just wondering which trail centres are decent to ride in winter, i live in not far far from the peaks, but i like to change it up a little and ride some trail centres, sherwood is a bit naff, and in winter is even naffer, i was thinking about dalby or llandegla, how do they ride in the winter?

Cannock was fine today

Being all sand and pebbles it drains well up to a point then it staurates and the water lies close to the surface. The continued rain of the last few weeks is driving it in that direction

Llandegla is alright in winter. Watch out for ice on the top bit if it’s cold, and it gets very busy over the xmas hols, otherwise it’s a pretty good option.

i ride cannock a bit thought the Autumn and spring, but never through winter, a mate rode it yesterday and it wasnt riding well, me personally i dont mind it in when its a bit slippy and muddy.

ive never rode llandegla, but always heard good things, might try it out at the weekend

I might give Gisburn a whirl tomorrow, that usually rides pretty well through all but the worst conditions. You get surface water collecting in the dips and braking bumps but most of it stays fairly mud free.

Rode dalby red today fine mostly drains pretty well so rideable all year round

Rode Gisburn last week, lots of standing water but other than that it was riding nice, hully gully has been tweaked a bit since I last went and ran well.

Whinlatter and Grizedale are both good through winter, including the off piste stuff at grizedale

Dalby is closed today, clearing downed trees, so worth phoning ahead this ttim of year!

Cheers For the heads up matty!

Afan in the Winter is all rideable, apart from obviously being quite cold, especially if it’s snowing.

All of them? Except those in the highlands that’s will have snow… Like Laggan, Ben Nevis and Glenlivet, Golspie, Balblair and the Black Isle.

Yeah it’s kind of the whole point of trail centres for me – that they will be fine in pretty much any conditions. Having said that I’ve found Gisburn is one that suffers more when the weather’s been bad.

Winter, summer, all rideable, except when trees blow down. The bonus in winter is possible snow.

I don’t subscribe to avoiding places due to the season. The beauty of weather is it makes the trails constantly changing. Although all weather surfaces at trail centres less so.

They’re all OK according to this clip of Beth Cathro at Laggan in the snow

Afan was fine this weekend just gone, despite lashings of rain. Worth a trip.

Gisburn only really becomes unrideable when the sheet ice arrives on the top part of the 8. Tend to avoid it during winter though as it feels like you’re trashing parts of it which are basically mud with large rocks placed in it.

I went round Penmachno at the weekend. While I could probably have managed most of it by canoe instead of by bike, it was still awesome fun and well worth it. Anywhere drier (ie. everywhere) is just a bonus.

Rustychain – Member

Afan was fine this weekend just gone, despite lashings of rain. Worth a trip.

Agree totally, they even seem to have sorted out that middle section of whites from the little bridge over the wasteland used to be a mud-fest, but was lovely on Friday last week.