I’ve set myself a goal to ride every trail in the UK in a year, has anyone done this before, do you think it’s feasible?
I reckon it'd be exceedingly difficult.
Driving past Beinn a Bhuird, Heartbreak Ridge, Lochnagar to get to Glenlivet would destroy my soul.
Going past Rannoch Moor, the Staircase etc to do the Witch's Trail likewise.
Travelling to Grizedale and doing TNF!
Ditto Peak District and Sherwood Pines.
Why not make a goal to do 30 magnificent mountain bike rides spread around the country instead?
I reckon there must be over 100 location now and most will have a few trails If looking to do all the red and blues.
Weekends only, no chance in a year I’d say.
All days available, possible for sure.
But it will take some good planning and cost a fortune.
do you think it’s feasible?
Probably not.
Also, do you really want to? You'd be travelling every weekend to do stuff like the red route at Hamsterley.
I'd rather pick 12 epic rides and do one a month.
I think it's gteat idea!! you'd need to plan it pretty well, though and I think you'd struggle to do it in a year
Driving past Beinn a Bhuird, Heartbreak Ridge, Lochnagar to get to Glenlivet would destroy my soul.
Going past Rannoch Moor, the Staircase etc to do the Witch’s Trail likewise.
Travelling to Grizedale and doing TNF!
Ditto Peak District and Sherwood Pines.
You don't have to only do the official routes
Is there a comprehensive list? I would have thought I have done most of what we would call trail centres south of Edinburgh, but are there some minor ones that I don't know of?
I'd echo the above and say there are too many trails now and many of them you probably wouldn't want to ride.
You do realise this means you'd have to do the red route at Dalby? Honestly, I'd rather ride into a 50mph headwind on a shopping bike with a Sturmey Archer 3-speed hub gear than do that.
I personally wouldn't, there are some proper tosh blues and reds in some FC woods across the country!
Few of the mags always do a yearly epic rides piece, why not look to tick those off? or just go to wales or scotland and enjoy the trails they have!
You do realise this means you’d have to do the red route at Dalby?
its great fun? its up near my inlaws, so usually end up doing the red+black once a year around xmas, as without local knowledge I'd probably drown on the north york moors at that time of year
You do realize this means you’d have to do the red route at Dalby?
+1
And Guisborough Woods on the way there. If you do the official Red route one of the climbs is actually a descent. I'd lived there for about 18 months before someone suggested we did the red route properly for once and we started off climbing up a track I'd only ever ridden down! The impression I got was the trail pixies had rather cleverly proposed a route with 2 climbs and 2 descents, then once surfaced everyone seemed to know that the better option was 4 descents and use the fire roads to link them.
As someone else suggested, pick 12 locations that are really worth doing and do those instead once a month.
Why don't you pick 'the best' 12 red/blues and do them? That way you're not spending your weekends driving to the arse end of nowhere to ride a load of rubbish? Plus you get to start a monumental argument on here selecting your trail centres.
I'll start... "I've been mountain biking for a thousand years on my bicycle made of sack cloth and ashes with no gears and I have never ridden a trail center, they're for people who do things like watching television and eating non-biodynamic edame beans, but if pushed I'd have to say...one you've never heard of"
Be better off picking (say) all the trail centres in Wales or the official Seven Stanes in Scotland and doing those instead. Much shorter list, most of them are decent proper trail centres and considerably less travelling - unless of course you live in London and you're driving up the M1 every weekend to Scotland in which case it's probably more of a driving challenge than a riding one.
Main issues for things like that is logistics and cost, the actual riding I imagine won't be that difficult.
Extra points for cycling between them all or doing (say) the Seven Stanes in 24hrs.
“I’ve been mountain biking for a thousand years on my bicycle made of sack cloth and ashes with no gears and I have never ridden a trail center, they’re for people who do things like watching television and eating non-biodynamic edame beans, but if pushed I’d have to say…one you’ve never heard of”
That's excellent. There's at least one of these people on every single thread.
I doubt there's even a list of all the Reds and Blues in England/Scotland/Wales/NI, let alone for the whole UK...
But if there is please stick a link up here so we can all go 'nah, that's never a red/blue, etc...'
I like the idea!
The biggest challenge will be defining *which* blue and red graded trails there are, and then the logistics of fitting them all in.
Are you thinking formally marked / manmade trails / trail centre only?
The biggest challenge will be defining *which* blue and red graded trails there are, and then the logistics of fitting them all in.
Yeah, there are loads of waymarked, graded trails cobbled together in FC land all over the place, even a few on private land like Farmer John's (DH place near Marple) or Penshurst (again, mostly DH, a few XC trails) but you'd not really call them "trail centres".
Even somewhere like Swinley Forest I wouldn't class as a trail centre. It's a load of woodland which has trails in it, some of which are waymarked.
If you were riding between them then that would be a great challenge.
However, otherwise it just sounds like a great plan to increase your carbon footprint and not actually ride that much.
A riding goal that requires all those miles in a car? Rather you than me. Rather no-one at all though.
(as above, in other words)
You do realise this means you’d have to do the red route at Dalby? Honestly, I’d rather ride into a 50mph headwind on a shopping bike with a Sturmey Archer 3-speed hub gear than do that.
I'm guessing that you've never inflicted Haldon on yourself?
(Admittedly I haven't been there for years, but I finished the loop after about 25 minutes of riding and said out loud "Is that it?" The black detour was a slighter narrower, slightly steeper track down a bank. I found out later that it was graded accordingly for family rides. 😀 )
I’m guessing that you’ve never inflicted Haldon on yourself?
Nope, 7 hour drive so if I was going that far I'd probably just stop at Wales or FOD and leave oit at that. Having said that I am in Exeter in a couple of weeks but I'm flying down so won't have a bike.
You'll be disappointed by Hicks Lodge Blue, but it will make a nice 30 minute stop between Cannock and Sherwood Pines.
OP - do you have a list of the trails you plan now?
You do realise this means you’d have to do the red route at Dalby? Honestly, I’d rather ride into a 50mph headwind on a shopping bike with a Sturmey Archer 3-speed hub gear than do that.
Ha ha. It is a terrible trail. I hope to never have to ride it again.
I can't even be arsed riding all the reds and blue in glentress and that's precisely a 10minute gentle ride to the start for me.
Don't bother with Thetford 😉