I’m off to see friends for the weekend tonight – they’ve just moved to the outskirts of the Forest of Dean, and I’m thinking of taking the bike to get some early runs in on Sunday morning.

Is anyone familiar with the area? Where’s the best place to park and go find the way up?

Been looking at these guys: http://www.flyupdownhill.co.uk/ but they’re fully booked.

park at pedalbikeaway and follow your nose
EDIT it’s the same place the uplift goes from

you might get the odd run off flyup as not all booked riders will be there early?

Sweet, cheers.

The push up takes a more than 10 minutes but less than 15, so it’s actually possible to do at least a dozen runs on the tracks even without the uplift service.

There are a number of ways you can push up, including up a very steep first section that follows the telegraph poles which run to the side of one of the runs (can’t remember what that run is called, maybe Sheep’s Skull? Either way it’s the one with the biggish table top at the bottom)

The other way is the fire road all the way up. This is over to the right hand side of the hill as you’re looking at it from the cafe. This passes by the side of the exit of one of the other runs.

The fire road is longer but easier on the gradient.

The whole area has a very relaxed and chilled feel to it. Nothing there is mental, it’s super fast if you want it to be, great fun and the best place for peopel to have a first go at riding DH.

You’ll love it.

Its very good and niceley relaxed, no big drops or owt but flowy and can get some good speed up. That push up by the telegraphs is a bit steep though (ski run crosses it), much prefered the fireroad.

Map-

http://www.deantrailvolunteers.co.uk/dh-trails

How do-able is this for those of us who don’t have a Dh bike?

To put it another way, if I try it on my superlight, will I die…?

Its can get rattly at speed but any normal bike will be fine. Just watch out for Pyjamas coming up fast behind you.

My first ride there was on a 100mm forked specialized rockhopper and I survived (but was very slow). I now ride there on a steel Trailstar hardtail with 140mm forks.. so you don’t really need a dh bike but will probably be a bit slower than those on big bouncies!

fadda, you’ll be fine.

I played around on the DH tracks there on my HT after SSEC last year and had a blast.

Cool, thanks all!

Actually in some cases a 140-160mm trail bike will be faster.

Rowan Sorrell has won a few races there on an Orange Five.

Use to take my Prophet mx their no problem. As said above not to bad walking up jist after every two or three runs go back to pedalaway and have a bit of cake 🙂

Definitely taking my 140mm bike next time, it’s hard work keeping the speed up on a lot of it riding a 180mm freemincer!

im a newbie with a spesh pitch and it was fine for me (wuss at the DH’s). the runs are relatively short and dont bother with the XC trail if you have something like mine – its just boring!

Ps the sheeps skull was closed when you got to the fire road 2 weeks ago as they were logging, havent been back yet

try http://thefod.co.uk/ and check the more detailed routes and vid to help

Cool – I’ll be running a BFe on 140mm Pikes 🙂

I’m thinking of going down on sunday as well, will get there about 11 probably.. as you say early I guess you’ll be gone by then but if not I’ll be the one on the grey DMR with a black/white full face 🙂

Cool – I’ll be running a BFe on 140mm Pikes

About ideal for the FOD if you’ve not got an uplift. You’ll be able to pedal it ok up the fireroad, or go exploring some of the more challenging singletrack within easy distance from the pedalabikeaway centre.

When you get there, you’ll see most people are on 8″ travel DH rigs, but really don’t let that put you off. A lot of DHer’s will only have a DH bike, so they ride it at FOD too, but as mentioned above, you’d probably be quicker outright on something with 140-160mm of travel both ends than an out and out DH bike. The gradients aren’t steep, and a DH bike is hard to maintain speed on unless you’ve got gravity on your side. Everything is rideable on a hardtail too, and I suggest you go and check out some of the older DH tracks that barely get used these days, there’s one that’s my favourite trail in the UK still, and seemingly nobody knows about it as everytime I ride it, there’s almost no evidence of others having ridden it too. It’s got a few pretty steep bits on, and a couple of mega tight switchbacks that you could never do on a bike with dual crown forks anyway as you need to turn so tightly.

As others have said, park at Pedalabikeaway. Ask them to point you in the direction of The Elbow – it’s the quickest and easiest way up and leads to most of the DH runs 8)

Cheers guys, looking forward to it.

Hardtail is ideal for where I live (Norfolk), keep toying with the idea of getting a full bounce like a Transition Covert, but find it hard to justify living in such a flat county.

Was a good morning – took a while to find the runs. Really enjoyed Sheepskull. LOTS of big rigs up there by the time I was leaving.