New Mountain Bike Track In Greno Woods

It’s been a long time coming, but we are pleased to announce that construction of a new trail in Greno Woods is going to start construction soon.

From plans that started back in the summer of 2010 from the initial stakeholders meeting we have worked closely with Sheffield Wildlife Trust to improve mountain bike access in the woods. After the successful running of the  Steel City Downhill, things stepped up a gear and we started to move towards planning a route in the woods (see the projects section of the site for more detail).

Over the next year we will be working towards a short signposted loop in the woods using largely existing routes that will be improved to make them more sustainable.  However the first step of this is to construct a new downhill trail in the woods. The main reason for this is that we are not going to be able to use the existing track that was used for the Steel City DH is for ecological reasons. The heathland that it passes through is a fairly rare habitat and the trust wants to preserve this; meaning that we are going to construct a new trail starting and ending roughly in the same place but skirting around the edge of the heath.

This gives us the fantastic opportunity to construct a brand new DH trail in the woods, that will not only be exciting to ride, but also be sustainable and more weather proof than the other trails (which will get improved drainage etc as time goes on).

The track is going to be constructed by www.biketrack.org and has been designed by then with input from Ride Sheffield, This Is Sheffield and local rider and last years Steel City winner Steve Peat and will combine built features while making the most of the natural rocky and rooty terrain in the woods.

Construction on the track will start on the 5th of March, with machinary on site through to 16th.

The Important stuff

A lot of hard work has gone into getting the project to this point and it is really important that the work can go ahead without any other problems. So until the trail is properly complete please can people resist from riding this, as it’s important that the track gets a chance to bed in properly. Also while you might think you are helping, lease don’t start digging yourself, please pay attention to the signs that are up on the site and stay away from the machinery that is going to be moving round up there. Also please can people try to stop the littering, as there is a lot up there, particularly around the quarry. If World Champs can pick up their rubbish (and yours) so can you!

Getting Involved

We will be holding a trail day up at the site on the 24th of March, so if you want to get involved that the time to do it. More details will be posted up nearer the time, but there will be the standard dig day free lunch kindly provided by Big Stone.

Thanks

None of this would have been possible without Sheffield Wildlife Trust, in particular Roy Mosley, also Biketrack.org, members of Ride Sheffield, This Is Sheffield and Steve Peat.

We will keep you updated as things progress!