OK, so I know the actual answer... "it's never ok", but there have been many occasions where I have been sorely tempted. You know the heavy gate tied up with loads of string. You untie it, then have to lift it up and round over loads of rocks, then when you go to pick up your bike and push it through the damn gate falls to the ground with a clang, so you have to pick it up and reverse the whole process knowing that in some instances this is deliberate policy from the farmer to minimise the chances of you ever coming back again
Ok, so this is an extreme example but it does some time grate that they expect us to make the effort when they patently obviously CBA.
Discuss....
I'd just climb the gate instead of faffing around
throw bike over top followed by myself.
not shutting it because you cant be bothered doesnt really work...
Yes, pink string holds the English countryside together. An obvious choice as a hinge for a galvanised gate.
The gates I'm referring to would just have fallen to the ground with a loud clang, which would then leave you in the position above. What would your next step be? 😎
OK, so I know the actual answer… “it’s never ok”
There that's it.
skills course obvs - work on your bunny hop.
What would your next step be?
You leave it in the state you found it, anything else is a dick move
OK, so I know the actual answer… “it’s never ok”
There that’s it.
The countryside code says to leave gates as you find them therefore you cannot say it is never ok to leave a gate open.
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Seriously though. Go and have a word with your local Authority Rights of Ways officer/National Park Warden and let them know of the gate in question. They will likely see that it gets sorted one way or the other.
You leave it in the state you found it, anything else is a dick move
But isn't having a shit gate across a right of way a dick move anyway?
The gates I’m referring to would just have fallen to the ground with a loud clang, which would then leave you in the position above. What would your next step be? 😎
step over the gate.
I had the same thought 🙂
[strong]avdave2[/strong] wrote:
OK, so I know the actual answer… “it’s never ok”
There that’s it.
The countryside code says to leave gates as you find them therefore you cannot say it is never ok to leave a gate open.
Which was great advice a few years back when 99.9% of countryside users were families or couples walking together. It is easy to see what state a gate is in and to leave as found. However, the rise in the Duke of Edinburgh/ Ramblers society group walk/etc type use of the countryside leads to a situation when groups can be strung out by several minutes or more. The first person opens a gate, assuming the people following will then close it, but by the time the last one comes along they assume it was always open and should be "left as found". It happens here several times over the course of a summer and neighbours have exactly the same experiences. Hence I will tell everyone who will listen to close all gates found open UNLESS they are obviously tied open/propped open/taken off their hinges etc. I am happy to go around at the end of a day and open a gate that has been accidentally shut, than to spend a day sorted out mixed up sheep. Or worse!
That Kenmore?
Welshfarmer saved me a lot of typing.
Is that Geex?
No it's not an Ebike
I'm with the close the gate unless obviously meant to be open gang. The consequences of wrongly closing are always going to be better than wrongly leaving open as welshfarmer has said. The only caveat being access to water on warm days, so a quick check for water troughs is a good idea. But the main reason for knackered gates is farmers are notoriously tight fisted and new ones go missing quite regularly.
It’s part and parcel of a fun day out in the country.
I should point out that I do close gates unless it really is obvious it's meant to be open, I was really just pointing out that it's not an absolute to shut gates.
Depend, is it in the Peak district? Is it a nice track to ride down? Just let DCC know, they'll soon turn that gate into a f****** wheelchair accessible eyesore.
I've only ever left one gate open. But it was evil. Precariously supported in three places with old baler twine, and the farmer had helpfully nailed barbed wire to the top and bottom spars.
It knew I was a pushover the moment it saw me, because when I tentatively undid one strand of the rope holding it up it whipped round and embedded the barbed wire in my shins. I peeled it off and left it dangling. Don't care if all his sheeps were eaten.
throw bike over top followed by myself.
not shutting it because you cant be bothered doesnt really work…
I once had a comedy accident lifting a bike over a dilapidated gate. As I dumped the bike the other side I just leant ever so slightly on the gate, which proceeded to topple over. I found I couldn't do anything other than topple over with it.
I will walk through gates and over stiles even if it's the only thing left of the boundary, my wife thinks I'm weird.
Thisisnotaspoon, where is that?
Looks a bit like one on the WHW between Tybdrum and BoO.
But isn't. So I'm not quite sure why I posted
Soz
The path up to Jagger's from Edale innit? That must be a recent development though.
Gates and fences are to be climbed. Got quite quick at this aventure racing in southern africa they get them 15 to 20 feet high in some places.
But its some of the tiny once that are best left alone 😉
Meeeeeooooowww @ Drax the not even a bike rider
Ebikes can jump fences and gates too.
... and can also **** it up like a boss)
🙂
Thisisnotaspoon, where is that?
Chapel gate in the Peak.
Somewhere underneath that eyesore of a repair is a fun descent.
[strong]hofnar[/strong] wrote:
Gates and fences are to be climbed. .....
And therein lies the reason why so many gates don't open/shut properly. It takes a days' labour and a couple of hundred pounds worth of material to put up a tidy gate. So say £300 worth for each gate. I can guarantee that within a week of me putting up a new gate anywhere near a footpath I will find someone climbing over it or swinging on it like a playground ride. And that will be the last time it will ever swing shut properly! Like every other farmer I know, I have better things to do than spend another £300 putting in another gate that someone will knacker again in the next few weeks.
Isn’t that what the barbed wire on flaperon’s gate was for in its younger days
I did the Brecon Gap ride last weekend and there was a gate on there that wasn’t attached in any way to either gatepost. It was quite heavy and just lent against the posts pretty much. I picked it up and my mate wheeled the bikes through and I duly lent it back up as we found it.
However, the rise in the Duke of Edinburgh
A DoE Group on foot should be no more that seven people in a group. I’d suggest if the seven are so spread out the back doesn’t know what the front are doing they should have shut the gate between the sub groups (which would have given them time to think up the explanation for their supervisor why they were not working together as one team).
Meeeeeooooowww @ Drax the not even a bike rider
No I don't ride bikes I define them.
The countryside code says to leave gates as you find them therefore you cannot say it is never ok to leave a gate open
Really? I thought it said always shut them, in case some tool had left it open previously.
A local farmer has got so fed up with people shutting one particular foot gate he's tied it open.
The first person opens a gate, assuming the people following will then close it, but by the time the last one comes along they assume it was always open and should be “left as found”.
When in this sort of situation we would always shout back down the line of folk - "LMSTG" ( last man shut the gate)
I'm with welshfarmer. The amount of damage and disrespect visitors show the countryside means it's not worth fixing or replacing.
Look at geex video - one of the bikes clearly batters into the top of the fence, which is already broken, I suspect due to others doing same stunt.
You don't climb gates or fences unless there is no alternative.
You leave gates as found.
Do the DOE kids ever shut a gate? I can guarantee that any kid under 18 will come into my shop and not even think to shut the door. It’s something their doting parents do , even if they are not around.
Do the DOE kids ever shut a gate?
Our lot do, if not I won't pass them.
I once had a comedy accident lifting a bike over a dilapidated gate. As I dumped the bike the other side I just leant ever so slightly on the gate, which proceeded to topple over. I found I couldn’t do anything other than topple over with it.
Well I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who's done it!