Ride Sheffield

Author: Si Bowns

  • Aviva Community Fund

    Ride Sheffield is asking riders near and far to support our project for better trail maintenance in and around Sheffield, as part of the Aviva Community Fund.

    Our application has made it through the first round and now relies on your votes to increase our chance of winning £25,000 to put our maintenance plan into place.

    We’re aiming to establish working groups around Sheffield, with volunteers and Ride Sheffield committee members working alongside each other to improve both purpose built trails and existing rights of way.  We’d like to do this with proper systems in place, with training, tooling, materials all taken care of.

    To give your support to Ride Sheffield, please click on the link below.  You can read the details of our maintenance and then vote to give your support!

    Ride Sheffield project for the Aviva Community Fund

    Please spread the word – the more votes we get, the more chance we have to get through to the final selection!

     

  • Local businesses – can you help Ride Sheffield?

    They say you judge someone by the company they keep but, in the case of Ride Sheffield, it’s the companies. In the past seven years we have enjoyed the support of GoOutdoors, Cotic Bikes, 18 Bikes, Alpkit, BikeTrack, Rab, 5.10, Vulcan Engineering, J E James, Norton Mayfield Architects, Avanti Conveyors and a dozen other local and international companies.

    As a result, we’ve not only managed to construct hard-wearing, fun trails in Greno Woods and Lady Canning’s Plantation but also maintain them in spite of an astronomical level of use. We’ve also wielded shovels on Blackamoor, the Eastern Moors and Rivelin Valley in order to help land managers such as the Sheffield Wildlife Trust keep their bridleways in top condition. Much of this has been done with volunteer labour but, on occasion, we have had to rely on the professional skills of BikeTrack to cope with bigger projects. This has necessitated some expenditure and recently, Alpkit covered the cost of plant needed to complete a project on Blackamoor while BikeTrack provided a digger driver. This kind of support is invaluable to Ride Sheffield and a public relations bonanza for the company involved.

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  • A trip to Manchester…

    Ride Sheffield and Peak District MTB have been lucky enough to be included in a really exciting nationwide project organised by the BMC – Mend our Mountains.  The BMC (British Mountaineering Council) traditionally represented climbers and hill walkers, but are expanding their reach to include other moorland and mountain users, including us mountain bikers!  The BMC have achieved so much as a representative body for the outdoors, fighting for the rights of their huge membership base.  We’re really rather pleased to be involved in their latest project, we as mountain bike advocacy groups have much to learn from them.

    Si headed over to Manchester for a meeting with the BMC, along with Chris from Peak District MTB and representatives from across the UK’s National Parks.  Each Park updated the room on their respective projects and we all shared ideas on how best to move forward together.  Together being the key word here, as the BMC pull everyone in the same direction. (more…)

  • September Trail Day – Lady Canning’s

    To practice what we preach, we’re making sure that the 2 trails at Lady Canning’s get the TLC they need to last well through the Autumn and Winter.  With that in mind, we’ll have another trail day on Saturday 16th September.

    We’ll be trimming back some brambles along with a general tidy and check of both trails.  All help is welcome, with no experience necessary in this case.

    We’ll be meeting at the car park off Sheephill Road at 9.30am, with an aim to finish in time for lunch.  Please bring rakes and secateurs/trimmers if you can!

    If you’re out for a ride around Canning’s on that Saturday, please watch out for those of us working.  We’ll not be closing the trails, so you may find us on either Cooking on Gas or Blue Steel.

     

     

     

  • Weds 2nd August Meeting & Social- The Prizes!

    Hopefully you’ve seen our post inviting everyone to our RadTax discussions on Wednesday 2nd August.  If not, then you can see full details here.

    Simply put, we’re after everyone’s ideas and opinions on how we encourage steady contributions to Ride Sheffield, to cover maintenance – not just new trails.  If we can prove that we can look after the existing purpose built trails, then who knows what may come in the future…

    As a little sweetener to encourage everyone to come along and join in, we’ll be handing out free tombola tickets to anybody who shares their idea with us.  Prizes will be drawn randomly and will include;

    • Ride Sheffield t-shirts
    • Ride Sheffield sticker packs
    • Beer!
    • Steel City mugs, tees
    • Super limited Ride Sheffield Millstone prints (signed upside down by Steve Peat!)
    • and more!

    We hope that the chance to have some input will be enough to encourage you along, but the chance to win something is always great too.  See you there?

  • Magic Rock Brewery Bike day – Cut Gate!

    Magic Rock, a brewery in Huddersfield have asked Ride Sheffield along to their Bike Day – this Sunday 9th July.

    The event is at their Tap House in Huddersfield, full details here.  Doors open around 12 and it’ll all wind down around 7pm.  There’s several talks and exhibits, plus top notch food and beers!

    Si will be presenting the Cut Gate project that he’s been involved with alongside Peak District MTB, Keeper of the Peak and many other groups.  He’ll explain how and why Cut Gate was selected as a project, how that project has progressed and the plans for the future regards sorting out the Bog of Doom.  With all this in mind, there’ll be several ways to help us kickstart the fundraising for Cut Gate, but more about that on the day!

    Helping with the Cut Gate presentation will be Dave and Sim from Radventure.  They’ve put some great work into photos to run as a background during the talk and will be helping to make sure Si doesn’t babble on to much. The photo background should help remind people of Cut Gate, or teach those who’ve not ridden there what it looks like on the ground.

    Magic Rock have put a great amount of effort into the day, which will also include photo slideshows, a decorated Giro helmet exhibition (which go as prizes in the raffle!) a talk from Richpips and Tom, plus plenty more from other exhibitors.  Click here to see the full programme.

    It’s an informal and social event, so please come by and support!

  • Ride Sheffield Merchandise!

    We’ve been selling tees and stickers at various bike shops around the city for a while now, along with manning the merch stand at the Steel City race.

    Si at 18 Bikes has now listed tees, stickers and screenprints on the shop website, for folks who want to mail order.  We even have a few prints leftover from the Steel City race that are signed by Steve Peat himself!

    All proceeds go to Ride Sheffield funds, none of the shops involved are taking a penny for stocking this merchandise.

    You can order Ride Sheffield items using these links;

    Ride Sheffield screenprints

    Ride Sheffield Womens tees

    Ride Sheffield Mens tees

    Ride Sheffield Stickers

  • The Advocacy files!

    With a huge amount of help from Keeper of the Peak, we’ve worked with Peak District MTB to compile The Advocacy files – to highlight some of the great work the two groups have been involved with in the local area.

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  • Cut Gate Path – Collaboration, Consideration, Conservation, Action?

    Ride Sheffield have been working very closely with Peak District MTB to address the issue of the “bog of doom” on Cut Gate.  Mountain bikers seem to get most of the blame for trail erosion, perhaps somewhat unfairly.  We’re keen to show that we want to act responsibly, hence leading the conversation.  Cutgate crosses a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) so we are wanting to start a conversation about the continued conservation of 8,000 years of moorland life and build on best practise in upland path management.

    We’ve worked together, supported by the Peak District National Park, Sheffield City Council, Moors for the Future, The Outdoor City, Keeper of the Peak and with support from 18 Bikes and Bike Garage, to produce ‘Cut Gate Path: Collaboration, Consideration, Conservation, Action?’  a call to debate the future of Cut Gate amongst the various groups who use it. (more…)

  • Cut Gate – Collaboration with Peak District MTB

    cutgateimage

    As we head into Autumn and Winter, a regular topic of conversation on social media and MTB websites is “has anyone ridden Cut Gate recently?” Most of us are aware of the boggy areas over the top, choosing to avoid riding Cut Gate when conditions aren’t suitable. (more…)