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cinnamon_girl - Member
Without lowering the tone, are you telling me that in the middle of an exercise, they put their hand up and ask to be excused?Seriously?
Seriously. As mentioned above, you're not allowed to dig on a number of these areas so portaloos are essential.
And contrary to what some people who have no idea what they are talking about above seem to think, the areas are in constant usage and an exercise area dotted with poo holes is not a good place to train. That said, no doubt Variflex will be along in a minute to tell us to man up and crawl through it like the dog eggs which seem to be everywhere.
I can confirm I've seen the chaps going to a portaloo when needed. Only issue is that you think you know where you are because of portaloos, but they are everywhere!!! Almost a Dr.Who episode in there somewhere....killer portaloos munching on unsuspecting cyclists...in dark forests....hmmmmm
I suspect the Trolls will be reducing their use of the land esp on the larger rides.Having said that I guess some folk will still be nipping out to ride those fire roads on the way to Swimley.
Gorrick will, i guess continue to use the land they book.
So no real change then. As I thought.
I certainly won't stop using them, although it's rare I'm home long enough to ride there right now, and that will be the same until the Autumn I think. 🙁
A properly dug and maintained trail is always better:
Keeps most riders to the trail and just the trail
A trail that can be steered through safe areas
Improves the militarys image in sharing the property with the residents
Is there to use for military types for fitness and leisure
As regards public rights of way being closed - yes they can. I now live near Salisbury Plain and some ROWs are closed when exercises are taking place. The signs are red and state this.
Believe it or not there is actually a BOAT that crosses the Plain from North to South, it's also part of the National Cycle Network.
Going back to the area in question, I would say there has been some naivety involved and thus has now backfired. 🙄
As regards public rights of way being closed - yes they can. I now live near Salisbury Plain and some ROWs are closed when exercises are taking place. The signs are red and state this.
Not permenantly though CG.
Can't be done. Wont happen. They can grizzle all they like but they can't do jack shit about it.
Do those squaddies not have elsans? That's what we used on dartmoor and Woodbury etc.
ROW [b]can[/b] be closed - there are routes on MOD land that this happens on, but only in a small number of rare circumstances, such as live firing
There's no suggestion that anyone is even considering this in the area though, other than by a bunch of scaremongering arses who kicked off the Hankley issue, (notably, the MBR article originally posted quoted significantly from that site) who if you now read have backed off from most of the claims they were making a few weeks ago...
Reading between the lines, now a little more information has come through, this seems to be a quite simple issue - and we've seen it before - of informal and responsible mountain biking being (more than) tolerated by a landowner who has no duty to do so for years, and a small minority of riders acting deliberately irresponsibly and provocatively, and putting the whole thing at risk for everyone.
Its us as a community who should be policing this and making it clear to the troublemakers that their actions have a knock on effect for the rest of us.
TAG has been set up to help MTBers with the access issue, so help and support TAG as it will help and support you.
Alot is in the pipeline for the good and benefit of all.
[quote=pants said]TAG has been set up to help MTBers with the access issue, so help and support TAG as it will help and support you.
Alot is in the pipeline for the good and benefit of all.
Good to hear pants.
We tried, hardly any mountain bikers joined
CTC Tried, hardly any mountain bikers joined
What? Mountain bikers join an organisation? That's not rad or gnarly dude. Mountain biking culture has grown up on a culture of unlimited freedom to do what you like. Even if that means wrecking land that doesn't belong to you. While the majority of sensible bikers take this "culture" with a pinch of salt, there's a minority who take it to the nth degree.
Its us as a community who should be policing this and making it clear to the troublemakers that their actions have a knock on effect for the rest of us.
In my neck of the woods policing has worked to a point, informing people of the consequences of their actions and they have modified their behavior, unfortunately there is still a minority who while aware of the consequences of their actions on others, don't give a ****.
ROW can be closed - there are routes on MOD land that this happens on, but only in a small number of rare circumstances, such as live firing
So not here then. As I said.
This 'issue' (if there really is one) boils down to 2 things:
1) Race organisers being greedy and short sighted
2) The army trying to throw their weight around
Now, I've been riding these area on and off for 20+ years. I've heard it all before, many times.
So I'll tell you what, I'll bookmark this thread and we'll come back to it in a year or so to see how it pans out shall we?
I say bugger all will change. I might be wrong. But I doubt it. 🙂
@PP You knew it would come!!!
The issue is NOT "Greedy Race Organisers" or The Army trying to "Throw it's weight around"
Race organisers pay to be on the land to put on races for Mountain Bikers which is not cheep or easy to do as all would do it!
Its is MoD land and the Army have a right to be there to train, if they really turned the screw they would not allow peeps on whilst the Army is training.
"Fences" will never happen, we will see, as funding is being sought. Pirbright and Barossa fences are fine and have been for years!
The issue is riders being inconsiderate whilst on MoD land, the growing population around Mod training areas, house building etc and more people taking up Riding!
GRENADE!!!!!
we will see
We will indeed.
Like I said, I'll dig this thread up in a year or so.
While the event organisers may not be greedy, the fact that the MoD allow events to be held on their land does increase the number of people that ride on that land at a later date. If there is a problem then the MOD need to stop allowing events on land where there is a problem. It may not stop the issue of illegal riding, but it will certainly help.
I am fairly sure I have seen a MoD report that says that for historic and public relation reasons the land could never be closed to the public.
While the event organisers may not be greedy, the fact that the MoD allow events to be held on their land does increase the number of people that ride on that land at a later date.
True. The Gorrick race at Porridgepot just before Xmas last year made a huge difference. Most weeks before (and again recently to be honest) I saw nobody - riders or army, and I ride there and Tunnel several hours a week. The week after the race you couldn't move for people following the trails.
That could partly have been because everyone was off work due to it being Xmas!
Agreed there is always more traffic immediately after an event, but it tends to die off again.
The rise of the internet and particularly GPS means that most bits of land with good trails quickly get publicised these days, so people can ride far more places without needing willing locals to show them around. I'm not saying that is necessarily a bad thing, but its a phenomenon that won't go away. "Secret" trails are a lot rarer than they used to be.
Pete - I think you're wrong to characterise race organisers as greedy. Putting on races is time-intensive and doesn't generate vast amounts of cash.
Good venues are hard to find, and it happens that most good venues round here are on MOD land. Events on MOD land are always vulnerable to being bumped at short notice by training needs deemed more urgent. This makes them even less lucrative than non-MOD venues, due to the extra work in finding an alternate venue at the last minute.