Ride Sheffield

Blog

  • 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.

     

     

     

  • Cycle September

    You may have seen a few things around town about Cycle September that is being organised by Love to Ride? You may be wondering why you should take part? More info is below…. But basically one of the biggest problems when lobbying for better infrastructure and facilities for cyclists is a lack of data that can be used. By taking part, not only do you get a chance to take part in a fun event, you can also generate useful data that makes things better for cyclists in Sheffield. register your workplace and you will also have the bonus of being able to show your employers the number of cyclists, which is useful in sorting better facilities for those that ride, such as storage and shower.  So what are you waiting for?….. (more…)

  • Rider Down! What to do if you need to call out Mountain Rescue….

    This article explains why it’s often essential to call Mountain Rescue if a casualty needs to be recovered from a remote area…. (more…)

  • 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?

  • Ride, Chat and Feedback: The RADtax Social

    There are always a number of ideas and projects on the go at Ride Sheffield, big and small, long term and short term, but one that has been slowly building over the past eighteen months has been RADtax. This is an idea that is crucial to the long term prospects of successful, sustainable (and growing) mountain biking in Sheffield.

    While other ideas may be a bit more exciting or glamorous or have the outcome of a new trail, for example, this has the potential to make a very big positive impact on the riding in the area. However, it is still currently a work in progress and to make sure that it is done in a way that benefits local riders and means that more people want to be part of it, we want your thoughts and feedback on it. (more…)

  • July Trail Evening – Lady Cannings 

    Lady Cannings had been bedding in nicely over the past few months, but everywhere needs a little TLC to keep it running sweetly.

    We will be heading up to Lady Cannings next Tuesday evening (25th July) to do a little basic maintenance work. As the trail is in pretty good shape, we will be mainly clearing out drains, sweeping/raking any loose material and trimming back a few unruly bits of vegetation too.

    We will be meeting in the car park (off Sheephill Road) at 6.30pm.

    We will provide tools, but if you have brooms, rakes or secateurs please bring them with you (and dress appropriately for the work).

  • Wharncliffe Felling Works

    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.

  • 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!

  • Money, Moola, Wonga, Wedge

    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…)