Looks to have been a success 😉

Erm is this a trials demo or something more?

Todays event was to promote the facilities available to riders in Scotland and encourage them to visit.

The irony is that the NI FS consistently fail to acknowledge or facilitate the local MTB community and we had the Scottish FS in Belfast to entice even more of us to visit! And apparently it was also supported by the NI FS!

It was a great event – well organised, entertaining and informative.

Attendance might have been a bit iffy but that didnt reflect the true passion for MTB in NI.

Thats very true Northwind and lots of us do that trip every week! But we would like a decent centre of our own – rather than spending a lot of time riding illegally, avoiding sabotaged trails and watching hard work and effort being bulldozed with scary enthusiasm! Not to mention spending a small fortune with Stenna and all the local pubs and eateries in Scotland!

We are really despondent over here….each and every attempt to gain recognition for the sport is ignored and rejected with tedious regularity.

"Thats very true Northwind and lots of us do that trip every week!"

Oh yeah, hell, not saying it's an alternative to local trails! I think that's more the motivation for this promotional gig though, a lot of folks think of the big island as being too far away.

Northwind used the ferry myself to get to the very first Irish/Scottish SV650.org run out in around Girvan and Ayr (a number of years back!).

Good event today, spoiled a bit by that snot coloured bike 😉 (very nice wheels on it mind)

No no way back just as the site went all 'regional'. We met in Girvan morning time had a run up through the forest park, did lunch rode to Ayr realised the time and raced to Stranraer to not be allowed to board the boat that was still there. There was about 10 of us (4 of us from across the Irish sea), very steady Scottish lass lead us round in the afternoon. Think we were Total SV or Irish SVers.

But we would like a decent centre of our own – rather than spending a lot of time riding illegally, avoiding sabotaged trails and watching hard work and effort being bulldozed with scary enthusiasm!

Spend a bit less time riding illegal trails and a bit more time building them would be my advice. You don't really expect someone to do something for you that you're not prepared to do yourself?

Most of the land in NI is owned by the government whose agents do not officially sanction access to bikes. Hence all the forests, hills, mountains etc, despite the cracker natural trails, are generally ridden illegally.And they do remove/destroy trails from time to time.

The rest of the land is owned privately and very few landowners allow access. Quite a few do turn a blind eye but every now and then get upset for various reasons, and remove the trails/features.

Most bikers in NI hope todays event might encourage/shame our own FS into taking positive steps. But we arent holding our breath, and meanwhile we will continue to make frequent trips to Scotland and enjoy the benefits!

Euro, don't be so **** ignorant.

Ignorant as in unaware of the facts?

Fact is 95% of riders in northern ireland do nothing to contribute to our unofficial trail network. Trail fairies aren't real. Small dedicated groups of riders sacrifice their time to build trails that everyone rides. These same groups do their best to maintain said trails too (which is a very difficult job considering the ratio of riders to builders and our rather moist weather).

Instead of complaining about not having official trails, people could help to maintain the existing trails and help build new ones. Sadly this doesn't happen as most would rather swan off to scotland or somewhere rather than put something back. If everyone who rode, put in a tenth of the effort of those who do build, then we wouldn't need any official trails.

Apologies if you meant ignorant as in rude. That's just part of my charm. 😉