I suspect this might be a big ask, but I'm prepared for the derision :O)
Which trail centre would be best for a mid Sept/mid Oct trip for a bunch of hard blue/easy red newbie bikers who can't cope with wheels sinking in mud?

We were thinking of heading to Glentress but don't want to schlep there from Lancs if the electric blue descent is going to become an exercise in hike a biking cos we can't ride it.

We just want a bit of fun before the 'season' closes, really. Wondering if heading down South would be better but know little of the trail centres down there.

for me afan , W2 trails , not to hot , not that many people weather just right.well for me . enjoy werever you go, um thats a bit far for you i think.

Llandegla.

What's this carp about a "season"?

GT only becomes unrideable when there's about a foot of snow over ice. It's great in the wet.

What's this talk of seasons closing? Great thing about MTB in this country is you can ride all year round!

afan for me this weekend 🙂

Surely the point of a trail centre is that it's all-weather*?

*OK, barring the aforementioned snow drifts, but you should be safe in October

Glentress as it has far more options for day 2 or other places on the way home or stuff. Afan is miles away for you and I think you'd be hard pressed to get a whole day's riding out of it.

Trail centres shouldn't become mud fests

Files along with what wheels for trail centre riding? 😕

The standard of Landegla's trails is easy for the grade. It's got smooth bulletproof surfacing and a nice cafe. Perfic for beginners.

I knew I was going to suck at phrasing this. I'm new. This means, I'm new to all this. I don't blooming know trail centres are sposed to be ridable perfectly all year around, I've just come back from a ride which turned into half a hike a bike cos we just couldn't get traction on the 2 inches of mud. That probably makes us crap. Or, you know, new. I also can't walk uphill. This means it's really important that I know if hills are going to be rideable or drowning in mud.
To those of you who managed to suspend sarcasm, thank you. Glentress it is before it disappears in snow, which Llandegla seem to think is sticky but with whom I'd beg to differ.

FWIW, I'm local to Edinburgh and my Glentress riding is mostly confined to the "off-season". That's because it's almost always ridable, even when it's been pissing it down and/or blowing a gale.

Expect to get pretty filthy, but the trails all stand up well to the weather (good design and excellent maintenance).

Hey, don't fret. This site is pretty harsh sometimes (although for what its worth the responses you got were reasonably friendly)

If you can be arsed to drive to Glentress then you'll frickin' love it. It will not be muddy*

S.

*but its Scotland so it may well be wet.

Even if it's very wet GT is very sheltered in the trees, you never really get rained on that badly, or suffer from headwinds etc. Infact it's one of the best places to ride when it's properly minging, helped by decent changing facilities and showers etc.

If you're relatively new to the sport you'll love GT, everyone does. Bring cake money, you'll love the cake too.

Try not to get narky by the "wit" on here. It's mostly done in good nature.

Dalby forest is always a safe bet as its generally pretty decent for biking even in the rain.

Me and my mates are going to Whistler. Apparently it's good in September 😆

(On a more serious note, I've been to the 7 Stanes ones in September and generally found the weather to be quite stable at that time of year).

Lou, Afan is good, but its a hell of a schlep from our end.

The Marin at ByC is in no way technical, but has a lot of fireroad.
Penmachno is ace… couple of red bits but nothing too bad.

Both within 2 hours.

You could also consider Follow the Dog at Cannock.

Most of the south Wales TC's hold up well in the wet

Hmmmmm lots of food for thought. Whistler – you know it's funny you should say that but someone else was talking about that last week saying it was uplift heaven. I really wanna go.

On a more realistic note, Wales/Cannock are both on the hit list. I'm just addicted to Electric Blue. First trail I rode where everything just clicked. I wanna go back 5-6 months later and see if I got better :O)

The term trail centre seems to a dirty word on this forum, well in some threads.

Forums are weird places. Post a forum question about trail centres and you'd some time think that would be desserted, an unpopular and unnecessary addition. I was almost shocked that the car parks at trail centers could be full mid week in the winter, more popular in the real world than on here

Trail centres have heavily engineere trails to provide durability. They therefore work well unless covered in ice or snow. any dirt tends to be very thin…..

Mud is very tough for mountain biking. You'll need to learn what trails work in what conditions. From Lancashire you should get to the know the lakes (either the trails centres at Grizedale and Whinlatter or even better the bridleway net work). Although the lakes will be hillier the relative lack of mud may make the trails easier than you local mud fest.

The climbing in trail centres is often on well graed smooth forset trails. Making height gain relatively easy

Any way enjoy your ridding and don't leave the forum…..