Hey all.

This Easter break I am looking for somewhere suitable to take my girlfriend on a nice MTB ride.

She is not so technical and her bike isn’t the best, but she enjoys a few slopes. Looking for something around 10 mile

We are in West Yorkshire, is there anything near here at all? There’s lots of family routes but they all look pretty flat and made mostly suitable for kids. Such as Spen Valley Greenway

We may venture to Llandegla for the blue route but it’s a bit out of the way for us so I’m looking for something a bit closer. Gisburn blue would still fairly technical I think?

Many thanks

Blue at Sherwood Pines or Hicks Lodge if you don’t mind a journey.

Yes, there are loads of non-technical trails in West Yorkshire, and over into Lancashire. They’re often old packhorse trails across the moors. And the area should be relatively quiet on a bank holiday weekend.

Before we suggest anything, bear in mind they are not way-marked trails. What are your navigation skills like? Or do you have a GPS?

Dalby Forest was pretty non-technical I thought.
Park at the bike park area for more choice of trails.

Diggle Jiggle or Hilly Hebden are pleasant and definitely non-technical.
Or Hard’en Fast (variation of Bingley Bash)

The canal?

Gisburn blue isn’t too technical now they’ve resurfaced it.

Coupe of laps at Leeds bike park?

Dalby blue route might be worth doing, a mixture of fire road and non technical single track, but with some hills. Sherwood is similar too.

I think there’s a sort of way marked route around Wetherby. Not ridden it so not sure how easy it is to follow, but it might be worth googling to see what it’s like.

Sherwood pines is a good call as if your good lady is like mine she hates peddling uphill.

Leeds bike park could be ok too, blue trail is suitable for a beginner ..
Oakwell hall (birstall) also has a great little mtb blue trail which you could incorporate in a local ride
Ladybower seemed a popular choice yesterday

Tunnels and bridges from Clapham is a good route all on good surfaces and has a cafe about half way at fiazor (sp?). I can’t recall if it’s 15km or 15miles.

Sherwood Pines. It’s much closer than Llandegla and even the red is pretty steady. Taken an 8 and 9 year old round the majority of it.

There’s a little loop at the start which gives a good idea of what it’s like and if that’s too much you can just head back to the visitor centre and stick to the fire roads / green route.

Gisburn blue and try red was a nice half day for thee kids when they were small and on cheapo bikes, and we’re not talking kids who were that much into it.

That said, it can be hard to calibrate. Last time (for all time) I took my wife to an easy bit of built trail in the Washburn valley (beescroft woods?), I sensed that things weren’t planning out brilliantly when a bit of bumpy fire road with some loose stones pissed her off sufficiently that she got off the bike and chucked it at the ground. Sorry. Just wanted to share.

Wessenden Valley up from Marsden. Steady 4 mile climb, views to die for, turn round, fast but nontech descent. Ice-cream at A Month Of Sundaes when you get back

Yep Oakwell hall is good with the new 1 mile blue – and then you can do the bridle ways around oakwell – then you you head up to drighlington and across to tong and fulneck – all brdileway and good fun

After growing up mainly in Leeds / Bradford and now living in the midlands for the last 16 years, please don’t drive down to Ashby for the Hicks Lodge trail.

It fits the brief but is duller than a dull thing in comparison to the wonderful places you have in West Yorkshire. For a very easy ride, a trip down the leeds/Liverpool canal is (used to be) a pleasant day out. We used to criss cross it in between Esholt to Skipton with some great riding either side.

Might have changed massively in the 20 years since I last did it, but it can’t be as boring as Hicks Lodge (which isn’t a bad place to see really, but I’m 15 minutes away tops)

Sherwood is ok for a beginner as said, as probably is a simple ride around the perimeter of Ladybower.

Plenty in and around Leeds / Calderdale though.

Took my missus to Leeds Urban Bike Park a few weeks ago and she loved it. The features on the downs can all be rolled but after an hour she was quite happy doing some of the smaller jumps. There’s a trail that runs straight through the middle which is easy to pedal back up. Leeds school aren’t off this week so it should be pretty quiet.