Blacka has always been a bit of a November favourite for us, it’s always good to get the trails ready for the winter so they give us some more sustainable riding in the winter and come out looking and riding sweetly in the spring.
Our volunteers have been out on a few midweek sessions recently (give us an email if you fancy being part of the midweek crew), but there’s still lots to do up there.
Ride Sheffield volunteers have been working hard to prepare the trails for the winter….
Having had a summer California would be proud of, it’s difficult to make the transition to a winter mindset. That nagging sense of doubt has yet to infiltrate your mind – will the weather catch me out? What to wear, where to go, what tyres? Continue reading
Earlier this month, I was writing to ask you all to cast your votes for Cut Gate – which was one of the contestants for an EOCA funding grant.
Moors for the Future, who are one of the lead partners on our Cut Gate project, have successfully applied for a funding award from EOCA – which could top the pot up to the tune of a whopping £35,000!
All it takes is a quick click of the link, scroll to the bottom and VOTE FOR CUT GATE!
Please spread this around, make sure that your riding mates, friends, family, pets all get their vote in!
The Magnum, most powerful leaf blower in the world….
I’m a born optimist, always try to see the best in everyone, yep, bit of a hippy I guess. Continue reading
I hope by now that you’ve all heard of our collaborative effort to raise money to repair the Bog of Doom on Cutgate. While it’s not been much of a bog this summer, once the rain returns, so does the clart!
If you want bringing up to speed then please take a look over here for more details.
We’re now nearly a year into the project, so what’s been going on? Alongside Ride Sheffield and Peak District MTB fundraising, we’ve had several kind individuals fundraising via their own sponsored rides along with the Steel Valley ride and Peak District MTB raffle. Massive thanks go to everyone who’s given up time to help, volunteered on event days, bought raffle tickets or dug deep and donated to the cause.
Sadly, we’re no where near the full target – around 20% of the way at present. It’s disappointing, but in a way understandable. There are a few concerns that seem to pop up, so we’d like to answer those.
– A fear of sanitisation. We’re looking at flag/clapper work over only 70 metres of trail, to encourage one route through the bog. That’s it.
– But “they” did this to that trail. There’s a lot of different “theys”! This project was led by Ride Sheffield and Peak District MTB in the first place and we’re being involved in discussions throughout the process. Cut Gate is on Sheffield land, so we can categorically state that Derbyshire County Council are in no way involved. They’re usually the “they” in cases of inconsiderate works.
– Money’s tight. Yep, no doubt. As bikers, we don’t usually pay for trail access or repairs. Perhaps this is the chance to show land owners, land managers, national park bodies and other users groups just how responsible mountain bikers can be. If we’re seen as the good guys, maybe that will work in our favour in the future?
Help can be in other forms too – can you raise sponsorship somehow? Push your employer for a donation or some raffle/crowdfunder prizes? Can you just help spread the work via social media and forums?
We’re open to all suggestions and comments. As ever, contact us on hello@cutgate.org
If you’re ever wondering about what Cut Gate’s riding like, Keeper of the Peak is a great resource to find real life ride reports for Peak District & Sheffield trails. Check the website here and the twitter account here.
What’s next?
The BMC, who are overseeing all 14 Mend our Mountains projects have just launched their Crowfunder – giving great awards when you pledge a donation.
Click here to view the Cut Gate Crowdfunder!
Back in December 2017, we launched Radtax – a signup for riders to give Ride Sheffield monthly financial support. Since then, we’ve seen a growing number of people signing up and getting their free stickers, t-shirts and the likes.
To put some figures to it, we currently have;
It’s always a mistake to assume that raising money for a project is the difficult bit and that everything thereafter should be a breeze. We reached our target for RADmires some time ago thanks to the generosity of Ride Sheffield supporters and local businesses and yet the diggers and whacker plates still lie idle. Continue reading
Peak District MTB, our partners in the Cut Gate project, have just launched their prize draw raffle to help raise funds for the appeal.
There’s some cracking prizes as demonstrated in this marvellous video!
Cut Gate Raffle from Peak District MTB on Vimeo.
Tickets are just £4 and all proceeds go to the Mend our Mountains Cut Gate project.
Click this link and buy a few tickets ready for the draw at the end of August!
After a little break from our weekend trails day because, well its been rather dry and the trails are in great shape, which means more riding and less trail work.
But after a bit of a late start this year the vegetation has started to grow back a little, making some stretched of Lady Cannings delightful singletrack a little too narrow and single. So its time for a bit of a trim not to mention al bit of general TLC.
We will up at Lady Cannings on Tuesday the 26th of June, meeting in the car park at 6pm and carrying on until about 9 ish, followed by refreshments in the Norfolk arms afterwards. Hopefully we will be rewarded with a beautiful midsummers evening and enough of a breeze to keep the midges at bay! Continue reading