im based in the east mids are there any other trail centres apart from sherwood pines or cannock chase that are within an hours reach?

Hicks Lodge? Pitched at families but the blue is 4 miles of swoopy bermy fun at speed.

Decent café as well.

Not really trail centres, but there is Grenoside, lady cannons and a lot of Peak District to go at!

If you’ve got a spare £50K-£75K you could build one –

If you do please can I have a go there?

Lerk you know Lady Canning’s is closed right?

Maybe Lady Cannons is something else? I’m intrigued…

APF

The east mids is a fairly big place, Wakerley Woods has an OK blue route, and some nice off piste / trail pixie sections (although not the driest atm). It’s also got some nice bits across the road at Fineshade. Not technical, but a good morning out. Thetford isn’t too far from the edge of the area if you want a more xc blast. Other than that you’ve got a loooong drive north or west. 🙁

<slight hijack> More cash where’s hicks lodge? Worth a run from belper? Lads been riding cannock with me lately but struggled a bit last time we went with the climbing.
Adam do you ride any local stuff, only need to go to trail centers is the conditions at the moment.

Hicks Lodge is about 2 miles south of Ashby de la Zouch,as said it’s an easy but fun ride with various route options and yes the Café is great,friendly staff and nice cakes!

wrightyson – Hicks lodge is just outside Ashby/Measham, have a look here. More Cash is right, the cafe is good and I rekon your lad would enjoy himself.

Hicks lodge is great to go with your kids. If it’s with your kid/kids and you just fancy a ride then have you done the loop around Carsington? it’s good, about 8 miles for the full loop. Probably a tougher ride for the kids than Hicks as it’s quite undulating.

I’m Carsington born and bred so done that many times. Laddo is just 11 but loves the proper stuff and rode cannock easily the first time but blew up a week later on cardiac hill, last thing I want to do is put him off. Perhaps hicks might be a bit too easy for him then but thanks for the advice.

bombjack – Member
Wakerley Woods has an OK blue route, and some nice off piste / trail pixie sections

With hopefully more to come this year… Would be nice to be able to avoid the fire roads altogether.

(although not the driest atm)

Heehee. To say the least. We are looking forward to Wakerley drying out this year – should happen for about 2 days some time in August.

Wrightyson Hicks will probably be good for your son as you can really blast round at speed and practise his berm and jumping skills, do a few laps easily enough

OP, plenty of natural stuff local that means I haven’t touched Cannock or Pines for ages, don’t see the point in driving to either with all the good stuff around Belper, Ambergate, Matlock area. It’s not all strictly legal though so not going to post up any routes here, but look at Strava for an idea of where to go, then there is also the Peak of course
If your further south then there is some good riding to be had in north Leicestershire, or round the Ticknall area south of Derby

APF,
I know it’s closed at the minute, but assume it will reopen eventually!

And it was cannings, bloody autocorrect!

there is some good riding to be had in north Leicestershire

Is there? any discreet pointers as that’s not far from my patch

Thanks guys will have a look into hicks lodge, wrighty son- I’m based in Duffield but haven’t lived here long. Am I near any good local riding? How does it stand up in the current weather?

In Duffield you have some great riding right on your doorstep. Basically along the whole valley upto Matlock. I’ve been avoiding it recently as it will be pretty boggy right now, just sticking to Cannock to keep my fitness up, but over summer I’ll be up your way a couple of times a week. Look up Ambergate, Black Rocks, coxbench woods(drum hill), Chevin. There is loads in and around that end of town. You’re lucky, I live the wrong side of Derby!

You have the Chevin basically on your door step for a quick pootle. Just blast along the a6 and head up by milford social club. From there you can head over to belper virtually road less. As wobbli says above there’s plenty. I rode a little 90 min route from the door (top of belper) on Sunday taking in the Chevin and Longwalls lane. Those two areas holding up fine as mostly grit/sand stone. However crich chase and shining cliff are best avoided at the moment as they will be bog, it’s easily 8 weeks since I rode those. Black rocks (wirksworth) is my original proving ground where I was riding 25 years ago. We do one regular 16 miler which takes in a lot of the above with possibly 2 miles of that road to link it at most. Born and rode it for a long time and there’s still stuff over riber/Lea way that I’ve never ridden. If you want a guide out anytime once it dries up give me a shout.

Adam
I might be out your way on Saturday, either Chevin/Morley Woods or Blackrocks/Crich/Shining cliff routes that Wrighty mentions in previous post
Not certain where yet but will be first ride on the new bike and it will be muddy in places
I based south of Derby but my usual mtb routes are all up that way

Also if you on Facebook check out the’ Life Behind Bars’ group, vast majority of them are based around this area, or there is the Derwent Valley mtb club – dvatc.co.uk
And if your needing any maintenance doing or parts I can’t recommend Andy at belperbikes enough (again on Facebook – not Belper cycles) or Dave at bigonbikes.co.uk in Little Eaton

+1 for Dave at Big on Bikes.

From Duffield you can link across via Little Eaton and Drum Hill towards Ilkeston. It isn’t gnarly but we have miles of bridleways, towpaths, and cyclepaths linking to Derby and Nottingham. Liberally scattered with cafes and pubs.

All thanks for the response i will bear in mind Dave at big on bikes,
Ian1775—Ive got a new bike coming in a couple of weeks so will be struggling on saturday
wrightyson==I might take you up on the guide once the trails dry up
Have a good weekend everyone

I wouldn’t live anywhere else but Amber Valley!

Fabulous riding imo.

^^^agreed^^^ very lucky where we are!

I wouldn’t live anywhere else but within easy reach of Amber Valley

😉

Along the Derwent Valley is where the good stuff is – Amber Valley out towards Ripley is a bit meh! 😉

Let’s be fair Ripley is a bit meh 😆

*waves banner for the Erewash Valley*

8)

*gets banner stolen at knifepoint*

🙄