Dalby Forest for beginners

Which route should we do tomorrow?
It used to be simple – green, blue, red then black
Now they have names and stuff…

Got a few hours and want to get some miles in but nothing too technical

What you recommend ?

check its open first – yellow weather warning means it may be closed….

So Daley will be a bit of a slog in places. I’d recommend the blue and then near the end the blue goes left down some big berms….these last all of 30 seconds and I recommend to go straight in along the red….this is longer and comes back out at the car park, also has some brilliant fun singletrack with a few natural jumps/drops.
You’d probably get that route done in under 2 hours.

Also check out the forest map and route from Adderstone in the carpark really but that blue from the visitors centre’s alright

I did the blue route a few weeks ago. It was a nice route with enough to keep me interested when I only had a short time to escape for a ride. I was on a rigid On One Whippet. The berms at the end were good fun.

If you’ve got beginners with you I would try the trails at Sutton Bank. It’s only approx 30 mins from Dalby.

Dalby – first up everything is rollable, though you probably knew that.
The blue is shorter and easier, but also more bermy and less step-down / small drop off type riding. There’s two or three sections of berms, ranging from the Alpine-style switchbacks ones, to some pump tracky ones and some really open fast flowly ones. But nothing particularly difficult. I quite like the blue but it is short at around 10km.
The red is three times as long, doesn’t have much more in terms of bermy bits, though there are some more challenging ones, and lots of 12” drops. That was inch not feet. It needs more fitness and is an XC trail not an enduro trail if that makes sense. Also fun but I almost died (well it felt like it) taking a 160mm LLS bike round it (and trying to keep up with folk on hard tails).
Mixing the two and adding some off piste is excellent – particularly with beginners/learners but you have to know your way round.
The green? Best suited to hybrid and small childrens bikes, but not really mtb.

It needs more fitness and is an XC trail not an enduro trail if that makes sense. Also fun but I almost died (well it felt like it) taking a 160mm LLS bike round it (and trying to keep up with folk on hard tails).

This is something to bear in mind, and is probably the main reason why so many folk moan about Dalby. Short travel full sus or hardtail is the best for the red trail.

My usual route is to park in the big car park by the bike hub, do the red until Dixon’s Hollow, have a mess about on the jumps for a bit, then do a lap of the black, then get back on the red and follow it all the way back to the car.

Reminiscing but I still miss that bonkers drop they used to have at Dalby – the one so sheer that lots of people would bail and walk it.

@johndoh was this the one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98XtwvQSQg0

No – this one (and this is my brother not listening to my warning and dabbing his brakes)…

OTB or managed to stay on? It looks like an OTB is about to happen, you never know though.

Spectacularly OTB and ripped a shin to the bone 😂

If you look closely you can see the compression on the front suspension.

When in doubt, roll it out. 😀