Mad-laners Megathread

Originally Posted by -Ralph-

Nice link, thanks for that!

are you a laner as well?

Not laning at the moment as I sold my CRM250 a month or so ago which I used for enduro practice tracks.

Looking to get another bike and green lane once my son has his licence in the next few months.

Originally Posted by KeithCRM

Not laning at the moment as I sold my CRM250 a month or so ago which I used for enduro practice tracks.

Looking to get another bike and green lane once my son has his licence in the next few months.

Well you are welcome to join us any time. Just let us know once you have a bike.

I've just checked that track on trailwise and it shows as a byway, but not a BOAT, so I'm not sure now if we should have been on it after all. Still that's no excuse for chucking a heavy metal object at a bike. It showed on the 'road map' and sat nav as a road, so you kind of (rightly or wrongly) assume you can drive on it! We are still learning this stuff and every track we ride is done in good faith and legal to the best of our knowledge. I think I'm going to bite the bullet and join either GLASS or the TRF.

We came across a BOAT which was blocked off with boulders, and had an old battered 'road closed' sign, that had clearly been stolen from some set of roadworks, we didn't ride it just so as not to rock the BOAT (geddit? ), but it just shows that those who are against green laning, don't care what's legal and whats not, hence the precedents post above.

Hmmmmm, inte..resting.

Originally Posted by specialone

Hmmmmm, inte..resting.

Lol, which bit?

Originally Posted by -Ralph-

Lol, which bit?

The legal stuff mainly, but all of it

Originally Posted by -Ralph-

Well you are welcome to join us any time. Just let us know once you have a bike.

Thanks, that encourages me to get a bike and green lane before my son gets his licence (he'll be pleased....).

I suppose you should expect to meet the odd few who will show their objections but this guy was well out of order, legal lane or not. Just shows how it can be difficult to correctly identify legal lanes when you get different sources supplying conflicting information.

A very zoomed out OS map of all the legal green lanes (according to trailwise and OS) from Northampton to Melton Mowbray, the countryside over here is littered in them. I have bought Memory Map for my GPS enabled smartphone which is basically an Ornance Survey sat nav, to help me find them all, hence getting them all mapped out as routes. X marks the spot where I live now.

I have ridden most of the Northamptonshire ones so far and they are all clearly signposted by the council, kept open and accessible by the farmers, and the farmers working the fields even wave to you as you ride past! (makes a change from having footpumps thrown at you!)

Specialone, when are you getting your **** over here to have a play?

Originally Posted by -Ralph-

A very zoomed out OS map of all the legal green lanes (according to trailwise and OS) from Northampton to Melton Mowbray, the countryside over here is littered in them. I have bought Memory Map for my GPS enabled smartphone which is basically an Ornance Survey sat nav, to help me find them all, hence getting them all mapped out as routes. X marks the spot where I live now.

I have ridden most of the Northamptonshire ones so far and they are all clearly signposted by the council, kept open and accessible by the farmers, and the farmers working the fields even wave to you as you ride past! (makes a change from having footpumps thrown at you!)

Specialone, when are you getting your **** over here to have a play?

Next weekend at the earliest mate
How you managed to ride all them already ?
Any really good ones?
More importantly, you coming to the dirt bike show in november ?

Dirt bike show - nothing in my diary for November yet, so make that a Yes. Remind me where and when?

X marks the spot where I live, the urban area at the bottom is Northampton, the heavy green line that crosses the map is the A14, the urban area at the west end of the A14 is Kettering. The urban area in the middle is Market Harborough and at the top Melton Mowbray.

I've ridden all the ones to the West of where I live, took me about 2 hours to get round them and they were all open, though I needed to open quite a few gates on the way. Some of them are nothing more than a track of flattened grass across the middle of a grazing field. There is a "byway" directional sign on most of the gates though, none of them are locked, and there is a "please shut the gate behind you" sign on most of them, so the farmers are obviously well used to members of the public going through them. There are a lot of horses around here who want to use the byways as well as the bridleways, so that helps because farmer John's daughter wants to ride her pony, so farmer John doesn't try to obstruct the route. The council are obviously very involved in enforcement too, if a Byway changes to a Brideway you find a proper highway code style "no cars or motorcycles sign" in the middle of a field! The longest one of these was a stony tractor track which took me at least 10-15 minutes of non stop riding at 30-40mph to complete, it's obviously popular 'cos that's where the farmer in his tractor waved to me.

I have walked the nearest one to the south of my house with the dog today, good long track and all open.

The first two to the north of the A14 and south of Market Harborough, I have visited each end in the car.

The rest going North from Market Harborough I mapped the other night because I was planning to go up to Ashby Folville to meet Rusty, and I was going to make my way slowly up there over a few hours, exploring the lanes as I went. I never went though 'cos the heavens opened, so I haven't ridden any of those yet. They are also in a differnt county (Leicestershire) so I don't know if they will all be open as they are in Northamptonshire.

There is also loads along either side of the M1 from Leicester southbound, via Lutterworth, Rubgy, Daventry, Northampton, which are halfway between here and Brum, but I haven't had a chance to map them all out yet.

Stoneleigh for the dirt show ralph.

Take a car with a big boot