But not Llandegla. I can’t stand the tedium of the place and she won’t thank me for taking her on the ‘old’ non trail centre routes.
She’s virtually brand new to riding. She likes Clayton Vale and would probably do laps all day but my head is going to implode if I have to do it again before Halloween.
We did* Win Hill, Hope Cross, Potato Alley, Lockerbrook and Fairholmes on Friday and she enjoyed it but I really need to go somewhere not boring where her ride to push ratio is a little more even, if not better than 30:70
Marin? Pen? Grizedale?…

* Took her bike for a walk while I did ‘up there and back repeats’.

Gisburn?

Edit. Or Brenin?

Is it ‘newbie’ friendly?

The vast majority of it is.

Cannocks Follow the dog is pretty good for beginners I would say

+1 Gisburn Forest or Cannock.

The Marin and Penmachno will probably be a bit too much IMO, Llandegla is flat by comparison.

Bottom loop of Gisburn and the blue there would be OK. Maybe Whinlatter (say South loop plus the blue).

Gisburn +1

Whinlatter is pretty good too – has a nice blue route and the red South loop isn’t really technical.

Edit: what he said

Whinlatter’s a good call actually. That blue run there is great for beginners and its rather good fun.

what they said as my kids can ride them all…blues are very similar to the newton heath sidewinder type trail.
Gisburn blue starts with some big steep berms* [ by skills area] and is way harder than any other part of the trail and not at all reflective of what will come
Whinlatter has some steepish [ for a newbie] up and down but also has the best views
I think we rode all of Gisburn – cannot have been bad as i dont recall
You alsi pass the hope line so you could have a wee blast whilst she rests/admires your skills
FWIW I rode clayton at the weekend and it is by fat the best for newbie kids!

* the words of a child not sure what a newbie adult would do tbh.

Glentress, surely? The blue runs from the top carpark are perfect for newbies.

Could try Marple and The Roman Lakes, maybe venturing to Hayfield for easier but still very interesting Peak riding.

As above Whinlatter, Cannock and Gisburn are good shouts, also Dalby and whatever that park is called up Prestwich way (they did Hit The North there)

+1 for cannock chase. The follow the dog route is pretty navigable for beginners. Most of the ‘hard bits’ have chicken runs. Only about 6 mile long though.

Sherwood pines red is probably the easiest of the lot.

Glentress? From Manchester? Thanks anyway.
I live in Marple. I suggested Middle Moor, Lantern Pike, Kinder Res……she hung up on me.
That park in Prestwich…..I’m intrigued.

http://www.bury.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=7904

http://www.ibikeride.com/england/1879-philips-park-mountain-bike-trails

Thanks. Some stuff to suggest and hope for.

Hurstwood as well – out Burnley direction.

Lee Quarry might be a bit much but the trek out and back to Cragg quarry might be ok

Glentress? From Manchester? Thanks anyway.

Glentress is about 3 hours from Manchester though. The North Face loop at Grizedale is good for begineers and can have good bits of bridleway added to it easily. All the climbs are fairly gentle too. Closers to home the lower half of the red at Gisburn also doesn’t have any killer climbs but bits of it might be a bit hard for a newcomer so the blue could be better, it’s just full of fire road.

I would not dream of doing the red with a noob…for that matter i would not dream of doing the red route. Climbs will be too steep – the blue loop [ not sure of actual colour- stay on the road basically and dont turn right after gate as you enter forest] joins it and is all fire road but even then you have two sharpish climbs about 100m [ long nor gain] and the singletrack is very mleh IME/IMHO

TBH unless it is to get to the bridleways I cannot think of a reason to be there – not done the black to be fair.

Green at whinaltter is the most pedally flowy and has near zero fire road.

Edit: RTFQ = 1/2 TFA

The Minotaur at Coed y Brenin is blue and great for beginners and fun for a laid back ride for non-beginners. It’s not boring, just lots of swoopy and you can try a couple of short reds for variation (e.g. Dreamtime) and a challenge.

And you can stay at Old Skool, just down the road, where Sian and Dafydd are v inspiring mountain biking hosts as well as excellent cooks providing great accommodation.

I think there’s a blue at Gisburn but I don’t know how long / interesting it is. The Dog and Partridge is a good place to stay.

There’s plenty of blue at Glentress but it’s way further.

Phillips park in bury is the htn location. If you do the stuff in irwell vale and Phillips park,You’ll proberbly kill an hour….
It can get really busy too, one side has a lovely run of berms and tabletops which are all easily rideable, however loads of folk just hang round there messing about on the jumps.

Really, do roman lakes, just pick the easier bits.. Why not head out through holiday lane, through chadkirk chapel, onto canal into marple. Down lakes road, up sheilan (strawberry farm?) up to the bottom of the banks, along to fox. Maybe down fox, back along valley floor to roman lakes, cuppa, then pick a nice way home!!

We do that quite a lot via Jesus Trail and Spice Tower Martyn. Also adding in Lyme Park and the quarry. She’s caught wind of Macc. Forest and Three Shires Head from a friend.
She’ll be taking her bike for a walk and I’ll be doing hill repeats again!

Monksie Rivi?

Key is to only ride/save the old trails for dry/beautiful days with a pub thrown in.

How about Delamere tomorrow?

I was on Win hill Friday- my rear mech died on ladybower inn cheeky so it was a long coast back.

monksie – Member

But not Llandegla. I can’t stand the tedium of the place and she won’t thank me for taking her on the ‘old’ non trail centre routes.
She’s virtually brand new to riding. She likes Clayton Vale and would probably do laps all day but my head is going to implode if I have to do it again before Halloween.

you are going to get that where ever you go with a beginner. personally I think llandegla is perfect. I took my 9 year old there last week and we spent 4 hours going round the skills loop, freeride and pump track. The fact that they are small allowed the both of us to ride at our own pace and stop if we wanted while the other one rode on.

Llandegla is great for beginners – maybe get over your prejudices? 🙂

I find it weird that anyone could be bored there, though I did get very annoyed with all the litter.

Agreed grum. Llandegla is a pretty good all round trail centre, doesn’t flow too well in places but is good nonetheless. Do get very pissed off with drinks bottles, gel wrappers and inner tubes dropped all over the place. You carried it in, you can carry it out. NO EXCUSES!

Grizedale? I’d go there if I had a full day to kill.

Philips (HTN Land) is good fun, but quite small. I wouldn’t take a beginner round the anti-clockwise straight away though due to “Tourette’s Leap” . Do the clockwise a couple of times to get a feel for the place. Some tame Blues in Waterdale just below Philips and plenty of stuff on the other side of the motorway.

Not sure if its 3 hours from Manchester but Sherwood Pines is very new starter friendly. Not really up or down bit pedally but sounds like it suits what you’re after. Mixture of bearms and small obstacles, if you want to add miles do the blue also its nice and fast towards the end more natural than the red loop. (Red is a loose term not sure how Sherwood Pines get away with a red grade its quite tame).

Long drive but there is cafe, bike wash, theres some forest lodges too if you wanted to make a long weekend out of it.

Dalby Forest? We did the red trails yesterday and there was very little technical stuff on them, almost all easy singletrack for 34 km

Are you doing it to spend time with her, teach her how to ride better, or are you having to look after her while wanting to go riding?
If it’s the first one, use a map to plan a route around the Yorkshire Dales – Clapham Common, around Malham or similar. Or, plan a route from Satterthwaite near Grizedale taking in some of the NF trail and some of the natural stuff. Relax and accept that she ‘s not as good as you. Take pub/cafe break and enjoy her company. She’ll get better and you can ride more challenging trails later. Or you could get frustrated and risk her giving up.
Just my pen’oth.
If it has to be a trail centre, Dalby.

Why don’t you introduce her to some other mountain biking girls? I think sometimes it works better to see another woman doing something rad to make you think ‘I could do that’. I like riding with blokes now (and beating them 😉 ) but in the beginning it was quite easy to set my sights too low and not expect myself to do the stuff they could do.

In three hours from Manchester you could be in the woods behind Nationwide in Swindon 🙂

More seriously, the Goyt Valley/Buxton/Whaley Loop is totally beginnerable; I speak from experience. Or, as the weather is picking up/drying out (sort of), head out White Peak way, Calver etc. Again, totally beginnerable as it’s not as rocky as the Dark Peak. There’s a couple of loops from Calver in The White Peak book that I did with my Mrs when she was still pretty green.

Did the Minotaur at C-Y-B at the weekend with the Mrs who is a relative newbie (been out 5 times ever).

She loved it – did it several times and got faster and faster – great confidence builder.

Also did penmachno which was excellent in parts – one or two bits less flowy for a newbie but she enjoyed the views etc.

Would also second Dalby – not that technical and a really good day out with great views and nice riding.

Thanks for all the suggestions.
I was regaling her with stories of my of Sarn Helen solo’s….. “Let’s do that!”
She’s a game girl!
We’re going to Dalby for a trail centre experience and doing a few laps around Mellor Cross first so she can practice.

why do you want a trail centre? there’s all sorts of beginner friendly routes in the Peak, you just need to change your mindset. Instead of “how do I link up all the really good bits” try “how do I avoid all the really good bits wihtout just going up and down the Tissington trail”. white peak may work better than dark.

Reality is that you’re going to find beginner-friendly routes a bit boring so you need to make them somewhere you’d like to be (i.e. not a trail centre) and accept that it’s a day out and not a proper ride.

Thanks (I think).