New Forestry Commission trails!

Is Lee Quarry a waste of money too?

I'm not going to answer that one otherwise I might be strung up by a fiery-mob.

A Manchester based one or a Bacup based one?

I've got some rope in the car.

I'm off, i've had enough of this and i've got work to do.

The new trails are ace. Fact. That is the important thing.

Too right 🙂

I gave a talk to the last IMBA conference about the difficulties faced by [volunteer] trail builders. In no particular order:

1. FE (whoops 😉
2. MTBers

The room went quiet, LOL.

Just look at this discussion, the one about folks riding Drumlarig (sp?) etc etc. No wonder we struggle to get anywhere and seem to achieve so little given the size, income and frequency of MTBing.

Funk 'em 😉

Harry – how long is the trail? As I'm thinking of taking my 7 year old nephew there at some point.
He loves mtbing and would like the humps.

it's not very long. It's not finished yet but even when it is it won't be huge.

Your nephew will love it (and so will you).

In a nice way, Terra/Harry. IF you lived 5-10miles away from this proposed development would you go and ride there at the weekend?

If they built that in my area- yes I'd ride it but I wouldn't especially make the journey.

Anyway.

He'd love it.

Leave the car in Philips Park and ride down through the old car park into Waterdale. Mail me (in profile) and i'll send you a map. The flat trails are all finished, the singletrack with the berms and jumps is a work in progress and doesn't link up properly yet.

There are no way markers, but the site is small and open enough to explore without getting lost.

Hora. I don't live near it.

hora – Member

If they built that in my area- yes I'd ride it but I wouldn't especially make the journey.

Hora, you live closer to that trail than Harry does. Get on your bike and ride it instead of driving somewhere

it's practically in my back garden 😉

Oh sh1t! Does he?

Harry – You have mail.

Seems quite simple to me – should the FC be putting public money into the 10% of riders at the "top of the tree" who we'd class as enthusiasts?

Personally, I think that there are areas where that is thoroughly appropriate, where the plan is to provide something that will provide a year round stream of tourism money into a rural area, successful examples of which abound, or to fulfil a niche for riders.

At the same time, theres a huge number of people out there taking their first tentative steps at mountain biking, who don't want or need radikal skillz and full on trails, that can come later – for the moment they're just glad to be trying out some nice pleasant singletrack – for them its a big step on from sustrans trails and riding round the local park, it builds their confidence and breaks down the barriers of feeling that the countryside is a scary intimidating place to be – hey, maybe some of them will enjoy it and take it up more seriously, buy a nice bike and venture further afield (making customers for all the B&B's at the 'destination' trails)- some might even explore and learn to read an OS map rather than follow waymarks.

Just think of these trails as fertilizer to grow the mountainbikers of tomorrow! 😀

Bunny,

YGM

Unless you are local, then yes you have to get in your car to get there.

It's, what, half an hour ride from the centre on Manchester? That's quite a lot of people within a short ride of it…

Thats the issue.

I thought the issue was the wasted money that could have been spent building offices?

You're all wrong. They ought to build the new Heathrow Terminal on it. Waste land, nowhere near Heathrow, it will bring jobs to the area….sorted!

IGMC

Why would I ride 8miles each way on Manc-roads?!

Serious question (for families etc). Any toilet facilities planned?

No facilities at the moment.

IIRC the local authority applied (and failed) for a lottery grant for a visitors centre including café and toilets in the adjacent park.

Something may be in the pipeline but I don’t know what.

Who knows what will happen in the future. They are only a year or so into a 99 year lease.

Why would I ride 8miles each way on Manc-roads?!

Ride off road then on the Sustrans route (6 I think) that goes through the site – I think it passes through Sale water park as well?

Serious question (for families etc). Any toilet facilities planned?

edit: harry beat me to it. I expected there to be facilities in Phillips park

You'll have to wee behind a tree.

Ride off road then on the Sustrans route (6 I think) that goes through the site

That's the one I used the first time I tried to get there. I got lost.

Rode the A56 (I think) this year; much easier and a pretty straightforward road with bus lanes and bike lanes.

Loads of people on today from old boys on old bikes to an Orthodox Jewish family out for an exploratory totter to the like of me getting the line through the berms a bit wrong.

Unfortunately there were some cock-ends on motorcross bikes too. They need rounding up and crushing… as do their bikes.

im after dropping in afterwork next week, anyhone want to guide me 😀

Do you know the area?

exciting time for mtb in Lancashire, hopefully it's just the start. just heard about this & not been here yet but looking forward to it, still sussing best route from bury.
with lee and cragg quarries, this trail & hopefully further projects it's gotta be good for both riders & the area alike . this trail looks accessible to younger riders which is what this area needs, & if it sparks a few kids imaginations & stops em from bein 10 bob gangsters it's money well spent.
see you down there

What Zulu-Eleven says
All FE whingers need to have a look at FE policy docs and check out their remit to provide liesure/recreation facilities.
There was/is a scheme under the heading of Woodlands in and around Towns or something like that. The aim being to provide recreation facilities in a forest/wood within a 2ml radius of a town. Just so happens our sport is ticking lots of boxes.We should be welcoming any mtb provision regardless of level.

I am lucky enough to have been on a committee which brought up this subject about 18mths ago. FE and our Council took it on board nad have just last week finished a real gem of a trail in the small forest near my house. Will never ever be more than a basic trail. It has been tagged onto our local Sustrans trail. It is already being used by kids on small bikes and the more mature rider on good old fashioned shoping style bikes.

Not sure where that trail is but if it meets the objectives it has been set out to do then it should be supported.

This looks great. I'm going to go take a look tomorrow morning if the weather's still ok.

Thanks for the heads up.

Joe

Where exactly is this, I think I've stumbled on a small section, just off the cobbled path, has a couple of small berms, a few bumps then turns back to the gravel road/path bit, is there more?

There is a couple of miles of it.

Have a look under the viaduct and by the stream.

Ah right is it that far up? I've not lived this end of Prestwich long, only a couple of months, the bit I found was by the clough.

Will go exploring tomorrow, cheers.

You want to sign up for Hit the North. 😉

We're using all the new FC stuff and loads more.

http://www.hitthenorth.net

8 hours? Erm, maybe next year mate, I'm far from fit enough. Have put it in the diary though will deffos come check it out.

Well just got back from an hour shaking off the booze of last night.

As far as family orientated tracks go its great, if I had kids, I'd be taking them there to get them into biking. The bit I'd already found (the sections in Harrys pics above) is probably the only bit I enjoyed

Its a shame the rest is just very gentle though, at least the are under the viaduct where theres a couple of very crude doubles could be properly developed into a nice little skills area with some proper jumps etc. I completely understand that the powers that be would aim for the most agreable of demographics and start with some nice gentle routes for families but with a bit of better planning some of the tracks could have nice gentle runs AND a few jumps or challenges for the more enthusiastic riders.

So in summary, this ones more for my Mam.