What us locals already knew, has been made official.

Gisburn beats Afan and Glentress to win Trail Centre of the Year 2013

http://www.ibikeride.com/the-best-mountain-bike-trails

🙂

Beats Afan and GT at what exactly… I’ve never been to Afan but it’s many years/tens of thousands of pounds from getting anyway near of GT.

it’s still beyond me why anyone would want to ride there rather than buy a map and ride the hundreds or thousands of beautiful bridleways that are within 20 miles of there (especially in the Southern Yorkshire Dales National Park). Still…….whatever floats your boat…..

C

it’s still beyond me why anyone would want to ride there rather than buy a map and ride the hundreds or thousands of beautiful bridleways that are within 20 miles of there (especially in the Southern Yorkshire Dales National Park). Still…….whatever floats your boat…..

Yes, when they do the Trail Centre of the Year awards they should take that into consideration eh? 😕

I agree ChrisE there is so much great natural riding around this part of the world. For me that would always be first choice.

But as trail centers go, Gisburn is bloody good!

Ok it doesn’t have the fancy facilities, but it’s the trails that matter and they are great.

Of the trail centres I’ve ridden, it’s the least glamourous, but defo has the best trails for the type of riding I want to do.

Each to their own…

Got to say I disagree with the ‘results’ of that website, there no way gisburn is the best trail centre in the UK, it probably wouldn’t even make the top 10 in my book.

Each to their own though , and it’s no fault of the gisburn trail builders they just don’t have the terrain for it to be great.

I find the trails around that area (Dales) awfull in this type of weather,so Gisburn serves a purpose I usually ride it 2 or 3 times a year and have always come away with a grin 🙂
Well done to the trail builders

Gisburn has definitely improved- went a few years ago and found it very boggy.
Been twice recently and really enjoyed it- the jumps on the Hope line should have been bigger!
Great all round trail and well maintained

It’s based on public voting so it’s difficult to argue with the results.

I love Gisburn though, it just has a nice bit of everything.

As one of the original trail builders at Gisburn, before the main funded sections were built, it holds a special place in my heart, but I think these obscure internet awards are often down to those who might be most active at getting their Facebook mates rallied.

The bridleways nearest Gisburn (Lancashire side) are an absolute swamp at the moment – e.g. riding the peat over Dunsop Head to Whitendale would leave a lot of tyre damage and not be a heap of fun. So for what it is (a local all weather blast, often with the kids) then Gisburn is fine. And the trails are a big improvement on what was there originally. Plus the general wide variety of people using the place can only be a good thing / indicator of biking popularity in general (plenty of tracksuits and BSOs using the place).

I’d bet Gisburn isn’t the best trail centre in gisburn never mind the rest of the county (its average at best) IMO of course.

very local to me and seen it change over the past 20 years so biased but it is a bloody good centre mainly because the trails have a lot of thought in them to deal with the lack of drop so much more flow than many others, I particular like the thought in the single-track climbs very good. Local trail are terrible wet given the fells are water gathering groups better to avoid for a little while.

Well done to all the trail builders.

I really like Gisburn, it’s changed and improved massively since I used to night ride there in the early/mid 2000’s.

But to call it Trail Centre of the Year is stretching things a lot! It needs a fully open hub & toilets for a start… Bigger trail network too; at the moment it’s really only one trail with a few black options scattered along it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great facility and fun to ride but to be Trail Centre of the Year, I’d say it needs more than that.

It’s nothing to do with the fancy facilities. GT’s are hardly”fancy”.

Maybe it would warrant a most improved nominee but to infer that the actual trails “beat” GT is ridiculous.

But as you say, “each to their own”.

It would be a bit crap if Glentress just won every year though (which it probably should do if it was a genuine competition).

I think some people are taking this a bit too seriously.

I think some people are taking this a bit too seriously.

I couldn’t have put it better, great to have as an option tho?. However, these days I wouldn’t ride there on a weekend.

So the competition wasn’t serious then…oh that’s alright then.

The owner of the website might take it seriously, but I don’t think you should.

Gisburn? Takes glasses off and rubs face slowly.

That result and how it is arrived at is pretty much like The X Factor for trail centres. I’d take it with a pinch of salt.

Gisburn is good but you can’t stretch it to a long weekend can you? That is where Afan, Glentress or CyB would have it for me.