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The troll is having a rather large three course meal tonight gents.
[i]Yeah nuke even stopped for a cheese straw the other week [/i]
Yep, there we were mid afternoon on a sunny Saturday fighting for a seat with that one other biker...just horrendous, never again 👿
BTW anyone ride the hills today, if so conditions update please as im out riding the minute the sun rises. 😀
M U D D Y - well when I walked the dog.
mashiehood,
Wet!
oh well, im all set so here's hoping for a frost and crispy ground!
It's not that bad. Usual places. Barely rained all week aside last night. Fair weather riders <waves at freeridenick> 🙄
Hey crossfire80......
Enjoy your ride. You're not welcome.
Assume you still want us back a few times a year for the Peaslake MTBO to pay our tenners towards the running of your school? Thought so.
It's amazing what people will moan about.
I can understand a motorway, waste incinerator plant, drug dealing, prostitution or a high crime rate would be worth kicking up a fuss about.
but for somebody to spend their Saturday night going onto a forum that they have no interest in and complain about people on bikes is laughable, it's almost as if the overnight ban of bikes would leave their empty lives even emptier.
I haven't ridden there since 2003 (and it was busy then) but I'm in London this weekend so I might now make the effort to get back 😉
Will probably invite a few mates too. Come to think of it, one grew up there so I guess he can tell all the newcomer local commuter types who've not grown up there to sod off 😉
heihei - can't comment on that. Not my business 😕
MrSmith - the forum was found unintentionally, if I may say so. I was not really looking for an opportunity to have my say, I would have done this years ago. I've been dealing with the situation for a long time, with some success, details of which is only known to me and other people, who will be laughing at some reactions to was was said before. Mind your own business and don't be nosy what others do in their free time. I hope I won't see you soon 😯
Well Peaslakers. A beauty spot with the freedom of access you enjoy is also rightly enjoyed by others. So inevitably living there comes with baggage. If you don't like it, may I recommend you move to Tooting, where you can be assured there are no beauty spots with such problems. Most Peaslakers don't contribute to the Hurtwood, so its a bit rich to expect anything in return. As for the shop. it would shut without bikers. 7 million people within 50mins max brings a growing tide that won't be turned. Unless you can find a way to turn off the internet. Welcome to the future.Embrace and see the benefit: a thriving village shop, and if you embraced it like Howard, probably many more benefits.
Perhaps lobbying for appropriate facilities would be a starter.
ps, the biggest perpetrator of your problem is a certain David Hancock, aka Dave the Bullet, creating illegal trails that attract a large following faster than yo mamma on welfare cheese day. Stop him and you'll halve the problem. His grey van is regularly parked at car park 10 on Lawbrook Lane. If you want to do something about it rather than sitting on your thumb and wining, theres your starter.
clubber - you may as well come in hundreds. you'll wait an hour for a mug of tea in the shop and will have no place to leave your bike 😆 Not mentioning traffic lights when the paths cross and charging a tenner for a coffee 😐
Mind your own business and don't be nosy what others do in their free time.
🙄 💡
may I recommend you move to Tooting,
It wouldn't.
I was thinking that my mate could stand right.in the middle and tell everyone who.didn't grow up there to sod off and then we'd be served quickly and have space for our bikes... 😉
TD again!
Surrey Hills is not at bursting point and never has been.
Sure the Walking Bottom carpark is a bit of an issue - personally I park elsewhere when visiting the area - Peaslake either the Village Store or the Pub makes a good mid ride stop.
There are a lot of people who seem to just ride the obvious trails on Holmbury and Pitch this is many ways reduces the traffic everywhere else and allows you to find some quiet bits. Having ridden in the Surrey Hills for the last 20 or so years, never worked in London and never owned an Audi I have noticed an upturn in mountain biking as people are trading the TV for outdoor pursuits.
I don't think Howard is to blame for any significant increases in throughput. He is merely taking advantage of it.
If you want to stop people turning up and using the village and its amenities I would suggest that discouraging the shop from selling tea, coffee and cheese straws to mountain bikers and the pub from selling beer etc would make a lot of sense.
No food - no throughput in the village - simples. The problem goes away. So whilst the shop and pub are happy to provide a service for mountain bikers - mountain bikers will come. If not - they will all be on Leith at the tea hut. Peaslake was quiet before the shop started doing tea and sandwiches so very well.
Taking the law into your own hands is ill advised. Letting down tyres and sabotaging cars is pretty stupid and fingers can easily be pointed given the rantings on a public forum.
The Surrey Hills is a beautiful area - it is only natural people doing what ever sport will take advantage of it and come visiting.
Suggest learning to live with it. Getting some double yellow lines put in and working with rather than ranting.
Just some thoughts and observations.
Well said shortcut. Good night
Someone bright will understand Peaslake really was a quiet place once. Somewhere, that you were coming back with a smile on your face. Someone will surely get it, that it used to be a part of the world worth coming back for. Some people really love this place and care for it. Doesn't matter who it is, a person that grew up here, a Londoner, someone from Guildford or Brighton, it's never going to be the case of "the more the merrier", hundreds of people in the small area like the centre of the village will never become a Picadilly Circus and will always look odd. And I do understand these things are never gonna be the same. But for the person, who fell in love with the area, looking at it at the moment is simply heartbreaking and sad.
Looking at the bigger picture I can't help but think of other parts of the UK that have 'outsiders' coming into the area and how insignificant your issue is compared to theirs.
There are many tourist/recreational hotspots that get absolutely rammed with cars and people beyond comprehension when compared to your trivial issue with some mountain bikers.
You should consider yourself lucky.
Someone bright will understand that we live in a democracy and can live where we want and cycle on designated paths! If you don't like it, I suggest you move.
Shortcut - it would be really good, if something could be done to the situation at the moment. I don't think anything will change anytime soon, it's just frustrating seeing such a beatiful place taken over, loud, car parks packed etc. With anything changed in organisation of the village Sundays will always be the same. They have put a collection "stone" on the left hand side at the entrance of the car park - I guess it's just the beginning, and sooner or later proper car park machines will be there, which probably will not change anything... But the fact, that the collection stone is there shows that we do have more cyclists now, than we used to. Ignorance is a bliss. Stay calm and keep on pushing the pedals... 😉
PS. Innocent until proven guilty 8)
Shortcut's nailed it. People will ride on the Surrey Hills whether you like it or not. The thing that attracts people to Peaslake is the pub and the shop. If the feeling in the village is so strong that you don't want their custom, then get them to stop providing for them. You say the shop don't want their custom anyway.
Don't make it attractive and then moan when people come.
The North Downs is full of riders because UK population is increasing faster than ever and there is ****all else to do outdoors in the South East. Get used to it you nimby slags...
Maybe a protest to raise awareness of your NIMBY concerns?
[img] http://sic-transit-fading.tumblr.com/image/25506754279 [/img]
theotherjonv - they're probably both money-orientated, I guess not many of the local businesses even care what people living in the area say, so from their point of view it must be "the more the merrier", which the cyclists help them to gain with every penny spent. I can be screaming to my heart content with absolutely no results and I'm aware of it. It would really be good, if everyone respected each others privacy and a right to enjoy their life wherever they live. It's not the end of the world and there are other big problems in life so I'm not moving anywhere, cyclists are not going to start cycling on the other side of the hill and property values in Peaslake are not going to fall any time in the future 😉
Probably annoying to have a few bikers slow you down a bit when you go to collect your morning papers. But, would it be better to have a pub and local shop that struggle to stay open due to lack of customers, shut down, get borded up. Like pretty much every other shop in the UK.
The next thing then would be a local Tesco's being opened instead!
Sounds like someone needs to open a cafe out of the village centre to move the crowds out.
I guess not many of the local businesses even care what people living in the area say, so from their point of view it must be "the more the merrier", which the cyclists help them to gain with every penny spent.
Yet in your opening post
Peaslake Village shop would be happy without you here (it's always been!)
So who do you represent then? Are the Village shop happy that you're coming onto MTBing websites and telling us that the shop doesn't want our custom?
BKB 700 riders a day? Or is that 70 riders in full Fro gear sessioning it?
Funny how trudy makes a point of going on twitter every Friday to remind the bikers to visit and buy cheese straws.
Someone bright will understand Peaslake really was a quiet place once
Yep, that time was not 8 years ago. Get over yourself. It's totally dead during the week and if you really can't see the benefits the riders provide then you're a fool.
Hey peas laker, you think you've got if bad. The residents of Shere have had to gatecrash the Saga forum to tell the old dears they are not welcome, blocking up their village and buying cream teas.
theotherjonv - what's so difficult to understand? Noone irreplaceable, bikers go, the walkers will come. And for some strange reason there's not that many of them in here anymore... Became cyclists? Don't think so. All that's said here is my opinion, noone else's. If someone thinks similar - prooves I'm right. And I'm not saying that the shop doesn't want your custom - it does, it's their business, and they're happy for you to bring some coppers on Sundays. But trust me, it would survive without you there. [u]IMO[/u] 😉
Thinking that the bikers keep the shop and the pub/hotel open is just misleading. Figures don't lie. They're not open on Sundays only, are they?
njee20 - Trudy works for the shop, so how can you be expecting her to do something else? It may be dead during the week on the tracks in the hills, with most of the cyclists working 9 to 5 in another part of the world. The village is never gonna be dead again. It's been discovered and it's going to be exploited even more, with illegal tracks amongst other things that are not welcome here. Now enjoy your cheestraw and don't leave a mess behind you. It wasn't here when you came.
How many locals have you seen complain? I was sat outside the pub a month ago and two locals engaged me in conversation and laughter.
In Dorking I had a laugh with an old posh lady customer in the hardwear shop and in the pub near our campsite a couple of miles away again locals made the first move at conversation.
The miserable ****s in peaslake arent the locals. If there are miserable ones theyll have come down from london like the moutain bikers.
I can remember 5 years ago talking to a local in Peaslake and he told me that he and a number of others paid a regular sum to the shop purely to keep it open.
Anyway I've been cycling out and around the Surrey Hills since 95. Peaslake really hasn't changed much - except for more leased German cars and locals driving stupid SUVs.
Peaslake Village shop would be happy without you here
Funny how trudy makes a point of going on twitter every Friday to remind the bikers to visit and buy cheese straws.
Trudy works for the shop, so how can you be expecting her to do something else?
You are rambling and changing your argument to suit, and coming across as a fool.
Fortunately most Peaslake locals aren't anything like you and extremely friendly when I say hello. In fact, in all the years I have been riding in the Surrey Hills I struggle to remember any unfriendly locals (apart from a farmer on Winterfold once).
I imagine the locals dislike new money moving in more than bicycle riders
No, Stop!
As a mountain biking community we have to be attuned to the concerns of local communities, and accept that we have an impact on the communities and the places that we ride, some will see it as positive, and some will see it as negative, and the fact is that [b]both[/b] may be making valid points.
The user figures for the surrey hills are phenomenal, its a massive draw for riders who live in a very built up area. I also have no doubt that user numbers have increased over the last few years.
Now, whether we like it or not, a lot of [b]our[/b] community are relatively young, loud and boisterous - and when in Peaslake often full of energy and adrenalin, and we also have to accept that a [b]minority[/b] act like cocks, both in the village, and out on the trails.
I've lived in rural communities all my life, and can 100% understand how the behaviour of a [b]minority[/b] of the MTB community can and will bring shame on all of us, and colour peoples attitudes towards us.
This is not all down to NIMBYism - its an issue that [b]we[/b] hold the keys to, as we are the ambassadors for our sport whenever we head out on our bikes, particularly where dozens of us turn up in a small village every weekend. Yes, there are clearly good things about us being there, there are also inconsiderate tossers that strip off in car parks, bang doors, leave litter and shout and swear - every one of them damages our reputation.
The fact is, that as ambassadors, its also incumbent on us to look at the impact that we have on the trails as well - there are valid concerns about poorly sited trails and about erosion, we know already that unofficial trails and jumps have cropped up, and that closed sections of trail have been reopened by riders who decide they know best. There are also (often overplayed) fears about wildlife disturbance, especially in areas with designated status. If we don't want regulation, then we have to keep our own house in order (recent developments in nearby Swinley forest being a good example!)
The issue of MTBers has been raised at the [url= http://www.peaslake.org/background/ ]Peaslake Community Council[/url], so it's just not crossfire80's views. I know in the past there was issues with people sitting on the war memorial and garden walls to munch their cheesestraws or to prop their bikes against. To help overcome these problems, they did improve the seating around the bus shelter and provide the bike stands.
scott_mcavennie2 - the words about Twitter are not mine. Put your glasses on.
Zulu-Eleven - and this is what I mean. Both sides should respect each other.
I've been cycling quite a lot when I was younger and I do understand your passion. I used to like the idea of bikers coming here for Sunday, this was bringing life to the dead village, making it look different etc. But it's too much, it's too crowded, too loud and not enjoyable. From not only my point of view.
This old argument again zzzz
I think a lot of the problems are just down to people in general, nobody seems to tolerate or consider others anymore
thats_not_my_name - I agree. The trouble is, the bench is for... 10-12 bikers? Bike stands - four? Eight maybe, can't remember (luckily the bus shelter is not needed on Sundays as there's no bus service then). It doesn't show the scale of the issue, which has been raised before and it doesn't look like it's solved yet. I can easily see someone trying to organise the place and I doubt the cyclists would support it.
The problem is that you undermine your own arguments. You told us that the only person, who's glad, that we're here, is Howard and his bank manager, and the shop would be happy without us here and then you tell us that it's the more the merrier with every penny spent a good penny.
You tell us to live and let live (and I agree with Z-11 that a number of the cyclists that visit don't do the majority of responsible, polite, considerate cyclists any favours, and we as a community need to look at ourselves too) - but you also told us that we aren't welcome and you going to let our car tyres down.
Before you start representing the views of your village or your shop you should really think about whether they'd agree with you. Just as a few badly behaved bikers don't represent the way the majority of us behave, I'm ignoring you as an outlier to how the Peaslake community view us. And to one other point if someone else agrees with you it doesn't mean you're right, it means there's now two of you thinking like that instead of one.
I'll think you'll find that Peaslake residents and FriendsoftheHurtwood don't like bikes
End of
I'll think you'll find that [b]some[/b] Peaslake residents and FriendsoftheHurtwood don't like bikes
Now I might agree with you.