FILE/active_england_haldon_site_report.pdf ]Haldon[/url]

At least some of the funding went into comprehensively sealing off areas which allowed people to park outside of the car park

🙂

yoshimi - Member
Trail centres aren't for me; I last went to one over 10 years ago, LLandegla.

I guess you know all about them then...

No FC trail centres are not likely to be self supporting. Well over half a million has been spent on Gisburn, then there's volunteer labour and all the time and materials that come out of the annual forest budget. Gonna take a long time for those £3 to pay that back, especially as the cleaning costs for the new toilet block also need to come out of that. The income generation helps offset the real cost of building and maintaining trails and makes it more likely the FC will continue to subsidise the trails.

I guess you know all about them then...

I know enough, and I know I'd much rather fill my time riding natural stuff in the Lakes or Dales

However, I went to Whinlatter last weekend and loved it.

I'm not slagging them off, I very much enjoyed Whinlatter, but not something I'd want to do all the time - hence I do think the OP analogy is pretty good

The trails at Haldon were funded out of government grants (national and local) and continued funding from the sports council etc (according to the report that I linked to from the forestry commission website in my last post)

It's an interesting one cos the cynic in me refuses to believe that any of this would be happening unless a comprehensive and profitable business plan had been put in place first

*applies to McDonalds for franchises next to a selection of trail centres*

*applies to [url= http://suprememastertv.com/loving-hut/ ]Loving Hut[/url] for franchises next to binners' MucMucks*

I know enough, and I know I'd much rather fill my time riding natural stuff in the Lakes or Dales

I'm heading back to the best trail centre in the world for another great day tomorrow. Shuttle up the middle and all the great riding of every kind all around and great coffee and cakes to be had.

from the sports council etc (according to the report that I linked to from the forestry commission website in my last post)

It's an interesting one cos the cynic in me refuses to believe that any of this would be happening unless a comprehensive and profitable business plan had been put in place first

If the cynic in you can find a way to make typical forestry commission trail centres generate a profit then I suggest you stop wasting time on here and get on with counting the millions you've made from your unparalleled business genius...

Llandegla - McDonalds (bit plastic, but a good hit)
Grizedale - Stavros' Hellenic Kebab Emporium (interesting in my youth, less so now but good side dishes)
Whinlatter - Spud-U-Like (Like the topping but the bottom bits not that great)
Ae - Burger King (just off the motorway)

The Forestry Commission have a lot of buiness income streams (selling trees being just one of them). A lot of the public access/recreation stuff is not seen as a business, its part of what they are tasked to do under their charter. It doesn't have to generate any income, but if it does (through carparks, or leasing out to Go Ape etc.) it helps balance the books.

Or thats what I've been told anyway.

All about the big picture... Part of the FC's government funding is to provide recreation and exercise. But mostly it's about the benefit to the local area, there's a great case study online for Laggan- it'll never make money itself, but within the first year it recouped the full initial cost, in local benefits- jobs created, money spent locally etc.

There's some exceptions where it's totally run for profit but even many of these get external funding (people say "Llandegla's privately owned", and yes it is but the amount of public money involved is huge- it's almost an FC trailcentre on Tilhill land)

If the cynic in you can find a way to make typical forestry commission trail centres generate a profit then I suggest you stop wasting time on here and get on with counting the millions you've made from your unparalleled business genius...

hah.. I am woefully dyslexic in the ways of manifesting material wealth 😆

what are they there for then?
how and why did they come about?
are they an altruistic endeavour to make the nation healthier and happier?
to save the NHS some dosh?

genuine question like.. I've never thought about it really

(EDIT: ah, between the report I read from the FC and Northwind's post my questions have been somewhat answered)

Is this basically about what constitutes 'real mountain biking'?

Cannock has had some money from the car parking this year I read about it somewhere. It deserves it too, that carpark is full every dry weekend, and 80% of the vehicles there have a bike rack on I reckon, the rest probably have bike inside. All the local non bikey visitors stop at the other visitor centre where it's free and there are BBQ pits and a kids park.

A forest is a 30-50 year investment that needs some prodding over it's life, othere than that it doesn't do much. Building trails doesn't make you any money either. Renting out space for a cafe & bike shop does and generates cold hard cash for the FC. Also a lot of EU development cash has gone in as it helps to regenerate places by bringing in tourist cash (B+B, camping, food etc.) so helps struggling local economies survive/revive.

From FC England -

"Our mission is to protect and expand forests and woodlands and increase their value to society and the environment."

FC was set up to better manage our forestry resources in a public way for public benefit after the second world war highlighted our lack of capacity to be self sufficient. Similar to MAFF being set up to maximize farming output and hence the majority of forests were Spruce for quick returns and low amenity. Their mission has moved on and amenity and leisure is a big economic driver - CyB being the prime case study for pumping cash into an area.

tomaso - Member

FC was set up to better manage our forestry resources in a public way for public benefit after the second world war highlighted our lack of capacity to be self sufficient.

Forestry Commission was set up in 1919, as a strategic military reserve- pit props and trenches.

Weren't the 7 Stands comissioned in the wake of the Foot and Mouth crisis as a way to help the local economies diversify?

I ride the Peak - Dark & White, I ride BPW, I ride Llandegla, I ride Coed-Y-Brenin, I ride Cannock I ride Fort Bill.

I love em all!

What's your point OP?