Ride Sheffield

Tag: Sheffield City Council

  • 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

  • Redmires Boost

    Redmires Boost

    Who doesn’t love a silver lining? Well, 2020 has taught us to appreciate what we have and we think we’ve found one hidden within the Redmires postponement news. Take a closer look and you’ll see why we think Ride Sheffield is now in a good position to make great stuff happen.

    1. Reputation

    We’re pretty sure that the National Park now knows Ride Sheffield is a diligent and responsible group to work with who understand the conservation value of every part of the Peak District, even a coniferous plantation. We may have questioned some of the objections they raised but we completely understand the importance of endangered species like the nightjar and always have done.

    OS map of Redmires
    Redmires – it could still happen….

    2. Building Relations

    We’ve continued our excellent relationship with local conservation groups like Sheffield Bird Study Group. It’s crucial that user groups like us engage with conservationists and land managers – there is always much to learn. The increasing pressure on the Redmires honeypot has certainly had an effect on the resident wildlife. Maybe other user groups should be examining their impact?

    3. The Outdoor City

    Battling through the vagaries of a planning application in concert with Sheffield City Council has cemented an even closer relationship with the           Outdoor City. It was a tough three years for both for us, a volunteer group and a city that believes in the value of the great outdoors. Working together pulls you closer and we have every confidence that, in the future, this will deliver results.

    The Outdoor City

    4. Greno Woods Facelift

    Our corporate sponsors have stood by us throughout. Much of the funds raised for Redmires will now go to work on the Greno Woods trails which have been incredibly popular during Covid and are showing considerable signs of wear and tear.

    Greno work could start soon….

    5. New Energies

    Lastly and, frankly, bizarrely, postponing Redmires has unleashed a tsunami of stored energy. Redmires was all-consuming for three years and in many ways prevented Ride Sheffield from pushing on. The last couple of months by comparison have seen a very successful raffle, a superb application for grant funding to the Santa Cruz Paydirt project and numerous suitably anti-socially distanced trail days. 

    There’s more to come so watch this space! We’re going into 2021 with optimism and believe every cloud has a silver lining….

    Vulcan Engineering, our biggest sponsor, has been incredibly generous allowing us to keep £7,500 of the original donation. The remaining £15,000 is to be used to build a sand dam in Africa that will ensure that a huge number of people have a ready supply of water. It really is an amazing scheme that benefits those who regularly have to walk kilometres to find water. If you’d like to help out with the scheme, details are HERE.

  • RADmires Rallying Cry

    The rebellious heart of mountain biking can occasionally tip over into a kind of juvenile grumpiness, “I don’t care, I’m going to do what I like and the rest of the world can go to hell.” Ride Sheffield loves the fact that individualism and freedom are core parts of our great sport, but we also love it when the sport pulls together to achieve a greater good.

    (more…)

  • Radmires – how we can all help make it happen….

    With the help of local riders and businesses, Ride Sheffield have raised all the money required to build a red graded trail in Redmires plantation in the Peak District. Enormous effort has gone into satisfying the various demands placed on us by the Peak District National Park and other user groups. The first attempt at gaining planning permission has, however, been placed on hold. Here’s the story….


    (more…)

  • Lady Cannings Closures

    In discussion with Sheffield City Council we are aware the trails at Lady Cannings are have had a tough wet and soggy winter, not to mention a lot of snow and frozen weather and the unseasonably big thaw that followed last week and then the near flooding we have had today and forecast for more….
     
    For this reason there will be a short term annual closure of both Blue Steel and Cooking on Gas Trails within Lady Cannings over the next few weeks to reduce impact and keep the trails sustainable.
    Therefore the trails will be closed until the 25th of March (we will review at this point)

    (more…)

  • GO Outdoors Grand Opening of ‘Cooking on Gas’ trail at Lady Canning’s

    The trails in Lady Cannings exist because of a lot of hardwork by numerous people, Sheffield City Council’s massive support and your contributions which made it possible. However, nothing would have happened without Go Outdoors having the confidence and vision to get behind the project by funding the last part of the Blue Steel Trail and all of Cooking on Gas. To celebrate that success, they will be holding a grand opening on the trail this weekend. Ride Sheffield will be there to chat about this and other projects, but this is Go Outdoors’ big celebration of all things mountain biking as you can read below….. (more…)

  • Lady Canning’s – Just a little Something to Keep You Occupied….

    Unwrapping the Outdoor City’s latest trail
    Remember when we were struggling to knock the Lady Canning’s Blue Steel trail into shape after it had been all but obliterated by the forestry gang? Remember how it seemed to take forever? Remember how we said that owing to the crap weather, we’d had to put a hold on building phase two? (more…)

  • Sheffield Ski Village Rises Again?

    screen-shot-2016-12-17-at-15-15-17
    The almost finished bridge at the end of Eh Up Line!

    It’s been almost five years since Sheffield Ski village was burned to the ground. While a little rough around the edges and certainly a little past its prime, it still provided a haven for Sheffield’s snow sports lovers, not to mention providing a testing ground for a few Olympians in the process too. Flying somewhere under the radar was the plans to development mountain biking on the site too (with the hope that it would compliment the XC loop being built at Parkwood) (more…)

  • The Magnificent Seven

    m7Blessed as we are by hills and cyclists, it’s a wonder that no one has come up with this idea before. Take seven (road) hills in Sheffield, sort out a route between each one and organise an escort for the riders to give them a hassle free route, then at the base of each hill unleash a mass start hill climb with points going to the top 10 riders. Then repeat another 6 times until you find the winner. Sort of an upside down roadie enduro with perhaps a little more suffering.

    If that sounds like your thing (and why wouldn’t it) then the information to enter is below. It should also provide an entertaining spectacle for those less inclined to race. It would be great to support an event that is the first of its kind in the UK. Full details follow below (more…)

  • Lady Cannings Trail is now open

    Photo: Richard Baybutt

    The wait is finally over! This Tuesday Steve Peat and Annie Last joined Ride Sheffield, Go Outdoors and friends to officially open the Lady Cannings Trails on the edge of Sheffield. From the cutting of the ribbon to well past sunset it was then  christened by the riders who have all dug into their pockets to raise over fifteen thousand pounds; making the UK’s first ever crowd funded trail a reality. And given the buzz up on the trails it has been a resounding success! (more…)