Mountain bikers launch crowdfunding appeal to pay for new trail in Sheffield

Ride Sheffield, a mountain bike advocacy group with over 3,000 members and which drives trail building projects, is behind the latest scheme.

Formed in 2010 and involved in the development and management of mountain bike trails in Greno Woods, Lady Cannings Plantation and Parkwood Springs, the group wants to set up a new trail at Redmires Reservoir.

The new trail is set to run alongside the byway up to Stannage Pole.

From Redmires Road it would descend for 1.8km and would have sections for riders of all abilities.

Ride Sheffield volunteer, Cy Turner, said: “It is going to have a higher technical level, compared to Lady Cannings and will be a great trail to develop your skills.

“The route will be mainly blue again like Lady Cannings, but with red and maybe even black level opt ins, making it perfect for development and being more inclusive than some of the other trails.”

The group needs to raise £45,000 to fund the project.

“After our achievement with the first trail we thought we could be more ambitious this time. The hope is to open the trail in the summer of 2017,” added Cy.

“There really is that community feel here, the mountain biking scene is so strong. In fact, it is world famous for it.

The Lady Cannings Plantation trail, near Ringinglow, opened four months ago and was paid for through crowdfunding and donations from local businesses.

Cy Turner added: “The amount of support and generosity has been unbelievable. We pitched our story to local businesses and raised over £7,500, with one local architect company, Norton Mayfield, donating £5,000. A further £8,700 came from the crowdfunding thanks to hundreds of individual donations from local and not-so-local people wanting something better for Peak District mountain bikers.

“The trail has been very popular already, with over 14,000 runs down in 14 weeks since it opened on Strava alone - an app which monitors your route, giving you split times.”

Visit www.ridesheffield.org.uk to find out more about the Redmires project and how to donate.