Unless there is a by-law in place, expressly prohibiting it, it is not “illegal” to ride on a footpath.
I’d be surprised if the NT were so ill-informed about access law as to not realise the issue with the wording of that sign.

cynic-al – Member

Any links to Police views/actions on this?

When it happened near us (Saddleworth) 2 years back the police took it very seriously. There was a lot of publicity and it made it onto the Beeb aswell as lots of local news.

Which is why (IMHO) it’s particularly important that MTBers i)don’t spread hoaxes and ii) do photograph/make safe & then and report any stuff like this they find

It’s a hoax innit (the Cannock one)

It didn’t happen to the person who posted the pic it happened to “someone they knew”

The picture being used is a year old (and what’s in the pic is clearly rope not wire) and was taken in the US not Cannock.

I think we should be a bit careful about mooting the idea that another user group might be behind this without reasonable info.

If we start banging heads against other groups we weaken our collective ability to speak up against what DCC are doing here.

Esme – Well said

I find it surprising how many people fail to appreciate this

Good work Vicky. It doesn’t matter what they respond with!

The key thing is that they get to see just how many people are upset with what they have done.

Also that they rightly get a lot of publicity about the fact that at a time of financial hardship, they are spending taxpayers money on bridleway repairs – in the interests (apparently) a tiny minority… whilst at the same time laying off staff, shutting down day centres, and failing to repair roads etc etc – which are important to a large majority of people.

cant imagine them doing this in the alps, or even scotland come to think of it

Can’t speak for the alps, but I usually manage 2 Highlands trips a year…. and sadly it is also happening up there.

That said, DCC seem to be working hard to firmly establish themselves as the least MTB-supportive council.

Fun-Da-Mental (the original band – before they replaced the singer and became just-another-nineties-indie-rap-band) – a few interesting singles. Live…well it was 20+ years ago …I’ve seen hundreds of bands …and I still get goose bumps remembering that gig.

Fishbone. One very good album, the rest mediocre(IMHO). Live – brilliant.

Reverend Horton Heat ….with a psychobilly rendition of ‘Paranoid’.

Bellowhead – far better live.

Mark Lanegan, Nick Cave, Public Enemy, SLF, Motorhead, Iggy Pop – There’s something that a few have live, that others just….don’t.

The Ramones – say no more.

Slightly off topic, but I didn’t really “get” the Animal Collective till I saw them.

No tail whips
No 60 ft hucks
No self obsessed tanned ripped blond dudes with slo-mo accents
No “close up shots of nature”
No done to death death metal soundtrack
No done to death anti death metal sound track
No voiceover w**kfest about some spiritual quest to go some place no other f**ker has ever been with a bike.

Don’t think it’ll go down very well in the US ….I loved it. 🙂

This is the antidote and I want more!

That is very sad to hear 🙁

Great news!

Big shout out to PMBA and Ride On for all the time and effort put in over the last few years to make this happen.

Struggling to think of any man made trails in the UK where the addition of a visitor centre has been anything other than a big success story.

I have arkels, and they are bloody brilliant.
http://www.arkel-od.com/us/all-categories/touring-bike-bag.html

not water proof, but they are far better to use than the ortliebs i also have.

?

Surely being waterproof is a fundamental design requirement for a touring bag? …Otherwise you’re gonna need liner bags/shopping bags/raincovers/whatever.

Even in a “dry” country not sure I’d wanna assume that the bag wasn’t gonna get wet.

Slightly off topic I know but I suspect someone will suggest em sooner or later…

I tried Carradry after seeing many positive reviews on CTC. Material started to delaminate after two of months of every other weekday commuter use.. (so not a vast amount of use)..where the top rolls down. Ended up with puncture repair patches dotted on em. Then started leaking from the bottom. The sharp corners are a clear weakness and the material wears here.
Really wanted to buy British …and they had good reviews but very disappointing.

If this happened on a long tour, you’d be pretty frustrated

Was gonna replace with Ortlieb but saw so many good reviews on Vaude, thought I’d give em a try. (I also have a tent by ’em …well made and 30 years old …still going…still waterproof)

Seem good so far. The strap thing works well for carrying off the bike (heard tales that the Ortlieb ones don’t measure up quite so well in this respect but can’t remember details??). It’s also quick. (The Carradry pannier-rucksack carrying system was so tedious that I tried it once and didn’t bother after that)

Possible weaknesses
…the lower clip system – doesn’t seem massively robust.
…The sharp right angle corners – look like an obvious place for material wearing prematurely. You’d think they would have gone over these with a second strip of cordura or something for some added protection..especially at the base, where they’ll be in contact with the ground plenty taking em on and off. (I may be worrying excessively about this on the back of bad experience with Carradry)
…the base is same material as everywhere else. No additional protection.

Thanks for posting Helen

As others have hinted at, the difference between this position and that recently of Derbyshire Council is remarkable.

Anyone from Ride Sheffield (talking with DCC) on this thread at mo? This thread might be of use as an example of “engagement”

@cabeaumont

Cheers for useful info you have been sticking up

I’d be interested to hear how the bike climbs as not heard a lot about that. I’d like to know how it would be on long days out in “big hills”

I assumed (and I’m happy to be proved wrong) that since neither BETD or Wheels Manufacturing are making YT hangers that there is a reason for this…either they ain’t allowed or YT won’t release the design info?? (I’m presuming BETD/WM work from a template rather than reverse engineer the design??)

A mate has one. Only niggle he has is that the frame is cracked.

@nodrog2
I’d love to know what your mate considers as a serious issue then. 😆

Another potential purchaser here. The bikes look mint, awesome VFM, however I’m being put off by pretty grim tales about customer support (look at MTBR and check out the 16 page thread on PinkBike)

Not heard inspiring tales of reliability on BOS kit and as others said above, BOS UK won’t support YT products (in terms of warranty issues) so would probably go for the more reliable/cheaper than the super plush suspension offering.

What is bothering me quite a lot is that it seems there is still no way to get spare mech hangers for a fair number of their bikes – including the Wicked. YT have been sold out for at least a month now, probably longer, and there aren’t any third party manufacturers.

Anyone have any more info on this??

If this is for real, there must be some very pi55ed off owners around. How long does it take to machine a few hundred mech hangers FFS 🙁

I don’t think anyone’s mentioned this yet, but any/all “formal” disputes with neighbours have to be declared when you come to sell your house.

And if it looks like your neighbour is an ar5e, then that won’t help with a potential house sale.

There isn’t a definition of formal, but I suspect that going to police would most definitely be considered “formal”.

Painful tho’ it may be, try to negotiate, try to accommodate. If that fails, the RSPCA are often prepared to take legal action and can be aggressive where necessary.

Police, much as it would be great to get them onto this guy, might perhaps be a last resort??

Yep – It is part of the pennine way. Rare to see many people up there and never seen another biker, but locals do hit it from time to time.
Heard the helicopter go over or gaff at ~midday yesterday. Very sad news.
As Banks says, it’s not exactly ‘novice’ territory – You’d most likely be up there on a bike only if you knew the area and enjoyed “bigger” days out biking. So can’t help but think this is gonna be a local rider.
As others said – quite a drop to Laddow. We also had some pretty heavy rain on Sunday am which would have affected riding conditions.
A tragedy.
Condolences to family and friends and some special thoughts also for the MRT who went out to him.

Why too late to organise Mr Woppit? If you fancy it, just go do it. It’s a great experience. You don’t necessarily have to do it as a charity thang. ….Although after the 100th person asks you what charity you’re doing it for …(and then looks at you like you’re a bad person when you say you’re just doing it for yourself) ..you might think differently.

I reckon at that level of commuting, you’ll be fine

12 days for me to go from John O Groats to Lands End t’other year- self supporting on an old GT hardtail

It was harder than I reckoned because the weight of tent, sleeping bag, camping stove etc, slowed my average daily speed down a lot more than I’d anticipated – so ended up doing some very long days in the saddle.

Biggest issue for me was arse pain (mainly due to an SDG saddle) and wrist pain.

Starting from Lands End, in theory, but not guaranteed, means the wind will be kind of behind you. Downside is you will hit hills from day 1 and they are never ending down there. Other downside is you finish in John O Groats. The two nearest stations don’t have regular trains like Penzance and the trains have limited bike carrying capacity, and lots of cyclists finishing their rides up there at similar times. One section of the Scottish train route won’t allow you to reserve bike carriage in advance. I heard stories of people being stuck for 3 or 4 days up there and someone getting a hire car down to Inverness rather than wait. No such issues with Penzance due to volume of trains and entire journey back to MCR allows for bike reservations in advance

The other plus of starting from JoG is you are fairly fit for the Conwall Devon hills by the time you get there.

Downside of starting from JOG is the riding gets progressively less nice the further South you go. Cornwall/Devon you’ll more than likely be on main roads with fast traffic around if you want to finish in under a fortnight roads. I took a detour thru Exmoor(B3223) to try and get away from them for a bit – and see the Exmoor National Park – which I was surprised to find fairly underwhelming. Any view in the Peak District, Lakes, Wales, Yorks, Scotland would make (what I saw of) Exmoor, instantly forgettable – nowt like eg Dartmoor or Bodmin Moor (apologies to anyone who’s a fan of the place)

The riding down to ~ Garstang however is brilliant. Some of the scenery is just brilliant. If you are camping then you won’t need to go all the way along the N coast of Scotand to the YHA at Tongue. Instead turn S a lot earlier and head down the Strathnaver valley (top tip from a local). This was probably the most spectacular bit of riding of the journey for me. Other impressive bits are the sections just N and S of Innerleithen. Pitlochry cycle path over Drumochter Pass. Eskdalemuir Forest down to Langholm – has a very “Canadian” feel to it.

I thought I would be a fitness god by the time I got back. Bizarrely, it just didn’t work like that, as I discovered when I went out on the SS in the peaks a couple of days later 🙁

It was a Sunday am ride around the Roman Lakes (bloody ell my memory) and it was in 2005 I think.

Right day of the week, right location…but you’re a few years out Hora! It was 4th October 2009

@banks
How rude.
If you don’t behave, I will put your name down for one of mine

FWIW hora, although I’ve been actively involved with running MMB for ~5 years, you and I and Peachos like the same sorts of rides by the sound of it – not necessarily the sort of rides people think of when they think of “club rides”, but based on what members say, I don’t think MMB is a “typical bike club”

There are a whole host of different sorts of rides in MMBs calendar. IIRC you went on an evening local mid-skill level sort of ride – which I suspect ain’t really your cup of tea??

I’ve posted plenty of rides in the past which are limited numbers and are “heading off up big mountains” and Peachos does the same. I also ride on my tod a lot locally, because I enjoy it, because the views from where I live are gorgeous (and also because I have the luxury of being able to ride some weekdays) – the fun stuff near me would get also get trashed if “ridden by crowds”.

With regards to MMB, each to their own, but MMB does do a lot of good stuff, so it’s a shame to hear people have had a poor experience with it (or are presenting less than positive perspectives on it on here)

One great thing about it is that it gives people new to the area, or who have lost their riding buddies (through carelessness, poor social skills) an opening, or have only just “found” mountain biking an opportunity.
There’s lots of other stuff it does aswell…On average we’ve give £500 a year for each of last few years to mountain rescue and air ambulance organisations. We’re founder members of PMBA. We support IMBA and we support the CTC.

We’ve got connections with local shops to get discounts. We run mechanicing skills sessions for those people who are interested (surprisingly large number). We’ve got contacts with the police and have helped recover a few members bikes over last few years.
We actively big up local and national bike events from the STW weekender/HTN to MM/SITS/Dyfi. We organise uplift days, weekends away at bunkhouses/cottages/campsites and we organise trips abroad – Many of these are cheaper than they would be for an individual on their own.
We are also very active at car sharing, on every ride, so it makes heading over to Wales, up to the Lakes, or out into the Scottish Highlands a lot more financially comfortable than “going solo”.

There’s a huge wealth of very broad knowledge in the club and the extent to which people will go to help others out never fails to surprise me – Need a boiler fitting, need a telly, need advice on buying a van, need to borrow a bike/car, need to arrange a wife swap? There’s usually always someone who responds.

There are also lights, wheel jigs, maps, survival gear, mountain bike guides, helmet cams, GPS, etc all available for members to borrow for free.

We strongly believe in the value of First Aid (in the community not just MTB) so we run a matched funding scheme. For anyone who wants to take a First Aid scheme – the club will cover half the cost.

There is also lots of SH gear getting sold on the forum. Usually at mates rates, and plenty of times, given away for free. I have saved a fortune buying stuff through the club (with the added advantage it’s from people I know and trust). One guy built up a jump bike virtually for free a while back just by saying that was what he wanted to do and then people bunging him parts.
Couple of weeks ago, I needed a bike rack for a w/e whilst van was in for service. One post on forum and I’d got 5 people offering to lend me bike racks.

I guess whatever a club does, it will never please all the people all the time. That said, much as I ride with them very little these days, IMHO MMB is a great club and I have memories of rides with them that will last me a lifetime 🙂

Apologies to anyone on here who might be waiting for MMB membership. Applications usually get an (almost) immediate autoreply followed by an email within ~7days letting them know how to get on to the club website.

Unfortunately mind-numblingly appalling service from BT/OpenReach left me without landline/internet for a fortnight so I am now working through a backlog of membership stuff.

@Rebel 12 – re this
[/quote] Before I’d even been to a meeting got death by a thousand emails. Must have been 20-30 emails a day from the Meetup Group. Then, after a little while and again before I’d even been to a ride, got a snotty email from the organisers asking for me to either pay up or leave.

I’ve been managing memberships for best part of 5 years for MMB. There are 2 standard emails that go out to people who have signed up for a free 3 month guest membership.
– The first one is a welcome one
– The second one lets people know when their guest membership expires
Both contain references to explicit requirements of our insurance that we HAVE to meet wrt guest members.
They also answer other questions which past guest members have fed back to us that it would be useful to know about in advance.

There is not and never has been a “Pay up or leave” email. I have never sent one and no-one else on the committee has the ability to do that.

We are aware that meetup.com send a lot of emails, that is why we put info on the club website to inform people how to adjust their settings to minimise these (It’s no different to Facebook). From your above post – (you say 20-30 emails per day) – for your 3 month guest membership – would have amounted to 1800 – 2700 emails. I suspect you are exaggerating, as I’m not aware of anyone else in the club who has received this volume of emails from meetup.com.

The Guest membership is for three months (surely that is enough time to try a club out?) It’s the same length of time for everyone – always has been.

At the end of that time, because we believe it’s rude to just kick someone off a website, we send a “Goodbye” email. This is what it says:

Hi {insert members name}
Your 3 month guest membership period has now expired. We hope you enjoyed your time with us. If at any time you would like to join officially, please feel free to apply for Full Membership.
All the best,
Manchester Mountain Bikers

I’m struggling to see how that could be construed as a “snotty email” 😥 Although, for what it’s worth, I am also sorry that you had such a disappointing experience of the club.

Some of the preceding posts are creating a negative impression of MMB. Some of the post are from people who have no experience of the club and some are simply not true.

If people wanna ride with a club, that’s cool. If people don’t wanna ride with a club that’s cool. No need for anyone on here to have a pop at people on account of their personal preferences over this, and no need for anyone to have a pop at MMB either

Love to y’all

Fluff 🙂

(and OP you should have a reply in yer inbox by now)

..and I love this

Now normally people shouldn’t dream of covering a Motorhead toon…let alone this one, but I reckon one good formula for a cover is to take a great tune, do it differently and it still be great.
Wins on all counts…

@ plyphon – Exactly! You end up with a situation where non mtn bikers are worried about mountain bikers getting injured. That’s what we need (although maybe not, if you’re as clumsy on a bike as I am 😕 )

@ zippykona – I’m really surprised at that. Is that the official line or is it something that might have been passed on “word of mouth” so to speak?

I’ve heard the argument before but I think it’s one that represents a very outdated attitude that used to be held towards a number of criminal activities; arson – used to be the best example. Even in arson cases these days (I live on the edge of the moors), the police and fire brigade have now all moved to the position that informing the public is a better course of action for everyone. (I was at a meeting where this very subject was discussed last year)

The thinking these days is that publicity means having more eyes and ears on the alert and this outweighs any small incentives that may be provided to an also very small number of (albeit potentially dangerous) “influence-able” (aka “dickhead”) minorities

Hmmm
It’s possible that john is exercising a healthy degree of skepticism. Clearly trail sabotage is an issue. There’s reported, documented cases with police reference numbers. As per above examples eg Dovestones, Hammers. The one described by the OP sounds particularly unpleasant (more details as per other requests would be particularly helpful)

Unfortunately there are also urban myths that get circulated……and it’s possible that the people who spread those (deliberately or naively) don’t realise the consequences of their action: One obvious example…It can take years to get planning applications for trails past councils. Councillors can be very fickle creatures and anything that hints at a potential increase in crime (theft/mugging/vandalism/damage/whatever) stats on their patch is gonna be harder to get their approval for.

BTW – Just to be clear I’m not for a minute accusing the OP of distributing urbans myth.

Think the most important thing here is… any of us finding stuff like this need to report it to the police – photos if possible (and then get as much info as possible out onto the forums).

@ chrisfixed

Chris – Please can you report this to the police if you haven’t already done so. Reporting it is really important for dealing with this stuff.

We had similar problems up at Dovestones earlier this year. It was reported to the police and made it into Manchester Evening News and also onto local BBC news. It had spread round all the local bike forums, riders and shops within hours as a result.

Whilst reporting it is unlikely to result in an arrest…
– the publicity has a chance of reaching the ears of the culprits (or friends/family of the culprits) and may make them think twice about doing something so stupid again …
– it may make other idiots doing this elsewhere eg Hebden/Hamsterley consider the consequences (not only to riders, but also to themselves if caught!)
– it makes other mountain bikers who aren’t on this forum aware of the risk

Donated

It’s also up on Manchester Mountain Bikers notice board and I’ve winged it round a few other NW forums

Condolences to their families and their friends on here

Dunno if it’s clear from the above post..this wasn’t just someone trashing trails..Iit was stuff specifically designed to hurt someone. Booby trapped landings and rope stretched between trees.

DONK

I didn’t miss it

I laughed a lot 😀

Keep up the good work

We have camped at Les Marmottes in Essert Romand 3 times now. Last time in 2006

It is down a valley off the roundabout halfway between Morzine and Les Gets

Short painful climb/push up to the roundabout in the morning – then freewheel all the way down the main road to Morzine

At the end of the day, catch the last lift up in Morzine and do the XC bit over to Les Gets, then pretty much downhill along road all way to campsite

Owner is called Max – nice guy – but he’ll get racked off with you if you make a lot of noise later on

It’s a fairly busy campsite so you’re gonna be camped near others. Atmosphere is pretty good and there is a (noisy) bread delivery every morning at about 8am

The EVO stuff doesn’t work well for high speed impacts as it takes a short time for the material to react. I’ve also heard it’s not as effective against sharp objects

@mikeclarke

If the showers have been fixed, then I would be tempted to give that place (Tweedside) another go (if Rosetta was full) as it was actually a fairly nice site once you were in it

+1 for finishing on the blue rather than the red at GT. The jumps are loverley 😀

Will have to check out that Barlochan campsite.

+1 for Rosetta – walking distance to Peebles (and excellent Prince of India restaurant, and the Bridge pub for a decent pint). Lots of bikers. Sometimes noisy. Newer management over last few years seem a bit more random/less clued up than previous owners

I stayed at Tweedside Caravan Park in Innerleithen years ago. Right in the middle of a slightly bleak looking council estate. Shower water pressure so bad, it just ran down the walls and you had to flick the water onto yourself

Kippford holiday park – South of Dalbeattie. Good showers. Nice, mainly statics. VERY expensive for campers

Hoddom Castle – reasonable prices. Good location for Southern Stanes. Nice campsite. Good showers. Bad bar and bad takeaway on site. Close to A/M74 Motorway

@Itheisinger

Do NOT order a taxi. It was total gridlock all the way out to the M60 last night. You’ll be sat in it not moving, watching your fare go thru the roof. 20 mins walk to Piccadilly train station under normal circumstances. 30+ in that sort of crowd

I use a 2.35 single ply DH HR up front and have done for a long time. It’s a good all round tyre. Confidence inspiring on rocks (wet or dry) and pretty good on roots. I use a 42a Supertacky rather than a 60 though as the grip is much better. Will feel draggy on tarmac and compared to a 60 HR generally

HR also more reasonably priced than some of the alternatives and fairly robust tyre. The supertacky lasts pretty well (surprisingly)

Forgot to say – I run it tubeless (kit tubeless) now, and that improves it even further

too late

But +1 for Charge Spoon anyway 😀

One of the best VFM bike components (limited) money can buy

Thanks randomjeremy

@ridingscared
I tried the POC ones on at sleepless and to me they seemed to have very poor side protection – compared the Troy Lee T bones or the Kyle Straits which seem to be better designed in that respect

(& like you said, the price is a bit OTT )