Kielder forest – MTB or Gravel bike?

heading to Kielder in a few weeks and from what i have seen on the interweb it looks to be better suited to taking the gravel bike than the mtb….anyone ridden there care to offer an opinion?

Depends what you plan on riding. There is a trail centre there. If you just plan on riding the forest roads or Lakeside path, either or perfectly suitable.

Both. The MTB stuff is ok and you could do 100s of miles of gravel if so inclined.

+1 onehundredthidiot

Utterly miles & miles of gravel plus TBH the MTB trails are quite old-school so pretty much doable on a decent gravel bike.

@intheborders thats what i thought, the MTB trails dont look challenging. Took my gravel bike to Gisburn forest last week for the same reason which gave me lots of options on other rides, just wanted to make sure i wasnt potentially missing out on some really good MTB trails.

Newcastleton is not far away too (literally within riding distance). I’ve never bothered too much with the MTB trails at Kielder other than to link stuff up. It really depends on your preferences, but if gravel is your thing then there are endless options.

gravel bike for the MTB trails in Keilder and Gisburn, really? You lot must be riding gods.

First point – check what’s open. Huge amounts of the MTB trails were destroyed in the winter storms. Lots still closed. This might limit your MTB choices. The MTB trail over to newcastleton is shut.

Otherwise, either bike is fine. Depends what you want to do. I’ve ridden most of the red stuff on a CX bike but it is rough and hard on the body – MTB would be more fun. 6″ trail bike might be a bit much though.

Hundreds of miles of gravel roads if that floats your boat. Have a look at the dirty Reiver routes for inspiration. Again, good chance you will come up against major tree blockages on minor forest tracks.

Depends on how much riding you plan on doing. The actual mtb trials could be done on a gravel bike, just slower, but they are more enjoyable on a mtb. It’s not the most technical riding for a trial centre, don’t go thinking you are getting tweed Valley level of trials. But they are good for a quick blast around.

Other than that there are many miles of forest roads which are more suited to a gravel bike.
I suppose it all depends on what type of riding you want to do and how much riding you will do when you are there.

In my opinion it’s not a destination to go solely for the mtbing. For the size of the place there isn’t that much trials, There are certainly better places to go. But the mtb riding is ok if you are already going there for a holiday.

to be honest i wasnt expecting much from the trail centre, ive ridden most of them over the years and with the exception of Glenlivet ive never been that blown away with them. was looking for some ‘remote’ riding which is why we thought we would try Kielder. rode the Cairngorms last year but fancied a shorter drive this year.

If you want remote riding, I’d not bother with any trail centre. And / or I’d not advise taking a gravel bike down the blacks there – just in case that was your plan?

Use maps to figure out a remote route yourself. As others say, there is plenty of cracking gravel around Kielder so knock yourself out. You’ll enjoy it on a gravel bike or MTB for sure.