[Closed] Dalby forest mtb

the red route is surprisingly long, and has a large portion of tedium built in amongst some fun stuff. If you don't fancy all 23 miles or whatever it is now, park at Dixons Hollow and Ride the red route to where it meets the green, then cut across the fire roads to the marker post on the far eastern edge. Pick the red up again and enjoy the fun. Obviously best if you have a map! You can break at the visitor centre before a reasonably entertaining trip back to Dixons. Warm up or warm down on the boardwalk. Pumptrack and 4x plus jumps too. Mind the lucosade bottles.

Thanks. Don't mind the tedium, will count it as training/fitness. Which is the best car park for facilities (bike wash; somewhere to change maybe)?

Main car park - Courtyard for bike wash.

Is it still the priciest on-site trail car parking in the UK?

No thetford wins that with £10 for parking. £7 but it drops soon to £4 as it's autumn/winter.

Bedgebury wins at £10. The cafe will then empty your wallet of any remaining cash.

FFS, how many times... Since before we got provided with some pretty decent MTB trails in the forest, the road through it has been a toll road and thats what it still is. So the parking is effectively free. If you're bothered about it, park outside the forest, ride in and use the trails you've been provided with for free.

Yes, it's a toll road. To the trailhead, where most people visiting the area will park to find the trails/bikewash/cafe.

Locals will obviously know where to park to avoid paying through the nose, just like I know where to park to avoid paying parking for my local trails.

You can call it what you like, but effectively it's the charge for bringing your car into a handy position to visit the forest and the trails.

If you want to think its a veiled attempt at charging a lot (£7 isn't a lot to ride your bike is it?) to park to ride your bike then consider this.

Currently theres a fella on the gate charging people. Thats it. Why would they change that to install parking machines at all the car parks in Dalby? Off the top of my head, theres about 10 car parks between the entrance and the lake and theres loads more between there and the other entrance. So lets say 20 car parks. Some are massive so would need 2/3/4 machines. Then you'd need someone to enforce them all. In high summer, how many people would you need to enforce the parking tickets in 20 busy car parks spread across the entire forest? And then someone would need to empty them too. And maintenance costs.

Or you can have 1 person in a shed which seems to have worked well for the last 30+ years.

I used to be pretty local to Dalby and love it there. There isn't the elevation of other places obviously but what they've done with the elevation they've got is generally pretty good and if you know where to add in bits of off-piste/the old trails then its even better.

It costs £7 to park at the seaside for the day, I can't understand what peoples issue is with paying to get into Dalby...

Dalby is pretty decent unless you're an uplift kid, then you might get a bit bored unless you know where to find the cheeky trails. Take the hardtail or short travel full sus and you'll have a great time.

£7 for parking really isn't that bad if you're going there for the day. The money goes back in to keeping the place tidy.

To be fair, other centres are starting to catch up a bit. Paying for a full day at Whinlatter or Grizedale I think would be up around that now, CYB is a fiver etc.

It's probably just because I think Dalby is a mediocre trail that makes the £7.50 stand out, but obviously plenty of people like it.

DaveyBoy's point would be great if they weren't planning to replace the man in a shed with a number plate recognition system - as seen at some other forests I believe.

That said I don't think 7 quid is much as part of a day out (family in a car), and the hordes that fill the forest car parks throughout the summer (weekdays and weekends) would seem to bear that out. They've just started work on a new extra car park near the visitor centre. If you're regular or local then most people buy an annual pass, or ride in from further out.

In the name of transparency I should say I can ride in from my house and we also get a free pass from volunteer work done in the forest. And I also know several ways in 😉

Oh and the more you ride there the less "mediocre" Dalby becomes. Lots of fun to had if you properly attack it (although obviously that's harder to do for a full lap of the marked red) and lots to be found off the mark trails (although obviously that needs time or local knowledge!)

"although obviously that needs time or local gnarledge!"

FTFY

Dalby is a good solid ride, you just need to be fit enough/ pace yourself and fuel up a bit during the ride. If you start flagging during the latter stages it can be a real dirge but if you have something left you can have a really good go at the end sections and its good riding.

It a 2 banana, 1 piece of flapjack, 1l of water ride in my little world.

I was there last Friday and it was still 7 quid to get in.

Hopefully the recent rain wont have created many puddles of grind paste for you to collect on your drive train.

do 2 laps, takes the sting out of £7

It's probably just because I think Dalby is a mediocre trail that makes the £7.50 stand out, but obviously plenty of people like it

+1

overgraded, with red more like a blue in Wales, and where black = "dump a few rocks on the inside of a corner".

Rode it when visiting family on the area, unless someone was showing me the "off-piste" I'd rather ride my road bike and spend 7 quid on coffee and cake.

Even with only one lap it still works out at 19p a km - which doesn't seem too bad to me.

I notice that the world cup course doesn't appear to be marked on that^ trail map. Is it still a route?

I will be going anyway so will find out for myself, but how does Dalby compared to say, the marked trails at Whinlatter and Thetford? Quite happy to spend £7 as I don't use trail centres very often.

My only experience is the loop that I rode 4 times as part of a Banshee/Ison demo day.

It was really good! Varied, fun and techy. Definitely included some of the bits I'd seen in the World Cup.

If you can combine some more of the black and do it a couple of times, that would be good imo.

Here's the Strava:
http://www.strava.com/activities/153856378

Also, the old black route is still on the SingletrAction website route map, if anyone wants to explore the old routes. we used to use it as a way to cut out the northern red section. There used to be a stretch of boardwalk from Crosscliffe which has probably been ripped out now???.
[url= http://www.singletraction.co.uk/wp/?page_id=357 ]http://www.singletraction.co.uk/wp/?page_id=357[/url]

Was thinking of taking my lad up there this weekend and doing the blue, I've done the red a few time and green with the kids but does anyone know if the blue is more than just fire road? Does it actually have any features?

The demo loop signs are still in place from what I saw last Friday.

Blue is little more than fire road

We did the red on Saturday for the first time and it was great. Nothing to kill anyone but nice varied and tidy trails. I'd happily recommend it. There were three of us so £7 seemed brilliant value. Lot of riding for a few quid.

Did the red route today and enjoyed it. Hard work and a fair bit of fire road (which might be intolerable to some), but will be going back when I'm in the area. Car park was packed, plenty of bikers. Great weather probably helped the enjoyment. Plenty of friendly people on the trails.