Do they have public rights of way so you can make up your own ride?

and

Do they have mountainbike centres eg Afan, Brechfa, Innerleithen/Peebles?

Think its yes to both… contrary to mrs Rickmeister who is from the Black Forest and who seems to think everything in Germany is verboten unless it says you can…

Bike parks are common too, we are off to Todtnau in August…

Think it depends on the Land (state)?

Meki maps etc. have shed loads of (bike+walking) trails marked on, but they’ll be largely fire road (which could be anything from totally sanitised official bike path to totally knackered twin-track killed by the logging lorries).

Think in Hessen they want to write in to law the generally accepted 2m rule, banning bikes from every trail that you can’t drive a Landrover equivalent vehicle along, unless it’s an official MTB trail. 🙄

Plenty of bike parks. Todtnau, Winterberg, Willingen?, Stromberg, Beerfelden, …

A more accurate answer is that “you’re not supposed” to ride trails less than 2m wide.

Very helpful, thanks everyone.

We free camped in a forest somewhere in Germany and awoke to German Police with their guns drawn. They were not amused.