Black Forest Germany (not gateau)

Anybody ridden there ?
Think singletrack did once, have to go through back issues.
Any opinions please.
thanks

wow, thought it would have been more interesting than that.

Not ridden there but it sure is a beautiful place to visit.

Only at Todtnau bike park last year. Quite good fun, only 2 or 3 DH options IIRC.

If you get bored of that, there is a cracking summer toboggan run thingy. You could hear people screaming all day!

I am not aware of the Black Forest being particularly singletracky, seems to be more fireroad stuff, but then I am sure someone will correct me.

Kev

A pal moved to Strasbourg and often rides there.. says it’s fantastic.

Its on my list of places to visit before I die. From family that have been there its just magical. Far more magical and surreal than plastic Disney land.

The first point to be aware of with the Black Forest is that officially, you’re not allowed to ride on trails less than 2 meters wide. Despite that, I never had any issues with walkers or officials. Riding with consideration for all trail users and a friendly attitude seems to work very well.

There are some incredible long distance singletrails there but you need to do some map and internet research to find them. I know the Southern part quite well and some of the trails are really nice. Around Titisee. Freiburg, Schauinsel are good.

my search so far has come up with Freiburg and Offenburg and Eurocamp have a site in between the two.
Have come across a bike park but did not like the look of it.
Schweiz/elzorillo if you can help with maps, or anything for that matter I’d appreciate it.

Hi faint,

the <2m rule applies in this county of Germany but as mentioned is not necessarily sanctioned in a hard way. In doubt you can always claim to be a foreigner and that you never heard of such a (stupid) rule.

Under this Link[/url] you’ll find detailed German descriptions but also maps and GPX files for several trips in the St. Georgen area. That’s between Freiburg and Offenburg but more ‘in’ the Black Forest. On the left side you will find a bar with ‘Leichte/Mittlere/Schwere Touren’ (i.e. easy/medium/challenging trips). Kirchzarten is another good place to be based in the Black Forest. They had the Worldcup in 199X…

Here’s another (German) overview of several trips, again in the southern Black Forest area: Link

I’m amazed to find these links without an English language version. But hey! 😳 Still most people should be able to help you when you are there in more or less understandable English.

You could also consider 3 other areas in Germany (which by the way havn’t got the <2m rule and are more into sport tourism (pros and cons for that):
– Allgaeu respectively Allgäu which is more alpine, a good place to stay would be Oberstdorf, the local bike shop owner Andi Heckmair is a TransAlp legend from the very early days of MTBing
– Tegernsee is more eastern again (south of Munich), rather alpine too with good access to several mountains and valleys
– the Bavarian Forest/Bayrischer Wald is more woody like the Black Forest but they have a Bike Park or two and the area is vast

A Mountain Bike heaven is Riva del Garda in Italy. They have fully embraced the mountain bike and there are lots of tours, guides, etc.

Was it Singletrack Magazine who recently did a feature on why guided alpine tours are always so performance oriented and not that much fun? I think they recommended some guide companies they thought were alright (if you consider guided tours at all).

Enjoy!

It’s a stunning region. I wonder whether there are lots of hidden trails as the landscape is perfect there ?

You might try some google research, not sure OD best words but try Alpencross. The mountains of Garmisch are lift served. There are lots if Germans who visit the Swiss region of Graubunden (eg Lenzerheide, Laax, Davos) for MTB holidays so they must ride “at home” somewhere !

Found some more links, some with english language versions:
– Selection of Black Forest bike parks
– MTB related information for the area around Todtnau
– Forum post by a Black Forest based tour guide with contact details
– this link talks about GPS data but actually doesn’t provide any, still good general information about the region AND in English
– I guess official tours like this one stick to fire roads to obey the law and be family friendly etc. see pdf on the right

Is the Schwarzwald stunning, though? I don’t know. I find Wales or Scotland more stunning. But that’s probably because it’s new and special to me whereas the Schwarzwald is just another region in Germany for me. Then again it not being extreme in an alpine way more hilly and woody is probably a good thing for less extreme tours.

Thanks for all the replies.
Hock, thanks for the links. One of my work colleagues is German and a keen cyclist so he is going to help me plus do some research for himself.

One of my work colleagues is German

That’ll help! 😉

Schönen Gruß!

Spent a year at an Army Chalet in the mid-90’s, up a side valley near to Sonthofen in the Allgau – pretty much the best year i ever had. I didn’t realise the 2m-rule didn’t apply there 🙂

Just back from a few days seeing my lad in Freiburg. Hills round there go up to around 1400m. He says there are some good scenic trails, like most of Germany they are well marked. In summer you can hire MTBs with no drive train to free wheel down the hill from the top of the ski lift, but apparently that is mainly fire roads.

Great city, worth a visit anyway what’s not to like about a place where you can take the tram from the town centre to the foot of the ski lift. Beer superb also, not surprisingly. Great food too, but its nice to get back home to a few more vegetables.

Saw an insane cruiser in a shop window, big long fat tyred posing bike with an electric motor – your for a mere six thousand Euros. Just found a pic crazy electric thing

Black forest is nice! Depends what you like of course, but if camping’s OK the campsite Bankenhof on lake Titisee is good. The lake is a short walk away through a copse, and you can ride from your tent up to the Feldberg (1500m ish summit), so you can combine a ride with a swim afterwards. Biking park in Todtnau just round the corner too!
Allgäu great too, bit more mountainy.
Enjoy!

there are fireroads..of course…
but also a steep “trailcenter”…with uplift, bikepark bad wildbad..
just for an impression..

or many trails like that..

http://www.vogg-net.de/home/fotos/schwarzwald/08-bm_04/08-bm_04.html

and across the border in france, not far away..

http://www.lacblanc-bikepark.com/

Hi

My Dad and I will be heading out for Titisee Lake for a couple of days of cycling in around Mid March.

Can you throw any tips this way of what the weather may be like at that time of year? We are worried that we may have to bring a pair of ski’s along just in case 😀

Also what type of bike would you advise? A road or mountain bike? or would this entirely depend on the types of routes we take.

Thanks for your time

Mike

Ah, the <2m rule might explain why we struggled to find any marked singletrack when we visited previously. We ended up venturing onto the DH trails at Todtnau, not the most sensible idea given the bikes we were on:

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We did do some riding on the forest trails: all pretty boring but very pretty scenery. And there’s two campsites along the side of the lake at Titisee in great locations – we’ve stayed at Sandbank Titisee as it’s got the better views over the lake.

IIRC Titisee is at around 950m ASL so bear that in mind for a March visit mrmike.