can you tell me about it? got a week in bishop auckland with the family and may escape for a few hours…

Only 10 minutes from Bishop so very local.

Link the best of the Red and the Black. The new red sections are all excellent.

Do a search on here as routes have been posted recently.

It’s very good.

Uplift is well worth it, the push up is unsurprisingly long.

I find it quite tricky, lots of opportunity to hit things, especially in the wet. One of my favourite DH places

Are you wanting XC or Downhill?

XC route is very good. I was suprised as I haven’t been there since they first opened section 13. Not the longest trailcentre but the quality is good.

As above. Link black and red bits for the best of both. It has some really great sections of trail IMO. I have a day off tomorrow if you want a guide?

The new stuff is made from sand…….Its yellow and easy to spot

I’m there from the 20th for a week… I’ll be on a five and maybe with some newbies… May stick to the red if easy ish… Somewhere to hire a bike nearby? Lbs for a drool local?

Sorry double post

You can hire bikes from the main car park. Don’t know the opening times. Red route is a lot of fire road with some really good short sections thrown in. Everyone is mostly buzzing around Transmission, Accelerator and Nitrous at the moment, which is a whole lot of fun. Maps with the trail names on are hard to find though. If you’re lucky someone will post them up.

Cafe? Any cop?

The diner at Toft Hill is the best bet. The blue route is worth a ride especially for hardtails, bit dull the first half but then a welcome gentle slope all the way back to the car park. And the first woods bit is best done again on the way back in reverse too.

Forget the blue apart from the first bit. The first couple of miles is pleasant undulating single track (which is repeated on the way back) after that it’s boring long fire road drag.

If you have newbies it all depends on their fitness.

If they are aren’t that fit then do the blue from the main car park to warm them up. Then ride up to Transmission (it’s a longish fire road climb or a shorter fire road climb followed by a rooty track depending on route), Accelerator and Nitrous.

If they are pretty fit then do the Black from the main car park and then link it with Transmission etc. There is nothing on the black that doesn’t either have a bail out or they couldn’t get off and walk.

Pretty much everything on the red and black could be ridden by a newbie if they take their time – we took a mate who was riding a ‘town hybrid’ down Transmission last year and he survived (we did worry the forks might detach on the way down as he’s a bit portly).

If they are fit take them up to Section 13 (it’s a pretty brutal climb up a washed out track) after that follow down to Special K and Brain Freeze. If not so fit take the road to the start of Special K.

This will give you an idea of where things are –

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/HamsterleyREDTrail.pdf/$FILE/HamsterleyREDTrail.pdf

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/HamsterleyBLACKTrail.pdf/$FILE/HamsterleyBLACKTrail.pdf