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It’s all down to a bit of communication.
I was, admittedly, a bit lost and thought I might actually be riding on a footpath. A farmer in a tractor on the same track was trundling toward me, ‘Oh dear’ me thinks, ‘he might get grumpy’. He stopped and said hello, I asked if I was actually on a footpath and if it was OK to ride my bike on it. His reply was along the lines of, ‘Well, I drive this along it, be daft to stop you riding a bike, crack on.’
What I never understand is why seemingly some landowners remove or disguise rights of way signing.
I see that a lot round my way.
Cheeky tactics like letting the sign become overgrown, let it fall over beyond sight etc etc.
When the rest of the area around the sign is trim and maintained but the exact location of the sign is a bramble/nettle nightmare.
I think opening up footpaths to cyclists will just result in more bad vibes between us and the ramblers. More encounters with an already sour bunch (generalising greatly) will only make it much worse IMO.
They see us as dicks and some are to be fair and its those few who give us all the bad name.
The temptation for trail sabotage will be heightened I guess, there will be 'we were here first' feelings for years and years, sparking some inevitable retaliation from the rambler extremists.
For the most part we can get away with cheeky excursions onto footpaths if we don't come into contact with rambler or if we do, we stop/slow, say hi and just be the nice guy. Its worked for years with me with only a few minor bad encounters. Both of which I predicted correct when I saw the guy (you just know from their face, expression and demeanour) so I was armed with even more happiness and polite offerings before he started barking.