News – Summer 2011

Welcome to the Ride Sheffield summer update, sorry if it seems to have been a little quiet, but just like parliament, we like to get away for a few weeks in the summer, as do the people who we work with! But here is a quick update on what is going on at the moment with Ride Sheffield.

Constitution

We held out first AGM (very casually) at the end of the social ride and are now a constitutionalised club, the constitution can be seen on request and will form part of the website when It is back up and running. It will mean no massive changes for the group, other than the fact that we now have a slightly more formal structure, so as before there is a core group of organizers – but we now have…

President – Henry Norman

Treasurer – Martin Baker

Secretary – Sue Duke

We are currently in the processes of sorting out the paperwork etc with this, but it will all be finalized shortly

If you have any skills/ knowledge etc that you think would useful and would like to lend a hand let us know

Fox Hagg 

As you will be aware, we have been objecting to the closure of the bridleways on fox Hagg/Lodge Lane. This has gone to public enquiry as Written Reps

 Sainsburys School Games

Sheffield is hosting the Sainsburys school games this weekend and as part of that the mountain bike element is being held in Wharncliffe and Greno woods. So be aware that there may be trail closures and there will be racing going on up there. We have not had a great deal of information, but there will be activity up there from Thursday onwards. Also the racing is closed, so unless you are at school and know you are racing, don’t try and enter!

Greno Woods

The plans for Greno woods continue to move forward and have been passed around for further consultation and have been largely well received. There may be a couple of changes that need to be made, but it is all still looking very positive.

The plan is for an XC style loop which would be of a red grade in difficulty, with possible black level opt in’s. It would use largely existing trails that would have a little work to improve drainage in places that need them in order to make it more sustainable and all weather. There would also be a new DH section that would be constructed from scratch.

If you would like to see a copy of the proposal, I will try and get it up on the website shortly. But for now you can email info@ridesheffield.com. Also if you have any ideas or thoughts on this or have suggestions for potential sponsorship please get in touch

Thanks to This Is Sheffield, Steel City Series, Steve Peat and Roy Moseley for their help with this.

Lady Canning Plantation

The plans for Lady Canning are moving slowly forward. A copy of the proposal will be available in the next couple of weeks for comment, before being submitted. The plans for the woods so far can be seen below

There will be further felling in the woods over this winter; after which the central trail from the car park to the style below the Ox Stones will become a permissive Bridleway. We would aim to have a lot of work done on a trail to coincide with the opening up of this route. The climbing trail would run to the left of the proposed provisional bridleway (going up the hill) starting about 100m in from the car park and meandering up ending about 50m from the edge of the woods. The downhill trial would run from this point and down to the start of the climb running on the opposite side of the proposed permissive bridleway. It will be a flowing blue level trail that can be ridden as a loop or use as a connecting link out to/from Houndkirk and beyond.  We are hoping to start construction this winter and will be looking for help with digging after the initial work has been done with some machinery.

It is early days on this and the project would have to go through a consultation period with locals etc, but the general feeling on this is fairly positive.  If you would like to be involved more or would like to sponsor the work please get in touch at info@ridesheffield.com

Thanks to Jon Dallow and www.biketracks.org for help with this

Fox Hagg

We submitted our objection to the downgrading of bridleways on Fox Hagg to the Rights of Way team; this is a combined objection with the CTC and CPRE. This is gone to public enquiry as Written Reps and we hope to hear about it shortly

We will keep you posted with news when we hear it

Parkwood Springs

The work to build a circuit at Parkwood springs is still moving forward, the paperwork is being tied up and they are awaiting bids from constructors so machinery can be on the ground at the start of August and should be ride able by the end of the year.

This is a project run by the city councils Parks and woodland team and in particular Jon Dallow along with the experienced vision of Steve Peat

Ski Village 

The trial period has been pretty successful and we are hoping to see a lot more activity up at the ski village. Look out on www.thisisheffield.co.uk for news on what is happening up there shortly

It is hugely exciting but it is by no means completed or open to the public yet thought, so please do not jeopardize the plans by trying to come and ride any of this. Watch this space and www.thisisheffield.co.uk

Credit it for this project must be given to Jon Dallow, Steve Peat, Sheffield Ski Village (Particularly Vicki and Ben) Dan Cook and This Is Sheffield who are driving this project forward.

Blacka moor 

Firstly an update on the top section of this track (the concessionary Bridleway) – Thanks to the influence of Sheffield Wildlife Trust, Sheffield City Council has now confirmed that this can be used by mountain bikers, as well as horses.

Sheffield Wildlife Trust are now asking for volunteers from the mountain bike community to help them with some trail maintenance on Devil’s Elbow Bridleway – particularly the boggy area at the bottom.  The maintenance is likely to be low key and focus on drainage and reducing damage to the surrounding wetland caused by users avoiding the wet sections.  Exact arrangements to be confirmed later, but likely to be:

Date:  Saturday 3rd September

Time:  TBC (I will send out info in the next couple of days – but feel free to drop by even for a short while)

Meet:   where the bridleway runs from Shorts Lane entrance, then splits off – Piper    House straight on, and Devil’s Elbow route to the right over the little bridge.

The benefits of having mountain bikers there are two-fold: 1) it will help improve our reputation, enabling us to influence any future developments.  2) It will help ensure that any maintenance keeps the excellent Devil Elbow’s Bridleway just as we like it – so get yourself there!!

Numbers:  If you are coming even for a short while, please can you let us know either on info@ridesheffield.com, or though the facebook group or on the invite. This is a request from the Wildlife Trust, to make life and planning a bit easier

Eastern Moors Partnership

We are working with Eastern Moors as one of their stakeholder groups and are contributing to the work on there. Looking at the information form the last meeting there could be a reasonable amount of land that will be opened up for mountain biking.

Ride Sheffield attended the second stakeholder forum meeting on the developments at Eastern Moors.   On the whole, the planned developments all look good for mountain bikers, but there are some areas of concern around access and maintenance to existing bridleways, such as the singletrack bridleway around Wimble Holme Hill on Blackamoor.   We are continuing to monitor this and will be obviously be doing our best to ensure that mountain biker’s views are represented.

We’ll keep you updated

Website – www.ridesheffield.com 

Unfortunately our website is down at the moment and we are working with out web person to sort it out. Hopefully it should be back up soon!

If you have any content you would like to submit or discuss, send it over and we will post it up when it gets sorted. Unlike other sites we are not generating masses of content, so we will update it when things arise. If you have anything you would we also have a rides section, so if you organize rides or know of other organized rides, we will stick the information in the rides section so if you are looking for a ride this will be the place to go. There is also a trails section, so if there are any trails which you feel should be avoided temporarily (too muddy, too beaten up etc) please let us know

Meetings – Social

We are in the process of planning a woman’s only ride for what is looking like some time in October; we may also try and plan another quiz evening if people are interested?

General

We try our best to improve the situation for mountain bikers in and around Sheffield, but we are not perfect and any guidance is really useful and greatly appreciated. If you want to spread the word, stick posters up etc let us know and we will send some over your way. If you have anything you think people need to know about or have content for our website, or is something that can be sent to other sites please send it over.

Thanks for reading

Ride Sheffield