I’m toying with the idea of doing the Level 2 MBL. Looking at the requirements and it says I should have evidence of 11 ‘quality rides’ in the previous 12 months. Does anyone know what qualifies as a quality ride?

Is this for the qualification? Usually, you’ll do the course, go away for six months or so and return with a log book full of logged rides in the hills. The reality, is that if you’re a regular off road mountain biker who likes going into the hills for a few hours, you’ll have no problem showing your experience and you’ll find that nearly every ride you do is a qualifier…

Remember that the L2 qualification is pretty all-encompassing and is designed to be achievable for outdoor instructors and walking guides who want to add a cycling element to their offering. You’ll be fine, I reckon.

Level 3 is a lot more testing, but still achievable by mortals.

If I get home tired, happy, and in one piece, that counts as a quality ride.

Oh, and a relatively clean bike is also a bonus.

Thanks, @Chipps, I was thinking of the qualification. It actually says

On or prior to your training day you will need to provide evidence of recent rides in appropriate terrain (we recommend a minimum of 15 quality rides; four rides should be 4 hours or more in duration). We have an online Logbook that can be downloaded or printed if needed.

I live in Warwickshire so ‘appropriate terrain’ might mean quite a drive, depending on what they mean.

I seem to recall it elaborates slightly by suggesting 4hrs + duration…

Dunno about quality, but I’d say anything over 1600m fits the bill as a ‘ big mountain day’. Or if it’s relatively flat then anything above 50km.

But equally I rate some much shorter rides as quality training material if something else of significance crops up. They would go in my logbook if good ( or even bad) decisions that helped my learning occurred.

So that’s 11 trips round the woods and two weekends of double day rides. Should be manageable. 🙂

I think they’re simply after proof that you can handle yourself in an assortment of weather and terrain and deal with any of the mishaps that you’ll come across on them. I don’t think anyone actually totted up the hours in my log book. The more you ride a mountain bike, the more likely it is that you’ll have to deal with punctures, broken chains, a cold riding buddy, running out of food/water (or planning not to) and generally getting out there and a bit cold/wet/lost and dealing with it. That’s more likely to happen on longer rides, where you can’t just scoot home.

I think a mate did based mainly on rides from Luton plus a few trips further afield