I have now riden my bike so feel I can come back in here 😉

After a two year lay off ( :-O ) due to all sorts of stuff I have finally got my bike sorted and started riding again. In the LBS I was suggested Gisburn Forest – so, any good? I have ridden most of the trail centres across the UK so how does it stack up? Is it worth a trip?

There has been loads of threads on here about it if you have a search, I love it, it’s worth a trip, i would do both the red and blue routes to make longer, can be techical in places, some nice climbing and good for your fittest and riding skills.

We can meet up and I will show around if you want.

I ain’t riding with anyone until I get some semblance of fitness back! I rode my local hack last week (when I was fit I could do it three times in a row) and I was breathing through my ass by the end of the first (and only) lap.

🙁

Thanks for the offer though 🙂

It’s pretty good – quite rough and cut up in places but some really fun bits. It’s a bit too ‘XC’ for my tastes, ie there’s no big climbs/descents due to the nature of the terrain – lots of up and down in quick succession.

I like Gisburn, a lot of it is how I feel they should’ve done Dalby forest , plenty of techy stuff some nice descents and climbs.

I park at the pub (Dog and Partridge at Tosside) as the foods pretty good and so is their beer + they have a small bike shop and a (charity) bike wash. Always do the red loop but do the section down from the pub twice as I think thats the best bit.

If you’re lacking fitness why not go practice at Stainburn that’ll get your lungs going 😀

I don’t ride Stainburn much as there are no bridleways out there, it seems to close to drive and the ride out to it is boring on an MTB – if I am out that way I prefer to take my road bike around the reservoirs 🙂

If I stay local I tend to do one of the loops around Harrogate – easy to get in 15 to 20 miles mainly on legal bridleways with the odd cheeky bit of footpath. When I was fit I could get in 50 miles+ without ever being more than about 8 miles from my house.