can you ride a national trail?

Darra8

Hi All,

Looking on my OS maps there are lots of national trails not too far away from where i live. Can they be ridden, or are they strictly for walkers?

Cheers,

Steve

nicklouse

what are they classified as? foot paths no.

Darra8

On the may key it says national trail. It's a green line with green diamonds running through it.

Steve

Trideg

You can cycle the South Downs Way, The Pennine Bridleway and the western half of the Ridgeway up to Streatley.
See www.nationaltrail.co.uk/

strodey

if its green line with diamonds on top of a bridleway or any other 'legal' to cycle on track then yes, if you cannot see anything under it then no!

Johnstumpy

If it's got green dimonds on a broken green line does this mean you can cycle down it?
It's not a broken bridle path line it's a smaller like footpath!


Stumpjumper the way forward!

Anonymous

Just ride it anyway, but be polite, and give way to walkers. As long as you don't make an arse of yourself, you should be fine.

Tank-slapper

Johnstumpy wrote:

If it's got green dimonds on a broken green line does this mean you can cycle down it?
It's not a broken bridle path line it's a smaller like footpath!

No, it would not be legal to ride along it as it is a footpath.

.blitz

yeehaamcgee wrote:

Just ride it anyway, but be polite, and give way to walkers. As long as you don't make an ars* of yourself, you should be fine.

:roll:

Anonymous

.blitz wrote:

yeehaamcgee wrote:

Just ride it anyway, but be polite, and give way to walkers. As long as you don't make an ars* of yourself, you should be fine.

:roll:

Don't do the derogtory smiley thing at me.
We have hundreds of miles of footpaths over here, which I do ride. Only once have I ever been told off by a walker for riding on any of them. Of course, I knew I was in the wrong, and apologised.
In every other case, a friendly "hello" and giving the walkers the right of way has meant a peacufull ride / walk for both parties. Sometimes, I've even had a chat with the hikers, who were fascinated by this "crazy bicycle".

Now I appreciate that if we all rode on footpaths all the time, then it would get out of hand, but if you do want to explore, then make sure you're courteous, and you should be fine.
Also, it makes sense to not even bother with a heavily populated route (such as Snowdon, for example) because the amount of traffic would pose a real problem.

We're not leglly allowed to ride on avements either , you know - but far more people do that than ride on remote footpaths in the middle of nowhere.

Just use your noggin.

.blitz

yeehaamcgee wrote:

Don't do the derogtory smiley thing at me.

I'll do whatever I want mate.

Just because you've ridden on some footpaths without any grief doesn't make it OK.

boogercj

I've seen discussions like this all over this forum and thought of a question I'd quite like to ask, and then attempt to answer myself.

Picture the scene - you're riding down a fire-road/bridleway/similar and you see a nice trail disappearing into the woods down a hill. You have a quick look and it looks like a lovely bit of track.

Do you a) Decide you'd better not in case someone shouts at you and you don't want to break the law dispite the fact you'll probably be thinkign about it for weeks to come.
b) Ride it anyway
c) Ride on because you were never that bothered about riding singletrack anyway and the reason you bought a £2000 "mountain" bike is to ride on bridleways and fire-roads only.

My answer is b) I ride it anyway because thats the whole reason I bought the bike in the first place. if I spot a walker or other bikes I slow down as necessary and be nice and polite.

I say ride that national trail.

Anonymous

.blitz wrote:

yeehaamcgee wrote:

Don't do the derogtory smiley thing at me.

I'll do whatever I want mate.

Just because you've ridden on some footpaths without any grief doesn't make it OK.

Sorry, the "derrogatory smiley" thing was meant as a tongue in cheek remark.

But that still doesn't change my views of footpaths. Sorry if this causes great offence anybody, but it has zero consequences.
Hell, most of the time, no-one even knows.

If ever there was a victim-less "crime" then this is it.

scotto

It's a difficult one this, I always feel bad riding footpaths, just because I know the access has often been given by the landowner and if too many people ride them , then the access can be withdrawn.

Some bits of the ridgeway are footpath only and I walked them near the princes risborough end, which put me off going back to that bit.

I kind of see both sides really.

.blitz

yeehaamcgee wrote:

Sorry, the "derrogatory smiley" thing was meant as a tongue in cheek remark.

I knew that :oops:

boogercj

Back in the early ninetees when I started riding we didn't have internet access and there wasn't a great deal of literature available for your average 15/16 year old to check where you were you were allowed to ride. Consequently, we pretty much rode everywhere we could that wasn't specifically signposted as "private" or "no cycling allowed".

I guess this is where my attitude towards the issue comes from. I've never really thought about where I can or can't ride other than where there's a sign clearly stating you're not meant to ride there.

I understand people don't; want to be run over by 30lbs plus DH bikes and armoured up riders travelling at 30mph, but I'm sure a little common sense and courtesy goes a long way to alleviating people's fears.

Surely in an age when Britain is quoted as the "most obese country in Europe", the government should be encouraging cycling to the max and making it easy for people to their 30 mins a day of "proper" exercise.

ex-pat scot

In general- don't ride on footpaths.

It's easy ammunition for the anti-cycling brigade.

However, there are times when tempting paths stray from the known bridleways, they look clear and rideable, and there's no chance of leaving any damage to the trail.
In such circumstances, proceed with caution and be prepared to give way, apologise and perhaps make a run for it.

A great example is the network of paths in Sheffield's Porter Valley. There is one official bridleway that runs through it, criss-crossed by a network of rideable paths.
In the late 80s and early 90s we rode them all with impunity, but in recent years the success of MTBing has meant that we've had to be more disciplined at busy times, and save the "off piste" for night rides and quiet moments.