Trail riding uk
 

Just found this while trawling the web
http://www.thegreenlanecrew.co.uk/

Not the most legal of groups, prepare to ride restricted byways and bridle ways....

+1

Scunthorpe is well located for greenlaning in the Peaks, N.Yorks et c., but riding unsurfaced roads in the UK is a sensitive subject, and you need to have good information on rights of way. The police are particularly keen on enforcing the law in the Peak District.

LARF organise trail rides in these areas - they are a good bunch that go trailriding all over the country. Other groups here Be prepared that most trail riding groups may not seem all that friendly initially - what they are actually doing is trying to weed out the people who want to use the greenlanes for enduro practice (remember greenlanes are public roads and will have concentrations of horse riders, militant ramblers, angry / homicidal landowners...) There are some difficulties involved with greenlaning, but the upside is that you get to see some stunnning parts of the country and enjoy riding sometimes tricky terrain.

I like the quote "25 mph voluntary limit" FORGET THAT!! I want to make noise, I want to ride fast, ok I dont want to kill people or horses...but if I want to go 25 mph and please everyone else I'll go out on my mountain bike.....I bought a 2 stroke enduro bike to have fun on,not potter around on.

Im with you on that ss , i want to ride legal but i also want to have fun doing it or id have dragged the Marin out of the corner of the garage lol :D

That's why we have f-all left to ride legally. We are a minority in this country, we don't have the space that other countries like the US and Oz have so we have to share, if we take the attitude that I will do what I want, then soon there will be nothing left.

Id say its more to do with the fact that some people find the need to stray away from the legal trails and not being responsible around other users , it doesnt matter how hard you try though you cant please everyone .

Thanks for taking the time to reply.
Chris

The clue is in the name: enduro bike ! ie (nearly always closed course these days) competition bike. As it happens, EC 250 / 300 in particular also make great trail bikes because they still work well when rode at a fraction of their potential, but the local enduro, or even one of the practice day events is the place for giving it some, not on unsurfaced public roads with unwitting members of the public / livestock et c. wandering around the place. The challenge on greenlanes comes from tackling the difficult 'sections' - climbs, steps, deep mud and so on, not going flat out in sixth.

The UK is a small island with too many people living on it and a bit of consideration to other greenlane users is what we need for the majority to get along. There will always be petty spiteful types who will hate us regardless, but there's no need to p1ss off even more people.

I'm not disagreeing with your statement fella, I was just pointing out that a 25mph limit seems a bit boring, I can do that in dalby forest on my mountain bike, I bet at least 75-80% of those "TRAIL" riding groups are riding enduro bikes anway.

Horses have bridleways, Walkers have footpaths, Off Roaders have Byways so yes I think we can all get along.

My post seems to have ruffled a few feathers ... and what I said has been blown out of proportion somewhat.
I didnt say that I want to ride everywhere at 200mph killing animals and mowing down innocent people with blatant disregard.

I checked out "the green lane crew" as posted by diggs and it seemed ok like they wanted to have a bit of fun not so stuffy....I then read caravan monsters post and looked on BOTH of those trail riding sites checked out LARF and TRF.

And I was commenting that the TRF seem to be a bit stuffy and had a voluntary 25mph speed limit that seemed well a tad boring.

NOT that I want to ride everywhere flat out in sixth wheeling and pulling endo's......maybe that I'd like to open the throttle a bit with a bit of fast riding 50mph perhaps on some fast flowing hard packed terrain if the conditions are right.

I like the fact my bike is a 2 stroke, I like the noise they make when they hit the powerband...But I dont intend to pass by horses or people having a stroll with the throttle pinned back to the stop trying to deafen or scare them, if we all rode electric bikes then it would be a bit dull wouldn't it??

I do have respect for others, im sure some of those trail riding groups are a fine bunch of people and would probably enjoy riding with them.

I wouldn't let it worry you mate , I went out with a guide today and there was a trf member with him , I was keeping an eye out on the speed just for interest , I'd say a good part of the time we didnt go over 20 , but now and again we reached speeds of 40 plus , but as you said In open areas and not around other trail users , we stopped to let horses past and slowed down for others , I'd say the important thing was we didn't stray from the legal trails .
I asked the trf member what the trf groups were like and his words were they are mostly anoraks lol , everyone will have his own idea how things shoul be done , my thinking is just ride safe and have respect for others .

I think that you got what I was trying to say fella...sounds like you had fun today riding your gasser without being an 'anorak'

too true mate , and the best part is we never upset anyone, the will be some vidio links in the video section too look at:)

I'll be a proper anarok, and give this thread some historical context:

As motorcycle ownership declined from the 1960's, green laning on motorbikes (often the rider's only form of transport) became a very minority pass time. There were so few people doing it, that no one took much notice. Roll on to the late 1990's, and a more affluent society with money to spend on things like dirtbikes for entirely recreational purposes. People were able to learn about greenlaning from magazines like TBM and then the internet and a booming industry grew up around road legal dirtbikes.

Trouble was, it became a victim of it's own success...

Combine the increased number of bikes on the trail, with the 'move to the country' people who moved from the suburbs to the villages with very fixed ideas about their concept of 'the countryside' being somewhere silent, where you will never see other people, and the scene was set for conflict. Add to that NIMBYism and the particularly British psychosis about property prices, and the end result was inevitable.

Now we are faced with a wide variety of interest groups who want to put an end to not just greenlaning, but also enduro, mx and trials events for perceived reasons of economic self interest, but mostly because they don't like to see or hear other people on bikes in 'their' countryside. Their friends in government closed a large proportion of the greenlane network to us a few years ago, and have also been trying to change planning law to make it virtually impossible to hold motorsport events on farmland.

The various groups that represent the interests of motorcyclists have been fighting long and hard to keep things as they are. The TRF is largely reliant on volunteers who freely give their time and expertise to sit through endless council planning meetings, court cases and so on, to stop the greenlanes from being closed to us. So yes, their website is a bit dull because it is largely concerned with the boring stuff that is part of the bigger picture of keeping greenlaning going.

I just want to go riding too, but without groups like the TRF, there wouldn't be any lanes left to ride. Hence the exasperated reaction to another 'f@ck that, I'll do what I want when I want' approach that ignores the bigger picture. For the record, I'm all for wheelies and stoppies aplenty, but my suggestion would be to think before doing and try not to wind up other people.

I think he said that with a bit of tounge in cheak , well thats the way i read it anyway .
I think for the most part most of the people are ok with you trail riding , we never had any problems in the peaks at the weekend , there was one group who turned their nose up at us and gave use dirty looks , we drove past them slowly and said thank you.
The groups you are talking about trying to stop our sports will never be swayed , and i think they are nothing but hypocrits , you only have to look at all the errosion and damage that was caused to the hills in the lake district where no motorised transport go.
And was it not the ramblers who illigally tresspassed on peoples land to begin with, my uncle has a farm in suffolk and he hates ramblers .... On the other hand he lets the local motorcycle club use his land several times a year for motox and enduro.
So no im not going to please everyone , but ill ride safely around others, have respect for all users and above all be legal .