So following on from my earlier thread about taking a few of the local roadies out on the bouncy bikes would you throw them straight into some natural stuff or would you go down the trail center route.?

trail center first, we generally take people to sherwood pines “red”

trail centre and possibly even a blue.
IME fitness gets them up things they will not even attempt to get down
This is worse in natural as trail centres are built to be ridden

So throwing them ball deep with no foreplay into the best the peaks has to offer could be a mistake.? I remember getting dragged off to all sorts places when I started MTBing and it never bothered me but that said trail centers were not around that much and being in my teens I was fearless.

depends what the descent is tbh and how good their bikes are

FFS even the pros cannot ride on rough stuff in the wet the slightest pebble will kill them to death

IME they wont try the proper off road stuff and it is really hard/impossible to tell what is difficult for a noob as we are all rad to the power of sic

where are you based neils?

there are some ace blue routes around, and also some total shockers.

eg.

Haldon forest blue = fantastic fun

Mabie Blue = utter balls.

etc.

Midlands based so peaks or Llandegla are around a hour and a half drive. Cannock chase is fine but it’s a chopper fest at the weekend and over in the blink of an eye. Don’t get me wrong I love the chase but I want them to sample something with a bit more umph.

Llandegla blue is ok, and there’s the skills park to cock about it before/after a lap/or 2.

The Peak’s winter season is upon us now, which can make for pretty grim conditions.

They’re roadies, so what we’re talking about here is a crossover that could be compared to teaching skiers to board (or vice versa); poor conditions may only serve to reinforce their aversion to ‘the other’.

(you can’t put a skier on a snowboard, and take them out when it’s icy, and expect them to enjoy themselves)

Took eleven scouts around the 35 km loop of the bucks off-road sportive last weekend. They ranged from fully-competent to had-to-borrow-a-bike. All got around OK.

Normally I’d say Trail Centre, and will introduce people to Green route at Swinley to assess competence then Blue route for fun.

If your riders are competent bike handlers, I’d say a Red route Trail Centre will be more fun, and probably less muddy. A skills park is an added bonus.

I’d say the Monkey Trail at Cannock would be perfect. It’ll take a couple of hours for 1 lap, there is nothing to scary in it and you can always go round for a second loop if you so desire. It’s also, mostly at least, flowy rather than jumpy which roadie will prefer (I speak as a roadie here!).