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 Post subject: How to know where you can drive a bike off road
PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 9:38 am 
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Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2011 9:36 am
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Hi im new to trials riding and would like to ask you know where to find byways which are accessible to motorcycles?

i live in leicester so anyone local with info on places to go please let me know.

chris


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 Post subject: Re: How to know where you can drive a bike off road
PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 11:17 am 
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Joined: Thu Apr 30, 2009 7:13 am
Posts: 1419
Location: East Angular
Hi Chris,

Welcome to the forum!

There is a hard way and an easy way.

The hard way - buy yourself some OS 50k:1 maps for the area where you want to ride, look for lanes that are marked up with red "+ + +" marks or red ". . ." marks and then work out how to piece them all together. Before you go, get on to your local council and find out which lanes have TROs on them that restrict motorbike access, or get onto Google Maps and look for signposts at the start and end of the lanes. You might also want to look at the Trailwise website (http://www.trailwise.org.uk), particularly because a lot of ORPAs (the ones with the red dots) are not that interesting. That's a lot of work before you even go riding.

The easy way - get in touch with your local TRF group (http://www.trf.org.uk/groups/group-listing.html) and get to know them. Most groups will be happy taking you out for a led ride without being a member of the TRF, but after that you should really join up. By talking to the locals, you should find out a lot more than you could research off maps as there is no substitute for local knowledge. You will still need to buy maps, but this way you can limit yourself to buying the most appropriate ones first. Another advantage is you are likely to find riding partners - as a novice, you should never go trail riding on your own. A torn tyre or a bad fall can be a very big problem if you are 5 miles from a main road.

By the way, don't be surprised if people are initially wary about marking up maps. It's a regular occurrence for people to turn up, demanding access to lists of lanes and routes and then disappear without a trace once they have leeched the info.

If you are intent to carry on riding the trails, you really should join the TRF - with your membership you will get access to the members' areas of the forum and the website, enhanced access to Trailwise, as well as helping to fund the Rights of Way specialists who fight to keep the lanes open and adding to the fighting fund which is used to take cases to court. For instance, if you are on a lane that has legitimate rights or where the rights may be in dispute, and someone takes you to court, the TRF will support their members with specialists, not just your local solicitor who happens to be a rambler and doesn't know the difference between a Section 59 and the McDonalds menu.


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 Post subject: Re: How to know where you can drive a bike off road
PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 12:57 pm 
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Joined: Sat May 29, 2010 8:31 pm
Posts: 389
just join and save yourself a whole load of wasted time and money

:oops: which is what i should have done :oops:

The £40 goes to the right places to keep our trails alive

My local group has shown me literally a hundred lanes that i could never have worked out how to link up myself

they dont smell of wee either or have beards but do own orange bikes still you cant have everything ;)

oh and you can never have to many friends to ride with

hornet(who didnt want to join but did because he was fed up trying to find lanes)

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 Post subject: Re: How to know where you can drive a bike off road
PostPosted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 1:56 am 
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Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2010 6:22 pm
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since i joined forums only i looked on MARIO lancashire and found 1 green lane myself, about 2 miles from me, its marked as a lane on google maps, but never knew it existed for 20 years lol !!!! i'd be more than happy to share it with you all, pay day in about 10 days and counting and i'm in :) btw the trail i found is only about .5 miles long, but is sloppy and challenging :)

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 Post subject: Re: How to know where you can drive a bike off road
PostPosted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 8:37 pm 
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Joined: Tue Jun 30, 2009 9:46 pm
Posts: 527
Location: Bridport, Dorset
Orange bikes are not compulsory, although there are heaps of them. I often ride with a chap who rides a dingey green bike. Sadly it's a bit unrealible, but he's a dab hand at pulling it apart on the trails, bump starting it & so on. God bless the Armstrong! At the moment it's so broken that he's using his Transalp. Not the best for the trails, but at least it's a bike & he can still go places.

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 Post subject: Re: How to know where you can drive a bike off road
PostPosted: Mon Jan 10, 2011 3:31 am 
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Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2009 11:44 pm
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Lots of lovely lanes in Leicestershire :)

Cambs TRF Group ride out that way quite regularly.

Cheers

Richard


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 Post subject: Re: How to know where you can drive a bike off road
PostPosted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 1:21 pm 
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Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2011 9:36 am
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Richard Sugden wrote:
Lots of lovely lanes in Leicestershire :)

Cambs TRF Group ride out that way quite regularly.

Ive tried contacting the person listed in the groups for the contact details and when and where you next meet, or are over my way, do you know are you in the camps group?


are there any other groups that ride near leicestershire, or out coalville way?


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 Post subject: Re: How to know where you can drive a bike off road
PostPosted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 11:32 pm 
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Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2009 11:44 pm
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Yes mate I'm in the cambs group.

We were planning a ride over that way at the end of the month and I was going to lead but unfortunately my DRZ has failed it's MOT and is now under repair. I'm still waiting for bits to arrive so very much doubt it'll be sorted in time.

I think East Midlands and West Anglia or South Northants Groups are probably the closest to Leicestershire generally.

Cheers

Richard


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