Hi
I’m wanting to build an mtb trail in my local woods but I need to ask the owner I have two sites
1.Danes dyke – Owned by concil
2. Sands wood – owned by horse centre?
Help?! 🙂

Council – Just build and see what happens. I wouldn’t ask as you will only alert them. They love stopping people having fun.

horse center – I would ask permission as its private property

Speak to other local riders, get a group together, make a plan and present to the land owner. Sound like you have a coherent idea and have a lot of respect for other users and have considered how you have considered the implications of the trails and how they will be used. IE no jumps onto fire roads, no high speed interactions with locals, no stupid or dangerous features. Some sings maybe.

Some sings maybe.

Definitely sings. Lots of sings. Everyone will love that 🙂

1. Decide what you want to get out of the site / do in it.
Is just a green light to enhance a cheeky trail arrangement or do you want to develop something more than that? What style of trail do you want? Singletrack, downhill etc. It’s likely that any landowner / manager will reject proposals for drops, gaps etc. Start modestly and as reputation / trust grows push the limits a bit more and so on

2. Who are you?
A solo builder who want to build low key stuff or do you already represent a collective?

3. Why should the landowner say yes?
Is it to curb uncontrolled building around the area? Will it help to manage existing visiting riders? Bear in mind that the financial side of things is a red herring. No one in this country will ever become a millionaire through developing a modest trail network let alone a handful of sections of singletrack.

There are a raft of other questions which would follow but these are some of the initial ones.

If you need more help drop me a line (email in profile) having gone through the process of starting out as 2 strangers sharing the same idea 13 years ago to having a modest network of XC and downhill trails if I can’t help then other members of our committee will be able to.

Stu.

Apparently is a “nature reserve”
…which normally means “Sod off bikes”
think of all the worms you will disturb !

Stealth the only answer for me

stealth as the above poster says AND never admit to Anything if questioned about it 😉
oh, and never Ever EVER leave holes anywhere.

If this is you maybe you shouldn’t 😛

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaWwwqvavdg[/video]

ndthornton – Member
Council – Just build and see what happens. I wouldn’t ask as you will only alert them. They love stopping people having fun.

horse center – I would ask permission as its private property

It’s all land owned by someone. Council/public is often just leased or granted public access by a landowner. Regardless, if you go digging without permission it’s criminal damage.

I’d look for local responsible (not just some kids building wicked jumps 😉 ) trail builder groups who may have advice and/or contacts with landowners.

Almost certainly though the answer initially will be no. No landowner wants to take the risk as they are liable if anyone is injured or killed on their land (though same is true even if it’s an illegal build).

For official trails from what I see it needs to be done through a strong community effort and getting various organisations and locals on board who can promote it as a good thing for the community, recreational benefits, health benefits, etc.

May be worth talking with CTC. I’d have said IMBA also as they know a lot about trail building and used to have some excellent guides about how to do it properly (drainage design and all that), though their UK web site seems a bit broken and the organisation is inactive.

Otherwise, keep it quiet, don’t go advertising illegal builds on the Internet, and take care 😉

No landowner wants to take the risk as they are liable if anyone is injured or killed on their land (though same is true even if it’s an illegal build).

I don’t think that’s strictly true. There’s a concept of informed consent. Therefore, someone injured when involved in an activity accepts the inherent risks.

On a well built and designed track there isn’t an issue of liability usually. Where someone builds features that would be encountered without warning and they aren’t rollable / can’t be safely navigated by the average user then “fault” and “liability” start to creep in.

E.g. pits immediately after a jump that, if someone baulks. will catch the front wheel, typically throwing someone over the bars. There’s no good reason for a pit to be there and it’s an identifiable hazard.

The features have to be well built i.e. not shonky pallets and tree branches lashed together with bail-a-bind 😉

Stainburn has lots of features, including high northshore, rocks that can catch the unwary, tricky features a fall from which could result in a good bang / broken bone.

However, it’s all signed as black, the sight lines are generally good, no-one should find themselves in a position where they are totally out of their depth as a result of the way the trail is designed or built.

I’m only mentioning this as otherwise that statement is a bit alarmist / misleading. Lots of the other advice is good 😎

Personally I’d always get landowner / manager permission. Otherwise, sooner or later, it’ll be grief and the destruction of trails that might have taken a lot of time, effort and money.

Can be a long and frustrating process but in the end I think it’s worth it.

Good luck 😎

Seek forgiveness not permission.. 😉