having read this I'm giving up mountain biking. There is nowhere in the UK worth riding and all mountain bikers are miserable moaning f**kers who demand that someone, somewhere makes their boring mundane lives more exciting by keeping them stimulated every 30 seconds with a challenge rather than having to look for the good bits themselves.

jeez you are all miserable buggers 😥

+ 2 for Crazy-Legs

Can't believe that yesterday I was putting forward the New Forest as the pits, now we've got Cut Gate.

FFS the New Forest has no bridleways, only a handful of ROW footpaths, everything is controlled by inbreds who could fine you for riding on anything other than fire roads (or anywhere off road at night for that matter). Yet anyone can jump on a horse and go ripping up that supposedly precious AONB.

anywhere around coventry / warwick / kenilworth.. flat, clay soil + horses = life sucking mud if its rained in the past week and horrible cut up hoof shaped chos in summer. some nice lanes + pubs if youve a road bike though.

Growing up in north Essex pre-driving was less than wonderful for riding bikes, but you persevere. Now I've ridden all over the northern hemisphere in some amazing places and yet Thetford still makes me grin stupidly.

*counts RRRs toes/fingers – 12/10 and 2 thumbs* How's yer sister?

how dare you!! 😯

I was born in Cambridge though so I'm not a pure-inbred.. 🙂

Sherwood Pines, utter gash

the level of 'dullness' that will be tolerated semms to drop very quickly when you drive to ride, rather than ride from your door

Ive ridden trail centres and heard complaints about the amount of fireroad but the same riders dont bat an eyelid when road sections have to be used to link local trials.

its as if you deserve 100% perfection just because you drove your car for a couple of hours.

A&E. 🙁

Sandwich – Member
Plop pants last time I used my Garmin at Thetford on the black I recorded about 300m of climbing for the loop, which isn't too shonky for a flat as a pancake short loop. By comparison the red at Glentress came in at about 700m (not too sure of the exact figures as I lost the records when the laptop HD was changed).

I have to go back to this – I was thinking about it overnight.

300m of climbing in 10 miles in the flattest place in the UK? 1000ft?

I'm sorry to doubt you, but are you seriously saying that there is 100ft of elevation change per mile of riding in Thetford?

This thread just shows how subjective it is. If I ride any place enough it gets a little boring. the only place I tend to get utterly bored is Epping Forest / Richmond Park / that sort of thing.

I have just returned from a trip to Grizedale and apart from the north face trail I did leave a little disappointed. I was armed with a few trail maps but felt that there was lots hidden that i was missing out on. its a shame really with such a good centre that there aint more marked trails of the fire roads.

Can't believe some slagged off the Beacons. There is some brilliant riding out there – just because you had a bad time just means you didn't find good trails 🙂

And Swinley is fun too I think. Trying to nail all those windy bits flat out is a great laugh.

Riding is subjective though. Some places are dull unless you're fast/competent enough to really attack it. If you pootle then the trail has to entertain you; if you're good then you can make your own challenges.

When I worked in London I'd moan about the lack of riding. Almost everyone said 'oh there's Richmond Park' 🙄 'yeah not that kind of biking' 'oh no it's really big and great, hoenstly'. Well I went there just to see and I was right. Just a load of flat gravel paths and grass. Isn't it?

The Downs Link was pretty dull for 60km yesterday 😆

Grizedale is a great place to ride too. You need an OS map.. the majority of trails in this country are not waymarked 🙂

The long Gap climb (pictured) might not rate highly on fun, but the route needs to be judged as a whole. It is a classic UK ride by any standards

There's a far far better epic ride nearby that's on a similar scale but way better trails. Starting near Heol Senni, go west towards the A4067, there's a track on your left that goes up over Fan Gyhirych, then follow it down to Sarn Helen. The shortest version is then cutting NE across the river then up to meet the trail that joins the road north of Ysradfellte then branches NE off it again to come out back near where you started. It has many options for lengthening it down by Ystradfellte too. Very much a classic.