Red Kite trail, Wetherby

It’s a three and a half hour round trip for me, similar distance to my normal riding on the North York Moors.

Whats it like, worth the drive? Cheers.

I haven’t ridden it as a loop but about half of it regularly features in my local riding.

It’s a nice enough xc jaunt. It will be very muddy in sections in the wet (as is most of the riding in this area). Although legal, it is not the best riding locally by a long shot

3.5 HR round trip? Nah. I’m sure there must be better within that range. Where are you driving from?

Its a collection of  bridleways that have been waymarked by the local group. It is not a red route in difficulty as some have mistakenly thought.

You might see a red kite or two on the way round though…

Is there any decent maps out for this route as I keep meaning to try bits of it with the little lad cheers

I’m setting off from east of Hull so the nearest decent riding is a minimum of 1.45 hrs away.

Think I will give it a miss for now and stick with the moors, cheers guys.

Mick, map here;

https://www.ibikeride.com/england/3054-wetherby-bike-trails-including-the-red-kite-trail

Wife & I did it last week. Road from Church Fenton on local trails, joined at Thorpe Arch on the railway line to Spofforth, followed the red & exited at the ‘3’ above Braham Woods, 42 miles.

I wouldn’t travel to it but its a good distance loop to ride from home – from Leeds would be good combining all three coloured loops.

Cheers mate I’ll have a look 🙂

TIL – these trails have a name! I’ve been riding these trails for 20 years now and never knew. Great to see that combined map – might come in useful in the future.

Can’t add anything more, other than to re-emphasise that these aren’t red-graded trails, but more a collection of interlinked, rural bridleways. In winter, some of this can get exceptionally muddy – unrideably so, in some cases. At the moment, it should be OK though. (I rode a few bits last week on the CX bike with light tyres and it was fine). There’s some good trails in there and some nice technical bits and, if the ground conditions are good, it’s always a good ride out.

I’ve drifted away from riding these this year as we rode them a bit too much in 2017. I suspect that I need to do a proper run round in the near future, before they get fouled up again in the winter. By way of reminiscence, these pics were taken during a sportive in early 2017 near Bramham Woods:

Tough ride, that day! 40 miles of grim mud and rain.