[Closed] The gnar where you are

I've been moderated 😥

Get down to Bispham, The paths down to the beach are slightly steep, they've probably not been resurfaced in years so will be pretty torn up. You might get 5 seconds of gnar!

There isn't any gnar down here in Wimbledon either. The common and Richmond park are nice enough for a short pootle around. There's only one or two bits that go downhill enough off road to even create any excitement. My GF actually holds the QOM on one.

Gnar nearby?

Well I can ride from home to this:

For those that don't know it, it's currently top of this weekends' Tweedlove Enduro riders 'worry' list 🙂

Just North of Reading, nice bridleways and singletrack, but not much gnar. I did pass a loose flint the other day, but apart from that there's not much rock or hairy descents. Happy to make the best of what I have though.

Despite being in Hk I live out by the airport on Lantau Island, this is about 30 minutes riding/hike a biking from my apartment
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For another 45 minutes and 350mtr of climbing I can get to the Chi Ma Wan peninsula for some excellent trail riding.
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For DH shuttle fun or some good AM riding, its all of 30 minutes in a van to Tai Mo Shan country park.
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Its also a 2.5 hour flight to Chiang Mai or Taiwan, so not too bad.

Living in west London my nearest "gnarr" (such as it is) is Swinley Forest. It's hardly full on and hardly on my doorstep (40 minute train ride from Richmond), but far better than nothing and certainly provides a couple of hours of fun a few times a month.

I dunno, have you been recently?

Even if you've not then i'd argue that sections of the Red (well, mostly the first bit of 15 and 25 downhill) are well up there in terms of technicality with any trail center in Scotland/Wales, especially as they're doubles rather than tabletops.

That combined with the new Freeride area which basically seems to have taken the idea that people might ride it and crash and sue, and to avoid that happening simply made it unrideable for all bar the experts.

It's all getting a bit........big
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If it was me building that bottom jump I might have been temped t remove some of the deathkillskewers from the trees.

This type of stuff is about a 15min ride from my place.

Anything other than 'natural' trails is a 2hr drive north.

Pentlands Death Steps 2 minutes from my door. Shonky dh trails built by mad yoofs about 10 minutes ride. Not bad.

1.9km from the nearest legal trail. 200m from the nearest cheeky one. Nothing longer than a minute descent but can string together a lot of little ones in an hours evening ride from my door.
Got a set of wood boarded steps I'm eyeing up but waiting for them to dry a bit as they look bloody lethal at the moment.
In fact there's three sets of steps of increasing difficulty to go at, each more evil looking than the last and all arse-twitching on my 26" hardtail

Photo doesn't really show it well, but there's a series of rock drops weather-worn out of a gully with the odd fallen tree to negotiate for about 100m descent.

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Not ridden it in a while as 1) last time I did I met a bunch on MX bikes coming up (and getting stuck) and 2) there's a much nicer route around the side of the hill that is mostly off-camber through the trees with the odd rooty bit/fallen tree to deal with.
Part of a little 8 mile loop from the doorstep that also has stream crossings and a river if you're feeling bold and it's warm enough. I've only cleared the river 3 times I think.

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I suppose this is the closest to me. About 5 minutes drive.

(not me riding)
Plenty stuff I can ride to though.

Well this has just made me increasingly jealous! As much as I love looking at biking pics, seeing people doing evening rides in the Lakes or posting pics of their "after work" blasts on Instagram can be quite frustrating.

I've started to think about getting some sort of cx bike for pootling around on locally, especially whilst the little one keeps me occupied!!

Next time I go out for a quick blast round here, I'm gonna go up to the promenade, see if I can find some steps and drops to practice on

Local trails:

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Sucks round here.

Leicestershire - a soupçon of gnar if you know where to look...

About 5 minutes drive.

Why would you drive 5 minutes when you are about to ride a bike?!

15 mins from the Irish EWS trails, which is nice.

Nothing much. Just an 80+ mile loop through the mountains or two...

Like mtb? Live in Scotland.

A whole forest about, ooh 3 minutes ride from my front door without even going on a proper road. A load of bridleslaying local too

Living in the Derbyshire Dales on the edge of the White Peak is a bit of a chore trying to find any decent riding 😉

This is one of our regular rides (not my pic), but I'll have to admit, we have to drive 20 mins to the start. Plenty of excellent riding from our doors though - wouldn't live anywhere else...

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Stanage/Higger Tor/Blacka/Lady Cannings - all in one ride - one of my favourite places for sure. Absolutely love the techy rocky stuff. I've taken that photo many times - unfortunately, I'm always behind the lens!

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All that stuff in Matt's article is about a mile or two north of where I live. Fortunately a hundred metres in every direction of where I live are awesome proper trails 😀

Couple of miles from my house, on the South Downs. Doesn't look like much in that picture but you can get some serious speed up going down them hills!

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OP - you know you should move. 😉

Local ride from door to all of Stirling, Bridge of Allan and Dunblane residents are things like Darn Path, Mine and Uni Woods, Dumyat, North Third, and Ochils. Even our local park at the end of the road (the Laighills) has gnar.
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Drive to Trossachs or North for 20-40 mins, you have a few options including Munro's...

I'll just leave this here. This is the easiest trail locally that's hand cut. 15 minute ride from the house, after riding past Glentress on the way.

And yes, I totally ride like Gary Forrest.

matt_outetc, great picture.
ir_bandito too. BTW, the frame in my photos is the one you sold me, all those years back.
painey- you rate the F29? Considering another one in the stable.

matt_outandabout - Member
OP - you know you should move.

I would like to, but there are a few things keeping us here! Maybe in a few years we'll be on escape to the country 😉

I spent a blissful couple of years being able to ride the whole of east Dartmoor from the door..

Now we're back in town, I've ditched suspension which livens up the rooty singletrack in the woods and makes the coast path pretty fun too

painey- you rate the F29? Considering another one in the stable.

Yes I rate it very highly. The BB isn't the best as you tend to get through the bearings but it's a 5 minute job to replace them and they're not expensive. Headset seized which was a pain to resolve.

That aside, it's very comfortable for a hardtail. The flexy seat stays and seat post really do work in that respect. It's also a fun bike to ride downhill as well as excelling at long distances. I did the South Downs Way last summer and felt like I could have carried on for another 50 miles when I got to Eastbourne.

BTW, the frame in my photos is the one you sold me, all those years back

This is about as gnar as it gets for the North Cotswolds, a few short runs, I swear they feel steeper than they look though!

Kicak trails, top is about 30 mins ride up from the city centre

I live in Somerset, pretty much on the coast (the sea is 1 mile due west) in one of the only areas where the Somerset Levels reaches right out to the coast. So on my doorstep its flat, very.

Approx. 25 mins south I have the Quantocks - where I ride the most and 20 miles north I have the Mendips. I've been there a few times now and am heading out with a medium size group there today.

I gotta say. (Triscombe aside) it seems so far that the mendips have a lot more 'gnar' going on per mile in much more smaller fragmented spaces than the quantocks, but they're also muckier (drain less well) and a [i]lot[/i] more technical.

I *love* bombing quantocks combes and singletrack but so far my mendips experiences show up some huge differences. Apart from going up the hills I'm as quick as these guys on the quantocks and getting fitter & faster all the time, but on their own, more technical turf i've a hell of a lot of catching up to do.. make of that what you will!

Being a mountain biker in S.Wales, living where I do, I'm very lucky. Can ride in any direction from the door onto trails and hills.

This place is 5mins from home and incredible to ride (when dry lol) , plenty of gnar also lol.