Oooh yes please, are you buying?

And yes it is my "i can so i will attitude" just so i can annoy holier than thou people like you who want the countryside just to themselves.

If its legal to ride or drive along an unmade road and i have proof then why shouldnt i and why should i not take exception when someone wont accept it just because it does fit in with what they find acceptable?

Tollerance and consideration works both ways you know!

So im riding a road legal, taxed and insured bike with helmet,boots,gloves etc on a RUPP or BOAT that the law of the land says i am legally entitled to do so and i should feel bad because someone who happens to be walking along that same byway doesnt like it? Now who is being intolerant and inconsiderate, me going about my lawful business or someone who doesnt like it just because it offends their own set of standards for what they find acceptable?

Secondly, if the aforesaid person where to contact the police or council and complain about this i wonder what the response would be? Would i get a visit and possibly a criminal record for using a fully legal vehicle on a legal byway? I very much doubt it, dont you?

There are literally thousand of miles of public footpaths where neither bikes, cars, mountain bikes or horses can legally go, so if it really is of that much concern then please go and use those paths and accept that there are several different groups of users with access to certain relatively small parts of our small and crowded island and that if you chose to frequent these areas you may well come into contact with them at some point.

Yes it is just your opinion Mr Sandwich and being an open and public forum i shall assert my right to have a different opinion and to be as vociferous as i like in making that known!

I was very active when in http://www.crag-uk.org/ but the Glos CC saw to it, via NERCA, that we lost almost all of the roads to the Restricted Byway. I left CRAG, painted my V8 RRC camo colours and used to drive the lanes I always did with no plates on it. I used to be a polite, concessionary driver when laning, but the loss of the rights of way turned me bad. If I met some grumpy, stick waving gent on a lane with his wrinkled up wife dressed in knee high red socks, I'd flick them the bird and roost them.

Despicable behaviour, but having had coffee thrown over me, been shouted at and insulted when performing a perfectly legal activity before NERCA, I realised the people that wanted us banned from the lanes were simply not going to be reasoned with. It was not even as though I was churning the lanes up. Most of the damage occurs in winter, and is from farm machinery legitimately using the rights of way. Don't like farmers using the countryside? Then stay at home! Even though my RRC had a 3" lift and 33" MT tyres, there was no way I could drive a lane that had tractor sized ruts in it. So it was obvious to anyone with even a smidge of intelligence that I could not have been causing, or worsening those ruts. Some areas of the lanes were very badly damaged by some vehicles, in thje same way that some National Parks have been denuded by walkers, but is that a reasion to ban us ALL from the lanes? I spent my OWN time repairing a lot of the lanes in groups, supported by the CC. Never once got thanked by walkers for my efforts. Anyone tried the Daneway lane recently? I repaired that with Lord Bathurst and his estate workers.

It conspired to make me sell the RRC. Shame as my daughter no longer got long days out with me and a picnic in a secluded spot. No more night watching of Badgers for us. No more clearing the vegetation to ensure walkers and horses could pass. No more voluntary work to keep drainage working to ensure the lanes stayed open in all weathers. No more rides for my mate who is crippled with Rheumatism, into the wilds of Exmoor and the Quantocks.

Still, at least the Ramblers can be happy in the knowledge that they won, and can now enjoy the place to themselves.

Edited by oilrag on 08/07/2010 at 16:43

well i think most of the biker types i meet are gents

So basically what's being said here is "we don't like big nasty smelly motorbikes and 4x4's driving where they have a legal right to and we'll act like utter bawbags to the owners and accuse them of all manner of evils on a par with Charles Manson, Peter Sutcliffe and Robert Mugabe all rolled into one"

If memory serves me correctly there was once another group of people who basically didn't like anyone doing anything, did their best to force their fascist views onto everyone and woe betide anyone who dares to disagree with their views.

We called these people Nazi's

NO! YOU are a gent