Military Land and Mountain Bikers

Shotsaway

An interesting article. It would be a shame to loose these riding areas.

http://tinyurl.com/68e4xgx

aaronmroach

As an MOD emplyee and a very avid mountainbiker im affraid I have to agree with the MOD.

We need alot of land and space to carry out training exercises to ready us for deployments all over the world. The vast open spaces and woodland areas are great for cycling but unfortunately they are also excellent training grounds!!! Imagine a group of squadies and a squadron of fast jets / helicopters buzzing your town / city / village three times a week you'd be pretty pissed off!!!

Imagine if an un suspecting cyclist got knocked off by the downwash of a chinook or suffered burns from a blank round or a training shel on non MOD landl, imagine the hoo har in the papers...... So leave the training grounds alone!!!

What would you rather have somewhere to ride at weekends or a fully trained ready to roll military force?????

Beardface

aaronmroach wrote:

Imagine if an un suspecting cyclist got knocked off by the downwash of a chinook

*raises hand* :oops:

Lol, that happened to me (well, it was more backdraft as one was taking off)... it was my fault though, I work on Aldershot Garrison (Civvy), and was riding home past one.. wasn't injured at all, had a soft landing, just felt like a bit of an idiot.. laughed, got up and got on with riding!

But, I see both sides really, I ride on the ranges/MoD land etc when the red flags are down, but if the flags are up, I'll go elsewhere. I completely appreciate the need for the training areas and what they do to help with getting our lads combat ready, but would be gutted if the military land was totally ruled out for riding.. shall have to see what happens when the by-laws are reviewed and hope for the best!

Tank-slapper

Aren't there advertised days when training doesn't take place and when the public can enter these areas? This is what happens in other places, e.g. Warcop.

aaronmroach

As a RAF lad and an MOD civi W"$%&R !!!! You and I know what red flags up means...

I would guess not many cyclists do!!!

Knocked off by jet eflux nice!! I would have pissed my self laughing!!!

I got taken off my feet by my E3D marshalling it in on a tight circuit while in india!! Luckily no one saw it!!!!! And blew a MK12 Air Con unit while ground running the E3D on our engine running pan! Mega slapped wrists!!

Beardface

I'd take offence at being called a civvy w****r, but I hear it most days now..

Luckily not many people were about, so hopefully nobody noticed.. I cracked up at myself, it's just another, slightly more comical way to fall off for me!! I'm not surprised you got taken off your feet though!!! :shock:

You would have thought people living near MoD training grounds would know the red flag meaning, but the amount of people I see out walking their dogs, riding etc with flags up still surprises me!

unixnerd

As a teenager I was knocked off my bike by a low flying Buccaneer near Loch Ness. It came up behind me and passed what seemed like 20 feet above my head! Gave me one heck of a shock.

aaronmroach

Being a raf techie lad Red Flag means stay away ugs or rock apes are around, please take your overly heavy wallet back to the pub and fix your jet another day!!!!

Im in a civvy environment at the mo, E3D deep maint so i get to call you lot all day long!!!!! :shock: Although after SDSR and PR11 I may be after one of your jobs soon!!!!!

Beardface

You won't speak to me if you're in Waddington though, I only deal with Aldershot and Salisbury Plain.. there's usually jobs going though, but I'd avoid Aldershot, it's not the nicest of areas..

cee

There is an MOD training area in the Pentland Hills (Castlelaw) just outside edinburgh...

There are big signs at all the entrances about red flags and also posted stay-out days....

It works well, but maybe in a much bigger area it would be more difficult.

isitamonster

Thetford forest is prone to these exercises, I was going down one of the fire roads, took a wrong turn, saw a red flag and heard gun fire.

That was the fastest ive ever cycled. Didnt fancy getting a burn even if it is from a blank!

aaronmroach

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNxWMa4e ... re_related

Standard death stick of the uk military you dont want to see one pointed at you!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNxWMa4e ... re_related

You dont want to get downwashed do you??

Buckled_Rims

I've mountain biked loads of times in the past around Otterburn (usually around lambing time when there's no army activity - no jokes please ) and agree it'd be a shame to close these areas off.

This is my old single speeder near Otterburn for an example.

shm_uk

Shotsaway wrote:

An interesting article. It would be a shame to loose these riding areas.

http://tinyurl.com/68e4xgx

Technically we'd not be losing the areas as mountain bikers currently shouldn't be riding there in the first place... but it would be a shame for mtb'ers not to have their say in potentially forging an agreement where they can cycle in MoD land...

schmako

The MOD has a site on the local hills i ride, whenever the red flags are up I steer clear. However there have been times where i've went into the area where they train and its usually all good..

Uncle Peter

I work for QQ as a civvy and I''d be gutted to lose some of the awesome riding I get to do around some of the more remote MOD sites.