I’ve just read the article…sounds like a bollocks attempted robbery to me…and you are right, there are obviously several things they are not telling you.

Give them a real robbery and they probably wouldn’t do anything about it!!!

Is he riding a Soul?

Nightjars in Surrey? Are you **** kidding me?!

With the amount of rambling and off the leash dog scurrying and shitting that accompanies any nice bit of green land near a big conurbation there’s not a snowball in hell’s chance of such a sensitive bird nesting there.

Usual “if only things were like the 1930s again” bullshit being used to mobilise opinion against biking off road.

This all boils down to NIMBY tosspots who think that just because they have paid a premium for a house in a nice rural area then they should be allowed ‘unsullied’ access to the local countryside. And no, I’ve paid a lot for my house, so being required to pick up my dog’s shit is beyond the pale. Someone else can clear that up, I pay my taxes, some oik can do that. Etc. Etc.

The rider in the OP has let us all down. By giving the local ‘too extreme for the golf club, so has to resort to the ramblers’ NIMBYs something to really go at, the repercussions are obvious.

Sad to say, but killing them with kindness is the best way. Just seeing someone pumping themselves up to have a go and then watching them squirm and backtrack as I am almost embarrassingly courteous really tickles me. Most end up having to ignore my cheery “good morning” and so they are made to feel (rightly) that they are the churlish prudes with the problem. Such moments are worth a hundred “**** offs”.

no-one seems to be asking the really big question, namely: what tyres was he using? 😉

By the way, Ashdown forest is legendary for its highly forward thinking, positive and welcoming attitude to mountain bikers. Don’t worry, it’s only because they can’t burn witches anymore.

The sad thing is that the Ashdown Forest is a massive area and there is certainly scope to create a mountain bike loop around the perimeter, whilst still keeping them away from the main honeypot areas for walkers and horse riders. If done properly, it could also be built in a very sustainable way, causing minimal erosion (certainly much less than the horses that use it now).

Unfortunately, sense was thrown out the window decades ago so it will never happen, at least not for several generations.

Of course none of these (or any) restrictions count when it’s dark!

What wheel size and tyres for disputing butterfly photography?

the biker is 100% innocent of any wrongdoing.

How do I know?

No bombers.

There was if a local group who were attempting to negotiate some sort of limited access with the managing group and I did for a time think about joining them to help raise awareness etc. however after reading some of the minutes from the meetings that were published online I drew the conclusion that it was merely an exercise on their part of going through the motions, and they ultimately had no intention of shifting from their current aloof position, so I’d didn’t bother, I feared I might end up baring my arse to them at one of their meetings.

I can kind of understand that they wouldn’t want a Surrey Hills unofficial trail centre type thing there, but the forest is huge and would be an ideal place for a waymarked trail for families/kids away from the traffic, but as above, its run by morons. Hence the numerous signs about bikes causing erosion and danger (whilst horse riding is allowed).

Dannyh

Quite, but it is all grist to the mill for those who would seek to ban us from everywhere except the roads.

FTFY

Ashdown Forest is in East Sussex I believe.

More chance of getting trails on the moon than Ashdown. I live a few miles away and have been chased by a ranger in his truck for riding my mtb on a tarmac road through the forest. There are two bridle ways through it which are not governed by the absurd local bylaw which prevents cycling and I’ve been rudely challenged by horseriders, walkers and forest rangers multiple times on both of them too. There is a widely known aggressive policy against mountainbikers in the forest and I guarantee this ‘disabled wildlife photographer’ was nothing of the sort.

So according to the consensus, a rider was riding where he shouldn’t be, someone takes a picture of him, the rider then trys to take the camera by force to at the very least delete the picture. It sounds a nasty incident to me, not the end of the world but the rider has acted like a thug and is plainly wrong. I can’t see how thus is anything but a big step back for those riders trying to get access to the forest 🙁

a big step back for those riders trying to get access to the forest

There’s idiots in all walks of life but I can’t see this rider’s actions doing anything to harm bicycle access – it’s never going to happen anyway 🙁

Shocking photo quality for someone calling himself a photographer… 8)

big step back for those riders trying to get access to the forest

Yeah, as I remember it, the Ashdown Forest nimbies are none too keen on Winnie-the-Pooh tourists either. They are a charitable lot.

I think the funniest thing to do with a photo-taker would be to take your phone/camera out and take load of photos of them. You chuckle while you do it and ask them to pose.

Imagine the impotent rage! 😀

For interest, what would be the actual sanction for being caught riding in there? Is it just the shouting?

Is it just the shouting?

don’t forget the finger wagging

So just to clear. Due a local law its more illegal to ride in this wood than any where else. I’m excepting the bridleways of course

So just to clear. Due a local law its more illegal to ride in this wood than any where else. I’m excepting the bridleways of course

Pretty much. Oh, and you aren’t allowed to use the bridleways going through the forest either.

And it’s more like a heathland than a forest. 😀

I used to work down that way, and was amazed I couldn’t ride my Bear Valley back there in 1993. Thought things might have changed by now.

We should all get in touch with the Police and say it was us “I am the Mountain Biker” “No, I am the Mountain Biker”. In a show of solidarity.

So victim37 was taking photo’s of butterflies, when the mountain biker rode into shot. Now as someone who does a little bit of photography, I have to ask what size where these butterflies because in my experience you have to be pretty close to them to get a decent photo, even with a BIG lens, usually inches away 🙄
Secondly if I had 1p for every person that walked in front of me or in some cases even stood in front of me when taking a photo, I’d have an Orange 5 by now 😉
However there is really no excuse to try and grab the camera, this does sound like a local hack over egging a story though to pander the NIMBY busy body brigade. 😈

So many things wrong with this story..
Butterfly’s at 6:50pm at this time of the year..
He’s got two bikes

The disabled victim probably caught the cyclist having a pee.. Got a sneaky PIC of his cock from the bush he was hiding in.
Cyclist didn’t take kindly to a pervert in the bushes and rightly so tried to take his camera away to delete the pictures.

Disabled pervert who has difficulty walking had no difficulty running away..or walking around a “forest”
What really should be investigated is benefit fraud.

I was wondering how the photographer finished up being disabled? Can’t think……..

Nedrapier talks about SANCTIONS. I’m told that the wardens/police have the power to take your bicycle away. Something I don’t think I would allow without a fight first!

Nightjars……..yes, definitely there in reasonable numbers every year for the past several in my limited experience and probably for many centuries before that. And that’s despite drongo dog walking dicks etc etc

It occurs to me that reading the interview in court is going to be fun:

‘the defendant is alleged to have been on an orange mountain bike, he is also thought to own a white mountain bike”

‘But I don’t own either an Orange mountain bike, or a Whyte one’

‘OK, so what colour are your bikes?’

‘well, my Cotic is orange, my On-One Inbred is white’

‘but you just said you didn’t own either an orange bike or a white one!’

‘Yeah, I know, I don’t own either an Orange or a Whtye, I own a Cotic and an Inbred, I just told you that’

‘but you said that one was orange, and the other one was white?’

‘Yeah, but I don’t own an Orange or a Whyte’

‘So now you’re saying that you don’t own either an orange bike or a white bike?’

Etc. 😀

Bit of an odd one for sure, funny how you lot are all defending him just because he rides a bike though. He could have stolen the bike else and then tried to rob the disabled bloke?

I don’t think anyone is defending him, just guessing that the article isn’t telling the whole truth about the incident, given the issues surrounding bikes on the forest and the somewhat emotive language used in the article.

Bit of an odd one for sure, funny how you lot are all defending him just because he rides a bike though

did you just read the same thread I did? coz bar a couple of weird posts (that I presume/hope were a joke) I thought most were saying he sounds like an idiot/dick but there’s probably more to the story.

They’ve always been very protective over Ashdown, I was chucked off years ago by the ranger, he swooped on us in the car park before we’d even got our helmets on, it was way way over the top.

To be honest though it’d be rubbish, the place is full off thorns and sand, theres even a place called isle of thorns. seriously though it’s a real shame, especially with the stunny 360 vista’s on the top, plenty of room for all. I was thinking of moving to Hartfield or Forest Row but having Ashdown on my doorstep and not being able to ride it is too tormenting.

There is other riding nearby though.

Greyhound half an hour before last light – I’d be rather suspicious of poaching. If not hope the thing was on a lead as there is no way you can stop one from chasing deer which is much more serious than cycling.

Horses allowed but not bikes….

How about a tandem ridden by a pantomime horse?

Looks like he has fled to the wintry north:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-29519266

It occurs to me that reading the interview in court is going to be fun:

‘the defendant is alleged to have been on an orange mountain bike, he is also thought to own a white mountain bike”

‘But I don’t own either an Orange mountain bike, or a Whyte one’

‘OK, so what colour are your bikes?’

‘well, my Cotic is orange, my On-One Inbred is white’

‘but you just said you didn’t own either an orange bike or a white one!’

‘Yeah, I know, I don’t own either an Orange or a Whtye, I own a Cotic and an Inbred, I just told you that’

‘but you said that one was orange, and the other one was white?’

‘Yeah, but I don’t own an Orange or a Whyte’

‘So now you’re saying that you don’t own either an orange bike or a white bike?’

Etc.

he he quality 😆

hels – Member
Looks like he has fled to the wintry north

One of the staff went to summon assistance and the robber fled the shop on a mountain bike …
…He was wearing dark clothing, possibly a hooded top with a dark jacket and trousers.

Paging cynic_al 😉

There is other riding nearby though.

Where?

Sorry for bumping up an old thread, but what gets me about AF is this mess created by the forest rangers. Photo taken today.

So how does riding an mtb on there make more mess than the above, or even the horses, and dog walkers that let their dogs crap everywhere without picking it up. Mix that with walkers dropping litter, and I would have thought that mtb riders would actually have the least impact.
I don’t consider the riding on there to be massively great, but there are some good routes, and it’s certainly convenient for any of us that happen to live close by. Allowing mtb use on there could help to sustain the area, especially if riding by permit was introduced. I’d happily pay to ride it, and if the local tea rooms etc had any sense, they could also capitalise upon it. The trouble is that the conservators don’t actually want anyone to use it except for themselves. The only way that it will ever change, is if a load of mtb riders became conservators, and forced change. I’m not volunteering for that one.

In respect of being stopped for being on the forest, we had someone rant at us on Xmas day morning and take our photos. Some people really need to get a life. I guess that said person was having a worse Xmas than us out enjoying ourselves.
Pippingford Park offers some good riding, but obviously you need to pick your moment carefully. 😉

Salt and pepper hair?????