Bolsover & District Cycling Club

Steve has aked me to come up with a provisional MTB for the "West" (chesterfield) area,

ths is big, i will be judged by what i suggest, so..... questions....

- does it have to start close to pub or are you happy to drive to one for post ride pint,

- how far should it be

- how much brains out downhill should it have (obviously west of Chessy there can be lots!)

 - or would a very limited tarmac loop be fine with a sprinkling of down (and unfortunately up),

-  some wooded ST?! and unchallenging byways.

it's like homework at school, i've got a month,

i await your comments

cheers; (i'll see the keen roadies amongst you on thursday... or not!? :-)

Mark

i posted a provisional route from the Arkwright arms at duckmanton for feedback on bikehike, search BDCC MTB west

Mark

Great effort , but looks a bit too much road in that for me......

I dont know out there that well , but you can put some decent miles in around poolsbrook

what about meeting at the Arkwright Arms then via poolsbrook to Brim Common , then Tapton , down the canal to old whit , then head up to the hills of Unstone green , up & down loop in there (bloody great tracks in there) , then some return route that im sure you can develop

Steve

I for one am in favour of a pub start and finish. I do remember doing a good ride from the Three Merry Lads at Cutthorpe, it is a nice car park as well. I rekon the Father in Law Andy can remember some of it if that helps.:)

How far west do you want to start?  Got a really short but nasty one form Ashover if you want.  Got assorted routes out from Linacre.  However, if you were thinking nearer to Bolsover, what about connecting stockley, Eckington, Cucckoo trail, poolsbrook?  I recall bridleway out from chesterfield to Normanton, Holmewood.....???  Time to go and look at the maps again   Hopefully put some stuff on Bikehike soon.  Can we have a list of all our (bikehike ) routes posted on the website - road routes included?

ill look at that vern....seeing as i cant do much more than sit in front of the PC!

as i said the route was provisional, too much road noted,

i've since had a look at the route with satellite help, what is the club stance on night time use of footpaths?

Steve sensibly suggested the Arkwright arms as

- a camra pub

- close to Bolsover

i'll have to chat to you guys for more local knowledge i was essentially trying to drag the route out towards barlow. but if the route is a stinker then lets set off from one of the fine pubs in barlow, cutthorpe, old brampton,

i've got until the 22nd dec so won't be defeated,

bring maps a week on monday, the problem with all the land reclamation/re development is the maps aren't up to date.

cheers

mark

There is an excellent route around Lincare that I spotted in an MTB guide book that I borrowed from the library. I'll borrow it again and pop it on BikeHike. I guess this could be extended a bit to start from a suitable watering hole. ISTR that the George and Dragon in Old Brampton was very good - car park is a bit small though.

Not only are the maps of the new developments not up to date, a lot of the developments have not been properly finished - Arkwright for example has a network of unconnected paths. Should be good when finished though.

I'm currently working on Project X for next year's Walking Festival, which does now include cycling. I will provide more details in the next few weeks to anyone who would like to join me for a recce...the route is 42 miles long and there will be tarmac involved, but there is also a fair amount of off-road as well...oh, and a few hills too...

Having dreampt this up, I would like to be one of the first to ride it, if I ever get any spare time. We need to claim it as ours before it gets into the wild.

that's the one i forgot its name - landlord is a bit of a lad "swanny" his name!!

project X - sounds good Matt,

personal calendar depending count me in,

get Fordy involved too

linacre is far more open than the map bridalway indicates they have routes on the west side of the ressy's too,

as i discovered taking lukas for a walk in his pram, be good CX training circuit too,

no one replied to the footpath (as in not a bridalway!) question, bikes on footpaths at night??

Legally, riding on footpaths would have to be a no no, but there are some footpaths that should be bridleways and vice versa - I'm sure we can all think of examples. This stems from the compilation of the original 1949 definitive map when lots of parish councils simply registered all their rights of way as footpaths.

My take (not a legal opinion of course) would be that if a right of way has stiles then it is for use by foot traffic only, if not and it is passable on two wheels, then it is fair game and possibly worth claiming as a bridleway. Claiming routes is a tortuous process though - 10 years is not unusual.

It's all getting a bit 'grey' legally as some greenways such as the Five Pits Trail are actually footpaths as is the Chesterfield Canal Towpath. Then there are ORPAs (other routes with public access), which are at least footpaths but may have higher rights...it's all a bit of a minefield.

I have a large doorstop of a book at work (Rights of Way: a guide to law and practice) which is the definitive tome on the subject which says that "a cyclist who rides on a footpath commits trespass against the holder of the land over which the path runs". Cycling on a footpath may be a criminal offence if there is a byelaw in place specifically prohibiting cycling (e.g. in the Peak Park).

In my experience if you get stopped you just have to act daft and apologise and leave by the shortest route (usually the way you came).

Personally, I think that there is a bigger issue with motorbikes on bridleways than cyclists on footpaths.