Newbie questions

[Tin Pot]

Hi all,

Finally got around to going off road - boy, it was muddy and hard work , but I felt like I was 8yo again

A few questions...

I was disappointed to find my run trail route covered in "no cycling" signs. So,


1. What's the story behind these, is it etiquette for other users, scaring animals, do you get fined, or shot in front of your family?

I'm a Londoner, so

2. What's a Bridleway, and is there a common marking to denote them?

3. Is there a database of maps showing where you can ride off road?

I have a cheap BSO, so

4. Do expensive bikes jam up as much?


Cheers all,

TP

 

[I like Skol]

Legal right's of way are a huge.....

Basically you can only ride your bike on anything with a status higher than a footpath. That means a bridleway is allowed but a footpath is just that, a path for feet, i.e walking! There is ONE exception to this and that is an officially designated mixed use footpath and cycleway but these are usually clearly marked as such and tend to only occur in urban areas along or avoiding busy roads.
Until recently I used to do a lot of motorised off-road R-o-W driving and that is even more complicated and continually changing due to rule changes and reclassification of some existing routes (Terms like bye-ways, restricted bye-ways, RuPPs, BOATs, UCRs, ORPAs etc are bandied about )

To answer your original question, your 'running trail' is likely only of footpath status so you would be wrong and breaking the law to cycle on it.

 

[Tin Pot]

Hmm thanks, I thought this might be the case. Obviously I can infer from the fact that a sign says "no cycling" I shouldn't be doing it, but there are plenty of things in life that shouldn't be done and there is more to life than rules. That said, I tend to obey them. But wow, there were so many, practically every turn I made. One sign even had CCTV over it, so I might have SO19 kick the doors in later and my face pulverised over dinner.

 

[Cubist]

@Tin Pot OS maps show bridleways, green dashed lines on the 1:25000 and red-ish ones on the 1:50000. However, if you go onto mapping sites like MapmyRide, Strava, Bike-Hike, Garmin etc you can search for routes others have posted and follow those.

I have an annual subscription to the Ordnance Survey site, and trace a route on that. If you then go onto Bing mapping and zoom into your route in satellite or even better, birdseye view, you can actually see what sort of surface you'll be on. I then save a trace to my Garmin and follow that, but also take a custom print off the Ordnance Survey getamap function.

Google is also a good friend. SImply search MTB routes and your home town, and see what comes up. MBR does some cityscape stuff.

 

[Tin Pot]

Cheers.

I've not found mapmyride useful as it doesn't distinguish bridle ways, and no luck with google maps either.

I have, however, got an OS map somewhere - I think it was a freebie from a race. I'll try to locate that!

 

[Cubist]

Them trick is to find the bridleways on OS, then look at Bing or Google once you have determined which route you will take.

Map myride has a useful search function which may show you what others have classed as MTB routes near you, as does Strava.