Can anyone recommend a trail centre to take my 10 year old son? I was think Afan, but it may be too much for him (might not be, of course). Needs to do some singletrack – he (and I) will get bored doing fire roads, but nothing too scary for him.

Ta.

Thetford?

Where are you and how far are you willing to travel?

My 7 year old lad has done Cannock, Llandegla, FOD, Whinlatter & North Face – all pretty easy. Take him to the one with the best cafe!

Quite a bit of climbing at Afan.
What about Llandegla or Penmachno?

@toxicsoks – Thetford is our local, so wanted to go away, have some post-SAT bonding time.

@franki – yeah, that’s what I was thinking as well. He burst into tears in the pyrenees last year on long climbs – keen not to repeat that.

Not heard of Llandegla before – big enough for a weekend?

Glentress is probably the most family friendly centre.

At Afan, Penhydd is the easiest. My OH who is a newbie got round Penhydd and it was her second outing on a MTB.

The first climb, and the zig zaggy bit coming down off the top would put me off taking a kid to Penhydd.

If the kid can’t ride it, then walk and show them the correct line to take and point out why. Then ride little sections of it and use it to teach.

Not heard of Llandegla before – big enough for a weekend?

Maybe not on it’s own, but there’s decent natural riding nearby too.

[list]http://www.coedllandegla.com/[/list]

Marin and Penmacho. Nothing too scary with long flowing decents. Have a look on http://www.mbwales.com/ and read the descriptions.

Cannock, but its not worth a day trip from Cambridge.
(In your profile)(Not a stalker :wink:).

I’d make a weekend of it. Camp at Torrent Wlk, Dollgellau & take in CyB & MachX.
Nant-y-Arian is superb also.

I’d make a weekend of it. Camp at Torrent Wlk, Dollgellau & take in CyB & MachX.
Nant-y-Arian is superb also.

Not a bad idea. 🙂

Grizedale north face linked in with some natural trail on the saturday then up to Whinlatter for the sunday, slightly more technical trail 🙂

mmm, I would think twice about Penhydd myself its got a pretty long firetrack climb to start with, worth the effort but might be sould destroying for a nipper. How about Chicksands? got lots to play on and a short XC loop, not a weekend destination but in driving distance for a nice day out from Norfolk…

http://www.chicksandsbikepark.co.uk/?page_id=24

Cannock for sure.
After that Dalby.
Tim

Newcastleton would be perfect for him, I live in the Lakes but found Newcastleton excellent for my 10 year old to learn to ride singletrack without any mega climbs. There is also some north shore stuff there to play on. Good cafe in the village as well, mega all day breakfast.

forgive me: what’s MachX?

I really like the sound of camping. Just need to buy a tent! Got the rest of it…

Dalby would be good – goes up and down and along, but none of the climbs are very long at all and none of it’s particularly scary. Options of nice big moorland stuff locally too – and the seaside. You can camp right in the forest too.

Depends how up for it he is.

For trail centres around that age mine liked FoD, Timberland, and Cwm Carn (climb on road, or better – take uplift).

One of mine at that age wrote a story for school entitled ‘Uplift Day at Mount Mojo’ in fact 🙂

A mates done Penhydd with his kids, about that age, but it took a long time.

I think Bechfa blue would be a similarly good long ride.

Last year in the alps I saw a guy towing his kid up a long climb using a long luggage strap. Kid was pedalling a bit but its not as full on for them. Wish I had thought of that.

forgive me: what’s MachX?

It’s the Cli-machx trail at Machynlleth.

I’ve had my 6 year old round Llandegla & he loved it. Bitch of a fire-road climb to start with though: luggage strap a good idea: I pushed him.

The climbs on the Marin Trail bore me senseless. I think the whole lot would risk putting my lads off biking forever. I got my wife to shuttle us to ‘the top’ near the lakes and we did a decent descent from there.

Took my 9 year old round the short loop at Penmachno. We both really enjoyed it, but a fair bit more of a technical challenge for him (and bigger drops if you get it wrong!) than either Llandegla or Marin.

New singletrack at Sherwood Pines sounds very child friendly but yet to try that.

Dave

Brechfa would be good but is a long way away. Closer to you would be either Swinley or Queen Elizabeth country park. I’ve ridden at both and just about not crashed, so they should be fine for a 10 year old 😉