Just musing about this; I’m planning to take the good lady out for a day of riding up lift somewhere southern, as we could do it in a day.

The idea was to go to BPW, book uplift and hire a suitable light, longish travel and small trail bike for her to have a go on. It’s now booked up for the day I was hoping to go, during October half term.

I’m wondering if there’s anywhere else to consider where I can hire a bike and do some ‘approachable’ uplift…? FOD springs to mind, but anywhere else?

FOD would be a good starter, there will be lots of kids in DH pyjamas and gnar fullface helmets but the trails are good (if not a little short).
Why not try BPW anyway and get single uplifts? IMO its a better “day out” than FOD mainly due to the variety of trails and visitor centre. FODs uplift is great for sessioning the DH, BPW more so for a good riding day out.

Forest of Dean is bloody brilliant tbh. Great riding, super fast uplift. Only drawback is that it’s not that easy to navigate and there’s a lot of variation in trail difficulty. I was there with a mate who’s less keen on dh and I was sometimes a bit bothered about basically just riding down mystery trails with no idea what was going to happen next. So soak up local knowledge first!

(I actually nipped up the day before and did some riding without the uplift to get a feel for it, pretty glad I did.)

It’s really nice that you can do the final blue descent off the uplift, it’s good fun and adds a ton of variety. The red XC is superb as well, it’s small but there’s so much packed in

What NW said really. If the DH trails are too much, the blue descent from the top is great fun.

FOD is good but the “user friendlyness” of BPW, eg. properly signed trails, makes it a lot more first timer friendly. I wouldn’t discount FOD though, you could spend all day just do the final descent of the blue XC trail from the uplift quite happily.

EDIT: Too slow. Added bonus content; you can also head over to the “Launch Pad” trail from the uplift. It’s designed to be suitable for those four wheel off road wheelchair bikes so is as smooth as you like and a real laugh at speed.

Which FOD trail would you guys recommend as the easiest after the blue?
(Sorry for the slight hijack)

Thanks all- and that’s not a hijack, my thinking was to do the FOD Blue and then progess, so an idea which trail is the least techy of the reds would help- I’ve done some DH runs at the Fod before, but only via pushup, so we just sessioned Sheepskull and another one on that side.

I’m up for BPW without a booking, having done it before, but that was with a mate who’s not adverse to climbing. The OH can climb, but i’d rather we had a proper day of uplift… how easy is it to get on the uplifts (unbooked) earlier in the day at BPW? I did it before, but only later on.

Bump for this. Thinking of having stag activity at BPW as quite a few novice riders. But concerned about cost (best part of £100 for a day including uplift and bike hire) and availability. FoD seems like a good idea but concerned about how much riding there is for newbies. Thoughts please..

Would recomend BPW over FOD for beginners, there are parts of the DH tracks at FOD which are difficult. BPW has good signage and the trails are good whatever the weather.

As Northwind’s “less keen on dh” mate, I had a great time at FoD. But it probably helped that Northwind had scoped out the trails beforehand so I didn’t have to face anything particularly terrifying and the weather was good and the trails were dry when we went.

The blue descent from the uplift is indeed superb. Of the DH trails I recall that there were some lines generally to the left from the uplift that were pretty smooth and accessible. One finishes with a section that’s compatible with offroad wheelchairs, I think. On the right from the uplift Flatlands and the upper parts of Sheepskull are nice but they get a bit more involved after they merge and just before they cross a fire road. It’s sort of a pity that they get more challenging just before the fire road crossing (lots of roots and a variety of chutey exits onto the fire road) instead of after it, as otherwise you’d be able to move along the fireroad to find some milder alternatives for the remaining descending.

All the blue routes at BPW are fun. The red trails there are often not too bad, I’d say that some of their qualifiers (the mandatory air drops basically) oversell how hard they are.

What about FlyUp’s 417 Project place?

Perhaps not a much going there compared to BPW at the moment, but might be worth a look for introductory uplift and plenty of availability.

417 FAQ page also says they do group discounts for stag/hen do kind of stuff.

Flyup also do FoD uplift, not sure about group discounts there though. BPW don’t do group discounts.

How is the 417 place?
It’s literally 3 miles up the road from my inlaws so next time I visit I’m sticking the bike on the roof. However, from teh looks of it, there’s only 1 or 2 trails. And a black trail with a 7 foot drop (apparently).
Is it worth it for the uplift – or would one get bored there after half a day?

DrP

Northwind’s been to the 417 Project. The impression I got was that it was more of a proper DH site than FoD or BPW but hopefully he’ll be along at some point to provide more detail.

looking at the website, there’s a red/blue trail, then DH runs.
I loved BPW for the variety of reds and blues (i prefer the flow and length (ooh er) rather than just blatting straight down the fall line)

Cheers

DrP

Well, this is the first time one of my threads has resurfaced! In the interim, I’ve taken the OH for uplift days at both the FOD and BPW. The FOD was good, mainly sticking to the main line after the Blue descent, but then lots of runs on Launch Pad, it was a great day.

Moving on to BPW was a great day, we only rode Blues, but sessioned the one with red options- (Wibbly Wobbly?) and it was great fun. Given the choice I’d take BPW, but it may present a challenge, given the cost/distance and need to book in advance.

This has made me think about going to 417 next week to scout that place out, so any further comments on that would be welcome.

While I did add 417 to the list, I have to say a couple of friends have been and report back was not good. As suggested above, just not enough to keep them occupied. They stayed a couple of hours I think, and were not happy at the price for that.

That said, their skills are entirely different to mine and me with my not-very DH abilities and fear of drops, I might get more out of it if I find it more challenging than they did. Or maybe not. Don’t know really unless I give it a go.

Combine with FoD for a day then fine, but if the price is equivalent to a full day at BPW but for far less then doesn’t sound good.

Is early days though and potential to expand a lot.

I wasn’t too impressed with 417. I found the blue quite dull. It just didn’t flow, loads of rollers immediately before a bend. I’m not good enough to risk trying to jump them when there is no easy landing. There were also no tables which makes it hard for a beginner to practice jumping. The red was ok but nothing to write home about. I liked the 4x but it is a pain to get to. Cake was good. I probably wouldn’t go again until they build some more stuff.

Black mountains cycle centre was good.

Oh… I think i’ll stick the bike on the roof, and maybe just pay for entry (£7) and cycle up the hills to earn to one or 2 downs I may do!

DrP

BPW, there’s a variety of trails for all skill levels

There’s now uplift at Shillingstone, Okeford Hill Bike Park. The old UK BIKE PARK site.

417 definitely needs more trails for a full days uplift riding. As the nights are light we tend to go up after work, just pay the entry fee and do a bit of everything – couple of runs each of the red and black, session the 4x and have races down the dual slalom. This works well for a 2.5 to 3 hour session and with our club discount is only £3.

417 is still ‘work in progress’ IMO. Did it a few months ago and was OK. Won’t be going back for a while, until there are more tracks.
Blue seems slow with too many berms to let you get up any speed or real flow. Red was good but there’s only so many times you can do the same track..
Uplift was OK but it’s a cramped Land Rover which drops you off with a fair trek to the top which was a ball-ache as it was wet when we got there and soon turned into a bit of a quagmire..

I had a great day at 417 but that was riding all the trails, I think just bombing the blue would get old pretty fast and the red is a bit of a step up. People slag the blue but tbh it just needs a little skill/effort to get the flow out of it- my first run was clumsy but once I’d figured out the shape of it I had a blast on it. The berms are only wee but you can still carry speed as long as you hit them right.

Thinking about it, I lost some time to a mechanical so I didn’t ride the full day but I definitely felt I got my money’s worth. It needs more trails for repeatability/choice but it’s a good package now imo. But not, maybe, for your group.