Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > Ride out today

[BDG]

Had a great ride out today in the snow, on the trail bikes, not the Ducati i'm sad to say. 100 miles from Manchester to Sheffield and Chesterfield and back home. Out for about 7 hours but it was a bit slow going in the snow, not enough to make anything impassable, just fun.

There was one particular bit where i felt like Rossi (despite the fact i am most definately NOT) Just a case of pinning the throttle on a long track near a quarry covered in snow and the back end is spinning like mad in a straight line, or drifting out sideways. Just playing at silly boogers.

Sad about the ill informed prejudice you come across. Rode upto a gate where 2 ramblers were stopped. Common courtesy makes you think they may open the gate. No. I jumped off. opened the gate and rambler said "You're not allowed on footpaths"

I politely asked him if he knew the correct status of this lane. Was it a BOAT, byeway open to all traffic?
Was it a UCR, unclassified county road?
Was it a RUPP, road used a public path?
Was it a bridleway?
Was it a footpath?

and if he did know the true status, did he know the road number from the definative map at County Hall?

He did not know the answer, and just 'presumed ' it was a footpath as it was not tarmac.

I told him i knew the correct status and had neen using it legally for nearly 20 years.

I very politely suggested if he wished to check he could confirm that it was legal, and when he did, he could ask both the County Council and the National Park to signpost it correctly to avoid any possible confusion and possible conflict.

Anyway superb ride out, great fun but bloody cold for the last hour as the sun went down.

[BDG]

nother pic

[Martinp]

Originally posted by BDG
"You're not allowed on footpaths"

I was under the impression that Greenlaning was pretty much banned as of mid November but i'm a little confused now.

[Edited on 28-12-2005 by Martinp]

[BDG]

Not banned, but big changes with the effects of the CROW act and the recent NERC bill. It would take an eternity to explain but.....................

BOATS and certain UCR's remain legal.

Any dual status UCR or RUPP will be down graded to its lowest staus.

Although DMMO's (definative map modification order's) may change the staus of certain lanes.

Its far too big a story to really condense down but DEFRA and our wonderfull goverment have listened to a lot of very misleading propaganda from the likes of the Ramblers Association and various NIMBY's. There are currently around 5000 miles of legal trails and 150,000 miles of footpaths but that doesn't keep Janet Ugly Street Porter happy. Ramblers also have the 'right to roam' in certain areas which upsets a lot of landowners.

The Faber Mansell study concluded amognst other things that bikes don't do that much damage in comparison to farm vehicles, 4x4's or even thousands of walkers on parts of the Penine Way.

Sorry but i'm trying to avoid MEGA RANT MODE

IMHO the NERC bill is very unfair, but hey, if Blair can invade Iraq on dodgy grounds, or ban hunting, not give Leo the MMR (alledgedly), he certainly doesn't care about a few trail riders

[Martinp]

Thanks for clearing that up. and yes Mr Blair is a total waste of space.