[Closed] Top 5 English Trail Centres - what are yours and why?

QECP is my local and in the dry is the business. Fast n' rooty with just the right amount of features for me. Nowhere near as busy as Swinley either.

at least 3 pages with several posts ending with 'that's why I don't ride trail centres' 😀 and others arguing that any discussion cannot exclude the ones in Wales.

North Lakes
South Lakes
East Lakes
West Lakes
Calderdale

Happy to oblige Jekkyl
😉

Hamsterley is small but perfectly formed. I guess the biggest problem is it doesn't really fill a whole day if your travelling to it specially, but the trails are close together and not dull. Used to be my local and miss it somewhat now.

I used to go to Hamsterley almost weekly but it got a bit samey even with the unmarked trails. They have put some new stuff in recently but I still can't bring myself to go back, especially since they have doubled the parking charge (I know, get a discovery pass etc etc).

I went off trail centres a few years back. Jsut go to the Peak District, it's bettererer.

In England there's not really any genuinely good ones, with the possible exception of Whinlatter, we're really deprived compared to Wales and especially Scotland.

The English ones are fine, but tend not to be anywhere with gradient or have any actually technical or hard trails. Places like Cannock and Sherwood Pines are, to be honest, a bit crap.

Surrey Hills must count too? Compact area full of trails, carpark, bikeshop and pie shop. Just missing signage.

I used to go to Hamsterley almost weekly but it got a bit samey even with the unmarked trails.

My top 5 in no particular order are......

Dalby
Gisburn
Cannock Chase
Sherwood Pines
Grizedale

Never visited any others so that was easy!

Blimey - its good but anywhere would get dull if you went every week.

True but once you've been to one English trail centre you've been to them all. Unless it's Dalby. Dalby is cack.

Second dalby - good day out and a decent length ride.

Blurghh - hate Dalby! Its 40 mins from my parents house and we very rarely go. Its just such a trudge for half of it. And yes, I do ride a lot of natural stuff, so I know a trudge - but at least normally you get a view!

Stainburn. Because it's the one that feels least like a trail centre.

I forgot Stainburn. Stainburn is actually, genuinely very good. Just too short.

Ok then. My top 5 are:

QECP (local)
Lee Quarry (fond memories of the old Brownbacks race series)
Dalby (the length)
Cannock
Swinley (the last 2 have a similar feel imo)

I don't think I've been to any others in England.

In England there's not really any genuinely good ones, with the possible exception of [s]Whinlatter[/s] Gisburn

clearly a typo

I forgot Stainburn. Stainburn is actually, genuinely very good. Just too short.

Places like Cannock and Sherwood Pines are, to be honest, a bit [s]crap[/s] [b] restricted by their natural geography/geology/topography but are perfectly fine if you fancy a change or prefer that kind of riding[/b].

Chopwell, innit.

Two marked trails. One an obviously man made, armoured surface thing, the other totally natural-looking dust-fest in the dry, slop-fest in the wet.

And loads of unofficial trails all over the place ranging from stupidly almost unrideable steep to fast, flowy fun.

And free parking or 30 mins away on the bike.

Hopton is a nice blast.

Only been to 5 in England so not too hard.

1- Gisburn.
2- Whinlatter.
3- Lee Quary.
4- Dalby.
5- Stainburn.

Dalby could easily jump further up if it was brought a bit more up to date.

Eastridge, including the enduro trails.

Gisburn is decent enough with a few really fab sections.

FoD if you count the DH trails.

Whinlatter's OK but a bit "blink and you'll miss it".

Grizedale makes a handy launchpad for the local bridleways and cheeky trails.

Hamsterley.
Guisborough forest - if it still counts.
Whinlatter.
Dalby.
Grizedale.

Not necessarily in that order.

My top 5 by default as I've not been to any others.

Whinlatter - blue is as good as any
Hamsterley - nice mixture of stuff
Cannock - really good use of what's available, also some nice pootly bway stuff
Gisburn - bit weird and lacks flow in places but a good xc blast
Grizedale - NF a bit crap but loads developing around the site (not even counting bways)

Dalby is the most boring place I've ridden a bike. It's like they built it backwards and forgot to put anything fun in it.

1. Stainburn - at number one because it's the best, just wish it could be longer.
2. Grenoside - just good for a fun blast if you're short one time, which I usually am.
3. Gisburn - I like it.
Hamsterley - Have only been a couple of times but it seems good. Mate does the DH there loads but i'm too scared....
Only others i've been to in England are Dalby and Cannonck.
Dalby has good bits but the red is not techy enough to be fun. The blue is better.
Cannock - only been once and did follow the dog (before the 'official' monkey trail was built), was ok I suppose.

Lakes and Peaks win hands down though!!

I like Whinlatter, I like Cannock and think they've done a good job on the Monkey getting in the climbs and descents.

Also enjoying Sherwood Pines red at the moment - its just the right length (10 miles) and level of technicality to make my 6 and 8 years old boys feel like they've done a proper ride and has the benefit that they can clean all the 'climbs' (some of which look pretty big when you're 6 on 20inch wheels)

The Croft Trail (in the woods in front of Nationwide in Swindon 😉 )

I'm amused by how polarising Dalby seems to be compared with the others mentioned here.

Might have to put that one on my list just to see which way I go on it.

I think if Dalby wasn't in the North York Moors, ie, somewhere without stunning natural riding, then folk wouldn't be complaining about a long pedally red in the woods. Take it for what it is, throw in some of the black bits and the more techy bits from the national and world cup xc course and you should have a decent outing.

We used to live in Rosedale and would only go to Dalby if the natural trails were waterlogged or slutch. The red's an old skool ride, think along the lines of The North Face trail in Grizedale. Bikes have moved on but the trail hasn't. From memory some of the black route used to be on the red before they added stuff to the red - it all changed from when we lived there (17 years ago) to when we went back a few years later.

Dalby was fun 20+ years ago when bikes were shit and the trails were mainly made by wildlife.

I love a bit of Hopton me.

[quote=sofaboy73 ]

In England there's not really any genuinely good ones, with the possible exception of Gisburn

Gisburn isn't really very good. Not bad if you live round there and everything else is soaked though, which is what trail centres are particularly great at.

Gisburn's our nearest TC - been twice in the last three(?) years.

"Yak - Member
Surrey Hills must count too? Compact area full of trails, carpark, bikeshop and [b]pie shop[/b]. Just missing signage"

wait...what?...really?...rummages in loft to find dusty maps of strange lands East of the Severn.....

hang on, what's that one near Exeter?

worth a mention, the first blue loop is great fun.

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Haldon, that's it.

There might be other foodstuffs in there too. For balance you could have a pie and a cheese straw. I think that would be all foodgroups covered 🙂

http://www.peaslakevillagestores.com/?page_id=46

Went up Gisburn weekend before last, the trailbuilders have been doing some sterling work and it makes a nice varied loop (or rather figure of eight).

You do need to do a couple of laps and incorporate some of the DH bits and the Hope line to make it worth the long drive in though.

sofaboy73 »
In England there's not really any genuinely good ones, with the possible exception of Gisburn

clearly a typo

Gisburn isn't really very good. Not bad if you live round there and everything else is soaked though, which is what trail centres are particularly great at.

more an indication of the limits of the other English trail centres are rather than thinking gisburn is awesome. more best of a bad bunch with some good sections in it (hope line, down hill trails, home baled etc)

someone above mentioned greno woods, which are great (and my local) but dodn't realy consider them a trail centre per say. rest of the trail centre stuff ive ridden in England just doesn't seem that great. that's not to say there aren't some great built trails eg wharncliffe

Stainburn +1

It's the only English Trail center I've been to that actually offers something unique.

The rest are just inferior copies of Scotish/Welsh ones (either constrained by budget, volunteer time or geography).

By English standards Swinley is quite good, probably because it had funding and a Rowna Sorrel building it so it's essentially a welsh trailcenter, without a significant hill. That said, once through Seagull the second half of the trail is (IMO) as good s you'd find anywhere. In fact if you just cut out Stickler and Seagull it would be more fun, nothing wrong with those two trails, nothing wrong with those two, they just have a different (pedally) character to the rest of it.

There is indeed a lot of good natural riding in England, buckets of it, but for me, personally, my top five purpose built MTB trail centres with some sort of facilities at/nearby would be:

FoD - Can't fault it, bit of everything from man-made trail centre, DH, off-piste, family stuff, skills stuff, great facilities and an uplift. It is definitely one of the best trail centres in England

Tidworth - OMG amazeballs

Flyup417 - Nice cafe, friendly folk, uplift, indoor barns for bad weather, easy to get to for us. It's a work in progress, but we always enjoy our time there. It's not BPW, but I suspect that, with a little more work, and more visitors, it will become one of the top centres

Croft - OK, a tiny loop in Swindon. However, it is a wonderful little gem hidden away next to the M4 - brilliant for a mix of riders/levels/fitness and for skills practice. Not one for a big day out, but certainly one to visit if passing.

Breakheart Quarry - the main line is just a short loop, but there is loads of riding that heads out from the quarry and into Stinchcombe/Nibley, plus there is a nice little self-service block, toilets. It's something a little different and close to family for us so we visit often.

I think I've only ridden 4 so in order

1) FOD
2) Flyup 417
3) Kielder
4) Grizedale

England's a place I drive through to get to Wales, mostly.

I'm sure a lot of trail centers are made better with local knowledge of the off piste stuff.

But if you restrict it to the waymarked trails (and maybe the handicap of car park cost too), what then?

We went to Hamsterley a few weeks back and ride the red loop. First 14km was utterly dull. The rest, which actually had something other than dull fireroad and gentle path riding was really good, but overall it was still underwhelming. If the Red loop just took in two loops of the latter half, it would be ace - the first 14km is pointless on IMO.

Swinley is good for where it is, as is Cannock.

Only rode part of Dalby and it was wet so don't feel I got a decent impression of what it's like.

Whinlatter was fun.

si