[Closed] Trail Centres Not Rubbish

I think most people that slag them off tend to ride "proper" natural trails more and arent scared to explore and put the miles in.imho all the best riding ive ever found has been natural stuff. They are a bit sterile, but I love a trail centre weekend, just couldnt ride them all the time....good fun but no sense of adventure..

I always think of it like climbing walls to proper rock. Both are fun and a climbing wall will make you strong and good at climbing artificial routes, put the same climbing wall hero on a blank bit of gritstone and they're awful as they can't read a route "on site". The same goes with grizzled old trad climbers, ace on a rock face, years of cunning and knowledge but couldn't pull a mad dyno to save their lives.

You need a mix of both to make a good all rounder but as long as we're all having fun who cares?

messiah - Member
I can see that because all trail centre's are designed for bikes and hence designed to be ridden/rideable...

That's part of the reason they're good, it's a psychological thing. I've ridden Laggan black a couple of times, and loved it. However, if you were to transfer the obstacles on that trail to a natural trail and expect a rider to descend them first time, the chances of success would likely be lower. You can never be sure that something is rideable unless it's been designed for bikes or you know someone else has cleared it.

Having said that, I far prefer natural rides where there is more of a sense of achievement, and love the feeling of discovering a piece of sheep track in a gully that has probably never been ridden before. Such a thing is impossible in a trail centre...

trail centres are not rubbish, haldon is mind!

Some trails are good, some are bad. Some trails are in trail centres, some aren't.

The same goes with grizzled old trad climbers, ace on a rock face, years of cunning and knowledge but couldn't pull a mad dyno to save their lives

the same goes for young boulderers, powerful on something they've wired, no cunning or knowledge and can't pull a dyno without 2ft of foam padding and 10 mates and a dog in a beannie

fixed that for you

a similar generalisation to most of the pro/anti trail centre cliches

Anyone who think's trail centres are rubbish are missing the point of them, were else would you find switchbacks, berms, table tops, dropoffs, they are built by teams of hardworking People for our enjoyment to use free of charge, i think all those people who don't like them have trouble riding them because there used to riding single tracks & stopping to adjust there lycra whilst looking at maps every two minutes.

antigee- that's an ace description of bouldering 😆

... there used to riding single tracks & stopping to adjust there lycra whilst looking at maps every two minutes

What boring.

It's all good if you ask me, i love the exploring aspect of mtbing just as much as trail centres...What yer man benji said in that article is spot on if you ask me.

I dunno what the hell you lot are on about, trail centres are just tracks in the woods with labels, they seem just like tracks in the woods to me whether its got a car park near it or not.

I kind of like getting out into the wild and away from it all using my bicycle to transport me there and riding whatever looks fun on the way....

for me personally a trailcenter almost offers that experience but not quite..

That's not to say that I can't and won't enjoy going to a trailcenter.. they're like a big mac and fries when you're more used to good home cooking..

I'd have put a comma after "What" and a question mark after "boring" too.

toys - never seen anything like Glentress thats not a trail centre.

I like trail centres - great fun, easy to access, great practice for the real thing

Good points:

Easy navigation
Lots of facilities (cafe, bike wash etc)
Lots of fun packed in to a short ride.

Bad points:

Usually too short (I like to ride for several hours - 60km+ and I don't want to do laps)
Predictable - everything is ridable, it's all the same width and surface etc). Feels like a scalextric track.
Can get pretty bland after a while - I've ridden most of the trail centres in Britain and most of the them are pretty much the same.
Can be magnets for litter and lots of people.

So overall, I like them, they have their place, but natural riding up proper mountains and in deserted glens beat them every time.

Why do people complain that "everything is rideable"? What do these people want, stuff that *isn't* rideable? What would be the point of that? It's akin to going on a track day and complaining that you could drive the whole track.

I find riding them the wrong way round makes them a bit more interesting.

boriselbrus - Member

it's all the same width and surface etc).

The only trail centre route I can remember that this is true of, is glentress green route.

Its just snobbery, sod em if they dont go there will be more room for the rest of us.

Yup trail centres are sheeeete, don't bother going, nowhere near as good as the real thing.

why snobbery folk ?seem to give some reasonable suggestions as to what they see as the shortcoming of them.
TBH I dont know why we discuss this sort of stuff some people like trail centres, some like natural. Some like natural woody singletrack, some like rocky technical descents , some like etc
Why debate it we may as well discuss what tastes better an apple or an orange. Its all riding and its all good you just prefer different stuff.

Its just snobbery, sod em if they dont go there will be more room for the rest of us.

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You say snobbery as if it's a bad thing.
I'm all for trail centres if they keep the working classes off my local bridleways when they want a day out from their tenement blocks.

At the risk of adding to the already evident trollery, I started riding mountain bikes before there were accepted routes, before trail centres were even thought of, when you had little alternative but to go out and find routes on your own. The bigger 'accepted' routes were those used by cyclocross riders who used to go out and train in the Peak District, or on the moors.

I think trail centres are brilliant. They manage to bring together the kind of features that would take a days worth of exploration, and guarantee a decent ride with a sensible start and finish.

We used to ride out from Manchester, over the Snake Pass, then do a Peak loop, then ride home again to get some decent riding done, now I could drive to where-ever and be sure of a good ride with little wasted effort.

All that 'natural riding' snobbery is the sign of small minds who are desperate to be heard.

now I could drive to where-ever and be sure of a good ride with little wasted effort.

All that 'natural riding' snobbery is the sign of small minds who are desperate to be heard.

I think that's more than a little harsh.. for some folk it's really not [i]all[/i] about getting a 'good ride'.. that part can be secondary..

so.. err.. wind yer neck in chumpy

All that 'natural riding' snobbery is the sign of small minds who are desperate to be heard.

Why insult each other for this ?

'cos it's STW. You must be new here.

Trail centres brought MTB'ing to the masses. Now we have forums like this, full of clueless ****ers who think because they ride them they are riding gods.

I'm not a great rider but prefer to ride natural trails over trail centres. I do still enjoy riding trail centres but can find them a little formulaic and predictable. Plus as said before most trail centres lack views and great vistas you get on natural trails.

Given a choice I'd rather ride the Dales, NY Moors, Lakes etc. Trail centres are almost like a convenience product for when time is short. Hamsterley is our local and some of my friends would go there for every ride but if I go too often it leaves me cold.

They're are ok by me. HAd a good time at every trail centre i've been to.

had great fun last week in Penmachno. Doesn't feel like a trail centre, despite being "led around" a trail.

had great fun last week just cycling from my doorstep up Conwy Mountain, Penmaen bach, sychnant pass and Tal-y-fan and rattling down and finding new bits.

Had great fun last week riding my road bike round a local loop that I do trying to beat my fastest time.

I'm not getting bothered about stupid crap. I'm not at work. I'm on my bike and free What's not to like! it's all good 🙂

Well said Kev. And, having done Penmachno and Conway Mountain etc with Kev, I have to say it's all good. It's riding a bike outdoors. Ain't that what it's all about?

Apparently not - for some people it's only 'good' if you're plodding round some muddy bridleway on your 29er skills compensator with a map board and Ron hills.

At the risk of adding to the already evident trollery, I started riding mountain bikes before there were accepted routes, before trail centres were even thought of, when you had little alternative but to go out and find routes on your own. The bigger 'accepted' routes were those used by cyclocross riders who used to go out and train in the Peak District, or on the moors.

I think trail centres are brilliant. They manage to bring together the kind of features that would take a days worth of exploration, and guarantee a decent ride with a sensible start and finish.

We used to ride out from Manchester, over the Snake Pass, then do a Peak loop, then ride home again to get some decent riding done, now I could drive to where-ever and be sure of a good ride with little wasted effort.

All that 'natural riding' snobbery is the sign of small minds who are desperate to be heard.

I totally agree, we used to ride miles of fire road and boggy tracks just to get to a short section of downhill that lasted for about 5 minutes.

Anyone who rides the same trail twice isn't a real mountain biker.

Crikey is bang on the money whether you like it or not.
The few who have simply said they personally prefer the natural trails with an element of exploration are not snobs, they are just giving their opinion and that's cool!

Then there're the detractors who I won't name but we all know who they are, they are the ones earning the title 'snobs' which is hilarious considering this is a MTB forum, go play golf and leave us riders who just want to have fun alone 😉

...who I won't name but we all know who they are...

Why do people complain that "everything is rideable"? What do these people want, stuff that *isn't* rideable? What would be the point of that? It's akin to going on a track day and complaining that you could drive the whole track

Actually that's exactly right. Trail centres can be like track days. You turn up, follow the arrows and go as fast as you can. Sometimes that's great, but sometimes I want something more like the Dakar rally. I want to have to stop and metaphorically dig the car out. I want tracks that peter out to nothing and I have to carry the bike over a peat bog, I want river crossings that I may or may not be able to get through without getting wet through I want to explore that little gap in the trees which may be nothing or may lead to the best bit of singletrack ever.

In short I want an "Epic" and when was the last time anyone had an epic (in the true sense) riding round Whinlatter? I've ridden most of the trail centres in Britain, and the days spent doing them don't even rank in my top 50 days out on a bike. Most of my top 50 involve getting lost, getting wet, watching the sun set from the top of a mountain (big hill), then realising my lights are still in the car, dragging a rucksack full of stuff to a remote place to spend the night, then watching the sun rise over a mountain tarn, finishing my last energy bar with 40km left to go and my legs feeling like they're on fire

Note I am not saying that trail centres are rubbish, just that they are not the be all and end all.

It depends what you want. A day out on the bike or to ride great trails.
While I see the attraction with boriselbrus' day, you can quite happily do that on foot and get a very similar experience as in a day out on the hills.
The best trails I've ever ridden were in BC and were all manmade and had direction signs. I've not found trails that compare to that anywhere in the UK (so far). I do think that most trail centres could be more technically challenging but maybe that's me just being selfish. I'd certainly like to see more black trails.

Note I am not saying that trail centres are rubbish, just that they are not the be all and end all.

I've never heard anyone say that they are.

Oh, all right then, I'll say it.

Trail centres are the be all and end all.

I honestly can't see a big distinction, it strikes me as an argument for the sake of it.

My last big day out I strung together a 30mile ride on Arran.

It wasn't a "waymarked route" with little red arrows but it was a fairly well estabilished loop that was availabe online. Along the way there were some signs that helped with navigation so I didn't really have to look at my map

Much like a trail centre it was a mixture of fireroads and single track and even the occasional road section. None of the paths I was on were anything other than man made, either fire roads and paths put there by the forestry commission or singletrack over the hills made by other bikers and walkers.

If the next time i'm there I stick some red arrows on the signposts does this make it a trail centre and therefore suddenly not worth riding?

trail centres are for fat blokes aged about 40 🙂

Trail centres are the be [s]a[/s]ll [s]and[/s] end [s]all.[/s]