Who are the TRF ?

The Trail Riders Fellowship (TRF) is the UK's largest organisation for Trail Riding. It was started in 1970 by a group of concerned motorcyclists to resist the (often illegal) pressures that threatened their continuing legitimate use of our old Green Roads. In their legitimate use of Green Roads, all members are required to ride to a code of conduct designed to promote a responsible and socially acceptable recreational use of the countryside over public roads on road-legal machines.

What is Trail Riding?

Trail Riding is the recreational use of Green Roads by motorcycle. Of course, we ride only on those routes which we are legally entitled to use. Trail riders do not use bridleways or footpaths, only other rights of way such as byways and we prefer to avoid tarmac surfaces where possible. Because all these routes are legally Carriageways we make sure that our machines are legal too, with number plates, silencers, tax and insurance, just like any other road machine.

What are Green Roads?

"Green Road" is the name applied to minor unsurfaced roads, an often neglected part of our network of routes. It gives the impression of a grass covered track, but this is not usually the case. Many are rocky tracks, some are 'ploughed out' field tracks. When first invented over 100 years ago, all motorcycles and cars had to drive on roads with unsealed surfaces. There are Green Roads all over Britain - some are historical transit routes, others might have just been lanes to the mill or the pub. Many are very old and evidence of their use as public carriageways can be found in historical documents.

Where can I ride?

On legal carriageways only. Some parts of the country have more trails than others, some have more interesting or challenging trails than others, but as long as you are willing to travel up to 20-30 miles to find your local trails then there are bound to be some near you, wherever you are.

What bike to use?

A 'learner-restricted' trail bike is often competent enough with a light rider; a 500+cc trail bike may be fine on hard rocky tracks, but it will be more difficult to handle on the varying surfaces encountered.

Above all your bike should be as quiet as possible. The vast majority of other country users are tolerant of quiet, sensibly ridden bikes sharing appropriate Rights of Way. One noisy, thoughtless rider can do untold damage to the image of the overwhelming majority of responsible riders. Sensible throttle use can keep most motorcycles exhaust noise down to an acceptable limit.

Green Roads are subject to the same laws as all roads - the bike must be fully road-legal. Any trail rider must: