Beginner DH

Bloods, I need to get my radcore gnar on.
Recommend some easier DH tracks so I can progress my mincore to the power of sik brah.

Ideally looking for good tracks in the south of England and Wales that are fun but not too serious
Thank you for any help.

Can’t beat bike park wales for learning DH in my opinion….

Flyupdownhill uplift at FOD is excellent. Not too steep, plenty of chicken runs, challenges if you want them, lots of soft loam to fall off in and fast mega repeat uplift where in the summer you can get 16/17 runs in a day (unlike bike park wales where the average beginner would struggle to get 5 runs in a day, the trails are rock hard and a bit exposed).

Shropshire, head on to a pearce uplift day

I’ve been to bpw and had a great time. How difficult are the fod dh trails in comparison. Which would be the easiest of the dh runs to start on?
Cheers

UK bikepark in Dorset, although I haven’t been for a long while, lots of short varied fun riding and fast turnaround on the uplift, I’m sure we got in 18 runs once on a private uplift day…

fod trails are less steep (so less braking), but more technical. BPW has a lot of hard packed fast stuff which is just hang on and hope, the fod will teach you more about descending as there are lots of rollable obstacles which reward hitting them with more and more speed. So you can pussy foot over them and gradually increase confidence until you are blasting down. I always have a great time at FOD, have been about 20 times.
Also the runs are shorter, so you get to repeat the same one many times-increases your learning init..
Caveat; I am fat, slow and a bit shit..

Toys you sound like the ideal person to take advice from.
Which is the easiest run to start on and what is the push up like?

Sheepskull and the alternative Flatlands start is a nice place to start, GBU has bigger features but all either rollable or avoidable. Corkscrew is rooty and pretty fast but all are good fun. Push ups not too bad at all follow the push up signs from the bottom of GBU, takes about 15 minutes max : )

Loads of off piste stuff if you’re into exploring too

Plenty of mixed DH at Cwmcarn and if you fancy a bit further afield Gawton in Devon.

I’ve been to bpw and had a great time. How difficult are the fod dh trails in comparison. Which would be the easiest of the dh runs to start on?

If you’ve been to BPW and enjoyed it, you’re hardly a beginner.

I’d add to the mix Triscombe – had a great day over there a couple of years ago. Though I’d imagine it’l be tough at the moment given the recent weather. It was pretty loamy but is some great fun riding.

oli31 has it. Sheepskull is my fave there, as it has rooty challenges but is all rollable, so you can progress a lot by repeating it. They are all good trails. The flyupdownhill uplift is the best of all those listed above in terms of care of your bike, making sure you get on the bus, speed and friendliness.

I’ve also been to Chatel and Les Gets but I’m still crap and still class myself very much as a beginner 😆
I’m quite near Chicksands how hard are the downhill trails there?
Thanks again for all the advice. I have been delighted by how friendly the downhill scene is.

http://www.chasetrails.co.uk/downhill/%5B/url%5D

Chicksands DH trails are not steep, are short and easy, but have a few massive drops/jumps that i can’t see how you would “work up” to doing them, so most(inc me 😉 don’t……….

Cwmcarn is pretty straightfoward, nothing much to catch you out unless you’re going flat out.

If you want to practice your gnadgery tech skills i’d go to FOD or Triscombe. If you want to practice something with a bit more length, steepness, pace & rockyness go BPW.

Personally, the value of the Flyup at FOD is borderline. I only manage to get a few more in over just pushing. No one else like jumping into the drop sections at Ski run? I will agree with others, Sheepskull is a nice one to session on. GBU is ok, just that the mid section is a bit meh, better to dive off onto corkscrew.

As for BPW the level of grip negates the perceived technical difficulties. For me, the main issue are the jumps, mainly not having the bottle&/or skill to do the big gaps on the 2 blacks. I doubt i’ll ever do them. Insufficient funds seems to be a good one to get your jumping skills up but you have to be careful as casing badly could pogo you off into a berm. From what I hear from others, the main issue you might have at BPW is arm pump.

[disclaimer] I’ve only ever been to FOD in the pissing wet and still enjoyed it.

Depends on what is local to you, Tidworth Freeride is my nearest and has more stuff than I can ride. http://www.ctc.org.uk/ctc-mtb-bike-parks/tidworth-freeride-bike-park

Fort William, big or home.

FoD. We rented a Nukeproof for Teen1 and friend to share. Teen1 rode most of the routes on his Anthem. Teen2 and myself also pootled down on HTs missing the really gnarr (mine with a raised saddle).

A good place to start DH, and the flyupdownhill uplift guys were really excellent with the kids (who had no idea how it worked), and were happy for me and Teen2 to have fun.

Aston? not that far of a drive from Chicksands.

Cheers, I hadn’t heard of Tidworth, will google it. Cwmcarn looks worth a day trip. I wouldn’t really class Fort William as South England or Wales 🙂

Aston isn’t far but I understand it’s quite hard and nearly impossible in the wet?

I think we will try FOD this weekend.

FoD is a great place to develop your skills.
Short push-up, variety of tracks and surfaces and a few nice jumps here and there.

Aston Hill is a LOT steeper than Chicksands, with much more natural techy rooty stuff. In the wet it’s proper hard imo and local knowledge on line choice becomes important.

( Personally i can’t stand the push up at Aston Hill for some reason. It’s not that long, or that much of a climb, but i still hate it!)

Fod it is then
Cheers all.