Any tips on riding hamsterley at night.what routes work well and which should be avoided. don’t want to start anywhere too off piste normally just ride mix of the red/black route also does main car park stay open if not where is best place to park.

It’s all ok really. Solo or group?

Park at the Grove end

Small group 2 or 3 is there access to the grove car park or do the gates get locked at all?

Last winter the car park was still open at around midnight when we left
The black/red trails were a really good laugh in the dark

Main carpark stays open and theres normally quite a few groups heading out around 6 – 6.30ish. It’s just a normal ride, only a bit colder & darker.

Take the first few runs steady though as I find it usually takes a while to get your eye-in and get used to riding with lights. The first few night rides of the year are usually quite tentative affairs.

If you can stand the endless crap about parking at Bedburn and the more recent crap about K-Line ask on the Hamsterley Riders facebook group.

Website says forest drive gates are shut at 5pm now so you’ll have to go round the top way to get to the Grove car park. From there you can go do pretty much all the red and black trails but Pikes Teeth and Root 666 may a bit of a trek.

We just do the normal black/red loop (frazers>pikes>rocky road>oddsox>two wheels & troll>up to triple tranny……not done k-line at night yet and tend to not head up sec13 way although it’s equally rideable), nothing dangerous provided you have lights lol.

But do Frazers, for the reflectors 🙂

Main car park is 24/7

Definitely going to do frazers looks fun on the pics I’ve seen then probably carry on doing the black as I would in the daytime then. Thanks for the replies

Knee pads, if you don’t normally wear them.

Aye – get the Air Waambulance ready for if you do K-line. Don’t do Poulty’s. It’s crap whatever the time of day.