Like most kids, my boys are keen on riding their bikes and love the experience of going off-road. However, neither is technically-skilled or confident at the moment. So, I’m looking for fairly easy and forgiving trails, where they can enjoy themselves and not smash themselves up too much, as well as not having to do much pushing up steep hills.

For reference, I’ve taken the elder (13) on the Verderer’s trail in the FoD recently which he coped with. I was sh*t-scared he was going to fall at some point and give-up MTB, which I’m keen to avoid. As it happens, we made it fairly unscathed and the sense of achievement he got from it was brilliant to see!

I live in Southeast Wales but interested in anything within a couple of hours from here (Southwest England, West Midlands, South to Mid Wales), or in Northwest England. Natural or man-made.

Cheers all.

Swinley comes to mind if you are looking for something a bit easier and safer. Don’t know if that’s too far for you though.

Possibly not. My outlaws are in the Midlands.

You’re overthinking it, if you’re worried they’ll give up after a fall or 2.
I’m continually surprised how good a rider my 17 yo is, but then I was going through old video clips and see that he’s just ridden on every bit of local terrain since he was able to sit on a saddle. Most of it is pretty tame, but just riding a bike a lot gets them the skills they need.
He’s taken a few slams too, but shakes them off and seems to enjoy it more all the time.
Surely there are locals woods, tracks, anything you can take the boys out on?
Swinley is good, as said, worth a trip.

If you ride the Verderers trail regularly then they’ll get to learn the trail and the skills required and where their hazards lie.

Redhill Extreme in the FoD is a good place to try out some skills practice, we just played around on the lower part.

I believe Katy Curd coaches in the FoD so could guide them into some good habits.

The two Bristol trails (Ashton Court and Leigh Woods) are very family friendly but still fun, if that is close by.

You can do a nice loop in the Mendips around the the trig point. I wouldn’t go down the new waymarked trails, though.

I’d agree that you may be overthinking it.

That said, is it the endurance or the technical stuff that causes concern?

If endurance, then Swinley red is both pretty santisied and fairly short, so well worth a trip.

If technical, the Gorlech red at Brechfa is not too challenging, and not too long, but the fireroad climb to kick things off may be off-putting for a little’un.

FoD red as above is excellent too.

But, all things considered I’d just let them crack on with any trail as above.

I’ve just come back from Italy where my 12 y.o. daughter and I hired bikes for a jaunt from the campsite. It was flagged as a ‘medium’ trail. After a gravel track to kick things off, we got to a rock garden ascent that wouldn’t be out of place on a double black diamond in Canada. It was followed by some rocky descents that were rougher than Coed-y-Brenin blacks.

My daughter is no expert, and pushed up the ascent (as did I!) but nailed the downhills without so much as a peep from me.

What’s more she did this on a city bike with 700c tyres, a step through frame and about 50mm of front suspension! I’d love to claim this was as a result of all my skills training over the years, but she just rode her bike.

Just let them crack on!