OFF-ROAD motor bikes are all too often considered a noisy nuisance by some and a threat to the countryside by others.

However, a Wharfedale-based club is hoping to win a better image for trail riders and help to keep those in the sport on the right track.

And as a gesture of goodwill, the Trail Riders' Association of Craven (TRAC) has donated hundreds of pounds to charity after raising the money with an epic coast-to-coast cross-country ride.

The run took place on May 21 and 22, beginning at Boggle Hole, near Robin Hood's Bay, and finishing at Grange over Sands, Cumbria. Each of the 24 riders made a £20 donation to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance Charity as part of their entry fee in the trek.

The organiser of the ride, Antony Hopwood, 39, of Ilkley, says the club prided itself on promoting the legality of the sport, producing guides to green lanes and other legal routes, making sure members were riding properly insured and road-legal motorbikes, and promoting care of the countryside.

He said: "We love the bikes, but part of it is where we're riding. A lot of these routes are places where people don't walk, because they're in the middle of nowhere. Some of the views are absolutely spectacular.

Members of the club go out and do repairs on green lanes and the club has its own rights of way officer who can advise off-road bikers on safe and legal countryside routes.

The recent charitable coast-to-coast trip was the longest ride the club has organised so far. The riders were split into three groups to keep down the numbers of motorbikes on the route at any one time, and they were helped with a team of ground crew.

From an early start on the Saturday morning, the route took the riders from Boggle Hole on the East coast, through the Langdale Forest, to Osmotherly, Northallerton, then on to the Scar House Reservoir, near Pateley Bridge, then ending the first day in Kettlewell.

The following day, the riders headed west via Hawes, Kirkby Stephen. The route into Cumbria included a ferry ride across Windermere to Bowness, then into the Grizedale Forest before reaching the destination of Grange over Sands.

Mr Hopwood, who has been in the sport for two years, said the club itself had been running for around three years. It has around 200 members, many of them from the Ilkley and Skipton areas, as well as some from further afield.

The membership includes businessmen and other professionals.

"All our members have road legal motor cycles, which all have insurance, and we only ride on legal trails," said Mr Hopwood. "We have a code of conduct for slowing down for groups of walkers and we stop for horses. We try not to ride anywhere that we know is badly damaged or cut up."

More information about the club and its regular events can be found online at (www.tracclub.co.uk).