Thorndon Park Essex - grumbles...

Hairylegs66

Hi everyone - as a user of Thorndon Country park in Essex (and a cyclist of 35 years) can I make a gentle plea to the very small minority of MTB riders who are seemingly unaware of pedestrians, dog walkers , horses and other cyclists who also use the trails. I ask after another near miss this morning with a cyclist who wasn't paying attention whilst riding 2 up on a blind bend and was old enough to know better. Please respect & give way to other trail users, give dog owners time to call their dog to heel (most do) and thank them for their courtesy. And don't use the pedestrian only nature trails please!
I apologise to all the other friendly & courteous cyclists who I see there but feel that the small minority may give us a bad name.
Thanks to the group of guys who stopped last week to see if we could use some help; my mate has a broken toe, bruised ribs and a busted derailleur hanger on his Avalanche but is otherwise a wiser man for the experience.

robertpb

Two people on an MTB are not cyclists but pillocks.

As someone who has ridden Thorndon for the last 48 years I have seen very few cases of bad riding, and I ride there 3 times a week.

Yes I do ride all of it but what has become pedestrian only, never used to be the case as many years ago one could ride all day and not see a soul.

There are even trails that I made which have signs on them no cycles?

I don't know why we have this separation of bikes and people as many other places do not, keeping horses separate I can understand.

I and my fellow group riders are always courteous and stop for dogs and sometimes they like us so much we have them coming with us.

The mindless morons you are addressing are not going to be found on this site as they are not keen MTBers.

BigJimmyB

Hear hear Robert.

What bugged me on my ride there today, was that i stopped 3 times to let other riders through and got blanked, yep completely blanked.

Whoever you are you are a disgrace. There is such a thingas trail etiquette....

On that note, me & my buddies are always courteous, and I've lost count of the blanks from walkers, horse riders and 'fellow' MTB'ers.

I guess some people, whatever their hobby, are just plain ignorant.

rich.bikeryder

i had that as well you say thank you and they look at you like your covered in dog shoot but wont we wont let that spoil our fun we can rest easy knowing we are courteous .....just don't be dragged down to there level and as always be safe and have fun on the trails