Thinking of riding there on Saturday.
Flowy or hilly or both?

both

ignore – wrong thread :}

It’s a very pedally ride. No really long climbs or long descents, but most of it is up or down. 24 and a bit miles for the red, the miles in the second half tick past faster than the first (assuming you start at the visitor centre). Great trails, good condition (it was last week anyway) fairly long for a trail-centre red, bring some trail snacks.

I think it flows, but it’s hilly too.

Enjoy.

I’d say it’s on the whole not very flowy/trail centrey IMO, I’d say it captures most of what’s good about “normal” riding myself – ie you take the good with the bad

What Driller said. All the climbs are short but there’s hardly any flat bits (excluding middle 3rd). The middle 3rd of the red is total garbage (after the wooden bridge/switchback climb) – you’re better off doing the black from that point and and then fire roading it to the last 3rd near the disused quarry or the valley before – follow forest drive from Dixons Hollow (away from visitors centre), turn right at the toll booth, turn left at the end and then first right and you’ll pick up the red again – that’s from memory but get a map and you’ll see where I mean.

I like Dalby, it’s nowhere near as good as CyB, GT etc. (imho) but still well worth a visit
HTH

It’s good [apart from the middle bit] if you hammer it
If you just go for a pedal round it can get tedious

Some of the sections are wonderful though, particularly the one before the drop back into the visitors centre – so save some energy

I found it pretty boring TBH. Not very flowy at all and not much going on, just loads of dull waffly bits… until all of a sudden !WALLOP! a silly technical and very artifical rock garden thing appears from nowhere, followed by more and more miles of dullness…

I found it pretty boring TBH. Not very flowy at all and not much going on, just loads of dull waffly bits… until all of a sudden !WALLOP! a silly technical and very artifical rock garden thing appears from nowhere, followed by more and more miles of dullness…

that is the best explanation of Dalby that I’ve ever heard, or there’s like loads of flat uphill bits then a steep bit with some huge rocky berms at the bottom, gate 28 I think it is. Cant remember though

The red is actually better ridden backwards from Dixons Hollow to the visitors centre, only ever done it on a night ride though.

I like it, maybe I’m just dull and boring.
Give it a go mate and make your own mind up, have a good ride.

Completely missed out on making this a real epic. Superb location, hills, scenery, car park, cafe etc…but it is just one big boring loop that they dare call a red route, more like a very long blue route in my eyes.

Nothing challeging, no black sections (couple of off piste small bomb holes – thats it), it feels rewarding at the end, but only because it is so long. They should have invested the same into a quality 23k loop!!!, rather than a laborious 39 that requires continual pedaling.

Its only busy, becasue Northern England has so little to offer from a trail centre perspective.

Me and my brother hated it, yet 2 other lads loved it…morever because they find “kerb drops” extreme!

Enjoy ?

Kev

continual pedaling

Shocking! Peddling? On a bicycle route? No way! 🙂

I love Dalby and it also has of course all the old red still be to be played on, especially in the summer when it isn’t so gloopy. People forget just how much singletrack there must be there now.

I’m afraid no_eye_dear has it spot on. I can only assume they’ve went for the quantity rather than quality approach 🙄

I think that it depends how far you’re travelling. No it’s not as good as Glentress and the likes but you’re comparing it to the best. There are lots of centres I’ve been to that are worse. It depends what you’re loking for, there’s the world cup route and the black route, the skills park and I’m not sure if there isn’t even a dh course. I think it flows well if you ride it fast and yes there are a few boring fire roads linking the the sections together but they can be avoided and it is 24 miles just for the red so I can live with that, there’s still a lot of nice singletrack besides. It’s an hour from me and I can justify that every few months, would I travel four hours? probably not.
Good course IMO but wouldn’t choose it over the top 5, it depoends what you’d be driving past to get there.

🙄
“Bicycle route”, clearly we have different riding styles?, I expect a red route to be action packed…. including drops, berms, difficult sections and uphill slogs. Regretably Dalby is all on the same level that just skirts in and out and around the forest, yes there is loads of singltrack…but its all flat.

Yes there is a black section and a jump track (if you are into that) but this course could be done easily on a 1992 rigid bike, in fact I think you would have to do it on a bike to give you any form of adventure. Leave your 6″ front and rear well and truly at home.

If you have a very clean Stumpjumper or one of the Orange 5 crew this is for you, if you want an element of danger, adrenaline rushes or expecting a typical Scottish / Welsh red route stay clear.

Kev

Maybe what is needed is for locals to show people the old red route. I’ve been over the handlebars in that really steep gulley, there is that banked grassy section, some bits of northshore which are nice, that slaloming soily downhill section in between trees, that long downhill on the homeward stretch. But then I like riding red routes as they are about my level and I often find parts of them challenging.

On the new red route you have some lovely downhill sections, some pretty steep. There is a lot of flowing singletrack too which I just love as well.

Oh well, I guess it’s horses for courses. Other people don’t like my local Mabie but I love that too.

Ace trail. I love it. Not the most technical, but I think its brilliant

Dalby is like most trail centres….. its how hard you ride it that makes it what you want it to be. Hell I have even seen single speed duster jockies flying around there on rigids and they are well fast.

its how hard you ride it that makes it what you want it to be

Ahh now that’s where the riding gods of STW are going wrong in life I feel. You actually spend too much mental time thinking about bikes, and all their combinations and permutations, and you have this competitive sporting mentality that requires fitness, guts, determination, ability and bike handling skills.

I for one on the other hand feel that pootling and cake appreciation are more like high art, and you lot fail to appreciate the general fabness of just mucking about on a bike and being happy to get back in one piece 🙂

Everyday is race day,every trail is to be ridden at speed and the cake shop is for the B team. 😯

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t slow down and look around, you might miss it”

8)

Give it a go.

Compared with most trail centres it feels like a looong ride because to get the best out of some sections you need to be pedalling pretty damned hard.

I think with a little local knowledge on missing some of the draggy bits and taking in the secret stuff it would be good.