Hi guys (& gals)
Going away to just north of York for half term with the family – taking bikes obviously! What are the trails at Dalby like? will be with the wife & boys 17 & 14. They have all ridden Cannock & some of Coed y Brenin.
Any advise or alternatives much appreciated
Thanks

Pretty smooth and fast, nowhere near as rocky or technical as CyB but still a great trail centre 🙂

Lovely forest, pretty dull riding IMO.

Dull riding?? Owt’s better than nowt surely.

Went for the first time on Sunday, had a good day out TBH.

It’ a long XC ride, which can be cut shorter if necessary. It’s a fairly old trail with lots of fire road sections and does lack the investment and interesting features of more recent constructions (ie Gisburn). a fair few of the sections that were good, have been dumbed down in recent year by the local FC people. The World Cup course is pretty decent and there is a small jump park with small pump track.

It could be superb, but unfortunately, the people in that FC region don’t appear to have the sort of enthusiasm and/or vision that the likes of Martin College has at Gisburn. 😐

“pretty dull riding IMO”
The red, I can see that, the black I couldn’t agree, the old black has some pretty good bits in it, though the signage isn’t all there. I’m not completely sure If I’ve never ridden some sections of it

“Pretty smooth and fast”
I can see its supposed to be. Some sections can feel a bit washed out and rough/rubbly that makes flattish bits of trail a bit of a pointless chore than a fast pedally bit

Red is pretty long, add in some messing about in dixons hollow and you can be pretty tired near the end

wl – Member
Lovely forest, pretty dull riding IMO.

+1 this

Sorry just read you were going with family – for the family Dalby is OK.

Its an odd one. Its a great place to ride and all the stuff thats been built there is really good and obviously sees a lot of use. But it just seems that the builders didn’t use the lay of the land to their advantage. Theres loads and loads of little valleys which the trail could follow the contours off to make endless flowing singletrack and nice climbs. Instead theres a lot of short climbs, wandering around on the tops and then short descents.

That said, for a longish all weather ‘XC’ ride its great. Nothing too difficult, great on the singlespeed and if you know where to look, the off-piste/old man made stuff is awesome 😉

This is part of the dumbing down done in recent years – The black doesn’t appear on the trail map anymore (although the old maps are around on the internet -SingletrAction?), I’m not even sure it’s signposted now. The best route used to be a combo of red and black.

Dalby was the place I first started riding several years before any built trails appeared – it was way more fun and challenging then, and not just because our bikes were cruder. Maybe for a family day out it’s cool, but it’s not my idea of mountain biking. Others clearly rate it, so each to his own. Enjoy yourself anyway.

the route that was used as the championship XC course is good, technically difficult in places with some good features. Short though.

The red route is OK, but quite long and a bit repetitive, it can be a bit of a grind towards the end. You might want to find a way to cut it short if some of your party aren’t so fit

I thought the red at Dalby was good fun. Defo a bit of a grind towards the end, but good fun all the same. All these guys are obviously spoilt with too much great riding on their doorstep.

There are some cracking bits on the red, but for me it always feels a bit cobbled together. As DBW said, short climb, trundle along the top for a bit, short descent. They never seem to make the most of the gradient apart from a couple of sections (the last bit of the red to the VC is pretty ace, for example).

The old black / unmarked stuff is ace on the whole, and I suspect there’s a load of it I haven’t found yet.

If you fancy a shorter route than the whole red, following the blue up and round from the VC until it joins with the red, then following that back isn’t a bad idea. You can also loop off from Dixon’s Hollow and take in a fair few bits of the WC course and off piste bits, then use fireroads to get back.

Thanks Guys
So basically a bit of up n down with some swoopy singletrack but nowt too technical – that’ll be just fine 😉 – don’t want to scare the sh*t out the wife (she’s not ridden in a while)

Dalby is well worth a visit, but if you really want to get the best out of any trip seek out Mike & Amanda, which is a fantastic guest house in Pickering. http://www.elevenwestgate.co.uk/

Mike also runs http://www.gonemountainbiking.com/ and knows Dalby like the back of his hand.

PS don’t forget to drop in on http://www.dalbybikebarn.co.uk/

It’s very like Cannock. Not brilliant, but better than the Moors which have very little I’d bother going out for a ride on unless 60mile shooting road loops are your thing.