Yeah they did mention it was being offered with a sitting tenant. If only I'd known who that sitting tenant was .

I rode by the location of the Cylefest "Bikepacking Experience" location on Saturday, I recognised the monument thing in the background on their pictures. No sign of the "tenting palace" but the location of the fire is clearly visible.



This is on the same farm as the Isle of Wight MTB Centre. The location is open access land and only 20m away from one of those viewpoint pillars with a brass plaque on top with directions and distances to places around the world. When I ride by there's often walkers there so they'll all see the remains. If they had permission I wonder why they didn't choose a location somewhere in the hundreds of acres of the farm where the public don't have access? The real danger now is that people will see the scar and this and think this kind of behaviour is acceptable.

What's really annoyed me is that way back in March when they announced the Cylefest I saw the organiser at another event and I offered to organise a bike and bivi event. He said he already had someone doing it.

As it would of hopefully attracted quite a few I had a much better venue in mind, a private woodland camp-site, no facilities other that a tap and composting loo, oh, and fire pits made from old washing machine drums. Once round the fire it would have been the ideal time to explain the correct etiquette for wild camping and explain we only had a fire as we were on a commercial site etc. and swap stories of previous trips. I usually avoid conflict and my wife pointed out that the Island is a small place... but this has really annoyed me. I think the next step is to send the photo Cyclefest organisers for comment.

That really is bad Sean and as you say, while they didn't set the countryside on fire, their actions and the resulting damage sets a precedence which can (and will) cause future problems.

I think the next step is to send the photo Cyclefest organisers for comment.

While I appreciate the need to keep good relations in a small community, there are times when people need TELLING

Email send so I'll see what happens next. I also looked up the location on the mapping I use for work and it's marked as a SINC site (Site of Interest for Nature Conservation) so they couldn't of picked a worse spot for a fire. It's a great location for a bivi, I've slept there myself, but doubt I will again as I wouldn't want to be associated with the fire.

I'll wait and see what the repercussions are on my small Island... will I be ostracised by the MTB community? If they think fires like that are acceptable then I'm not interested in being part of their community anyway. My wife cautioned me against getting involved but we cant all just keep our heads down and hope someone else sorts it out.

My wife cautioned me against getting involved but we cant all just keep our heads down and hope someone else sorts it out.

One applauds your stand Sean. I wonder if it's too late to change the back of the new jerseys from "Ride / Eat / Sleep / Repeat" to "Ride / Eat / Sleep / LeaveNoTrace", to help head off the heckles that will sadly become increasingly common on our travels. "Oh, you're one of that lot who......"

RIP wrote:I wonder if it's too late to change the back of the new jerseys from "Ride / Eat / Sleep / Repeat" to "Ride / Eat / Sleep / LeaveNoTrace"...

One could add it in the "Rider's name" space?

GMBN are the latest to get in on the act, video on bikepacking round the IOW featuring 2 fires

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL1732UY_JY&t=0s

He has a gas stove and is sat in a T shirt because it's so hot ... and was it f*ck ep1c.

And he poked a spider and rode through a herd of cows. Doesn't he know how scary spiders are, or that cows, after ticks, are the most dangerous animals in Britain? Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaark!!!

Apart from the gratuitous camp fire idiocy (it's not like it was cold either) I really enjoyed the video, and his set up looks ace. He's ever a dangler! Love the IoW and I've been all over it over the years - I remember it was the only place you could go MTBing in the south when the foot 'n' mouth nightmare visited us in 2001 and pretty much the whole country side was closed down. Miserable time, that was.

Anyway, I'm now inspired to revisit the place, and set fire to a small patch of it.

If you love the IoW, do you want people scaring it or potentially setting parts of it on fire?

Bearbonesnorm wrote:If you love the IoW, do you want people scaring it or potentially setting parts of it on fire?

No, of course not. T'was said with t'tongue in t'cheek. Only place for a fire is a fireplace.

Bloody hell, every day's a school day, didn't realise Queen Elizabeth was married to Prince Albert, must have chucked him for Phil the Greek. What a knobjockey!

He's a local and famous 'dirt jumper', originally from South Africa hence the accent..... I've only made it 40 seconds in so far as his planned route on the map is the coastal footpath

I've persevered but I'm not sure I can make it though it as his local knowledge seems somewhat lacking and his cringe-worthy history lesson is embarrassing to watch. I've fast forwarded through most of it, the second night was at the farm where the MTB Centre is and where his dirt jumps they practice on are located and there's no public access, not that it's acceptable but I would imagine they cleaned it up afterwards but it still sets the wrong precedent.

So to summarise, he spent 3 days doing a ride that is 1/3 the length of the BB300, lit a fire in some woods right next to a beach were he could have had a fire with zero impact, rode on busy footpaths in the middle of summer.... great advert for mountain bikers

Got to 51 seconds - Might try again with the sound off.

Aaaaaaaaaaannnnddddddd another one! Just watched "Countryfile" (er, cos I'm with my parents and they like to watch it, honest). So one segment was Mr McJannet taking one of the telly people out onto Gower on a couple of bikes with "bikepacking" kit. "Bikepacking" namechecked several times. Nice bivi spot there on the beach (tarp propped by bikes, tick). No less than three shots of the blazing "campfire" surrounded by rocks, above highwater mark of course.

Where next do we think? Campfire on the front lawn of Buck House perhaps? Her Maj out there with a 20g stove and some porridge for breakfast?

RIP wrote:Aaaaaaaaaaannnnddddddd another one! Just watched "Countryfile" (er, cos I'm with my parents and they like to watch it, honest). So one segment was Mr McJannet taking one of the telly people out onto Gower on a couple of bikes with "bikepacking" kit. "Bikepacking" namechecked several times. Nice bivi spot there on the beach (tarp propped by bikes, tick). No less than three shots of the blazing "campfire" surrounded by rocks, above highwater mark of course.

Where next do we think? Campfire on the front lawn of Buck House perhaps? Her Maj out there with a 20g stove and some porridge for breakfast?

Saw that, it was a repeat from last year, it said it's the new "niche"..... hey we're cool....

The presenter was waxing lyrical about how good it was to sit around the fire.......plus his bike was set up with the Wild Cat harness on upside down and his drop bars were angled strangely high.
Would those skinny tent pegs have held that flappy tarp up overnight on that windy beach?

"repeat" - ah, ta John. Not seen it before.

I had considered going to the Bivi event at the Isle of Wight Cycle fest which simon72 went to until I saw the description on the website

Hi sean_iow, yes that was the fire pit left from the event and I was there when that location for the fire was chosen. I was aware that this was not the best choice of location in terms of how openly visible the scar would be, and that it was on ground that made it impossible to cover up afterwards. I did try and suggest some changes to the location but was not successful. To be fair, I didn't really push as it wasn't my place. The organisers not only had the land owner's permission but they had gained permission to access the site by car previously to drop the pallets and bags of firewood. This scar is the remnants of an organised event on private land. What can you do? Perhaps if you were there you could have been a second calm and respectful voice to help steer things in a better direction.

I feel that this fire scar is nasty and a great shame, but this was not done through arrogance or stupidity, the organisers did this in good faith but perhaps were not experienced or well educated in these issues. I certainly empathise with them as I always have a fire when I am on a winter bivi and I used to make these same mistakes. However, since being a part of this BB community I have come to learn the importance of LNT with respect to fires and I take pride in doing this well.

As a member of the wider backpacking community - and in my position of being on the opposite side of the "all fire is bad" majority views that are expressed on this forum - I believe what is needed is more readily available education on how to minimise campfire impacts. With reference to the LNT campaign being discussed already, I would humbly suggest the importance of not conflating issues such as leaving litter and toiler paper in the woods (which is abhorrent and inexcusable) with having sensible minimal impact fires. People have from time immemorial had fires in the wild, this will not change, but demonising this activity on par with littering is likely to alienate rather than educate the target audience. I already feel like an outsider on this forum because of this issue and I write this post with some trepidation.

wot they said
Personally I view a fire like i do riding on a footpath - best avoided but can be done responsibly or irresponsibly

there is never a reason for littering

I can sympathise with you and I wouldn't have expected you to speak out, they all know each other and are mates.

The spot they chose is privately owned but it's also open access land and a protected site, the land owner should know that. It's a shame they didn't have the fire on the side of the farm that's not a SINC site, the bit they dig up for the trail centre, and then if they wanted to wake up with the view they could have moved to the viewpoint.

If you're over this way again I know some other out of the way spots if you'd like to go for a bivi.

...it was on ground that made it impossible to cover up afterwards

Even though it was on private ground with the landowner's permission there are things that can be done to reduce the impact. There could have been a fire bowl/brazier/half barrel keeping the fire off the ground. Or the simplest thing would be to cut the turf - remove a circle of turf, ring the bare earth with stones then afterwards remove the stones and ashes and replace the turf.


An open fire seems to be a very primal thing; I always get the urge to pick up my club, grab a lady by her hair and drag her off to my shelter when there's a fire about. Perhaps an excellent reason not to have a fire....

I feel that this fire scar is nasty and a great shame, but this was not done through arrogance or stupidity

No but ignorance plays a major part and hopefully enducation can help in this regard, What bothers me most in this instance is that many of those attending have perhaps gone away with the belief that this is how it's done. I agree that fires can be had without leaving any trace or causing damage but it takes effort and many people are too lazy or simply CGAF.

but demonising this activity on par with littering is likely to alienate rather than educate the target audience.

I don't believe that anyone is demonising it but in fairness the impact on the landscape is often far longer lasting than some shitty bog roll

I already feel like an outsider on this forum because of this issue and I write this post with some trepidation.

You shouldn't. It's good to have someone at each end of the rope pulling and I believe that we ultimately all want the same thing.

psling wrote: An open fire seems to be a very primal thing; I always get the urge to pick up my club, grab a lady by her hair and drag her off to my shelter when there's a fire about. Perhaps an excellent reason not to have a fire....

Quote of the day

JohnClimber wrote:

psling wrote: An open fire seems to be a very primal thing; I always get the urge to pick up my club, grab a lady by her hair and drag her off to my shelter when there's a fire about. Perhaps an excellent reason not to have a fire....

Quote of the day