Ride Sheffield

Tag: The Outdoor City

  • 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

  • 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.

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  • 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)

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  • 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.

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  • July Trail Evening: Lady Cannings

    July Trail Evening: Lady Cannings

    It’s been another good summer for dusty trails this year, but the extra rain we have had has given us a bit of overgrown vegetation. (Parkwood will be sorted by the council team shortly)

    So we will be heading upto Lady Cannings next Thursday the 25th for an evening session, cutting back vegetation and tidying up some of the loose sections too. Followed by post work pints in the Norfolk Arms (our sponsors may even buy you one 👊)

    Dress appropriately for the work,don’t forget the midge spray and the water.

    We will be meeting in the bottom car park on Sheephill Road at 6pm Thursday the 25th of July, or on the trails after 6pm.

    Hope to see you there


  • November Trail Day – Blacka

    Blacka has always been a bit of a November favourite for us, it’s always good to get the trails ready for the winter so they give us some more sustainable riding in the winter and come out looking and riding sweetly in the spring.

    Our volunteers have been out on a few midweek sessions recently (give us an email if you fancy being part of the midweek crew), but there’s still lots to do up there.

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  • June Trail Evening: Lady Cannings – 26/06/2018

    After a little break from our weekend trails day because, well its been rather dry and the trails are in great shape, which means more riding and less trail work.

    But after a bit of a late start this year the vegetation has started to grow back a little, making some stretched of Lady Cannings delightful singletrack a little too narrow and single. So its time for a bit of a trim not to mention al bit of general TLC.

    We will up at Lady Cannings on Tuesday the 26th of June, meeting in the car park at 6pm and carrying on until about 9 ish, followed by refreshments in the Norfolk arms afterwards. Hopefully we will be rewarded with a beautiful midsummers evening and enough of a breeze to keep the midges at bay! (more…)

  • March Trail Day and BBQ: Lady Canning

    It’s been great to give Lady Cannings trails a break over the past couple of weeks. It gives them time to rest and recover. Not to mention making it easy to do a little bit of trail work here and there. But nothing beats the solid effort of a trail day.

    This time as a little extra thank you to all our diggers/pruners/scrapers/rakers we will be having a bbq to round out the session and to celebrate the start of British Summertime!

    We will be heading upto Lady Cannings from 1300 onwards and will be eating about 1600.

    We will meet at the car park at 1300 and then after that on the trails (Blue Steel and CoG – the plan is to split into two teams). We will provide tools, but feel free to bring extras (barrows are particularly useful).

    While there will be food, you might want to bring water with you. Also please dress appropriately for the work.

    All help is greatly appreciated. See you Saturday!

    Please bear in mind that the trails will remain closed while we do the work and we will then review the closure after the work has been done and related to the weather forecast.

    Details

    Location: Lady Cannings

    Time: Saturday 24th March 1300 until 1600 (bbq time)

    Meet: Lady Cannings car park on Sheephill Rd at 1300 or after that on the trail

    Tools all provided (but extra wheelbarrows welcome)

    Bbq provided, though you may want to bring your own drinks. Also if you have dietary requirements (vegetarian etc) please let us know.

    Please wear clothing/footwear suitable for trailwork

  • 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)

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  • Ride Sheffield Winter Social 2017

    With just a couple of weeks to go until our winter social we thought it was about time to share a few more details about this years social. We are going to be meeting on the 4th of December from 7pm onwards and we will be back in our spiritual home The Lescar. (more…)