Ride Sheffield

Tag: ride sheffield

  • Cooking on Gas Rebuild – Update

    the biggest question we get asked at the moment is “When is Cooking on Gas reopening? And why wouldn’t it be? Work started in the revamp of the much loved, but rather worn trail at the end of February. Surely the work must be finished already. 

    The answer is yes….and no! 

    Maybe it’s time for an explanation of where we are at with the work.

    Farmer John and his crew were up on site from the end of February and had pretty much finished up the work by the end of March. With a little rain and a re-whack, we were looking good for opening for the Easter holidays. Unfortunately, the key ingredient of rain has not quite materialised. We need moisture to help the material to bond together as part of the build process, finishing this off with a whacker plate gives us a good, compacted surface that once is dried and settled gives us a good durable surface. However, as we experience one of the driest springs in 132 years, with only 15cm of rain since the end of February, it is not possible to finish the job, which means we can’t open the trail.

    We can’t state enough that we would love to get it open as soon as possible, but right now that is not going to happen for a while….

    Read more: Cooking on Gas Rebuild – Update

    But it looks finished

    Yes, it certainly looks pretty finished, in fact it looks pretty amazing and really tempting to ride. In some places it may look it is pretty solid too. unfortunately, what you can see is a crust of about 10cm, but then below this is soft, dry, uncompacted ground which would erode once we have had a few riders down the trail. It is also pretty unsafe and unpredictable as the crust can break through pretty easily.

    What is the impact if we open it now?

    Aside from the fact the trail would be unsafe and not that fun to ride, it also has a really big impact on how much it would take to get it back up to scratch after the summer. You can look at that in a couple of ways….

    1. Ride Sheffield is you; it’s our community of rider in the city who have donated over £40,000 to allow us to rebuild the trail and make it better than it’s ever been. It’s your money that made it possible. However, we would anticipate having to raise almost a third of that to reinstate the trail if we opened it now.
    2. We are a group that is run by volunteers. All the trail work, the admin, even keeping the socials fed is done in our own time. We do it because we love rising mountain bikes, we love the community of riders we have in the city and we want to preserve it and make it better for all. Whilst we try and be as professional in our approach as we can be, we all have day jobs. We have to find the time to do trail work, not just hop into the digger (maybe one day!)
    3. In reality with the current dry conditions, if we were to open, it would probably only last a few days until it became totally unrideable, which is too much of a gamble with the resources we have.

    So, what next?

    For now, we keep the trail closed, to give more realistic timescales, that is likely to be October at the earliest; cooler days and more rain should make it easier to finish it off. But if the drought continues, then we will push that date back. 

    You will be seeing new signs up on site explain what is happening, so all users of the woods understand why the fences are still up on site.

    We will post up when we have the dates for the trail days, we will be having a big volunteer push to get things open.

    What else can you do to help?

    1. Keep off the trail: No riding, running, dog walking etc. down there for now. Thanks
    2. Spread the word on the closure.
    3. Join us on our volunteer days: We will have a big weekend dig in October to get everything open, keep an eye out for that and sign up via our Eventbrite.
    4. Volunteer more with us: We would love to expand our core group of volunteers, so if you would like to help out with…
      • Comms and Social Media
      • Trail Crew’s
      • Events
      • Social Rides
      • Or would just like to get involved more generally
      • Please get in touch. We will be sharing more on this as well as some role descriptions across social media soon
    5. Donate: Either as a one of payment or set up a monthly payment via our Trail Fund here
    6. Sign up to our mailing list to hear more and find out when trail days are here, or follow us on social media
    7. Feedback: Tell us what you would like us to be doing differently/more of etc. Drop us an email at info@ridesheffield.org.uk

  • Trash Free Trails Halloween Trail Clean Tour: Greno Woods

    As if one opportunity to give a little back to your trails in a weekend was not enough, how about two? We are really lucky to have trash Free trails feature us as part of the their Halloween Trail Clean Tour on Sunday the 24th of October. Here is a bit more detail on the day and how you can get involved.

    From the 22nd – 31st October, the Trash Free Trails Team (aka the TrashBusters) are visting 7 locations in the UK that nominated their trails in partnership with Trak Bikes, Bosch eBike Systems, The North Face, Red Bull and Cotswold Outdoor. Trails, and the communities that represent them that needed help, and on the 24th October, the Trash Free Trails #TrashBusters responded to the Greno’s local community call. 

    (more…)

  • Cotic Women of Steel/ Ride Sheffield Trail Day 16th October

    Ride Sheffield have joined up with Cotic Women of Steel to put on a women-only trail maintenance day on Blacka Moor on 16 October.

    The event is aimed at encouraging more women to learn about trail maintenance requirements and techniques and will hopefully (if we get enough interest / don’t scare everyone off on the first session!) be the first in a series.

    For this session, we will be working on Blacka Moor bridleways, repairing trails and improving drainage before the winter. We will also be looking at how bikes, horses and walkers use the trails to try to understand the best way to make the repairs work for everyone (so no, we won’t be building any gap jumps or kickers…)

    Spaces are limited on this session, so if you’re interested, please contact info@ridesheffield.org.uk for details, or check out the Cotic Women of Steel Facebook for further details too

    We will provide tools as well as some snacks too. But if you can bring your own drinks and dress appropriately for the work that would be great.

  • Lyme Disease – Take Care of Yourself

    At a recent Sheffield Moors Partnership meeting, local land managers stressed that Lyme Disease season is just around the corner and asked Ride Sheffield to get the word out. Lyme Disease is a serious condition that can have life-changing consequences. It is transmitted to humans by ticks that reside in the very undergrowth that we ride through. However, take some precautions and you can reduce the risk dramatically

    During spring and summer, particularly when bracken is at its height, ticks can attach themselves to a passing mountain biker. Obviously, we tend to be bare legged during the heat of summer, but wearing something on your legs can help prevent the ticks latching on.

    These are the ways you can protect yourselves:

    1. Use a tick repellant on your legs.
    2. When you’re riding singletrack where the undergrowth is encroaching, stop regularly and check for ticks.
    3. Carry a tick removal tool. This ensures that nothing is left in the skin which could spread the infection.
    4. Check yourself all over for ticks and wash clothes which will kill them. If you spot the ‘bullseye’ pattern or suffer flu-like symptoms, see your GP.

    The picture shows the classic bullseye pattern that can result from a lyme carrying tick having attached itself to you.

    For more information visit https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/lyme-disease/

  • Greno Woods Trail Damage Update

    It’s never good news to start the day with news that someone has been out to try and trash your trails. When you dig fun little trails hidden from view (or permission) this is often part of the game. Gutting, but part of the game. But it is pretty unusual to have sanctioned trails damaged. But that’s what happened up in Greno Woods the Sunday before last.

    (more…)
  • Be Nice, Tread Light: Meeting 9th October

    Be Nice, Tread Light: Meeting 9th October

    “The Great Outdoors is for everyone.”

    “Walkers, horse riders, cyclists, however you get around,
    we all enjoy the beauty and serenity of our wild areas
    for the same reasons – stunning landscape, wonderful wildlife and fantastic flora. So Be Nice, Say Hi to everyone you meet!”

    If you have ever flipped over a Be Nice Say Hi beermat and perused the back of it while you were waiting for your mate to return from the bar, that is what you would have read. It sums up not only how we feel about it, but its supported by the Sheffield Ramblers and Hallam Horse riders (not to mention the Outdoor City and Peak District National Park)

    (more…)
  • October Trail Day: Parkwood

    October Trail Day: Parkwood

    Parkwood is a perennial winter favourite, some may say its even better in the winter than the summer. Whatever your opinion is, it still need a bit of love from time to time. Our friends Bike Track are going to be heading up to the trail to give it a little bit of professional TLC, but to make their life a bit easier and so they can get more of the good stuff, we are going to do a little prep for them on the 12th of October in the from 1pm onward.

    We need to do a bit of vegetation clearing as well as a bit of prep work on the trail surface as well as a little bit of a litter pick too.

    (more…)
  • September Trail Day and Jam Session: Lady Cannings

    September Trail Day and Jam Session: Lady Cannings

    It has been a great summer again and we have had some pretty prime trail conditions. But lots of prime riding in the dry and dust does tend to cut up the trails a wee bit. But hey, that all part of challenge and as long as we look after things then we get quality riding all year round.

    So the time has come to put a little back into Lady Cannings on Sunday 29th September. We will be tidying up the loose material, pulling out the odd rock, a little bit of patching and building up a couple of the berms too and hopefully not too much litter picking.

    And a Jam Session I hear you say? Well kind of! After a rather damp and cool start to summer we have a embarrassment of Blackberries and Bilberries lining the trail, so while trying to pick them on live trails is a bit of an extreme sport in itself, we figured we should make the most of closed trails by allowing a bit of fruit harvesting too.

    (more…)

  • MTB Film Screenings

    Back in the days before our minds were continually melted by a non stop supply of shredits, we used to get the treat of a couple of times a year of heading down to the Showroom with a couple of hundred other riders to watch whatever feature length film was out at the time. As well as a cool communal experience, it was nice to be able to catch up with the MTB community too.

    Last year we were treated to the World Premier of Gamble, but that was a rare treat. However we now have a couple of films coming up in the next month, if you like that sort of thing.

    First up is The Moment, it’s about the history of free riding and how it has shaped our sport. Check out the trailer below. Its screened by Cycle to the Cinema at Decathlon on the 3rd of July

    (more…)

  • March Trail Day: Lady Cannings

    We were hoping to be up in Greno for our next trail day, but as some of the work up there is a bit more technical and we are not sure how much we will be getting the pro’s into, we thought we would have a little change of plans. We will be up in Greno soon and will be doing some Steel City DH prep in April too. If you have any thoughts on what you would to be seen done up there please let us know.

    So for this month we will head up to Lady Cannings. It’s done pretty well this winter, but it could do with a little bit of love to keep things running sweet.

    (more…)