You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Got a load of holiday at work to book up and am considering going away for a few days in September as I desperately need to ride my bike on a proper mountain again, preferably with nice weather!
I can't really afford much, probably about £500 maybe a bit more, so not sure whether that'd go far at all. The kind of riding I like is DH/FR - not really into techy rocky stuff (see the latest sweary northerners video, that's not my sort of thing) I much prefer fast, flowy, jumps and drops. Probably more bike park than natural stuff I guess though a mix of the two would be nice. Would be good to go somewhere that has decent and not extortionate nightlife. Lift assisted if possible but not essential I suppose. I basically want a poor mans Whistler haha.
Have a mate who has just moved out to Tenerife so that's looking like a good (cheap) bet at the minute, though not really my kind of riding from what I can tell. Not sure where else to look?
Bump!
tour of trail centres/DH courses in UK, Scotland etc. Camping??
Don't know where you live but drive down through Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and France to the Alps and back. There's bike parks scattered all down the area starting with one in southern Belgium and you could pretty much drive somewhere, camp overnight, ride then move on. Food and drink from supermarkets rather than restaurants and I reckon easily possible to do a week well within your budget.
[url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mountain-Biking-Europe-Footprint-Activity/dp/190609831X ]This Book[/url]
[img] 
[/img]
If you camp, take the ferry and avoid the toll roads then driving down to the Alps could be an option. Not sure exactly when the PdS area closes their lifts but I think it's mid-September.
Lift pass is still going to be £100ish for the week though.
If you press on through the Mont Blanc tunnel to Auosta then Pila would provide you what you're looking for. Not sure about camping in the area though.
Munque chick if it looks like we're set for a late summer again then Scotland may be on the cards i guess! Thing is most Dh and trail centre stuff I've ridden here isn't really the kind of riding i enjoy the most. Would quite like to ride some of the south Wales stuff though, did north and mid Wales in march and it was great!
I'll check out that book i reckon 🙂
i was hoping to get a cheap flight if possible, my car is really inefficient and would end up costing probably just as much in petrol!
_tom_, I'm doing a mini road trip in August, doing a days uplift at Ae forest, two at fort Bill, then back down for the Innerleithen uplift weekend. All DH runs, but have swoopy jumpy options too.
I managed to cram in 4 trails in a weekend a couple of weeks back, cost about £100 in petrol and stuff.
Starting in M'boro drove to Llandegla (I'd intended to do Stainburn on the way down but more of that later), did a lap of the black. I'd intended to do Stainburn but set off late so went to Cannock instead on the way to Derby where I was staying the night. Snapped chain halfway round, walked back to the car. Sunday did FTD and the Monkey, then up the A38 to Sheffield and did Ranmoor/Rivi. If it had gone to plan it would have been 4 different trails but it was still an epic ammount of MTBing in a weekend and cost no more than spares and petrol (and food obviously). It does rely on you either having freinds houses to sleep at or a big enough car to sleeep in. But if you planned it bettter than I did you could probably do if for much less petrol by picking centers closer together.
The one thing I learnt was always take a camping stove and some meals either freeze dried or stop at a supermarket (or bodybuilder 'meal replacement shakes' I've gad good luck with before) as the ammount of calories I was burning must ahve been huge and takeaways weren't doing me any favours after 48 hours on them!
Might plan a 4 day weekend soon and aim for 8 trails, now that really would be epic!
That's similar to what me and my mates did in March for Wales, just got travelodges which worked out at about £40 each then shared petrol on top of that. Different place each day, did a few trail centres, Snowdon and a FOD uplift! Was a fun week but wouldn't want to do it myself as it wouldn't be as good. I'll probably have to do this alone as one mates broken his collar bone and the other has booked up all his holiday for the year!
I do fancy something short and abroad but not sure whether it's worth packing up the bike for a few days, not to mention how much more it'll cost!