Looking at planning a day to Keilder- I see they have a few trails.
Where was avalanche trophy raced?
Any bits to avoid?
Does it have a trail head??

Nothing like GT. It depends upon your level and what you're after from a ride, but Kielder is a bit plain. The new Lonesome Pine has a nice descent and is a great addition, but there's way too much forest-road climbing on it. The Deadwater Trail is starting to get tired.

The trail head is the car park just up from the castle.

Where are you coming from?

keep driving past up to GT – i find it a bit boring and dull.

Lonesome pine descent was a bit crap when i did it, in fact the best bit was the switchback climb to the boardwalk.

Go to newcastleton, much much better.

oh no!! Coming from Glasgow- thought as the Avalanche was there it would e good!
Not sounding promising- Newcastleton- never done that-thought that was a bit family fire road??

Newcastleton is a bit more interesting, but only in places. It certainly has a nicer feel to it – much more natural – but it's also very short with a not great percentage of singletrack. From Glasgow, you're probably better of heading to some of the SW Stanes. All of them except the weird forest road one are better rides than Kielder.

Races at Kielder usually use what would usually be climbs as some of their descents, so unless you're feeling brave and prepared to suffer the wrath of those slogging it up the ascents, you won't be able to sample them.

There are some good (but rough) descents at Kielder, but nothing id go there especially for. Newcastleton singletrack is good a has a great flow, not very long tho, so tie in the blue after the red and do it all twice. Did the 24hr race there and i can honestly say its the only race ive ever done where i looked forward to every lap!

Plus there is a 'shore' section you can play on if thats your type of thing.

My weekend started as a weekend- then with commitments it has turned into a sat day bike at Kielder and now that doesnt look like it warrants the effort- what about Keswick?
Not a fan of the shore! Scared probably but do like the fast singeltrack and dont mind the jumps

Get on the A68 to Darlington and stay on it for another 45 mins and go to Hamsterley…

Pi55es all over Kielder, much much fun!!

😀

MMM now there is an option!
Hamsterley- good!

Hamsterley- good!

If you've done Hamsterley before and enjoyed it, then perhaps you would find Kielder more enjoyable than I thought. Apart from a mildly interesting 2 mins down Section 13, Hamsterley is just about the dullest ride in the whole world.

Don't know why everyone's so down on Kielder, we had a grand day there and I'm looking forward to getting back. Only did the Deadwater- both red and black descents- and the red's a wee bit samey maybe but the black's ace. The final climb and fireroad descent is weird mind, and there's some really weird wear on the trails (there's a comedy bit on one of the sandier sections where there's an ex-jump that's just worn completely through in the middle).

Newcastleton is rubbish how can you think its good? Next to no height gain and the best bit is right after the start.

I kind of like Kielder. Maybe as it is not far to go. Deadwater trails are nice. The Lonesome Pine has a good descent at the end. You can easily do both in a morning. Personally I would not travel that far to do any trail centre though. quicker to go to the Lakes.

Northwind, the main problem is all the crap surface. Oh and the 'strange wear' you found, its been like that since they built it! No flow at all and a crap surface, there is more interest to be had on some of the old doubletrack that is out in the forest.

I thought the bits of trail centre we saw during the Kielder100 were pretty good. Would agree that Newcastleton is better than Kielder. watch out for the midges!

See, I liked the loose surface, quite different from most trail centres. I guess it'd be evil in the wet though, gritty sandy mud but it makes a change from armoured hardcore surfaces. Didn't feel any lack of flow at all myself, it's no glentress red but that's not all bad news.

Sorry was supposed to be Hamsterly- Good? never been

Fishy – which planet do you actually live on then? and where do you ride?

Hamsterley is top draw – red and black and the downhill is superb..

Sorry was supposed to be Hamsterly- Good?

In that case: no, it's not. In my opinion, Hamsterley isn't worth the drive from Newcastle, let alone Glasgow.

If you want a day out, then you could do both the loops at Kielder (Lonesome Pine up/down one side of the valley, then Deadwater up/down the other, followed by Newcastleton (less than an hour around) on your way back. I suppose they're both worth it the first couple of times and Kielder can definitely get your legs and lungs going.

what about the EK beefy trails!!..top secret but i hear they are MINT 😉

Three_Fish – Member
Sorry was supposed to be Hamsterly- Good?
In that case: no, it’s not. In my opinion, Hamsterley isn’t worth the drive from Newcastle, let alone Glasgow.

+1

The top of the DH is fun (for a mincer like myself), but the xc stuff is not worth it imho. If you’re making the trip the North East has far better natural trails than trail centres.

I visited Kielder for the first time on Friday.
The signposting and trail head info needs sorting out. The website is out of date too.
The Lonesome Pine trail is fire road for the first 3/4 apart from a small section of singletrack. The signposting is not as good as it should be, and the verbiose signs telling me that I have 2 options and then giving me 3 options were far from clear.
The first one I encountered said something like
“read this carefully. You now have 2 options:
turn left to reconnect to the red trail via some track and a steep climb, or to join the w2w trail.
Turn right to follow a trail that rejoins the red trail via a moderate climb with a great view and some more trail.”

Why not
“left: short cut
right: red trail”

The “stairway to heaven” wood was good fun, I liked that. Then there was another massive sign, this time telling me that I could do a loop back to where I was, do a loop to Newscastleton, go to the Scottish border or continue round the Red trail. Why wasn’t this information on the website or in the car park? Most people want to make a decision before they set out on the ride.

The Deadwater trail was more interesting, but, again, I encountered verbiose and confusing signposting near the Sharon’s Stone section.
“Now listen up and read this carefully. You can follow this trail carefully marked with tape and avoid a technical section and rejoin the trail again if you follow these markers, or else you have to ride a technical section.”
Why not “arrow: avoid difficult section.”
I followed the technical section and ended up back on the Blue route, so I did the section again. I worked out that I should have turned right after the technical bit, but there was no signpost there.

I’ve never had any issues with signposting at any other trail centre.

I’d be happy if someone printed out an A4 map, laminated it and stuck it to the trail head.

The woman in the bike shop was very helpful but said “the forestry haven’t given us any maps”.

I understand that a volunteer group are working on the trails, so hopefully they’ll be able to sort these minor problems.

I visited Hamsterly too.
Most of the Red route is boring fire road – it would have taken 2 people an afternoon to bang the stakes in for 3/4 of it.
However, the new Section 13 extension and the Transformer sections are great. I was told that volunteers were building it, so if they can get the rest of the trail up to that standard it will be great.

The Black route is a lot better.

I’d recommend following the Black route round to Section 13 extension, doing that a few times, then doing the Red route round to the end of the Transformer section, then doing Section 13 again and finishing off with the end of the Black route.

markyboy – Member
what about the EK beefy trails!!..top secret but i hear they are MINT

what/where are these trails you speak of?

Regarding Kielder: Is there a good pub nearby or another place to do some work. I’m going this weekend with some friends and my girlfriend would like to come but may have to do some work, so is likely to only do one trail. However I do not know if there is a place where she could sit and work?

Also, is there any prefereable ride order (e.g. Lonesome Pine -> Deadwater or vice versa)?

Besides a small kick of my last question (see previous reply), also another question: which is the best of the 2 places in Kielder to rent bikes from? Are they similar quality bikes or is one better than the other?

tomstickland +1

there isn’t much at Kielder that is worth writing home about, except the Deadwater trail.