Another vote for Minton Batch. I like it, but I can’t see what all the fuss is about tbh.
Doethie Valley too. Again I enjoyed the ride, but I was expecting something more memorable from the trail itself, given all the hype.
Neither are bad trails, but both are a little short of the awesomness you might expect given their legendary status IMHO. Even the Vertebrate Wales Mountainbiking guidebook includes the Long Mynd (even though it is in England,) basically because of Minton Batch.

In the past I’ve really enjoyed Llandegla, though I went back earlier this year, on my own, and found it pretty dull. I think it’s maybe a great place to ride with friends, but when there’s nobody chasing you/to chase/mess about on the jumps with, it’s a bit boring. Good cake though, right?

The magazines are still re-printing 20 year old ‘best places to ride’ articles, same as the trail center articles which is at least 5 years out of date, lazy journalism fed into folk who don’t know better.

(Oh, and if you don’t enjoy Minton Batch there is something wrong with you)

Lots on here seem to have missed the point entirely. You can still enjoy a trail whilst also thinking it did not live up to the hype. Not that hard a concept to grasp

Minton Batch is very Meh….but the Mynd is superb. Explore and you will be rewarded

nor is it hard to grasp that we have all looked fwd to a ride and been disappointed by it and think it was not worth the effort/other options were better.

nor is it hard to grasp that we have all looked fwd to a ride and been disappointed by it and think it was not worth the effort/other options were better.

agreed

You’re just not reading it fast enough – is it possible you’re a bit underskilled?

I really bloody fast, trust me. It’s simply that this thread does not in any way live up to my expectations. I’ve read a lot of classic literature in my time from Jayne Eyre through to Five Go To Blillycock Hill – one of the true greats of modern writing – and this thread just doesn’t compare. Maybe it’s fundamentally unrealistic pitching STW against Enid Blyton? I don’t know…

Yeah, yeah, I bet your lips moved when you read Jayne Eyre. Anyway I’m not sure you’re as fast as you think – I still have almost all the Enid Blyton KOMs, though I do have to keep reporting the people using e-readers.

+1 on 5 go to Billycock. Definitely one of my favs

Drumlanrig. Definitely been much hyped on here.

Minton Batch is a nice little singletrack, it’s a really nice trail, just not outstanding, but it’s almost criminal to hype it to the extent where folk could perhaps be disappointed and not return to the area.
I don’t think riding it on an xc hardtail or an endooro bike makes a jot of difference.

He’s right you know.
You need to ride it on a tandem for to to really come alive. 😉

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMXXaKgrom8[/video]

No one here has a good word to say about Llandegla it seems, but Mr Pea and I always enjoy it, as do our friends. A couple of laps swooping round the red + black, with a brew and cake afterwards. What’s not to like?

Swinley

Just got a tad bored of its twisty flatness?!

Loads of people there though so perhaps its just me??

No one here has a good word to say about Llandegla it seems

It’s not that folk don’t like Llandegla, it’s just that maybe it’s not as good as it’s hyped up to be. I like Llandegla, but only with a few mates to race to high five and chest bump.

Garburn pass. Not as interesting as I had hoped. Lean bike, stand and carve into scree most of the way down.

Yeah, yeah, I bet your lips moved when you read Jayne Eyre. Anyway I’m not sure you’re as fast as you think – I still have almost all the Enid Blyton KOMs, though I do have to keep reporting the people using e-readers.

Sorry for the slow reply, I’ve just read War and Peace which took me almost 25 minutes. The whole thing with Blyton and Strava is small beer. I barely even bother with it these days. Too easy.

failedengineer – Member
Drumlanrig. Definitely been much hyped on here.

Genuinely surprised, as probably my favourite man made type trail out of all the Scottish ones….

Gisburn Forest, is just utter crap we go every 8 months or so then realize why we left it so long 🙄

Max Wall – Member
Swinley

Just got a tad bored of its twisty flatness?!

That silly bit near the start of the Blue, where you go around about 300 million 180deg bermed corners for what feels likes hrs, then finish about 12foot from where you started……..

(i mean, that bit bores me, and i’m GOOD at riding berms! I see some people get to the end and still have no clue about how to carry speed round a bermed bend…… lol)

Continental divide trail in colorado.

Much hyped, supposed to be the highlight of the trip, all the best bits were within 30 minutes of the start leaving 30 odd miles to go that could have been in a welsh plantation or quarry.

The rest of Colorado Crested Butte area was mind blowingly awesome though!

Thetford hasn’t been slagged off yet………….must be brilliant then. Not been hyped either though.

Continental divide trail in colorado

Agree to that in part, although the trail section running south from Molas Pass to Durango is excellent. Not for the feint-of-heart as it starts at 10,900 feet and climbs to over 12,000 feet before dropping into Durango
Edit–I misread, you were talking about the Continental Divide trail through CO and I was referring to the Colorado Trail that runs north out of Durango.

It has to be Whistler and the mega for me. Never been, probably never will. Just spent far too many hours in the company of Whistler/Mega bores.

Gosh – this thread goes in a bit.

Hyped trails – there aren’t that many over hyped for the fun they bring. Most of the UK trail centres are good if you are having a good day physically and mentally it can all be great. On a bad day – not so much. In the wrong company it can really stink.

Ones i don’t like are Swinley and Cannock though.

vickypea – Member

Llandegla … What’s not to like?

the enormous boring climb at the start?

i understand that time/money is usually limited, and building singletrack descents linked with existing forest roads is ‘efficient’, but wow, it makes for a boring ride.

(time spent climbing is bound to be at least 70% of any hilly ride, if not more. It helps if that +70% is entertaining)

The singletrack climb up to the Buzzards nest at Glentress is superb, i’d happily climb like that for hours. Easy gradient, corners, occasional swoopy bits, views, optional skinnies, ace.

has this thread just jumped the octopus…

I really bloody fast, trust me. It’s simply that this thread does not in any way live up to my expectations. I’ve read a lot of classic literature in my time from Jayne Eyre through to Five Go To Blillycock Hill – one of the true greats of modern writing – and this thread just doesn’t compare. Maybe it’s fundamentally unrealistic pitching STW against Enid Blyton? I don’t know…

Comedy gold!

Worse I’ve had like this most recently was trails round Santa Cruz. Over there for work, took the bike, pretty bloody dull to be honest. Lots of riding I could do on a cross bike quite happily for 2 minutes of twisty stuff. Everything was just so spread out and not linked together well at all.
Other than that, Afan (I don’t like riding next to drops on my side like that after a few previous incidents) and Glentress (Ok, but just felt it a bit over-hyped, preferred places like laggan wolftrax)

@gardron
If you rode places like Wilder Ranch, then yeah, wide open double track which is mostly rideable on a cross bike. Ride those tracks for the big open views…

Would like to see a cross bike going down Braille though – The area in demo forest/Soquel is some of the best riding I’ve done. You just need to get some way out of town on old roads to find it.

I’ve just booked a weekend in Moab, riding slickrock and Whole Enchilada, so having some second thoughts but will do it as its so different from the riding i normally do…

helpful1 – Member

It has to be Whistler and the mega for me. Never been, probably never will. Just spent far too many hours in the company of Whistler/Mega bores.

Perhaps…. it’s just that is THAT good that people can’t stop bleating on about it? (hint, it’s probably not)

I’ll try to be fair though I have been to Whistler and actually when it comes to Whistler Bike Park it is very good fun, but it’s not MTB nirvana.

First time visitors who’ve previously enjoyed the delights of say… Morzine might be shocked to discover that the park is only serviced by 2 lifts (might be 3 now) that are one-above-the-other.

80% of the park is serviced by the first lift and as you might imagine it’s VERY busy and the queue can be very long.

Compared the huge multi-valley even multi-country huge expanse of lift-accessed trail in PDS, it’s tiny.

Lift passes cost about the same per-day as they do per-week in the Alps.

There are lots of trails outside of the park, but you’ll need to earn your descents, which is fine, but it’s less smiles per hour compared to lift-accessed stuff and you are on Holiday..

Trails in the park are by and large VERY wide and VERY smooth, if you think a UK Trail Centre is too groomed, you ain’t seen nothing yet. They make it easy to go VERY fast, which is a lot of fun, but our chalet had 15%-20% of riders looking at spending the rest of their holiday on the sofa full of pain meds and hoping their insurance would pay off their credit card bills.

It’s very expensive to get to, stay at and eat and drink. When the local riders are having their stuff sent over the from same place in Northern Ireland we are, you know it’s on the pricy side!

It does get ALL the Hype and whilst I enjoyed my trip there a hell of a lot, I don’t think it can live up to it fully. I’d happily go back, but IMHO if I was given a choice between a week in Whistler or a week in PDS I’d be equally happy with either, but it costs a couple of hundred quid to go to the Alps and thousands to go to Whistler and the trip is hell. 14 hour flight, followed by a couple of hours on the road and the sort of hellish jetlag you only get going East to West. Not that driving to the Alps is easy, but EasyJet only takes an hour.

Oh, and Dalby Forest is lame and hysterically overpriced compared to anything in Wales.

Odd comment considering its free?

Gisburn features highly on my list of over-rated trails. Any type of biking is good and man made trails are great but theres just something about Gisburn I really don’t get. You’ve got stuff like Homebaked which is excellent and apparently Hully Gully is great when its not blown to pieces but the rest of it almost without exception is totally and utterly pants. Just loads and loads and loads of featureless motorway smooth singletrack broken up by fire-road and the stuff up towards the cragg which (unless they’re rebuilt it all) looks like the set from a WW1 war film in the trenches.

Real shame as a) its relatively local to me and b) the good bits are really good. The bits inbetween just seem to have been built in a rush with little thought.

Hmmm, interesting.

Since moving to the North West just over a year ago from Northern Ireland, most of what I have ridden here has been underwhelming. I came from natural, woodland trials. Completely different grip levels and completely different trial layout. I’m yet to find a place I want to ride every week.

I agree on Glentress to be honest, but any time I visit it’s with a group of mates and it’s much more about the criac than the trials. Inners on the other hand is one of my favourite places.

Someone find me some great natural woodland trials in the North West please.

Bike Park Wales in general.

Some nice bits of trail but so disappointing to find myself at the bottom waiting for a bus after 10 mins on the bike. Not my idea of bike riding.

dbukdbuk – Member
Bike Park Wales in general.

Some nice bits of trail but so disappointing to find myself at the bottom waiting for a bus after 10 mins on the bike. Not my idea of bike riding.

The waiting is pretty poor, considering the buses are often sat just up the road.

BPW is good, although would like to see some more challenging tracks or option lines. Uninterrupted runs from top to bottom makes it more interesting/harder

Cut Gate. Perhaps I was expecting the holy grail given all the praise it gets, but my whelm was well and truly undered.

Hey Colin, drop me a line. Will show you some stuff you’ll enjoy as promised.

🙂

Someone find me some great natural woodland trials in the North West please.

The trouble with the northwest is that much of it is moorland where all the trees were cut down 1000 years ago. What trails there are usually short sections in patches of woodland that are often highly cheeky. Hebden’s the best place I know. There’s a group of us ride there most Thursday nights if you fancy joining us: http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/heptonstallhebden-bridge-riders

dbukdbuk – Member

Bike Park Wales in general.

Some nice bits of trail but so disappointing to find myself at the bottom waiting for a bus after 10 mins on the bike. Not my idea of bike riding.

I think that’s always going to be the case with UK gravity parks, I’ve certainly not found the buses at Antur or Cwmcarn to be any better.

The fact they have to use the same road to go up as well as down and it’s not always wide enough for 2 to pass explains the bit of a dance they do.

Personally I like it there, but it’s a 20 min drive for me so not so much of an ‘occasion’ as someone who’s spent a few hours getting there or come down for the weekend.

I know the people who run it have always dreamed of opening a chair lift, they even caused a huge fuss when they first launched their FB page and it showed a pic of riders on a lift, but it’s a very small hill for a chair lift.

Cannock Chase, id rather a road ride….!