RUST magazine: RUST#35

TRAIL
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TRACTOR RACING SEASON
To give farmers their due, in East Kent
anyway, they do a lot of work either upkeeping
byways themselves or getting the
local council to do so, just prior to the
tractor and trailer racing season, or harvest
time as it’s more generally known.
In many ways it’s this sharing of a limited
resource which promotes areas of conflict
and the fact that, in a couple of cases you’re
dealing with already ‘persecuted minorities’,
motorcyclists and pedal cyclists with
entrenched us-and-them views. Again, like
the byway issues, footpath users of even ten
years ago wouldn’t expect to be confronted
by downhill mountain bikers doing 30mph.
Then there’s the whole electric-power
question, is an electrically-assisted bicycle
a Powered Two Wheeler (PTW – another
legal description) and if so then what? As
the Nobel literature prize-winner put it,
“Times They Are a Changin’ ”
SAFETY IN NUMBERS?
The TRF’s Marketing Director Mario
Costa-Sa can provide an overview of what’s
happening nationwide. The membership
has grown by 1500 in the last three
years. “In my own group in Hertfordshire
there used to be 80 members, there are
now 350. All I want to do is repeat what
I’ve done in Herts, what they’ve done in
Northumbria and what the High Peak
Group has done in the Peak District, and
reach out to trail riders in the area and
say we want you to ride with us, we’ll show
you how to do it responsibly, legally and
with skill. We will train you, we’ll show you
where the lanes are and we’ll have loads of
fun. Now why wouldn’t you want to join?”
The current recruitment campaign
leaflet, ‘Not all roads are black’ covers
pretty much what Mario has said plus it
highlights the fact that many roads are
unsurfaced or ‘unmetalled’ as they’re
labeled in the South West and on maps
often referred to as unclassified but are
legally usable providing you observe any
dependent regulations.
The outcome of Brexit negotiations
will probably determine how useful the
association with MAG will turn out to be.
Either way, it does no harm politically for
trail riders to be classified as motorcyclists
and MAG will undoubtedly benefit from
the TRF’s bare-knuckle approach when
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