Peak district rights of way advice please ???

Pipster3

Hi guys
I'm new to the forum and its been a few years since I have been mountain biking...

Been riding a lot of the easy trails and waymarked routes round the peaks last year with the family but looking to explore a bit more off piste this year... I have a lot of local knowledge of the trails around the peaks from walking and trail riding on a motorcycle which I always rode 100% legal you have to be whiter than white so as not to piss anyone off:D

Anyway I've done a few searches and lots of loops have been plotted and uploaded to different sites and I notice lots of them are using footpaths I know mountain cycling has grown into a cult pastime since I first tried it in the early 90's but is it OK to ride the footpaths now or still a bit of a grey area ???

Thanks in advance ...

Phil

shm_uk

Mountain Bikes do not have the right to use public footpaths anywhere in England.

(A Footpath means a highway over which the public have a right of way on foot only, not being a footway [Section 329(1) Highways Act 1980].)

Not sure that cycling on footpaths is illegal, but it'd contravene the access rights given by the landowners.

At the very least it really irritates hikers & landowners, and gives MTBers seriously bad press.

Pipster3

Thanks

I thought that was the case nothing has changed ... No worries like I say i have loads of stuff marked up from my trail riding days I will add the bridleways to that .. really looking forward to getting my old maps out and plotting some loops...

andyxm

There are loads of legal trails in the Peaks, so I'm a bit surprised that the routes you have found use footpaths. Are you sure they aren't bridleways (which are legal). The Peaks tend to be fairly busy so riding footpaths is best avoided for practical as well as legal reasons.

Pipster3

andyxm wrote:

There are loads of legal trails in the Peaks, so I'm a bit surprised that the routes you have found use footpaths. Are you sure they aren't bridleways (which are legal). The Peaks tend to be fairly busy so riding footpaths is best avoided for practical as well as legal reasons.

Look I'll be keeping it legal like you say there's miles and miles of good stuff and no I'm not getting confused with bridleways but to be fair the naughty stuff i have seen is just whats been uploaded by individuals not on the more official sites...Just been looking at the other thread thats running on the Peaks some great links thanks guys...