Off Roading

Decided to go and do some serious off roading. We decide to try and avoid breaking any laws but probably did not succeed.

Cool - What's with the white van?

[tigersaw]

cant have been easy with those tyres

[Geodude]

Looks fun but i bet it was cold. Who was off roading in the van?

Cool, wouldn't mind a blast on that terrain myself

Was the van dumped ? Noticed a few dents ?

Nice guys

Notice both bikes are on road tyres, but was there noticeable difference between the XTR and the XTX? Or did you not swap bikes at all. I can imagine the smaller front wheel of the XTX getting swallowed up a bit by some of the larger ruts, the XTX forks are stiffer too which would amplify this problem at the bars.

This website will help keep you legal http://www.trailwise.org.uk/gmaps/gmap.htm

I can also recommend Memory Map for iPhone or any GPS equipped Windows Mobile, you buy a £25 pay as you go voucher which allows you to then download OS maps and view them on the phone, with a GPS marker to show your location. You find the legal trails on trailwise before you go, download the OS maps you need and plot them out using your PC, then sync them to the phone. Once on the trail you can see exactly where you are and whether you are still on a legal trail. It also plots a track on the map so you can see where you have been. I have most of Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire mapped, and I've spent about a fiver of my £25 voucher.

[tigersaw]

Just a note about trailwise - its only as good as the contributors who keep it up to date, and often does not account for TRO's.
I try and keep it up to date for my local area, but I notice some of the content is years out of date.

From what we could tell the van looked like it had hit a patch of ice and slid off the road.

The XTR (one with big front tyre) was quite a bit better than the XTX.

The XTR had slightley better tyres for the mud as well as the larger front tyre which helped when you were doing about 40mph accross a field and you find a massive rock in your path.
The problem with the XTX was the tyres, they were 100% road tyres and you kind of had to follow the path of the ruts and just try and keep balance.

We spent 6 hours off road just folloing huge routes around yorkshire only used about £4 in petrol as well.

We had no problem with it being cold, it was probably about + 3/4 and as it was very hard work physically we were both red hot.


you can see the problem with the tyres at about 37 seconds in this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k451TqlKn8

Originally Posted by tigersaw

Just a note about trailwise - its only as good as the contributors who keep it up to date, and often does not account for TRO's.
I try and keep it up to date for my local area, but I notice some of the content is years out of date.

Yes, I've noticed that too. What you tend to find is where the trails are used, or the council is hot on marking and maintaining the trails and actively keep the definitive map up to date, then Trailwise tends to be kept up to date by someone. Respect for keeping your area up to date. I don't need to as it's up to date already. In other areas you can rock up at a byway having ridden miles to get there based on Trailwise info, and find a TRO notice, which is a pain in the rrrsss. It's still the best national database we have, without having to do loads of local research for each area.

EDIT: Tigersaw - I realise you will know all this already, it's info for the newbies

You can always check the local definitive map, it will be kept at a nominated library, but that's not much good if you intend to go laning a distance from home and need to plan in advance.

You can also check the council's website for the area you are going to. Northamptonshire are very good at keeping information on public rights of way up to date, and keeping them clearly marked with signposts, etc. Each council SHOULD have something like these pages (see menu on left)

http://www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/e...es/defmap.aspx

Northants also enforce right of access against farmers who try to block byways, and they enforce TRO's, etc by putting gates across the track and locking them when the TRO is in force. They even fit a vehicle gate, a personnel gate and a stile, so when 4 wheels are restricted the big gate is locked, but the personnel gate is still open, for bikes and horses to get through, and when two wheels are restricted pedestrians have to use the stile. Locking the personnel gate restricts access for horses too, but there are so many bridleways I don't think anybody minds.

I did notice one of my local Byways vehicle gate locked with a chain and padlock through the gates, when out walking the dog on Xmas Eve, and I know it is not subject to a winter TRO. Probably a farmer. Doesn't bother me as I could use the personnel gate, but I'm still going to check my facts and then report it to the council because we need to fight to keep them open, complacency on our part will see them all closed.

Where abouts in Yorkshire were you?