Firstly we know this has been a long time coming and that folk are very excited to ride the trail but please remember no one wants this trail open more than we do!
Finally after a ridiculosuly dry year there’s enough moisture in the ground to be able to do some work to get DH3 ready for opening. On the day we’ll be cutting back foliage, compacting the edges of the trail, whacker plating the trail surface, doing small bits of raking filling spots where those who couldn’t wait have damaged the trail etc. After the dig it’ll need a little more time to rest and then we’ll be able to open, planned opening would be 12th December unless there are any disasters.
In order to plan for the day and control numbers etc those wishing to come and help on the day need to register via the Eventbrite link below, when the spots are gone, they’re gone and we can’t take more folk or it’s just like herding cats.
(Please note – Numbers are limited as we need to be able to manage both the quality of the work and the safety of you and other users in the area. We can’t do that if there’s hundreds of keen diggers charging about the place with barrows or waving spades about.)
We know this one has been a little while coming, apologies but day jobs, riding bikes in the sun and a lack of actual concrete information to share have delayed it.
First to say that no one wants DH3 to be open more than we do, we know people are keen to ride it and excited, we are too!
The big thing that’s keeping us from opening the trail is the lack of rain this year. Since February we’ve had about two thirds of the average rainfall for that period and a lot of what has come down has been very heavy so it tends to run off not soak in. If you’ve been anywhere near Ladybower over summer you’ll have seen how low the resevoirs have been and still are now, this is all part of the same problem. Things are starting to improve as the summer ends and rain increases.
Most of the trail work is done, only final fettling is needed when conditions are right to finish, a couple of final weeks for it harden and then we’ll be good to go. We plan to hold a big day day to finish the trail as soon as conditions allow. We were hoping that would be late this month but the ground is still to dry. As soon as we get enought moisture down and forecast we’ll announce the date and get it booked in.
Sorry we can’t give a concrete date and that the trail has been closed for so long but if it had opened before the £15k we’ve invested in the work would’ve been destroyed in a few weeks and there’s no magic money tree to redo the work we’ve done this year for many years.
The good news is that Steel City is still very popular and given the conditions has held up amazingly well since it opened in May. There are some small patches that need repairs and we’ll hold a dig day to get as much of this as we can sorted after DH3 opens. We don’t want to have 2 trails closed at once so Steel City will have to wait a little while before we get to it.
Finally pub run, we’re still working on this one, we would love to give it a full rebuild too but funds are limited and we don’t currently have enough to do it. Give us some time and we hope to find a way, this wouldn’t be carried out until spring now anyway so we have a little time.
Please keep being patient folks, it’ll be worth the wait!
This is the project we’ve been working on for a while and we are stoked to finally be able to share it with you all. This is the biggest Ride Sheffield news for a long time.
Back in early 2021 we launched a crowd funder to find the remaining funds we needed to top up the £20k from the Radmires project corporate donors to give Greno the major work it needed. Covid delayed the fundraising, the planning and everything else but the money kept slowly rolling in from riders and the pot slowly grew. Late last year we finally had the full £30k that we needed together.
We’ve been talking to contractors, liaising with the Wildlife Trust, discussing plans on site and getting everything sorted and 100% sorted so we could share the news.
Starting on Monday 11th April, Greno will be finally by getting the work it desperately needs. All 3 trails will be getting major work over the course of 6 weeks by a 4 man team using plant to repair, refurbish and refresh the trails. Some of the classic features will be retained, some will be updated and there will be a bunch of new stuff as well!
In addition to the great news on the work happening is the folks who are going to do it. We’ve put together a crack team of diggers to make Greno better than it’s ever been. Led by Farmer John and James Petit working with Ollie Hindley and Alex Bourekas, the crew will bring a new feel to the trails and show us what they can do. They’ve worked together before in Europe building bike parks in Austria and beyond, this will be their first work together in the UK.
Those who’ve been to Farmer Johns will know the flow and jumps of the top section and some of the techy sections lower down in the woods. JP sculpt is best known in these parts for his trails in Wharncliffe just over the road. Who’s excited to see what they can do?
During the works there will be trail closures while the magic happens. Trails will have signs up, barriers across the trail etc and if you see any of this please do not ride the trails, if you see anyone else doing please ask them not to. Riding while work is happening and before the trails are settled will lead to lots of rework, delay the proper opening longer and reduce the good work the guys can do. The Ride Sheffield social pages will be kept up to date with the latest via a pinned post on Fb and a #grenotrails posts on Instagram. We’ll do our best to keep something open to ride at all times but weather and other factors will determine when we can open the trails. Whatever anyone thinks or says if there are signs up and blockers across the tracks they are not ready to ride regardless of how good they may look so please please be patient. Anyone caught riding tracks while they are closed will receive a lifetime Steel City DH ban.
This work wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Vulcan Engineering, Avanti Conveyors, Cotic and the riding community of Sheffield and beyond. Huge thanks to everyone that donated. To make sure as much awesome as possible gets created Ride Sheffield and Steel City Series will put in another £5k between them to invest a total of £35k in to the work.
As always massive thanks go the Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust who own and manage the woodland and are very supportive of mountain biking in general around the city. We wouldn’t have trails in Greno without their help!
If you’re a regular user of any of our trails and don’t already please consider signing up Radtax for a few quid a month to help support the work we do and the trails you enjoy riding. It all goes to good use to help Ride Sheffield do more and make more great things happen for bikes around the city.
FAQ’s 1. Is it open yet? Not unless we say so and we’ll make a load of noise when trails are ready for folks to ride!
2. Will there be any new/more trails? Unfortunately no, Greno is a victim of it’s own success and is already so popular with with bikes, walkers, horses and wildlife etc that there is no more capacity for further trails.
3. Can I help with the build? The trail works will be carried out by professionals with plant and machinery to ensure they can stand up to the huge levels of traffic Greno sees. We will be doing some dig days prior to the race to get all the other bits ready for race day. Help at these would be much appreciated.
4. How can I help? Sign up to rad tax and come along to dig days if you can. If you’re keen to be more involved with all Ride Sheffield does and have time to commit to helping mountain biking then drop us an email to info@ridesheffield.org.uk and lets talk.
5. Why’s it taken so long? Fund raising is never quick and during uncertain Covid times it didn’t feel right to be pushing folks to donate. After that contractor availability, fitting in best with the seasons in the woods and other things have all meant that now is the time. We’ve been working hard in the background to get it over the line as soon as possible.
6. I need to practice for the race? It’s not practice until race day, anything until then is just riding your bike. Steel City track will be done first and will be open as soon as we possibly can but please be patient and don’t ride until we say it’s ready!
The followers of Ride Sheffield are generally a supportive bunch, happy with what we do, thankful for the trails, maintenance and other things we deliver. However, we do still get a few comments along the lines of “Why don’t Ride sheffield do…..” or “You should do more of X”.
This post will try to explain the real Ride Sheffield position and what
folks could do to help.
Ride Sheffield has been around for over 10 years now and for a volunteer
group to exist that long is a huge achievement. When we were shiny and new we
had a sizeable team of enthusiasts achieving success in various areas but, over
time, people’s lives and priorities change and the team has shrunk. For the
last few years most of what Ride Sheffield has delivered has been done by four
people. That’s four people who have jobs, families, want to ride their
bikes and are giving their time voluntarily.
Dig days are well supported – last September’s Canning’s maintenance day saw some forty five willing volunteers grafting but even they currently are planned and led by one of the same four people. We have ambassadors who have helped at events and a couple of folks have recently stepped up to help set up the trail crews. They will help with maintenance work planning and implementation once these crews are up and running.
The trail crews will pick up maintenance work around all the areas we work and also in time take over setting up and leading digs, liaising with land managers, setting up projects and that will lighten some of the load. But organisation, training and experience building all takes time.
There’s still a lot we’d like to do and some things we could do better, we admit that. There are a number of projects and ideas are waiting in line but what we require to take Ride Sheffield to the next level is more help. We’ve reached capacity and as we continue to grow and be recognised for the work we do there are more opportunities and things we’d like to do.
We need people from around the city who are willing to step up and do something to aid the progress of mountain biking around Sheffield. It doesn’t necessarily require huge amounts of time, you don’t need to be a riding god or to know how to wield a shovel to make the perfect berm. We just need a broader cohort of dedicated, willing people to spread the load.
For example it would be a huge help having a team who could run our social
media pages for us, keeping posts up to date. That alone would free up some
core team time and also help spread the word about what we do, grow our
supporter base and generate more funds through Rad-Tax It’s a virtuous
circle.
Help could also come in the form of specific skills, solicitors, surveyors, environmental experience, grant applications, working at a plant hire company or quarry – many different forms of expertise would assist us. It could also be a willingness to get involved in all sorts of stuff, join the committee and be part of the team.
If you’re interested in getting involved with Ride Sheffield, helping us do
more and take things to the next level, drop an email to info@ridesheffield.org.uk Let
us know what you’d be interested in doing, whether general help or a specific
skill.
Back at the start of March when the world was still a slightly different place we launched a crowd funding campaign to allow us to do a lot of needed refurb work in Greno (original story here https://ridesheffield.org.uk/greno-woods-crowdfunder/ ), with all that happened around that time we didn’t feel it was right to be asking for funds when a lot of people were uncertain about what the future might hold.
While things are still long way from normal (whatever that is) we are heading in that direction and the lockdown period has got lots of new folks involved in the sport and meant that many trails have been busier than ever so it feels like a good time to give the crowd funding campaign a bit of a relaunch.
If you ride at Greno you’ll know that some spots need some love and we hope you can help us to make that happen.
We are hoping to raise a total of £20k to allow work to happen on all 3 tracks and also update signage and other bits. So far we have raised around £2.5k of this.
The trails are all free to use, free parking etc so please consider donating a few quid if you ride up there, possibly even a few quid per trip in place of paying to park as you would at many other places.
We know that right now may not be the best time for everyone to donate so if you can’t afford to donate any money, help us spread the word, tell your friends about what we’re doing, talk to other folks when you’re riding up there etc and let them know that we need everyone to help us out!
Thanks everyone and happy trails!
How to Donate
Bank transfer
Direct transfers can be made to the Ride Sheffield account, details as follows;
Account name – Ride Sheffield Sort Code – 403102 Account number – 91574205 This account is with HSBC.
Paypal
Click the button to donate via Paypal.
Alternatively, send Paypal donations to ridesheffield@gmail.com using “Friends and Family” if possible please! Pop a note in the comments box “Greno 2020” and we’ll be sure to match your donation up.
Double Greno news this week after a bit of a break. All the details are below but in short there is some felling to be done in the woods between now and Christmas, it’s pretty much all away from the bike tracks apart from a little around the bomb hole and edge of pub run where some of the trees susceptible to damage in high winds are being removed or protected.
The major felling works are at the north end of the woods away from the bike trails. The map below shows the areas in question.
Following my funding web piece back in May to highlight the need for ongoing funding for Ride Sheffield (Linked here for those that missed it – https://ridesheffield.org.uk/2017/05/money-moola-wonga-wedge/ ) we’ve had a couple of sessions at the Norfolk Arms next to Lady C’s to discuss with individuals and various local businesses how we can all work together to develop a reliable income stream for Ride Sheffield to keep the trails running sweet and further develop mountain bike good times in South Yorkshire and the Peak District. We’ll have one part of it ready to unveil to everyone at the Christmas social meeting in November and the details of that will be rolled out to everyone who can’t make it shortly after. (more…)
Following a post on the Facebook page we’ve been in touch with the Forestry Commission to get some more information about the felling work planned for Wharncliffe over the next 2-3 months. They’ll be thinning (not clear felling) large areas of the woods (shown in green on the maps) and while they do there will be various restrictions on access. If you’re riding in the woods please take notice of the closures as they are in place to keep everyone safe.
The FC can’t give any more information about when they’ll be in which areas as it will depend on various factors and they may be in several sections at once.
With the recent opening of the Cooking on Gas trail at Lady Canning’s Plantation and fundraising for the new Radmires trail nearing completion it’d be easy to think that the need to dig deep in to your pockets and down the back of the sofa to help Ride Sheffield create trails was coming to an end, but that is not the case.
The work we have done across Lady Cannings and Radmires will cost a total of around £125k to build. We’ve crowdfunded around £30k of this with the rest coming from various sponsors. At this point massive thanks again go to Go Outdoors, Vulcan Engineering, Cotic Bikes, Norton Mayfield Architects and Avanti Conveyors for all their support. What we have managed to achieve is truly amazing, now the hard work begins.
Now we have to look after all the amazing trails we have built, to keep them running well and to show that we can support them. There are already another couple of potential spots identified for further trail building (we’ll keep schtum about where for now) but the council, as responsible landowners, in these times of austerity have to be sure that not only can we build trails in partnership with them but also that we can maintain them and keep them safe. Unfortunately, the cash-strapped council can’t do a huge amount to help so it will fall to us to do that work.
We will run dig days and volunteer sessions across the trails we build and manage (Lady C, Radmires and Greno) which will help to lessen the burden but with the huge use all of our trails get (to give you an idea an estimated 3,000 runs on Cooking on Gas in the first month alone) some of the work requires plant, manpower and expertise that we cannot provide with bodies alone. We will need to get contractors and plant in to do some of the works and this will cost money, lots of money. (more…)
It is with regret that we’ve had to close Lady Canning’s trail for a while due to damage caused by all the recent rain. The water table has risen to such a level that there are even a couple of springs bubbling through the trail.
We have taped off the start and end of the trail and posted signs advising of the closure and the reasons behind it. We’ve been down today and covered the trail with logs and brash every few metres after the initial closure last week was breached and the trail ridden over the weekend. (more…)
