MTB

Campaigning for better trails... 

We have started a petition aimed at encouraging the authorities to let us ride more trails around Rivington in the north of England near Manchester.

For those of you who don't know it -  there are too many downhill gems to talk off, through Chinese gardens, across rambling fells and more.

So please support us in our bid to make sure more mountain bikers get to enjoy the trails in a safe way. You can sign up and read all about it here or just sign up.

Incidentally we have some of the best young riders round here trying to practise for bug events - and every time they build routes they are demolished. so we have decided more formal talks need starting.

 Please support us

I've never had any issue from 'the authorities' riding stuff round Rivi.

Let's not f*** about asking for 'permission', let's just ride.

clare cook wrote (see)

and every time they build routes they are demolished

I hate finding jumps and other obstacles have been built on trails, by the selfish few who are into this kind of riding, there are loads of good trails around the north Bolton area without resorting to these kinds of acts of wanton vandalism.

If I catch them at it I will give them a slap

Half the fun of riding through the chinese gardens at Rivington is finding your route down! I've never done the same one twice. There must be an almost infinite number of routes zig-zagging down the hillside. I usually opt for a few flights of stone steps, myself.

I've been riding round the Rivington area for the last 20 years, I wasn't aware that we couldn't ride through the chinese gardens anyway. Never had any problems, even from walkers.

Steve.

there's good points here. firstly there's still loads of us think that building more trails around the back of rivi would be the solution - is it not frustrating that everyone just goes to the same bit when the fells are massive?

The main point with the petition is to try to show how many people love the area and would benefit from some north shore or other stuff being built.... what do peep think??

then there's the point that loads of bikers (we live there so ride most nights) hurtling around the chinese gardens and other areas is gonna be dangerous for someone somewhere along the way... and yes we do get complaints all the time and with good cause some times

maybe making more trails and access over a wider area would just make things better for more people no??

 this every man for himself attitude....??

If people ride responsibly, there's no need for special bike trails. Britain has 1000's of miles of bridleways which are completely legal for mountian bikers to use. I don't understand the recent (last year or two) craze for artificial bike trails.

Rivington, Anglezarke, White Coppice, etc. already have plenty of tracks and bridleways. The tracks that are footpaths (ie. no bikes allowed) are mainly just across peat bogs anyway. No fun to ride.

Steve.

The main point with the petition is to try to show how many people love the area and would benefit from some north shore or other stuff being built.... what do peep think??

That point is fair enough.  I grew up in Chorley and class Rivi as my back garden.  Living in Preston I still ride the area and think there are some great trails and I love the fact the landscape is untouched.

I would hate them to build through the nature beauty areas like the chinese gardens.

However, if you are refering to the Darwen/Abbey Village side as being the back then there may be room for a discussion?

The whole point of a forum is to discuss stuff so it's well interesting to see how peep feel - and all we want to do is look beyond our own group of riders to see what other riders get up to around rivi and beyond - and the kind of experiences they have.

the areas we would be interested in seeing used a little more constructively is around healy nab or the back of lead mine's maybe (there, for example, is a bridleway that tapers into nothing  but boggy fell where no one neither walks nor rides?)

 'if you are refering to the Darwen/Abbey Village side as being the back then there may be room for a discussion?'

 i personally want to see the chinese gardens preserved a little so that there were maybe other options for riders. the erosion up to the tower etc and around the steps is pretty intense already since they cropped all the bushes... darwen and abbey village certainly would have their own issues (cyclists regularly ignore the cycle bans round there and again the route up to the tower is pretty rutted) but surely a discussion about more options would be a good thing.

See this: http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/read.php?f=2&i=3581859&t=3581859

Looks like there's already something happening re trail building in the area.

For all those who Ride Rivington, near Manchester: 

I have just interviewed the man organising the consultation behind new trails being built at Healy Nab.

Basically the news is this:

we all need to consult either through the link below or with the Blackburn MTB group for our ideas

we have until the end of May to put in requests for any type of technical stuff we want building by Rowan Sorrell

the final trails will be built in August

this represents a big investment in mountain bike trails around manchester: £2,000 on the design and £10-12k on the build

we all have to respect it and police ourselves - and contribute to maintentance.

read the full article:

 http://magazine.mountainbikeskills.co.uk/magazine/2008/05/healy-nab-trail.html#more

Right guys,

There is a place for open natural tracks and man made stuff. For all you lot out there who like man made stuff check this site out. The Manchester Mountain bike club have £1.2 million to build a massive MTB park in Stockport. It will include xc route, 4x track, DH sections, northshore, duel course and a MASSIVE jump park. All they need to show to the council is there is a 'need'. To support them sign their guestbook

www.reddishvalemtb.co.uk

Can sombody get in touch with our group who would be willing to lead a ride around this area for about 4 hours one Sunday? We have 80 members

http://mountainbikes.meetup.com/118/