Got a car recently and realised never ridden mtb down here aside from Robin wood near Swarkestone (which I normally ride my cx at as much more fun) So after somewhere ideally within an hour drive of Derby with proper trails to knock about on. Ta

Plenty of stuff just up the road from Derby, Shining Cliff woods and Crich Hagg near Ambergate for starters, also Black Rocks and plenty round the Matlock area. An hour also probably just about puts you in reach of the Dark Peak

Nice, any (good) route guides you know of?

I think theres White Peak and Dark Peak guide books but don’t know exactly what they are called or if you ride at night you could come along with DVATC as we do most of our rides within an hour of Derby

That looks good! Roughly how hard is hard? level 3 ride equivalent to drumlanrig/innerleithen for example?

Dunno really, i wouldn’t take too much notice of those. If you ride regularly and are a reasonable fitness you’ll be fine

ssboggy – Member
I think theres White Peak and Dark Peak guide books but don’t know exactly what they are called or if you ride at night you could come along with DVATC as we do most of our rides within an hour of Derby

I have a mate who lives in Duffield who has been using these books for 10 years. I did a White Peak ride from the book a couple of weeks ago, quite a bit of road riding and what wasn’t on the road was a bog, ie hike-a-bike.

You can buy the guide books at 18 Bikes in Hope, either in person or on line.

OP just drive to the Peak District “proper”, ie the Dark Peak some of the best riding in the UK in my opinion.

Cannock’s within an hour of Derby.

Cannock’s within an hour of Derby.

Great!

Forgive my ignorance but is the dark peak easy to find/navigate trails?

Tbh there aren’t many weekends free between now and christmas when I’ll be back in Scotland but the superfly keeps crying. That may be because it needs brakes bled and a new headset though.

If you want easy to follow trails then either Cannock or Sherwood. Sherwood is ok if ridden quick. Cannock is more of a proper trail centre. Both good fun in their own ways, with Cannock being the more challenging ride. Both easy from Derby in less than an hour.

Shining cliff etc serves some great fun for a couple of hours. I’m not far from you, and have only been to cannock once, no offense to the place but i would rather go that bit further to the Peak. Easy enough to navigate with the guides.

The Vertebrate Publishing guides always seemed quite sorted ……

Dark Peak

White Peak

Cheers guys!

Hi fontmoss where abouts are you in the derby area !