Midlands laning

[Series71]

maybe it was soooo good you just had a sub conshus urge to do it twice !

 

[rich1]

maybe it was soooo good you just had a sub conshus urge to do it twice !

Couldn't stop myself.

 

[Disco Moneypit]

I just thought that I would add my 2p to this thread......


I went out laning with five other vehicles from Muddywheels.co.uk a couple of months back. We met up at 10am over Matlock way and finished at around 5pm near The Fox House on the Derbyshire / South Yorkshire border.

My own view of laning is that if you are planning on going out to get your vehicle stuck or muddy, then perhaps a Pay & play site would better suit your needs, which is why I usually go out laning with one or two close mates, whom I already know share the same views.

Anyway, during the day, most of which I spent in the middle of the group, I didn't witness any of them dropping litter, all gates were shut behind us, the convoy always stopped or slowed down to walking pace near walkers, horse riders and motorbikes.

The guy leading the way was very carefull to make sure that we were sticking to lanes with open access to vehicles, (I believe that he had downloaded info from council websites onto his laptop two days prior).

Two lanes were aborted due to adverse conditions, (sorry, cant remember the names of them), resulting in us turning back and taking a long detour. The only one that we did do which perhaps we shouldn't was Stanage Edge, and I must take some responsability for that myself. Up on the top of Stanage we um'ed and ar'ed about proceeding, but myself and another chap wanted to give it a go before a closure order is placed on it, which looking at the state of it, cant be long coming, and it would proberly be for the best anyway, due to the washout on the lane.

My only gripe was that in places the speed was a little higher than what I would usually travel at on unpaved roads, maybe 20mph tops. I stress that this was only IN PLACES and it was towards the end of the day when most of them had a drive of over an hour left, (unlike me, ten minutes down the road).

Just because a couple of people have been filmed driving like ****s from a certain internet site, it doesn't mean that everyone who users that site behaves in the same way. Believe me, I am very against lanes being chewed up to buggery, littering, leaving gates open and startling livestock or other lane users. The tree huggers have plenty of ammo, and I for one don't want to go giving them any more.

If I was laning with a group who were acting like ****s, I'd tell them so, irrespective of how big they were or how many there were of them, and I'd pick up my ball and go home. Driving is an essential part of my job. No license = no work. No work = no money. Even ignoring the fact that it would take decades for a lane to repair itself, if it did at all, (chances are that rainwater run-off would continue to make bad ruts worse), the last thing that I want is a careless driving charge on my license, and lets face it, for all you know, the old bill could be just around the next corner. Not that an unlikely scenario on any given Sunday in the anti car Peak District.

 

[goonarmy]

good post that DMP

 

[Disco Moneypit]

Well, thats the first 20 pages read. Some of it wasn't in English, or any other language that I am aware of, but there you go.

 

[deli hustler]

Looking at the state of some of the routes Muddywheels4x4 use what would happen to a horse or a mountain bike that tryed to use the ROW? And how do the members of Muddywheels4x4 feel about other ROW users?
I do greenlane and I use Strata Florida quite a bit, and its only been this year that it's gone very bad

 

[Disco Moneypit]

Looking at the state of some of the routes Muddywheels4x4 use what would happen to a horse or a mountain bike that tryed to use the ROW? And how do the members of Muddywheels4x4 feel about other ROW users?
I do greenlane and I use Strata Florida quite a bit, and its only been this year that it's gone very bad

Well, I was a regular user of the muddywheels forum, and I think I made my views quite clear in my post earlier on this page. Basicly, laning is for having a nice gentle drive 'off piste' so to speak. As SEAN, (I think) pointed out earlier in this thread, treading as lightly as possable is the name of the game, (and it aint often that me and SEAN agree on anything).

I go laning mainly to enjoy the scenery and get off our busy and crowded roads. To enjoy a nice sedate, quiet drive. Thats why I usually go laning either by myself, (on some rather mild lanes that I know well), or with just one or two other friends who also share my views.

If I want to get dirty, stuck, or rag about, I go to a Play and Pay site. And for the sake of £20, I usually find them to be quite good value.


Right then, other lane users......

I do a fair bit of cycling, most of it on bridleways around here, and I always have done for as long as I can remember. I also know quite a few horsey folk. Not one of them would stop using a lane or bridleway if it had been ****ing it down with rain and was a mud bath. None of them understand about letting lanes repair themselves, and they all seem to think that they have a god given right to ride wherever they like, whenever they like, even riding two abreast down very narrow country lanes, and they will not move into line astern if they hear a car coming. You could say that they are militent horse riders. or you could say that they are selfish arseholes?

My long winded point is that a two ton horse does a lot more damage to a lane or bridleway when it is muddy than a carefully driven two ton Land Rover, simply because on the Land Rover the weight is distributed a lot more evenly, not just on four quite sharpe / narrow footprints. So I don't have a great deal of time for the majority of horse riders.

Bike riders? They fall into two camps IMO. Those who ride lanes with care, and those who use them as a muddy section of the Manx TT. I have all the time on the world for the former, but little time for the latter.

Walkers and cyclists. No problem. Just please dont go giving me grief for the actions of other 4x4 users.

And 4x4 users who rag up the lanes? I hold them at the same level of disdain as I do anyone else who I think is selfish and inconsiderate.

 

[Disco Moneypit]

Just going back to bridleways and lanes chewed up to f#ck by horses. I have lost count of the amount of times I have either come off, or nearly come off my bike after hitting a collection of 100+ shin deep potholes caused by horses hooves.

 

[deli hustler]

Looking at the video clip of The Viking Way, I don't think i'd take my mtb or horse down that lane. Please could people remember that greenlane are used by other people

 

[Pikey]

Looking at the video clip of The Viking Way, I don't think i'd take my mtb or horse down that lane. Please could people remember that greenlane are used by other people

Do you actually own or have an interest in Landies. Or have yu just come here to moan about em??

 

[Griffdowg]

Looking at the video clip of The Viking Way, I don't think i'd take my mtb or horse down that lane. Please could people remember that greenlane are used by other people

well keep off the byway and use the bridleways which are designated for that use... Its pretty simpe really :blabla:

G

 

[deli hustler]

Byway can be used by everyone from walkers to 4x4's, they have the same rules of the road as A and B roads so can be used by anyone
If the that attitude think i'll stick to mud-club and difflock

 

[Series71]

stick to difflock if yer like being at jnr school....bye you'll be missed

 

[Miss Dee]

well keep off the byway and use the bridleways which are designated for that use... Its pretty simpe really :blabla:

G

Hi,

I was sent a link to this forum, and came on here to thank your for condoning thoses idiots that go 'off piste' and churn up lanes. I live in Ceredigion and as well as owning a Disco, for towing, I ride Strata Florida quite freqently. But it's starting to become un ridable without risk of injury to my horse due to people churning up parts of the track and either side of it. Not to mention the people who have started driving up a couple of the bridleways in the forestry there.

But I'm really upset by the above comment (and previous ones)and shocked, like 4x4 drivers we are restricted to a limited network of ROWs (ok not as limited), and suffer abuse from ramblers, in addition to that we suffer from car drivers telling us to 'get of their road' etc...

I've always helped defend the greenlaners corner at various council meetings, as most that I meet are a nice bunch, and like horse riders and mtb'r get given a bad reputation by a few individuals.

Many 4x4 owners that I have met moan like hell about the ramblers association saying that 4x4 have no place in the countryside and should stick to surfaced roads, yet the above comment is saying exactly the same to horse riders, carriage drivers and bikers:doh::doh::doh:.

For information I witnessed the group that went off the legal right of way on the weekend of the 10th May, and laugh at the comment from one guy saying he was only going to recover his stuck mate, as from where me and my partner were watching he was the one leading the group!! And they didn't just go off the legal right of way in one place!!!

I ride a horse that weighs approx 1/2ton, is stuborn and selfwilled, with it's own mind where it would like to go, and using nothing but kind words and 2 leather straps I managed to keep it on the legal right of way (not even a bit in it's mouth!!) I love to know what muddywheels 4x4 groups excuse was, the manovering they had to do at the bothy (i believe you lot call it a 'bomb hole') to get in the river ment they couldn't even use the excuse that they didn't know the correct way.

I came on here to thank you, and maybe get some advice on tyres, so please don't start acting like the red sock brigade and if you see a small girl on a large black horse on Strata wave but don't tell me I have no right to be there.

 

[Series71]

Hi,

I was sent a link to this forum, and came on here to thank your for condoning thoses idiots that go 'off piste' and churn up lanes. I live in Ceredigion and as well as owning a Disco, for towing, I ride Strata Florida quite freqently. But it's starting to become un ridable without risk of injury to my horse due to people churning up parts of the track and either side of it. Not to mention the people who have started driving up a couple of the bridleways in the forestry there.

But I'm really upset by the above comment (and previous ones)and shocked, like 4x4 drivers we are restricted to a limited network of ROWs (ok not as limited), and suffer abuse from ramblers, in addition to that we suffer from car drivers telling us to 'get of their road' etc...

I've always helped defend the greenlaners corner at various council meetings, as most that I meet are a nice bunch, and like horse riders and mtb'r get given a bad reputation by a few individuals.

Many 4x4 owners that I have met moan like hell about the ramblers association saying that 4x4 have no place in the countryside and should stick to surfaced roads, yet the above comment is saying exactly the same to horse riders, carriage drivers and bikers:doh::doh::doh:.

For information I witnessed the group that went off the legal right of way on the weekend of the 10th May, and laugh at the comment from one guy saying he was only going to recover his stuck mate, as from where me and my partner were watching he was the one leading the group!! And they didn't just go off the legal right of way in one place!!!

I ride a horse that weighs approx 1/2ton, is stuborn and selfwilled, with it's own mind where it would like to go, and using nothing but kind words and 2 leather straps I managed to keep it on the legal right of way (not even a bit in it's mouth!!) I love to know what muddywheels 4x4 groups excuse was, the manovering they had to do at the bothy (i believe you lot call it a 'bomb hole') to get in the river ment they couldn't even use the excuse that they didn't know the correct way.

I came on here to thank you, and maybe get some advice on tyres, so please don't start acting like the red sock brigade and if you see a small girl on a large black horse on Strata wave but don't tell me I have no right to be there.

welcome to the forum

i've ocassionally seen horses and riders out when i'm laning..I always slow down and stop for em and exchange smiles and a wave.

 

[Paul D]

Hi,

I was sent a link to this forum, and came on here to thank your for condoning thoses idiots that go 'off piste' and churn up lanes.

But I'm really upset by the above comment (and previous ones)and shocked, like 4x4 drivers we are restricted to a limited network of ROWs (ok not as limited), and suffer abuse from ramblers, in addition to that we suffer from car drivers telling us to 'get of their road' etc...

Firstly very few people on Landyzone are condoning the morons that go off the lanes and churn them up, unless it's a typo and you actually meant condemning?

I'd suggest you read the full thread as most people called them all sorts of names and didn't condone their actions at all.

As for the quote from griffdowg I'd also suggest you read the quoted post and a few posts beforehand and read it in the context it was delivered ... and take note of the smileyface ... it seems to me that he's posted more in a spirit of jocularity rather than to cause offence.

At the end of the day anyone can use a By-way, there's no restrictions on them, so dickheads and decent drivers can all use them. Those of us who are decent don't stand for this kind of mud-churning and won't drive lanes that are likely to get severely churned ... but that's not all. The big problem is, we have so few lanes to drive that the ones that are open get hammered. Yes, we go in small groups, but what happens if twenty small groups go through? It really can't be helped much unless we have more space for us all to fit in ... and all users can get along instead of cussing and swearing at other groups.

In my area Rights_of_Way.asp there are 12 byways for motor vehicles, 84 recorded bridleways and 385 footpaths ... seems a tad unbalanced to me, but I'm not bleating about it, and I drive the lanes I legally can. I get my muddy fun at Pay 'n Play days or competitions.

To sum up, we as 4x4 drivers and you as horse riders (of which I also do events occasionally) ought to get together more and work towards a more equitable solution than slagging each other off and causing more hassle. Perhaps if you came out with a decent group, green-laning normally, you might get an idea of what we 'do' rather than surmise what we do from a few Youtube videos of nutters?

 

[Miss Dee]

Firstly very few people on Landyzone are condoning the morons that go off the lanes and churn them up, unless it's a typo and you actually meant condemning?

I'd suggest you read the full thread as most people called them all sorts of names and didn't condone their actions at all.

As for the quote from griffdowg I'd also suggest you read the quoted post and a few posts beforehand and read it in the context it was delivered ... and take note of the smileyface ... it seems to me that he's posted more in a spirit of jocularity rather than to cause offence.

quote]

Yes I ment condeming them, english isn't my first language!!! And it's taken me a couple of hours to read the whole thread

I was sent the link by a couple who have given a statement to the police regarding the activities of Muddywheels 4x4, that weekend and I have also been asked to statement, which I will be... Not with the aim of stopping 4x4 on Strata, but having read this thread the idiots don't even seem to think that driving over SSI's Peatbogs and along river beds is wrong:doh:

But the comment I quoted doesn't appear to have a sarcastic smily, and the previous comments about horses causing shin deep ruts to me sounds excatly like the red sock brigade, and what they say about 4x4 on unsurfaced roads Like 4x4 drivers horse riders have the tread lightly rule as well, partly because the risk of injury to our pets, we can't replace broken parts like you lot and my horse is part of my family so to loss him would horrible.

I agree we should work better together, there are projects in wales looking to open the former drovers roads up and disused rail lines, but without much luck..

I have also been out with 4x4 drivers, having been along Strata with a group. As I said 90% are nice and respectful... like every one it's just a few giving a very bad reputation... I can't describe the vehicles I have met on Strata who have been driving on the legal route, said hello, or who I have chatted to. But the Orange Disco, Dark Camo Disco and one with a tow rope over the bonnet that I watched on the 10th I could give excellent descriptions of, including the drivers and Dog!!! Funny how we remember the bad!!!

 

[Paul D]

Yes I ment condeming them, english isn't my first language!!! And it's taken me a couple of hours to read the whole thread

No worries ..

But the comment I quoted doesn't appear to have a sarcastic smily,

The original post of it does ... hence my earlier suggestion to read it in context with who he was replying to. No worries though ...

I agree we should work better together, there are projects in wales looking to open the former drovers roads up and disused rail lines, but without much luck..

Yeah, used to race Enduro and regularly took part in Horse versus motorcycle enduro's in Wales in years gone by. Did a lot for mutual respect.

I have also been out with 4x4 drivers, having been along Strata with a group. As I said 90% are nice and respectful... like every one it's just a few giving a very bad reputation... I can't describe the vehicles I have met on Strata who have been driving on the legal route, said hello, or who I have chatted to. But the Orange Disco, Dark Camo Disco and one with a tow rope over the bonnet that I watched on the 10th I could give excellent descriptions of, including the drivers and Dog!!! Funny how we remember the bad!!!

Heheheh, yeah a few bad ones leave a nasty taste.

Keep riding, keep laning, have a beer together ...

 

[riffka]

still not made a hundred yet then lads your letting me down lol

 

[goonarmy]

pleb