Any Birmingham riders/clubs?

Hi folks.
Just wondering if anyone knows of any mtb clubs in or around Birmingham? Or anyone who rides in the area that wouldn’t mind a fairly sluggish postgrad student tagging along?
I moved here in the autumn but haven’t been moved to ride much-just looking for some riding buddies to show me what’s about!

Where in birmingham are you ?? … Its a big place …..
No mtb clubs that i know of ? …. a few road clubs only
Theres quite a few brummy riders on here though 🙂

Blooming massive isn’t it. I’m in Selly Oak but I’ve got a car so can be fairly flexible.

I’m in Stirchley…but limited riding at the mo due to having a 4 week old. Loads on here though that do cannock or Wyre forest. Think there is some kind of club for Wyre too.

I’m based in Tamworth and ride Cannock pretty regularly.

Will hopefully be riding next weekend…drop me a line if you fancy it (email should be in my profile).

another brummie here… Solihull area.

ride cannock a fair bit and a few other places too.

There’s a few of us based in Bromsgrove & Redditch and we ride the Wyre, Clent and the Lickeys on a fairly regular basis (although it’s all so wet at the moment we’ve been out less).

New people are always welcome. Lickeys is easiest for you obviously, it’ll only be a few miles for you to ride from home.

there is a west mids mtb club full of yamyams and brums, they do group ride things. they are all a bit…..well……odd

@ matther01 …. you must be just round the corner from me then 🙂
Im borders of kings heath/stirchley
Just trying to get back into the bikes …. only doing the turbo at the minute, till things dry up 🙂
Yeah lickeys isnt far and then if you dont fancy hills , theres always sutton park for a few hrs , which is better than it sounds 🙂 …
Wyre is very good and so is cannock

I’m about 15 minutes from Sutton Park now, used to be very close as a kid when I lived in Boldmere.

As a separate point, being in Stirchley you have access to one of the best LBS in Brum, Ben at Venture Cycles is a very competent rider and mechanic.

There has been an town centre ride too..

@ passtherizla …. venture cycles in only 5 mins from me ,only ever been in once to get my lads rear wheel trued …. seemed ok , but i do all my own builds and maintenance etc apart from trueing !… 🙂

Not really a club but I ride with a bunch of guys and girls regular at cannock, fod wyre, mynd,your welcome to tag along.I’m based in west bromwich and all my mates are wiyhin five miles so gimme a shout if ya fancy it and ill let ya know if we are doing anything…:)

wheel stuff is all I have used them for… think they organise rides too.

Use venture when I need to as I’m crap at anything mechanical or DIY. Trying to build a soul at the mo and learn at the same time but not getting very far at all!

Another Stirchley resident here, you can head out via the canals to the Lickeys and then head towards Clent. Cannock is a short drive away and is very good

the NWAlps is on your doorstep Tales from the North Worcestershire Alps[/url]

The uni does have a cycling club – gets involved in MTB too.
Drop me an email if you like, I’m town and try to get out a couple of times a week (night riding at the moment)

Get involved in the uni club, they have great heritage in the form of Paul Manning. Tri club is worth a shot if you fancy some road too. Heritage there as well with Sir Simon Lessing. All full of decent folk when I was there.

I’m at the foot of of Mt. Waseley in the NWAlps. Lots of good routes around, often at Cannock in the Summer.

dave

I’m from tamworth and either ride local woods or Cannock.

But I also ride with Coventry Godiva trailriders in the week. They’re a good bunch and they like a pint or two!

Then of course there is the stw birmingham urban ride, the next one in a couple of weeks. We basically raz around multi story car parks and ride down stairs, but it’s way more fun than it sounds!

@ matther01 … if you need any tools or advise , give us a shout , im local and being building bikes for 20 odd yrs ….. also worked at a frame builders for years as well , so know my way around a bike 😀

@stumpy_m4 – cheers mate. If I ever manage to put this baby down I’ll be in touch!

But I also ride with Coventry Godiva trailriders

yeh they’re a suspect bunch as well!

Walked the dog at lickeys a few times…but never seen any riders. I was told it was off limits after a rider killed an old bloke in an accident. Is it true?

If not…I can train my dog to come with me.

No one killed that i know of, i ride there a lot, great in the evenings when its a lot quieter

Btw, get the train to barnt green and the woods start across the road from the platform

@ matther 01 ….. its still ok to ride lickeys …. just hard work in the mud with the single speed 🙁 …
Just in the middle of building a scandal with gears !!
will have to sort a stirchley get together even if its just a blast around the canals one evening 🙂

Ace, some great looking rooty downhill bits to fall off on!

Mattk…when you say local woods do you mean Hopwas? I quite like some of the sketchy jumps and DH runs up there.

I ride up there a fair bit but have never bumped into another rider…maybe it’s because I ride early to avoid the scumbags on scooters who seem attracted to woods like flies to a dog poo!

I ride at the Lickys 3-4 times a month. Mostly stick to the Brindle way but night rides you can go pretty much anywhere as there is hardly ever anyone about.

I’m based in Kings Heath and a few of us (normally 2 or 3 in our group) ride every Tuesday or Wednesday night. We try to make the rides start and end somewhere near the Cross City line, so it’s easy to get back. One of the other lads is based in Selly Oak too. We tend to meet in town and go from New St to places straight after work, but it all depends on what route I have planned.

Cheers for the replies folks-I’ll send some PM’s in a bit.
The uni club seemed to be mostly about the road, but I’ll have another look.
Urban ride sounds like fun!

Composite- are them there brindle ways brown and black mud?

Stourbridge based here, not to far from NW Alps.. I don’t ride enough recently but now the snows gone its game on. I usually ride clent/lickey and sometimes venture around Cannock all good fun.

Btw rocketdog just read your blog, you ride a lot of places near where I do, i will be sure to say hello if I see you out and about one day

Mindmap3 –

Mattk…when you say local woods do you mean Hopwas?

Yeah i do hopwas every now and then, I’m not into the jumps as some of them are bloody massive but they have made some lovely bits of singletrack. I rarely see other riders, but I imagine they get put off by that weird lady who hangs out by the pig farm posing as a security guard and telling people to get out.

I have a loop in kingsbury woods that I’m slowly expanding (it’s about 5km) but i think I’m the only rider that uses the woods.

I’m also slowly discovering stuff around atherstone that’s pretty good too.

If you fancy a ride sometime give me a shout

Matt…yeah, some of those jumps are huge. I used to do a bit of digging I there before my riding hiatus (which is now over). I’ve not encountered that particular lady…there are a few weirdos up here though.

Some of the little DH runs are quite good fun too.

I may well take you up on the offer….riding on my own all of the time sucks.

I have ridden up round Hopwas to but never really explored the woods much. One of the first times we went up there when light, we almost stumbled into a pond and so as most of our rides round there are in the dark we tend to stick to the double track. We get the train up from New St. to Lichfield city and do this loop: http://www.composite-projects.co.uk/mountain-biking/lichfield-to-hopwas-loop/ The return train goes all the way to University/Selly Oak/Bournville so its easy to get back from.

@poplarkin This is a route that we do that is all bridle way. http://www.composite-projects.co.uk/mountain-biking/barnt-green-to-clent-loop/

Generally here is a list of other routes, mostly South Birmingham. Nothing to technical but good to stretch the legs. There are varying amounts of country lane in these routes as well, but you got to link up the off road some how.
http://www.composite-projects.co.uk/mountain-biking/routes/

Of course all these routes I’m sharing here are the bridle way ones. There are some “detours” that can be taken though, but I don’t put any of those on my site.

The “detours” are much more fun 🙂

I’ve not encountered that particular lady

Her name is josie, but I call her old squiggy eye. She’s a proper nimby who wants the woods for local people only, but she took things a bit too far by impersonating a security guard working for Tarmac (they own the non MOD part of the woods) then after plenty of arguments and complaints to Tarmac, she was finally ousted in the tamworth herald as a nuisance.

Just tell her to bugger off

didn’t realise people rode in the likeys – walk the dog there – but thought it was off limits for bikes

tend to ride clent would be a nice night ride venue potentially, as a bit closer to me

are there regular rides / riders ? am based in bromsgrove, so not far away, and have been looikng for somewhere just to go for a quick blast after work, as cannock / FOD are so far away

mattk – I’ve met her too, only she said I was a nice young man 🙂

some of the singletrack has got a bit squished up there from the recent logging but still plenty if you know where to look 😉

will have to sort a stirchley get together even if its just a blast around the canals one evening

I’m in Moseley and have a mate that rides that lives in Stirchley/Kings Heath. I’m sure we’d be up for ^this^ if it gets off the ground.