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Is inners becoming inners vasey, local trails for local people. We want no trouble here, eh tups.
There certainly seems to be an element of that too. It's a funny one. In some places riders are happy to share trail knowledge, others not so much. I guess that trying to keep some sort of lid on it allows those withost local knowledge to "control" access to sensitive areas. However, with Strsve and Trailforks it's pretty much all out in the open now anyway.
TJ, while I wouldn't dispute for a second that what you stated was factually accurate, would it have been acceptable to write 'we get a bit of this from Jewish riders'? What did the riders origins contribute to your point?
As dangerbrain put it, dicks be dicks. Where they hail from is largely irrelevant.
with Strsve and Trailforks it’s pretty much all out in the open now anyway
Yep. If you're building these days you're kidding yourself if you ride with mates that use Strava, and you don't expect some randoms to be riding 'your' trail in a week.
I think the ultimate rebuttal of TJ's point would be to point out Bird have form for getting into trouble for posting off piste videos from Swinley too 😂 it's nothing to do with scotland!
Although as far as swinley locals are concerned you'd struggle to find someone who doesn't ride off piste (and just doesn't get caught by not doing it on a Saturday morning). You're all welcome south of the wall to ride new England switchbacks, just don't do it when the rangers has parked his 2 ton truck halfway down to tell you off for disturbing the birds in your push bike.
Incidentally, access laws aren't very relevant here since they don't give any right to dig bike trails- the day to day access does come under the access laws, but the actual trails don't.
taxi25
Member
@Northwind, cheers for some background. I take it the carpark is public but used by the golf club.
Nah, it's their own private car park. But it's right beside the trailhead too so people often park there. Which tbh causes a lot more bother than fence jumping.
The golfy trails themselves are... complicated, let's say. In some people's head they're still "secret" but it's not just about trailforks and strava, the EWS has been up there twice, last weekend the Scottish Enduro was back. And for the most part, that's pretty consensual with the 2 groups that really count- the people who build the trails, and the forestry commission. I'm sure there'll be some diggers that are less happy about the rate of wear but equally, if you're digging up there now you know exactly what the deal is, if you don't want to be part of the Golfy and all the good and bad that comes with it you can go to thornie or yair or wherever.
(I've done very little digging up there- repair stuff only so I don't "own" anything and I won't speak for any of the people who actually did the real work)
Cheers again Northwind. Page 3 and at last some background. Probably agree the fence jump into a private carpark with a history of improper use probably wasn't totally cool.
But as mentioned on page 2 a couple of words explaining the situation would work wonders. Much better than pitchforks at dawn.
I take it the carpark is public but used by the golf club. If it were private but being used under “access” laws I can understand the sensitivity
The odl issue with use of the car park was folk parking in it to go riding rather than riding through it. One of the two main ways into the trails starts right beside it, but there's only space there for a few Transporters. The jumping issue is just really the "dont be a dick" thing
Whether there are or aren’t I don’t know, but if there are salmon redds in that pool as suggested in one of the PB comments, then disturbing them is not a good thing.
If the fence thing is such a big issue and it's jumped by every man and his dog then remove the kicker before it? Enough people digging there to spend 30mins levelling it?
Speedstar nailed it on page one, but I see that hasn't stopped a classic STW shitfest.
Anyway, access is a red herring here IMO. Much more of a "don't be a dick" thing.
There is much more to the code than just riding something because it is legal. The don’t be a dick rule is something you get a feel for over time with regards to responsible access and exercising it. I feel people sometimes come to visit and don’t apply the rule because it is legal to ride, who knew that pointing out that they come from another country is racist! 🙄 I give you the bogtrotters and their push up then ride down of Ben Nevis on a May bank holiday as another example of ****tery.
I give you the bogtrotters and their push up then ride down of Ben Nevis on a May bank
Thats one I was thinking off. there is also the group of riders from down south who organised a trailquest in the Pentlands in November. Many of us locals do not ride in the pentlands when its wet. they put on this event for 500 riders and trashed several trails. I spoke with the organisers and they just did not understand ( both before and after) and insisted that because they were not forbidden legally from doing this that they had a RIGHT to organise this event. NO concept of "reasonable" It did turn out to be a one off after the outcry afterwards.
The comment on page 1 about sand in folks fannies is spot on, some proper gammon on here at times...
If the locals treasure that river, and their fish, respect that. Not hard really. Assuming that anyone complaining about publicising a pond jump is just a blowhard is pretty blinkered. Try listening to them, even if your first reaction is that they're talking nonsense… get past that and listen to their concerns.
The amount of people that the trails bring into Innerleithen, the local council could easily chuck a couple of taps and hoses up in that wee car park.
In reality, what are the chances of someone damaging fish stocks from a few ml's of bike lube? the farm run off in the borders is a huge issue, kills tons of salmon eggs.
It's the same story everywhere. In the Surrey Hills it's "Northeners" (people from Leatherhead up) ruining it for the rest of us.
I posted a couple of pages back that last time someone had their bike in the river someone threatened to call the police.
The consensus was, for the sake of harmony with the local community, don't put your bikes in the river. Yes, it's probably not illegal. Yes, it probably does no harm. But guess what, it doesn't matter. Just don't do it.
And if you absolutely have to do it, don't film it and put it on the front page of pinkbike.
> fingers in ears <
"What do the ignorant locals know? Eh? Yeah, sure, the fishing is world renowned and key to the local economy, but, yeah, I always know best. I know my behaviour will cause no damage, so **** 'um. Grab your bikes and jump right in lads…"
To not realise the conflict is one thing… to hear about it and then clearly not give a damn what the locals think is just being a dick.
I have no complaints about the original video getting it wrong (it's just a dull weekend away video anyway) but the "what do they know" responses to local concerns voiced since are just dickish.
on the way up to stage 1 on sunday morning there was a lot of work going on on the golf course including to that fence, so if they really want to stop people jumping it i would assume it is now a bit higher.
so if they really want to stop people jumping it i would assume it is now a bit higher.
I think they have installed an automatic rise and fall fence, so Scottish riders can jump it and post on Instagram with nothing but praise, but English riders are stopped from doing the same and posting it on Pinkbike for people to moan about 👍