[Yossarian]

I can't find Norton's info on Dalby Forest...

Anyone been recently?

I should have a free midweek afternoon around there next week.  Any advice on trails I should be riding?  Other useful intel?

[cofe]

Other useful intel?

it costs £7 to get onto the forest drive. worth knowing.

[fatdoc]

do the red.... if it's not too wet do the black bit {that makes it a bit shorter....] BUT dont do all the black low northshore... either bag it and just do alittle (it's piss anyway) and then go off left to get back to to the red... which although that bit is a bit dull ( this is the farthest bit from the car park...) its more in keeping with the ethos of the trail (ie long) and gets you to the best bit... the last 7km are well good fun...

[john horscroft]

Rode Kirroughtree last year.  Did the red which is feckin' superb.  Can't believe I'm typing this, but even the ups were good.  Black looks even better so that's the target for this year.  My other fav from last year was Drumlanrig which ios in the grounds of a stately home.  Wierd.  However, the red/black combination is full of fine singletrack, very rooty in places and much better, I'm guessing, in the dry than the wet.  All put together by the guy who runs the little bike shop in the car park.  Top bloke and top trail builder.

Oh, and Brechfa in S Wales is shit-hot too......

jh

[Yossarian]

It sounds great, especially the McMoab bit...

Pity I'm so bloody far away.  I need to work on the helicopter licence.

[john horscroft]

It's well worth the trip!  The red at Kirroughtree is 90% singletrack and designed by a genius.  It mixes TTF with some brilliant super smooth, super fast trail, rocks chicken runs.  What's amazing is that there's not a lot of height to play with, but the trail extracts every ounce of fun from the effort you put in.  And, no, I'm not being paid by the Scottish TOurist Board! 

You've also got Glentrool not far away plus a slightly longer trek to Dalbeattie, Ae, Mabie and Drumlanrig.  Oh, it's heaven.....

jh

[cofe]

went up and down snowdon on the bike yesterday. up ranger path, over the notch next to Foel Goch, down to Llanberis, up railway path, back down ranger path to start. brilliant. proper mountain day, having to get off and push seemed part of the experience. first time i've ticked snowdon summit too despite having climbed on cloggy.

lovely switchbacks on the ranger path:

[john horscroft]

Hang on, am I reading that right?!  Did you go up twice Cofe?  You're a sick man and no mistake.......

jh

[cofe]

i guess the bikes were pointing uphill twice, but we certainly didn't go to the top twice! once was enough.

[john horscroft]

Well, frankly mate, that sounds like mountaineering to me.  I had a bash at some of the Black trail at Brechfa over the weekend.  If the taste I had (Three sections) is anything to go by, it's bloody brilliant.  Most memorable of all was a really steep succession of about eight BIG berms  - heart stopping and yet strangely brilliant.  So that's my next project then, back to do the rest.......
jh

[Bubba]

Snowdon on a DH bike is still on the to-do list.

[cofe]

Snowdon on a DH bike is still on the to-do list.

i imagine that would be amazing. but which way down to choose? you'd have to go up twice!

[Johnny Brown]

They should put a bike rack on that train.

[Norton Sharley]

 

There's probably more chance of the Pope converting to Islam.

Anyway mtb's are designed for going uphill as well as down:

[SA Chris]

They should put a bike rack on that train.

Tried to convince Cairngorm railway that they need to do this too, but they weren't having it.

[Yossarian]

went up and down snowdon on the bike yesterday. up ranger path, over the notch next to Foel Goch, down to Llanberis, up railway path, back down ranger path to start. brilliant. proper mountain day, having to get off and push seemed part of the experience. first time i've ticked snowdon summit too despite having climbed on cloggy.

lovely switchbacks on the ranger path:

Cofe - my geography is a bit rubbish. Is this fairly easy to work out from a map?

How long did it take?

[cofe]

should be fairly easy. go up the first few zig zags from the car park nr the lake, then break off left towards beris (carry/push up steep grassy bank). descend to beris, skirt the village then slog up the railway path to the summit. then it's ranger all the way down. took about 5.5-6 hrs in the end. though we did have 7 pinch flats between us (i had none - look at me) and there was a bit of stopping for pics. getting up snowdon from llanberis takes the time. holler at me if you need more specific info.

[Yossarian]

Will do.

That does sound like a good day out...

[Bubba]

though we did have 7 pinch flats between us

Stick a downhill tube in

[cofe]

i'm just nimble like a tree frog, i am.

defo worth carrying spare tubes. big tubes ain't a bad idea too as you're pushing on much of the up.

[IanP]

Bit of a late with this one but just returned from a trip with the family to CyB.  Had a couple of early mornings out with my brother (who's a whippet up and down hills and tended to leave me trailing in his wake  ). 

Really enjoyed the riding - he had done a couple of previous trips so knows the routes a bit - we basically did a variation on the MBR one morning, then 2/3 of the beast then next.   The Beast is an excellent trip and looks better than the Dragons back from how I understand the map - rocky start then smooth down hill of Dreamtime, short climb gets you to the start of the Pink Heifer which runs into Big Doug for a long singletrack section.  We then missed the 2 fire road loops just taking in Gomez on the way up to the long single track descent down to Uncle fester.  Seemed to make a good long route with lots of single track, just a little heavy on road/forest road climbing in the middle section.   Finally climbed up the road (rather than another fireroad loop) to get to the Begining of the End so that I'd done all the singletrack on that side.   Having not done much biking recently had a really excellent time, brother seemed to enjoy himself equally (by dint of going downhill a lot faster than me!).  Also got my 9 year old and his 10 year old on the new (easier) red Cyflym Coch which takes in some of the smoother more flowing descents and they had a great time  .

 

[john horscroft]

Three days at Brechfa and finally get round to doing the Raven Trail.  Erm, what can I say.  It's basically XC hell with two of the looniest downhill sections you've ever seen, completely unbalanced.  Most of it is a grind, but the main downhill section is a bike park with giganormous tabletops and some fine berms.  The other wild section is a series of steep berms where the trail drops straight down a gully - heartstopping!
So, overall

Did the Gorlech red again though and that is fuckin' brilliant.   

And as for White's Level at Glyncorrwg, Windy Point is sooooo sweet......

jh

[john horscroft]

Had a quick play on the final descent of The Marin.  It was my first experience of a trail centre about six years ago and I remeber being blown away - which is kinda funny given that it's basically a xc loop and therefore, my idea of hell. 

However, the final descent is damn fine!  I'd completely forgotten how varied it was, reminds me of the red at Glentress in parts.  So, old it may be, but there's life in the old track yet.......

jh

[Yossarian]

personally if I was doing that circuit I wouldn't listen to the southerners, either mbr or fatdoc, hehe.

park at fairholmes(ish), warm up along road side of reservoir to slippery stones, up and over cut gate, back up and over cut gate, along far side of reservoir, up to whinston lee tor, down towards devils elbow, turn r to pub, cross to win hill, *cough* up win hill, down the beast, cross the A57, up hagg farm, down lockerbrook.

Seeing as I'm fairly mended now I was thinking of tackling this tomorrow... Would anyone like to translate it into something slightly less likely to get me completely lost.  (I have the VG book, but it's hidden in a box somewhere, so I'll be just going from directions and a map...)

Or can anyone else suggest something along the same lines, in the same neck of the wood, up to around 3-4 hours max?

[fatboySlimfast]

Yoss, can I suggest a map........if you need a guide book you can borrow mine if ur up this way. Fairly easy to follow once you have a map in front of you!
Also for those that are a bit beardy, possibly up Derwent to trig point on Sunday morning to see the sunrise(solstice type thing) followed by burn back down for brekkie. Aint bothering if its raining!