Gloucestershire Trail Riders Fellowship

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The Gloucestershire TRF is affiliated with the national Trail Riders Fellowship. If you want to read about the national view on the meaning of life, look here. If you want to understand Gloucestershire's view, read on...

In Gloucestershire, we see our prime aim being to help our members enjoy the use of the legal unsealed roads on our patch. Our pursuit of this includes:

• Clarifying the legal status of Gloucestershire's roads. This is a painful and sometimes boring exercise, fraught with legalese, lane usage evidence collection, and working with the County Council to sort it all out. This work might never end, but we need to keep doing it to be assured of continuing to be legally safe when riding unsealed roads.
• Providing advice and support for new riders coming into 'green laning'. This includes advice on bike selection, parts and maintenance, making your bike really quiet, and choosing the coolest riding gear.
• Maintaining an up-to-date understanding of the status of Gloucestershire's lanes to assist riders in choosing routes to ride. The club can't provide legal assurances (given the state of the relevant laws it would seem impossible for anyone to do) but it does provide much food for individual thought and decisions.
• Assisting in the marking up of maps to make plain where the lanes are. Again, legal assurances can't be given, but the maps provide a great start for new riders.
• Organising club runs along our favourite lanes in Gloucestershire and beyond, and hooking up with other TRF clubs for runs even further afield.

Precisely how we deliver on this mission evolves over time. If you want to get a good feel for how things work in practice, why not come to a club night, see the Diary page for more.

Where and when we meet

We meet at 8.00pm on the first Wednesday of each month at the Wagon Works Sports and Social Club, Tuffley Avenue, Gloucester. Here

Drive along Tuffley Avenue and you'll see a long, blank wall near a speed camera. Turn into the drive and you'll find the 'club house' . We're normally in the small function room; just ask at the bar for directions.

Use only vehicular rights of way.

Trail riding is only lawful on public roads. If in doubt, check with the Highway Authority or the TRF. Motorcycles and riders must be road-legal. Green lanes are subject to the same laws as surfaced roads.

Keep to the defined way across farmland.

Wheels can damage crops and grass. Wandering from the road onto farmland or moorland is trespassing.

Give way to walkers, horses and cyclists.

As a courtesy, On narrow lanes, stop and switch off engines.

Fasten gates to safeguard stock.

Except those tied open for farming purposes. An open gate invites animals to stray, endangering themselves, and crops or traffic.

Travel at a safe speed.

Ride at a reasonable speed, taking regard of conditions and visibility. This should not exceed the voluntary maximum of 25mph.

Ride quietly.

Machines must be effectively silenced. Use the throttle with discretion, as noise does offend. Green lanes are subject to the same laws as surfaced roads.

Honour the country code.

Respect the countryside and those who live, work and play in it. Green lanes can be valuable habitats, so take special care in spring and early summer. Acknowledge the presence of other green lane users With a friendly wave or other suitable gesture

Identify yourself.

Carry your membership card with you when trail riding, so that you may identify yourself as a current member of the TRF - and display a current membership sticker.