Looks like my next job is taking me to Germany, Paderborn to be exact 🙁 will be within a couple of hours of the Harz mountains.

Anyone any experience of mtbing in the area?

Apparently it’s supposed to be very good, I have seem some videos on you tube etc.

We did some trails on a tour. well marked, well maintained. No need for the glum smiley you’ll find ladies in camper vans on the road out of town who will cheer you up for a small fee if you find the mountain biking dull.

Had a bit of a holiday there a couple of years ago, stayed in Goslar. Nice town, but found the mountain biking a bit of a let-down. Most of the official waymarked routes seemed to try to actually prevent you from finding any singletrack. I’m sure if we had the local knowledge we could have put together some better stuff. The forests were pine plantation and not very exciting for either riding or walking. The steam trains up the Brocken were great, though.

We had a few days stopover in 2012. Slightly eastern block feel to some of the towns (the wall ran through that area) but probably the most techy mtb potential of anywhere we’ve tried in Germany. Will definitely be going back to investigate properly sometime (have previously tried and been underwhelmed by Black Forest and Pfalzerwald).

Didn’t manage anything too interesting as only had 2 days and one kid sick plus a mate from Kassel managed to properly break himself a few weeks before (so no local guide).

There was a keen mtb couple staying in our b&b. He had lots of rocky singletrack on his “navi” and was really positive – reckoned singletrack / cheeky trail mix of walkers and bikers got on fine in that region with far fewer conflicts than the south.

Hope it’s not too late but head over to Braunlage. They have a trail centre there now apparantly and there is a cable car to take you to the top of the mountain. Some info here if you are interested. Bike park When I have been there we have always headed over to Schierke from Braunlage across some seriously rocky trails.