Bridleway bashing

[fossyant]

26 miles yesterday on Bridleways locally. A very small amount of road. Lots of respect given to walkers and horse riders as there were 14 of us. Just had one grumpy person in 4 hours that complained it was a 'footpath' - he was duly shown the 'bridleway sign'.

I like both, but you have to remember with 'natural' features, some of it's not ridable. Trail centres are all ridable, even if it looks terrifying. We had a good few boggy descents yesterday which made for fun, including landing bum first in the bog at the bottom.

 

[dan_bo]

Cornwall.

Wouldn't have thought you'd be short down there like. Dashed lines on an OS map.

 

[ShooglyDougie]

We have no bridleways here, but can pretty much go where we like it's braw. I'm luck enough to live within cycling distance between the Pentland hills and the Moorfoots (as well as hundreds of wee trails and woodlands) and the borders are only a 20 minute drive away, I love being able to do 50/60km days with only the occasional rambiler/dog waker/farm animal for company.

 

[Levo-Lon]

Loads of lose yourself tracks around here.
I like both.
Only downside is the bridleways are just too wet and muddy this time of year, so its a real slog in places.

 

[ChrisEyles]

I went out for a quick hour long loop this evening - loving the slightly longer days Found one section which should be pretty good when it dries out.

 

[Black Sheep]

been having a look round locally for bridalways to get out on, we seem to have a significant lack of them

A few old roads round and about but they're not ridable (I've walked them a few times)

More map study is required...

 

[Siclo]

If that's Rammy as in Ramsbottom this might help http://www.idonohoe.com/mountian_bike9.htm

I suspect it includes the roads you class as unrideable, be warned that loop is horrendously tough. There's a way across to Bacup, decent amount around Edgeworth and Rivington is a blast.

 

[dan_bo]

been having a look round locally for bridalways to get out on, we seem to have a significant lack of them

A few old roads round and about but they're not ridable (I've walked them a few times)

More map study is required...

yep if Ramsbottom you've an embarrasment of bridleway riches.

 

[fossyant]

been having a look round locally for bridalways to get out on, we seem to have a significant lack of them

A few old roads round and about but they're not ridable (I've walked them a few times)

More map study is required...

There isn't much that's un-rideable on an MTB, unless it's very up-hill or down hill.

The trails are very dry at the minute - absolute delight riding them.

 

[fossyant]

We had some old lady called us 'disrespectful' and all sorts a few weeks back as we had to use a wide path (10ft) by the side of the river in Hayfield - we'd ridden it at walking pace, nobody was using it, but as soon as we came onto the tarmac road, this old lady was screaming abuse at us - she was in the middle of a public highway (road).

You always get the odd one.

 

[fossyant]

Worth getting in touch with a local MTB group - facebook is useful for this. I go out with a local lad that runs his own bike servicing business but he also works for Sports Tours International - you'll get to know a load of folk that know all the 'legit' routes, and they will point out the 'cheeky' stuff that can only be ridden on your own/out of hours (if you know what I mean).

I've been massively impressed about what's 'legal' for me to ride locally, and lots of it I didn't know existed. We have a killer loop of just 10 or so miles that has about 2000ft of ascent, but doesn't get more than about 3 miles from my house. It's got big climbs, rocky descents, muddy stuff, the lot. Takes about 2 hours to do though.

 

[Siclo]

Cornwall Council has a Rights of Way page which has a very handy interactive PROW map.

That page shows just how little bridleway there is in Cornwall compared to the thousands of miles of footpath, I think the Cornish took the attitude if a horse can get up it you might as well make it a road.

@fossala There's some good riding around Stithians, a decent enough loop at Carn Brea near Redruth, good trails around United Downs, lots of green lanes on Bodmin Moor and of course Cardinham Woods but I think that's more of a trail centre these days

 

[Black Sheep]

There isn't much that's un-rideable on an MTB, unless it's very up-hill or down hill.

The trails are very dry at the minute - absolute delight riding them.

One 'public byway' so technically a road would be slow going in a landrover or motorcross bike, the ground is simply boulders and full bricks loosely chucked down. That's the one I was thinking of when I typed, it's uphill too (I'd cope with it downhill)

 

[Ticktockmy]

One source of cycling bridleways and local knowledge is the Rough stuff Fellowship, https://www.rsf.org.uk/ Quite a few members are old wrinkles like myself but we do have local knowledge of bridleway/byway and county roads routes. so would be a good contact point for someone not too sure where to ride. I run the North Sussex& Gatwick Section, however I run rides across central sussex and Surrey. so anyone interested in that area can comment or PM me here if they wish.