Just wanted to say that it’s bloody great fun. I’ve got a couple of days off this week so have spent them exploring this small FC forest just south of Gateshead, and some of the trails are cracking fun. I’m far too much of a girl to actually do the jumps or rack up any sort of speed, but it’s still awesome.

Thank you to any lovely trail builders lurking out there!

Hey petal, maybe we can session it together some time? I’m always riding alone because I know no one local to ride with. Boo

ah, Chopwell. Many happy wednesday afternoons spent there when I was at Uni. And one not so happy when an ambulance had to come into the forest to pick me up and take me to Durham hospital…

I used to ride up there back in the 90s before any of the current trails got built.
they were great fun – have heard some top things about the current trails from other people. I must ride that way again soon..

am glad that its tops.

Its a good blast around there, the bonus being we can ride from the house. Soulrider, some of the old stuff is still the best, my favourite being from near the farm at the top of stoney road.
If anyone fancies meeting up for a ride, myself and Tasha would probably be up for it and compare routes

I’d definitely be up for that – I’m still discovering new trails and I suspect I did a few the wrong way today (found myself walking up a rather lovely bit of singletrack at one point!).

Can I just reiterate that I am a complete mincer and have absolutely no skill or style whatsoever!

Cough, Chopwell WOOD.

😀

My local. There’s great stuff in there, particularly if you know where to look.

e.g.:

Say hello if you see me. I’m pretty much always riding this:

Not been there for ages, there was that shortish ‘freeride’ track that I remember that was pretty cool, with jumps and stuff in it. (This was probably 2005-6 though) 😯

I suppose they’ve built a lot more trails since then, am I right?

Also, the bombholes are always a laugh, not actually in Chopwell Wood, but the wood next to the village. Spooky woods those. 😆

IMG_0471 by Legolam, on Flickr

This is mine

There is a lot more stuff built, but my favourite stuff is still the old stuff.

I never really found all the old stuff. There was the run that started at the top of the bombhole that was always good, then the stuff that dropped out next to the field, its all a bit hazy tbh!

i’m often down there, ride most of the old and new stuff but open to new (to me) trails as well. in fact i might pop down there tomorrow after work. on a silver heckler or a blue jake the snake depending if i drive or ride out 😀

I might have a look over in the next few weeks as the parent’s have moved back near there.

How long can you spend there, I know it’s not very big, but could you spend a few hours doing the loops without getting bored?

Cheers folks.

Ssssshhhh!

Love it as well. Can ride there in an hour from my door or less from work. Nice to gofor an evening in summer.

If any of you people are further north get in contact with us at Midaircrisis.co.uk We do local Thursday night rides around Newcastle. We can show you most of the stuff in the area there is to ride. It’s not world class by any means but it’s a great laugh.

We now have a stong female contingent with a handful of regular women riders. They started doing women only rides recently at the weekends too to introduce more people scared off by riding with 10 guys.

Aye, many a Wednesday and Sunday were spent there from 1991 to about 1993 when I was a lad at Uni in Newcastle (well, it started as a Poly then swapped to a Uni while I was there).

Ooooh, Hardisty’s, M.Steel’s, Chopwell, Beamish, fully rigid, jumpers for goal posts…wasn’t it?

The FC did fairly hack bits of it down though.

I used to end up riding up tracks there to find out where they started. Don’t get over enough now, but had some nice rides there.

It really needs a GPX file so I can have a look at it.