I accidentally found the red/black route in Black Carr Woods, Pudsey last night and was amazed that it was there – I live nearby and had never heard of it before.

Does anyone know if there are any similar sections nearby or plans to create new ones? I’ve tried searching the Bradford Council website but can’t find anything.

I just found out about it five seconds ago when I read your post – I usually come down the far right hand side of BC woods (flowy singletrack, nothing challenging), where is this red/black of which you speak?

Other bits of trail in the area:

Tong village – down Keeper Lane then straight on and up the other side of the valley to Bankhouse Pub (near Fulneck school) then hang a left and straight back down (Sholebroke Lane?) to the bottom of the bridleway that takes you (to the right) to the bottom of BC Woods.

Tong village – head north out of the village on the main road and take the bridleway on the right AFTER the ice cream place – Springfield Lane, nice descent, dry at the moment for the first time in living memory. At the bottom of that, if you don’t mind ‘cheeky’ (lots of tyre tracks, walkers seem to accept it) you can head left down Cockersdale till you reach a road, then hairpin right and back along the top of the same woods, lots of bits and bobs going off the trails in all directions, just go and explore.

Or, heading the other way from Pudsey (not sure exactly where you are), you can head through Ravenscliffe Woods and then Calverley Woods – lots of fun to be found in both.

On which note – only recently become acquainted with Calverley Woods and I don’t think I’ve found the “good stuff” yet – can anyone provide a pointer or two?

Hi Edlong

Thanks for the tips – I know a few of the routes you mention and some are new so I’ll certainly explore them.

The section I’m talking about is off the main trail through Black Carr (the wide one, about as wide as single lane of a road, high above where the stream runs through the woods, the stream is down on your left if you’re heading towards Bank House area) which we normally do from the top end ie we enter the woods from Holmewood area.

Just before this trail starts descending more steeply to the stream there is a narrower trail going off to the right. About 50 yards in there’s a white sign on a tree telling you it’s 60% black / 40% red and put in place by Bradford Council.

If you’re on Strava the segment is called Down Hill Right Side Black Carr and can be found here: LINK

It’s singletrack, fast and twisty – good fun, with a jump at the end.

As I say, we were amazed to find it.

For Calverley Woods we normally do the Rice Crispies segment (again from Strava) which is really good but there are loads of other trails in there.

If you’re not on Strava it’s difficult to describe but we get to it by riding up and past Clara Drive, through the gate at the end of the tarmac and turning left just before you come to a stone building on the left. Once you turn (onto narrower footpath) keep right all the time and you eventually come down to the canal side. Ride along for a while and then turn left uphill, it’s all a bit overgrown at the moment here! You then head back up towards the central woods, lots of options here for trails.

Hope this helps!

Cheers Simon

I’m not a stravaist (too slow, the shame, the shame…) but I can picture the first bit of your description of Calverley Woods so I’ll go from there… and your description of the route in BC woods sounds pretty findable too..

Think I know where I’m going exploring this weekend.

Once again, many thanks!

I’m only a recent convert but wouldn’t be without it now!

Let us know if you find any other decent runs.

Calverley Woods loop

Up Clara drive, through the gate and on the rhs there’s a path through the woods. Follow it round and up to the right and eventually you’ll get to a T / triangle at the top of a slight climb

turn left at the junction and follow it down til it crosses the main path near the road in from Calverley

go across and follow the path round – then you can keep right all the way to the canal (think this is what you refer to as rice krispies?)

back up the main rocky path to the jucntion – head back to clara drive then when you get near to the gate, on the other side from where you started, you go to the right and over the foundations of an old building

keep left – follow the path round and eventuually you’ll get to the bombhole – drop in and out then bear right and hit the final descent back to the bottom road

back up to clara drive and repeat 🙂

We (singletraction) were contacted by a chap call Dug who wanted to build some trail in Black Carr Woods. We put him in touch with the right people on Bradford Council (who are v pro biking) so I presume this is Dugs trail.

If you fancy helping us repay the councils faith, trailbuilding at St Ives will resume in September. If we get this right then who knows what the future holds…

a chap call Dug

Good name for a trailbuilder

🙂

I’ve driven past these woods a few times thinking to myself “I bet there’s some decent riding in there.”

Now I know, I’m off for an explore when I get back from Ireland (working, boo).

In related news, I got the Strava KOM down Keepers about a month ago only to lose it an hour later while sipping a pint in the beer garden. Shortest lived KOM I’ve had yet!!

Ed – I think the section referred to above is the the right side of Black Carr. It branches right off the main track about a third of the way down. I’ve never seen it marked as red/black though.

The thought of meeting a horse head on puts me off trying!

Mugboo, that’s interesting, where is St Ives?

Crag, we were looking at the Keeper Lane KOM time and trying to get our heads round the average speed of 32mph!

St Ives is near Harden.

Thanks Simon, just had to Google them both, not familiar with Bradford.

Mugboo, I’d love to get involved, what’s the best way to keep informed about it?

Singletraction website, http://www.singletraction.co.uk/wp/

Or Singletraction page on Facebook, this probably gets updated more than the website these days.
Digging should be starting again at St Ives in August or September, best way to get involved initially is to just turn up at a dig day.

Had a look at the Facebook group and stuck my name down, so hopefully ill be about when the next dig day comes round

Nice one 🙂

Cheers Simon, I’m following you on Facebook and Twitter, will join you on the next dig hopefully.

Sorry, forgot! Cheers Si 🙂

there’s a cracking circular route starting at St Ives, taking in Harden Moor, Black Moor, Manywells, Hallas Bridge, Wilsden & Harden. It’s a variation on a theme of “The Bingley Bash”, I used to do this route on a very regular basis. Haven’t been out for a while but looking to get back into it soon.

Also some good stuff either side of the canal between Calverley & Shipley – Buck Wood (Thackley), Spring Wood, Jerrison Wood (Guiseley)

Also some good stuff either side of the canal between Calverley & Shipley – Buck Wood (Thackley), Spring Wood, Jerrison Wood (Guiseley)

We were up that way last night, it was dry, dusty and fast. Brilliant fun.

planning to do much of the same tomorrow evening. won’t be quite as dusty but that might not be a bad thing

I’ll be doing the Bingley Bash tomorrow. Half on the way to work and the other half on the way home 🙂

was in Buck Wood & Spring Wood earlier this evening, met up with shredder from this parish & his mate Oli. Saw some nice new downhill/4X type trails in Spring Wood. And no, I didn’t attempt any of them 😉

Don’t talk to me about that Shredder, he promised me he’d trim the goddamn gorse on the railway ridge 😉
We even had to saw through a fallen tree on Death by Holly in Calverly Woods with a 5″ saw!

Now then John was good to meet you and would be good to meet up next week on the North Leeds ride.
See your email add now.

Mugboo I know poor show from the Thackley side I will clear that line for you 😀
Now if I could just point you to some other bits in Calverley

yep, I’ve created an event on FB; my email is now up to date in my profile, I’ll send you a link if you’re on that particular social network

for some reason I kept reading he promised me he’d trim the goddamn gorse as he promised me he’d trim the goddamn horse… imagination is a wonderful thing 😉

Shredder, can you do the path in Calverley through the holly at the same time 😉

Yes on facebook John have emailed you so you can send the link

Did a good job of ripping it out with my helmet tonight 😯

There’s a fb group for anyone interested in digging in esholt / spring wood. Had a play on some of the more gentle / older stuff on the left if you look from the bottom but there’s loads round there now

Is the holly bush the section on the right of Clara drive as you go through the gate?

sent you the FB links Richard 🙂

Is the holly bush the section on the right of Clara drive as you go through the gate?

That’s the one.

Ah yes – I went through that yesterday and it was pretty overgrown, to the point that I missed the left hand turn first time through!

tmb467 do you have a link to the Esholt dig FB page

Don’t know how to share a fb group via iPhone but if you search for Esholt Dig and Ride Collective I think you can request to join

I went down a few months ago and had a chat with some of them – the two I spoke to were pretty decent (albeit a bit stoned). Think they dig and ride most weekends and on a Wednesday evening too

I’d need to be on something to go off some of those drops they’ve built 🙂