Anyone out playing there tomorrow ? Me and the boy are heading over for a first ride back.

Mrs fadda and I will probably be there in the morning (depends a bit how this evenings “having friends over for a curry” goes)

I’m taking the fat bike for the first time in a while and we’ll probs just do the verderers with countdown/launchpad at the end…

I’ll keep an eye out for the fattie… you’ll recognise my lad and me as we’re both on sky blue bikes, his with double crown forks unlike 99.99% of bikes there.

Cool – fattie is raw alu, Mrs fadda is on a burnt orange Whyte hardtail 👍🏻

Re the official trails, first time I went I had a great day. Second time I did it, I was confused how I’d had a great day, I spent most of the ride waiting for some big descent on the red and then suddenly I was in the car park. It’s a decent enough loop but

The final blue descent is excellent though imo. I mean, it should be, it’s one big charge down the entire height of the hill. Arguably it’s a bit too good for its own blueness, it’s a bit like glentress blue with an awkward mix of beginners and kids and uplift riders thrashing down it. Including me, we always tend to do at least one run when we’re on the bus

(I think literally every run I’ve done, I’ve seen someone looking a bit harried and always looking behind, and I’ve ended up telling people “It’s a blue, we’ve got the whole hill to choose from, don’t worry at all about holding us up for a wee bit, you don’t need to jump out of the way” sort of thing)

It’s proper that blue ending… everyone can enjoy it… but not so proper that it can’t be ridden by everyone if they just take it steady… it’s a perfect blue.

Wookie. The Forest was much better then. No one in their right mind buys cafe food any way and the place wasn’t worn out and full of tourists. You would see wild life. All you see know are dog turd bags.

Eee, when I were a lad

I can remember when all this were fields

etc

Re the official trails, first time I went I had a great day. Second time I did it, I was confused how I’d had a great day, I spent most of the ride waiting for some big descent on the red and then suddenly I was in the car park. It’s a decent enough loop but

The red trail (Freeminers) really is more of an XC trail, with roots and a couple of sharp climbs, switchbacks, etc, a lot of people get confused thinking it’s going to be a more difficult blue run, but in reality its more of a tech trail compared to the flow that the blue is.

Again, not done the full extended red since it was redone, but that used to make it even more tech, especially in winter when it became a bit too natural in places.

I probably do need to get back and do those to see what they’re like, i just always end up doing something else or going somewhere else, you don’t get many volunteers to do the extended red when you have the DH stuff 😂

Wookie. The Forest was much better then. No one in their right mind buys cafe food any way and the place wasn’t worn out and full of tourists. You would see wild life. All you see know are dog turd bags.

I agree with you on the dog turd bags but I live here and it’s certainly not worn out in any way whatsoever. It’s an absolutely gorgeous place to live and I regularly see wildlife all over the place. Deer, muntjacs, boar, foxes, owls, birds of prey, badgers etc. They’ve also recently reintroduced pine martens and beavers too! The tourists aren’t so bad either as long as you stay away from places like Beechenhurst on a sunny weekend, there’s so much space here for people.

Lots of delicious cafe stops as well. Oh and don’t forget the absolute world class offpiste, some of the best riding you can encounter in the UK I would argue.

I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else honestly!

Fadda, a fat bike turned up, but it was some fella called Richard who goes by the YouTube ne of docking about, clearly not you.

So I did try…. But didn’t see any others.

My buddy nearly got Inbetween a dual of 2 wild boars today, so plenty of wildlife still there

Ah, sorry, weeksy – Mrs fadda suddenly had other ideas for this morning, so we’re going tomorrow afto instead! 🙄.

I’ve met Richard – his Ican is a lovely thing, but he probably tried to sell you some Wren forks, even if you don’t have a fattie!

Funnily enough, forks did come up yes.

Considering he was the wrong fella, we had a good chat.

weeksy
Full Member

My buddy nearly got Inbetween a dual of 2 wild boars today, so plenty of wildlife still there

Yep, my mate nearly hit a boar right in the sallowvallets trails, never actually seen one in the wild before, just tuskmarks and wallows- was pretty cool!

Wookie. The Forest was much better then. No one in their right mind buys cafe food any way and the place wasn’t worn out and full of tourists. You would see wild life. All you see know are dog turd bags.

indeed, we’d turn up on a saturday morning, first in the carpark, wander in, get coffee’s, bung a ginsters in the free to use by anyone microwave on the side, chat to the hire staff prepping bikes, wander through to the back to chat to Dave Evans in the ‘bike shop’ and eventually get out riding when the carpark got busy (i.e. two more cars turned up). would ride the trails, somewhere up there along the fireroads, across the road a bit, past the big tree (in a forest?) find our way to the bombholes, ride round that bit, get to some old quarries and a mine. sketchily scoot down the single downhill trail trying not to kill ourselves. way back we’d even try to ride the ski slope, grassy steep slope straight down, with rubbish canti brakes.

sometimes we’d try to avoid rally cars.. and get back to hose the bikes down, load them into my Nissan Bluebird and head home.

then it all changed, Jetwashes appeared (free to use of course) and Dave got a new shop in a new building. he never seemed as chuffed with it as we thought he might be, but there we go. The Fodca trail appeared, then was closed, then was reopened with a bit more. it was good for a loop at the end of a ride…the carpark heroes would turn up at lunchtime, ride around the carpark. do a few of the multiplying downhill runs and force everyone to listen to whatever is on their car stereo.

still good though.

^ a note about dave evans though. he was a bit of a legend, master of understatement and underwhelm. I think the last time I saw him he was talking about entering one of the local road races where he’d said he didn’t like it and wasn’t feeling good about the way it went. he’d won it, of course…

Typical forest of dean conversation though, slow and measured, and about half an hour long and only three or four sentences.

he used to come out on training rides when I used to race, and chat slowly to us all the way around, not getting any way out of breath, and occasionally, when he thought we were being cocky on climbs, just ride away from us.

Looking to ride the FoD on 15th October. I’m working in Gloucester on the 14th so it makes sense to stay over in a Premier Inn and enjoy Saturday on the trails. I have to ride hard though so it looks like the red at pace for me, how long does a strong pace around the red take?

Dave still builds a great wheel. He gets all my tricky ones.

Looking to ride the FoD on 15th October. I’m working in Gloucester on the 14th so it makes sense to stay over in a Premier Inn and enjoy Saturday on the trails. I have to ride hard though so it looks like the red at pace for me, how long does a strong pace around the red take?

Haven’t the foggiest idea how long it took me last time but there’s one major ish climb (nowhere near as big as the likes of cafell at Cwmcarn though) then you climb up the blue climb on way to the free miners extension. There are lots and lots of roots – I don’t find I get into much of a rhythm.

Personally I’d rather go hard up repeated climbs of the middle fire road to the top of the downhill runs and then do those. I think when I was fitter with no back issues I did or 8 of those climbs / descents before I decided I was done. Would have just been a morning rather than all day.

If I were wanting to xc round a red trail I’d totally go to Cwmcarn instead and ride Cafell / Twrch back to back – waaaay more fun than freminers. The best bit of FOD is the off piste.

downhill runs and then do those

You couldn’t get a sheet of paper in the amount of air my DH skills allow me to achieve.

The blue descent starts from the same place as the DH runs so you could start with that, then the 4 wheeler track, then the easiest DH run (ski run probably my call). Then repeat your favourite till you’re done. Honestly a way better training ride than the red

Kryton – good pace around the red will take probably less than an hour, the blue is waaaaay more fun and you’ll be done in 40 mins or so, I reckon…

Ok thanks, looks like I can get my scheduled 2hrs of high effort in by riding the red and blue, get some lunch in then still have time to have a tentative play on the DH.

Anyone know the rollers and humps that Katy Kurd teaches Evie on? Those look like my max skill level and would be good for me to session.

She teaches all over the forest but I imagine the bits you have seen would be either in the skills area or on GBU. Just remember everything looks smaller on video 😂
*Edit* There are rollers all along Countdown as well so that’s a possibility. If you have a specific video link someone will be able to identify, or I can ask Katy if you have a bit of detail and are really keen to ride it.

Lol indeed, I’d be the first to suggest Evie’s skills are a long way from my own.

*edit in above post*

Dave still builds a great wheel. He gets all my tricky ones.

That’s great to hear! I assume he still has a shop in ross? bet he’s not changed much in the 25+ years since I’ve seen him either

Yep, my mate nearly hit a boar right in the sallowvallets trails, never actually seen one in the wild before, just tuskmarks and wallows- was pretty cool!

About 10 years ago, I had a quick blast around the blue trail while my family had a coffee in the TC. Not far before the fire road where the ‘DH’ trails start I got surrounded by a whole herd of boar. The piglets were happily rooting around my feet and tyres. I did get slightly worried about how aggressive the parents might get, but none of the adults seemed at all concerned by my presence, not that I could have escaped easily anyway – they were all over the place.

When they moved on, I finished my ride and excitedly told the girls, and then as we drove away saw another herd – maybe the same one – crossing the road. They are nice to see.

I found the beaver sanctuary a couple of weeks ago. Didn’t see any beavers though.

@kryton57

You don’t need to be able to get big air on the FOD DH trails – they’re mostly tech rather than jumpy flow.

GBU has some big jumps but they’re all rollable – 2 big drops that have chicken lines round them.

Sheepskull is probably a nice tech trail that’s challenging but not difficult and no death defying features. Corkscrew ups the level of tech but again no mandatory drops or jumps.

Countdown into Launchpad is a fast and float trail covered in rollers but non proper tables or gaps. You can come a cropper on it going too fast if anything as it encourages you just to bomb along

The trails at Llandegla are easier than the trails in the forest of Dean.

I did the Verderers blue in an hour (a couple of weeks ago, that’s with a snack stop), not bad for an old bat. There have been some great improvements since 2021.
Saw a young buzzard calling very loudly for its mother and other various birds, so still a bit of wildlife there.

It’s running very fast today, the rain from the last few days has taken the edge off the dust and everything is sure grippy.

Ideal conditions.

Mind you, even when it’s pouring down most of the main trails hold up well.

We were there last month, the Verderers blue looked well maintained, good fun with the kids. The full red was very rooty, seemed to be 90% climbing for some reason. Stronger riders or e-bikers might find it a blast.

We loved the pedalabikeaway cafe + bike shop, some lovely people working there.

Driving down tomorrow evening so I’ll be riding on Saturday. It sounds like GBU and the DH tracks will be my thing.
On a red/black Trek Rail , blue enduro helmet, say hello if you’re there!

Edit

Just watched Ben Deakin riding GBU

Looks great, I’ll be happy on that all day!

We wanna see road gap sends!!!

That your youngster Weeksy?
Love it.

Yes sir, the month he turned 13 I think it was.

Dave Evans’ shop in Ross long gone. His only contact is via a mobile that’s never on and no signal anyway or as the locals do, drop a wheel by his back door and at some point it’s done.

How sloppy is it there at the moment? Haven’t been for 6 weeks thanks to an injury, are we at Shorty levels of slop yet?

Was nice on Sunday on the Enduro trails, wet on the DH…. it’s been a lot wetter in last few days… i’d expect it’s horribly wet now.

It’s pretty greasy at the moment, the rain hasn’t cut down into the dirt deeply as yet, so its slick, on hard pack in most places.

We’ve been digging & once you are through the top layer it’s still dusty, which is weird. 🙂