A few years ago a chap wrote an article entitled “Rise of the Idiots” which chartered the seemingly unstoppable proliferation and acceptance of the common or garden moron.

It was a simple push back against them. A rallying cry for the quiet majority of intelligent, diligent….normal people to say ‘Enough!’ and call the moron for the moron he was; expose him and let the world carry on, quietly forgetting this embarrassing little blip.

Sadly, the moron masses judged ‘Rise of the Idiots’ to be ironic, and the erstwhile author was crowned their new hero; embraced as a genius by the very people he disliked so much in the first place.

“What the bloody hell are you on about?” I hear you ask. Well, in recent days there seems to have been a rise of this kind of mindset in the little biking community of which we are all part. Pockets of riders who guffaw and cackle as they “do what the f*** they like” and “screw the rule makers”.

They do this while being members of trail advocacy groups. The same trail advocacy groups run by volunteers who work tirelessly in their own time to build the kind of relationships which allow amateurs to race downhill against world champions in land owned by wildlife trusts; which allow mountain bikers to wield spades on paths in national parks; which allow diggers to sculpt and shape the land to create tracks that give those self-same morons the very thrill they look for in the first place.

Perhaps it’s this recent growth in provision which has given them a sense of entitlement? Whatever it is, it’s a problem.

Maybe they are trolling, but more often than not, it seems that they simply don’t understand how damaging their actions can be to the fragile relationships which are being established between mountain bikers and landowners or the authorities; that they simply don’t understand or much less care about the amount of work which has gone into getting mountain bikers a seat at the table. Look at it like this, if a landowner asks the biking community to avoid riding in a certain area, but concedes some previously inaccessible path as a result – you work with them. You don’t go ‘cheers for that, we’ll take this and this and this too’.
If a number of your fellow bikers suggest you reel your neck in a bit as they can see the fuel you’re throwing on the ‘anti-bike’ fire, you swallow your pride and reel it in.

I’ve heard the Kinder Mass trespass used as justification; some bizarrely misplaced suggestion that by blasting down a footpath the rider is invoking the spirit of Benny Rothman and open access will miraculously be granted. How on earth this is seen as a plan is anyone’s guess.

These same riders will then argue that they are right in their bloody-mindedness; ignoring the simple fact that groups looking for any reason to push back against our fight for open access will most likely be reading their thoughtless bullshi*.

So what can be done? Nothing, I suspect, for the morons. They will continue to selfishly carry on, reaping the rewards of others’ fine work in one hand while undermining it with the other. But for everyone else; loads. Be the ambassador, the voice of reason, the ‘good egg’. Keep doing your bit to make us, mountain bikers, look like the responsible and influential group we are.

For every ‘rider/idiot’ who threatens to “poke anyone who tells me where I can’t ride in the f***ing eye”, let’s have 10….20….30 who will stop, listen and talk to someone who has complained.

There’s a part of me which says we should give these people enough rope to hang themselves, another part that says just ignore them. But they ride bikes for fun – they can’t be entirely asshats, can they? They ride bikes in mud as a passtime after all. I don’t know.

Perhaps as the sport grows we’re simply bound to get more of this attitude and behaviour popping up. Let’s not let them make more of an impact on the people that matter than those of us who really care eh?

Keep it livid. Keep it dense, yeah?

Self-facilitating media node, KoftheP

2015 has been a fascinating year for mountain biking in these parts. There’s been a real change in the way mountain biking has been seen which is in no small part down to the way we’re increasingly going about things: organised, united, responsible.

In the last year local groups have seen some real landmarks – Ride Sheffield’s opening of the Lady Cannings track has been a great springboard to launch another crowd funder up the road at Redmires and of course their Steel City DH event was even bigger and better than before this year. Peak District MTB have built strong links with local landowners resulting in trusted relationships which have allowed them to do work on some of the Peak’s most sensitive trails; work which is laying the foundations of some very interesting conversations in 2016. Their work too in pushing Derbyshire County Council in regards to works on Rushup Edge has galvanised formerly opposed groups behind a single argument.

Further afield, Open MTB has emerged to fight our corner and has already made its voice heard with the Trails for Wales campaign.

For me? Well KoftheP is now at ~1400 members who care about how, when and where we ride plus a whole lot more. That is a fantastic show of community responsibility that has opened the door to a lot of those interesting conversations – thank you.

As I say, it’s been a fascinating year.

So what of 2016? Well already there are trail days lined up, events, plans, meetings with landowners and potentially some great developments regarding new trails. Local groups Peak District MTB and Ride Sheffield are working to do even more,  but as always they (and KoftheP) need your support!

Spread the word, join a trail day, chip some loose change into a crowd fund, email a councillor or simply tweet a ride update in. We can all do our bit.

So let’s all do our bit and make 2016 an even better year than the last 12 months.

Happy new year to all KofthePers. Thanks for your ongoing support.

The launch of Open MTB is another step forward for trail advocacy in the UK. For too long now the mountain biking community has needed a national body to bring together the people and groups who have the time, energy and skills to make a real lasting difference for mountain biking.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with some fantastic groups – Peak District MTB and Ride Sheffield – who have had a great impact on behalf of mountain biking locally. But now knowing that there are many, many more likeminded people up and down the country who are standing up and taking action to promote and develop the sport is hugely encouraging and provides a very positive outlook.

These are people who volunteer their time on top of family life, work, spare time – even biking – to push for better trail access, to develop greater dialogue between bikers and the powers that be, to put the brakes on actions which will be to the detriment of the sport. They spend their time hacking through arcane council-ese, meeting on lovely summer evenings to debate ‘strategy’, beating the phones to make sure bikers look good when we do make it into the papers. 

It’s all deeply exciting stuff I’m sure you’ll agree – but it is all vitally important if we’re to be seen as a valid and responsible voice when it comes to planning things like access in the future.

The name ‘Keeper of the Peak’ came about on the back of a forum discussion where I suggested that riding Cut Gate after heavy rain perhaps wasn’t the best choice. “Who made you self-appointed keeper of the peak?” came the not-unreasonable challenge. 

I’ve seen a few similar comments about Open MTB too. I daresay Ride Sheffield and Peak District MTB -as well as other groups up and down the country – have had the same challenge levelled at them in the early days; ‘who put you in charge?’

But look at it this way:  if they don’t stand up for mountain bikers, who will? If that merry band of volunteers doesn’t ‘self-appoint’, will anyone speak up? 

Mountain biking lags behind in the ‘share of voice’ stakes compared to the likes of the walkers, climbers or  ramblers, but as more and more volunteers do stand up, as more and more groups form and start flexing their muscles, as more and more evidence comes in that we are an important and reponsible group, that will change.

And the only way to be part of it? Get involved. Volunteer. Stand up. Be it a dig day, membership or even a follow, it is easy to do your bit.

So welcome Open MTB. Here’s to a long and successful future.

Where do I sign up?

Derbyshire County Council’s decision to continue their original plan on Rushup Edge is an absolute kick in the teeth.
A kick in the teeth for KoftheP, Peak District MTB, the Local Access Forum, Ride Sheffield, the Peak District National Park Authority, the British Mountaineering Council, the Friends of the Peak District, Natural England and thousands of trail users.

A kick in the teeth for everyone who posted in support of the campaign, for everyone who wrote, called and emailed DCC asking them to properly reconsider.

A kick in the teeth for the so-called ‘consultation process’ which was clearly just a totally disingenuous exercise in ‘listening’ by DCC.

But perhaps most worryingly, it was a kick in the teeth for the democratic process upon which a council like DCC should operate.

The stats collected by PDMTB show that most users of the trail don’t want the repairs. Thousands of you responded saying no. The DCC argument is simply not right, not logical and completely unjustified. Expert guidance blew massive holes in their central argument yet DCC have chosen to completely ignore it. Thousands of Derbyshire residents have supported the campaign – which comes at a time of major cuts in the county council’s front line services.

Yet the Rights of Way team at Derbyshire have simply ignored this measured, balanced response and misrepresented the views of the collective campaigners. They’ve created a report which makes out that the only opposition was from mountain bikers; which anyone who has read the various reports will know is rubbish. And they’ve then presented this misleading and misrepresentative report to the councillors who were expected to make an ‘informed’ decision based on fact.

All in all it’s pretty crap.

But is there a silver lining? We have to look for one. To me, this whole process has delivered one great result – there is a huge community now. The biking community has come together, and importantly we’ve built links with other groups; horse riders, walkers, climbers, conservationists, disabled access groups. We’ve learnt a whole lot of lessons about council operations, media briefing, campaigning (to which we were/are all new).

It may not be over; it isn’t until a spade is in the ground, but it certainly doesn’t feel like a victory.

Next step? We’re working on it.

Tomorrow marks the day that Derbyshire County Council will finally make a decision on what’s going to happen to Rushup Edge.
We’ve had eight months of so-called consultation.
In that time there have been hundreds of emails, hours of meetings, many phone calls and numerous late, late nights writing emails and reports. It’s been a slog.
But it’s been made easy by the immense support from the mountain biking community here in the north and beyond. Over the last few months, the Rushup campaign has galvanised thousands of riders and created a fantastic community spirit. Words of encouragement and support on forums, Twitter, Facebook and in email has kept the energy levels up and driven us on to carry on pushing DCC. And it’s not just riders. We’ve had great support too from walkers, horse riders, climbers, councillors – even MPs.

It’s been incredibly rewarding to see this groundswell of support.

And it shows that we can all pull together.

Of course, we may not get a result we’re after on Rushup. We hope DCC see sense and start listening no matter how late in the day it is, but whatever happens we’ve achieved a huge amount since this all kicked off with a tweet about the work starting.

At the very least we’ve made DCC think twice about ignoring mountain bikers as an influential group. But more than that, we’ve also built strong and important bridges with other non-biking groups. We may not always see eye to eye, but now we’re actually talking and that’s a big difference to this time last year.

As such, we now have a whole host of allies to call on next time DCC do something daft. And it will happen again.

In the meantime – ahead of DCC tarmaccing the rest of the Peak – I’m going to get out on my bike. It’s been months.