[Closed] Cyclists 'frightening' people in the New Forest

Cripes, I'm so bored I just read the comments... apparently there is hatred for:

Cyclists (natch)
Dog walkers
Double child buggies
Mobility scooters

what a lovely tolerant world we live in

I particularly like, 'I'm not sure what risk a cyclist presents to a horse or cow. I certainly wouldn't want to run into one, but I suspect it wouldn't even notice if I did.'

/small bow 🙂

The answer to NF toffs whining is the old "Rufus" solution.

Give them something to be frightened about.

[url= http://counsellingcentral.com/psychology-definition-of-the-week-displaced-anger/ ]The question and answer both lie here[/url]

I'm a New Forest local and often scare myself with my cycling. Who should I complain to?

Drive through and head to the Purbecks IMHO. Much nicer but the locals don't improve much.
Tim
(Dorset born and bread, strong in arm ,thick in head)

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Cripes, I'm so bored I just read the comments... apparently there is hatred for:

Cyclists (natch)
Dog walkers
Double child buggies
Mobility scooters

See peter, I was perfect going through the new forest on motorcycles, no one complain about motorcycles 😀

A motorcycle passed me on the M27 last night. It was lying down and had no rider, so someone must have taken exception to its presence 🙁

Graham Ferris is one of the vocal members of the local nimby brigade and does everything in his power to keep outsiders out of 'his' forest. His recent miltancy is linked (i think) to the recent sportives in the forest - quite a few of the local (by which I mean 'moved into the area from london quite recently and don't intend to share') gang got upset at the number of bikes on 'their' roads and were quite vocal about it in local papers - was in the Red Shoot the weekend after the wiggle event and lots of the horsey set were in tutting about the number of bikes. I've also noticed a recent uptick in the number of 'the forest is for horses' comments when riding.

Several years ago there was a memorable ride In the New Forest led by the Big Bike Bash supremo. We encountered some horse riders who had a pop at us. We weren't on their private land but they obviously thought it was and we were. Some words were exchanged. 😯

Ghastly people. 🙄

Poor journalism, poorly thought through nimbyism, an inability to understand that the road network is centrally funded and rampant stupidity. Well it's reassuring to know that in these times of global economic turmoil that some things endure... 🙄

That Ferris chap sounds like a right tool. The use of "Dr" in all the articles reinforcing this considered opinion IMO 😉

One of Mountain Bikings most ardent detractors is the Verderer Anthony Passmore who takes great delight in bemoaning us in his regular column in the Lymington Times and occasionally Southampton & Bournemouth Echo's.

[url= http://www.newforest.hampshire.org.uk/forest_notes/notes.html ]Anthony Passmore's Forest Notes[/url]

He is currently reporting such delights as:
'flagrant disregard of the byelaws, usually through bloody-mindedness'
'lycra-clad young men hurtling across the heath and lawns at speed'
'Their passage is often accompanied by raucous yells which seem to be a required accompaniment of this “sport”'
'the normal response is a torrent of abuse'

This behaviour is quite shocking and surely can't apply to any of us?:
'They turn up at a Forest car park, having driven from Southampton with the family four wheel drive wagon loaded with mountain bikes, intent on
using the Forest. The Forest pays the price'

All this just from the first page of his latest Newsletter. Unfortunately this chap holds a position of some power in the way the Forest is run.

He goes on to say the Verderers have applied for 'huge sums of money' with the intent of launching an anti-cycling programme. The comments in the local press, I assume, are the start of this to gather support.

Is this a declaration of war? 👿

How come Nu-Lab didn't nuke the Verderers when they had the chance?

When such miscreants are challenged

😆

Several years ago there was a memorable ride In the New Forest led by the Big Bike Bash supremo. We encountered some horse riders who had a pop at us. We weren't on their private land but they obviously thought it was and we were. Some words were exchanged.

Ah what I bloody missed that! 🙁

I think we should have a right proper group ride there, and harass moany walkers (leave the nice ones alone). Throw poo at passing cars. Or, right, set up a road block with a dead cah or something, then [b]EDITED TOO NASTY[/b]

[i]Several years ago there was a memorable ride In the New Forest led by the Big Bike Bash supremo. We encountered some horse riders who had a pop at us. We weren't on their private land but they obviously thought it was and we were. Some words were exchange[/i]

Rather unnecessarily, I thought. Ignore the fudgers.
Look! Here's me and Lydon scaring people and wildlife on that very day!
We definitely should do it again (now my hand's better 🙂 )
[IMG] [/IMG]

Elf - you rode in the New Forest at the Southern Festival! We didn't upset the locals but DrP entertained them with his trials skillz 8)

Yeah, let's all really hack them off. Forum Ride and rope in the Northerners too cos they're quite vocal. You in?

Can't believe that people have such an attitude - it's so last century.

Ooh, mass trespass time?

Here's another (May 2009, that was)
[IMG] [/IMG]

CG it's so [b]19th[/b] century - 1876 or something was when most of the bullshit the verderers view as the one true way was written

😆

scaredy - yeah, it's so parochial. Dinosaurs. 🙄

Right then - forum ride it is, I know the perfect leader!

Someone suggest a date??

ps. might involve a pub stop or 2 😆

Great article, even better comments. Do you think that "From the Edge" and "MarkJBryant" might just have had their tongues in their cheeks? Im gutted to think I missed out on all this fun when I was in the new forest this week. I'll take my bike next time, for sure!

Some of those comments are brilliant MarkJBryant I salute you 🙂

People on here characterising horse riders as toffs pisses me off. Horses are just XC bikes for girls.

Do you think that "From the Edge" and "MarkJBryant" might just have had their tongues in their cheeks?

rope in the Northerners too cos they're quite vocal

Ooooh, a chance to upset some Southern nimbys for a change - i'm in!

(Who's gonna put me up then?) 😆

You're Northern, you will not require shelter as you are hardy and tough, and therefore will be fine out in the open...

+1 nuke from orbit

Boring place full of horrible people (apart from the STW member in this thread of course).

Never been anywhere with so many people so keen to tell me what I can't do, and I didn't even take my MTB!

It's just like a bigger version of Epping Forest with fewer trails and more nags anyway.

I'd even cross the water to join in a forum ride. Where and when please?!

If it coincides with a visit to my mother's then I'll join you.

Also, Mr Passmore is actively soliciting feedback "If you are able to assist with queries raised within the Notes, please email Anthony Pasmore directly."

His e-mail address is apasmore@btinternet.com

Also, Mr Passmore is actively soliciting feedback "If you are able to assist with queries raised within the Notes, please email Anthony Pasmore directly."

Shall we all bombard his inbox then?

That's not going to help, but maybe try to engage him in some meaningful dialogue that might change his perception of moutain bikers a bit?

Shall we all bombard his inbox then?

Best bet is simply to ignore him completely. Any sort of response simply hardens their resolve and makes them imagine that their "work" is worthwhile. No amount of reasoning is going to change his mind.

Similar to the "tack attack" on the Etape Caledonia a few years ago, the self-appointed spokesman of that ACRE group was oh so happy to get his name in the papers and feel important, it just made the group think all their campaigning was worthwhile so they stepped up the comments and publicity seeking. 🙁

An obsolete parochial organisation desperately holding on to rapidly waning responsibilities. That's the impression I got from those articles anyway.

I was only joking about bombarding his inbox!

Normally in face-to-face situations am always happy to do a PR exercise for mountain biking. But, having been on the ride where those pics were taken, it's just not worth the effort. You can't change that attitude and, my, were those lady horse riders vocal. 😯

Lifer - they won't become obsolete if they've existed for hundreds of years. That's the worrying thing.

They have no place in modern society IMHO. The right for commoners to graze their geese? WTF? Im sorry but its just a throwback to the class system which still pervades that part of the county. Coem the reolution brothers!
Im pretty sure that modern National Park management / Forestry Management has come on a bit in the last few centuries too.

I've had my photo taken by the ranger in the NF - went back for a bit more in the same ride, unfortunately they'd all gone.

Been stopped a couple of times with the "do you know you are not allowed to cycle here" by verderers and some of the campsite park keepers - my response of "yes, rather silly isn't it" threw them enough and I simply kept riding.

Often get shouted at, accosted or stopped by walkers, dog-walkers and other pedestrians which is another reason why I tend to cylce with headphones, keep going and never, ever stop to engage.

Sometimes, in the more remote parts or on bad weather days I rarely bump into anyone, you just have to cycle through the busier places to get there though.

And, despite some postings, plenty of singletrack if you know where to find it 😉

[url=

report[/url]

road.cc has discovered that while Dr Ferris is critical of bike riders over the alleged threat they pose to animals and the “much vaunted tranquillity of the Forest” apparently he does not feel the same way about hunting with hounds – he is joint honorary secretary of the New Forest Hounds Hunt Club, which supports a repeal of the Hunting Act.

Always good to have perspective and balance on these issues huh..

For much of its history it regularly played host to large, often boisterous royal hunting parties, and on its website the New Forest Hounds Hunt Club, of which Dr Ferris is joint honorary secretary, claims to be “continuing 900 years of tradition in the New Forest.”

The New Forest Hounds Hunt Club continues to drag hunt, as permitted by law, with hounds chasing an artificial scent. Last year, Dr Ferris was quoted in local newspapers including the Bournemouth Echo as saying that trail hunting was “not like traditional hunting because it will never have the same element of the unknown.”

What it does have, however, is a large group of people on horseback, rather than bicycles, and one accompanied by a pack of baying hounds, presumably disturbing the very tranquility that Dr Ferris appears so keen to maintain.

*pop* goes the credibility..

Lifer - they won't become obsolete if they've existed for hundreds of years. That's the worrying thing.

Castles?

Right then you lot, I ride a bit in the mentioned area... it's not the best in the world, but it's on the 'doorstep' so to speak 😉 this makes it good..

I dispute those who say it's boring, you just need to know the trails to find, and the forset has edges, outside these dont fall under the by-laws mentioned.There is good, not Wales, Quontocks, Scotland, Exmoor etc great, but good (singlespeed stuff) stuff!

So, if you want to see, drop me a mail, and we can meet for a ride (and a cider 😆 )

I was only joking about bombarding his inbox!