[Closed] FoD 20th Feb, anyone joining in?

I'll see if I can be free, be good to meet up after years of chatting **** on here and chat motorbikes if nothing else! 😂

excellent, indeed it would mate... 100%.

If the weather isn’t shyte, I’ll probably be about. I’m not riding anything in the cycle centre though 😆

HEy if you can show us better stuff, i'm all in... I will need to be back at roughly the right time though as i can't phone the lad... I will leave him with a wallet though to get hot chocolate and pizza just in case 😀

Just tell the lad you’re away to ride bitch gap, nuns chuff and hairy gash and you’ll be back by 1 😁

Might be up for this as well depending on the severity of the off piste you might be riding. 2.5hr drive for me so a long way to go to end up in hospital, I could just jump off the garage roof here and have the same result 🙂

Might be up for this as well depending on the severity of the off piste you might be riding.

As you may have seen in my other posts, i'm no jump/DH god that's for sure.

I don’t ride a huge amount of the stuff over the road from the cycle centre around the Rubber Duck climb, as it’s generally a bit haggard & tame.

If I’m over that way it tends to be around Bixslade quarry (tramway trails) which are less ridden, but steeper & harder (but not too bad really).

Happy to show people around, although it’s hard to judge what people will consider too much or ok. At the end of the day if something is a bit OTT, that’s fine, it’s not a race 🙂

Even if the weather is shyte, I’ll probably be about. I’m not riding anything in the cycle centre though

FTFM.

@hob-nob

Bixslade quarry (tramway trails) which are less ridden, but steeper & harder (but not too bad really).

Is that the stuff opposite Nun's Chuff and Cliffhanger?

How long to pedal there from car park? Don't forget, we don't all have any idea at all where you're on about.

Annoyingly this weekend would have been a perfect excuse as my plans for kiboshed this morning.
Next Sunday I'd need to be leaving at 1pm 🙁

I'm tempted to come along - but I've no idea what im doing that weekend, and it may be weather dependent 🙂

doomanic
Full Member

Bixslade quarry (tramway trails) which are less ridden, but steeper & harder (but not too bad really).

Is that the stuff opposite Nun’s Chuff and Cliffhanger?

It's the stuff that's across the valley from those, you either go up the horrible climb by the side of the RSPB site, or through the Bix Slade / Spion Kop Quarry, there's a path at the top that then puts you at the top of that hill. The steep rocky ones can be lethal in the wet, so i'd say check the weather before hitting those for the first time, my favourite, and pretty easy one is the one that starts at the end of the quarry fence at the top, you see the path, follow it round the fence and you hit the trail, the next one along that has the two start points is my least favourite as i have a low bottom bracket!

From the trail centre, it's 15-20 minutes, you can head up rubber duck and do one of the tracks down to save fireroading it all.

I wouldn't say all the stuff at wastelands is tame, you can hit the ones that end at the road next to the colliery, they have some nice gap jumps and rocky bits, they start down the next turn from Hairy Snatch heading towards the road.

Lol I'm scared now, you know this isn't Megavalanche or death race 2000?

@weeksy my main concern is hitting a hairy snatch, it didn't end well last time. I might be safer playing on Launchpad and Sheepskull 🙂

I've got no issues with that John. I wasn't planning on going home in an ambulance just to prove something. The Sheepskull sort of stuff and the stuff me and @joebristol rode a couple of weeks ago was tech enough but fun enough too for sure. Even the Enduro trails like Elephant Man.

There's loads over there, the steep stuff by the quarry is probably best to do first time in a nice dry summer day, as a couple of them are a fair bit steeper and looser than sheepskull or hairy snatch, i doubt you'll have the time to do them all over in wastelands, if you're heading from the centre you've got Y2K and Elephant Man to play with if you want as well on the way, and the calmer ones at wastelands.

Personally i prefer sticking around Lydney Woods or over Parkend on a weekend, bit quieter if you know where to park!

Parkend I love but I'd have to get there and get back which by the time I park etc would lose 30 min riding time

When were you last there? I was up on the 23rd of Jan on a coaching session, wasn't the same day was it?

Yup. He was being coached by Wye Mtb that day 1-4

You need an ebike to get around the forest ;o)

Damn straight you do, it's a hilly bugger. But I don't have one. Well, technically I do, but I ain't riding it.

@weeksy

I’ve got no issues with that John. I wasn’t planning on going home in an ambulance just to prove something. The Sheepskull sort of stuff and the stuff me and @joebristol rode a couple of weeks ago was tech enough but fun enough too for sure. Even the Enduro trails like Elephant Man.

We did either Elephant Man or Y2K (not sure which) and then did a few of the runs in the Rubber Duck area. The harder one may have been Black Gold or it may have been a slight variation off it. That one chute bit with the rut down the middle and roots sticking out seemed fairly hard to me!

Thanks for info mate. You making it?

I don’t think I can make that weekend - if that changes I will as always love a bit of FOD off piste. The wife has ordered some over complicated pergola thing with shaded slats that twist round and I have to build it / get it screwed into the patio 🤷‍♂️

Hoping to get out this coming weekend to make up for a weekend off - going to get up at the crack of dawn and do a Risca explore I think as I’ve never strayed past the official Cwmcarn trails.

I'd be up for this, happy with whatever FoD off-piste stuff throws up.

I guess we better firm up a plan then guys...

10am at the fence next to the cafe... i'll be on a dark Whyte G170 with pink pedals. I won't be wearing a pretty bow in my hair or a rose though. 🙂

Just to clarify, while i need to be back at 1pm to chat to coach and pick up the lad, that doesn't mean we cannot ride after... would be interesting to see him and hob-nob together on something like sheepskull, i thnk he could learn a lot from trying to chase hob-nob.

Mini hijack - don't suppose anyone can point me in the direction of the above mentioned trails could they? I can't see them on trail forks and off the back of this and my cancelled plans I've booked a b&b in coleford for tomorrow and Saturday night

You'd really enjoy the riding just by the pub called the fountain Inn. I could kinda talk you through it but try Strava Heatmap from there

Grand thank you! Fountain pub roughly where 😅

Is that the stuff opposite Nun’s Chuff and Cliffhanger?

Kind of. Further up the valley though (opposite inbetweener/alien). They don’t officially ‘exist’ so as not to attract attention from the forestry.

It’s the stuff that’s across the valley from those, you either go up the horrible climb by the side of the RSPB site, or through the Bix Slade / Spion Kop Quarry

Or up the tramway and left, it’s probably the most mellow way up. The other climbs are dirty, on anything other than an ebike, especially if you are riding a few of the trails on that hill.

FWIW, I think they pretty much ride well all year round, other than total slop or frozen ground, as they don’t get the sun.

I’ll confirm pending the weather nearer the time if I’ll be out and what I am going to ride.

Mini hijack – don’t suppose anyone can point me in the direction of the above mentioned trails could they? I can’t see them on trail forks

Google Mary Rose Young pottery. They are in the woods over the road. Go into the fire road & turn right up the hill, keep aiming for the peak and you will see a load of the trails on the right. Most are easy flow trails, there is a load of hidden steep stuff there again.

Ok, so if you're looking at fountain, the railway is on your left. Look right, up the road veer left and go up 600m. The woods there on your left are where you'll find them.

http://myforestcottage.co.uk/

Right by there I'd say mate.

Google Mary Rose Young pottery. They are in the woods over the road. Go into the fire road & turn right up the hill, keep aiming for the peak and you will see a load of the trails on the right. Most are easy flow trails, there is a load of hidden steep stuff there again.

That's the location for the Doeys (and other) stuff isn't it, the big yellow outlined cottage, you've got the full nagshead reserve to get through to reach the steep stuff by Bix Slade?

although, it's the beauty of FoD, stuff everywhere, probably also a negative just now due to the amount of building that's going on outside of the unofficially maintained stuff.

Cheers for the pointers folks. Fingers crossed the weather isn't too abominable!

excellent, indeed it would mate… 100%.

Will try and be there... Warning you now though, I'll be on an eBike... Not so much cos I want to, but for the forseeable it's the only chance I have to ride sadly! Knee issues... But at least I can still ride with an eBike. 👍🏻

If the weather isn’t shyte, I’ll probably be about. I’m not riding anything in the cycle centre though 😆

Sentiment echoed... 😂

Plenty of stuff within 15min pedal of Pedalabikeaway well worth riding though weeksy... 👍🏻

I don't care what people bring, at places like FoD i can totally understand an Ebike, put it this way, if everyone meeting that day brought one, i'd be bringing the wifes for sure 🙂 ... 🙂 It'd just be nice to spend the day out having some fun, some laughs and maybe finding a few new trails 🙂

Staunton is the place. So much new stuff gone in here the past 12 months, plus all the original stuff.

Yeah, Staunton is nice in summer, it does seem to be the first place in FoD that gets really boggy in bad weather, that or shutcastle

The trails by the Tramway were well slick last Saturday hope it gets better all rideable just not a lot of speed compared too the week before when the Bluebell/Dowies trails etc were ACE.

Rode out of Parkend on Sunday past after biblical rains and did most of the trails both sides of the tramway talked about above and all three C.E.R.Y.S trails. Was no problem with grip or slop, but boy were we minging by the end of the day. The girls in the cafe in Parkend insisted it was fine to sit own. We all left an inch of mud on our chairs 🙂

If I wasn't away on that weekend I would have joined you. So much to do there and for all abilities.

You don't have to do this, but if you like a crazy drop for your adrenalin then one of our group finally did this one!!

Is that the bit at the bottom of CERIS 1, was at that the week before last and it looked a bit drier then, 3 looked like it hadn't been ridden in a while!

I do like a mess about over that side though, going upwards towards ellwood then over to the stuff at fetter.

Can't remember which name goes with which trail any more to be honest and they have all been removed from Strava now. It is the one from the RSPB carpark that finishes with 2 parallel drops into a quarry. That drop is on the left wall of said quarry when looking from the top of the normal drop ins

Yeah, CERIS 1 i think it is, the exit is a fireroad that's just next to the main road, they're off the beaten path a little, so pretty lightly used compared to wastelands or cannop.

I would probably caveat to weeksy that apart from CERIS 1, the others are horrific in the wet, either off camber slides down a hillface, or going over shiny roots and rocks on the run, another lot that are left by me until summer, if ever!

Well today didn't go as planned.

Came in from the back so picked up sheep skull as it was the only route down without a queue, that was fine, though the root bowl was a bit of a surprise given I couldn't see the exit.

Then it all went wrong.

Lacking any accurate trail mapping or route I made the mistake of taking the verderers off the top which I expected to just cut the corner a bit, not dump me right back down the bottom. It's a nice bit of trail for what it is but not quite what I had planned.

Decided to take the red/blue back up to the top instead of the push up and about the top of the climb decided I needed air out of tyres. Got the rear about right, the front not so much. At that point realised I'd taken the co2 out of my tool kit when I flew last year and haven't put it back.
Gingerly pedaled up until I found someone (coaching a group) and scrounged a pump. Snapped my valve . They left me with the pump and told me to catch them up to return it. Tube in, tyre at silly pressure I rode off after them planning to drop back down to the shop, see if I could get some valves so at least I could get the tyre insert out of my jersey pocket.

Caught up handed back the pump. Faffed with stuff. Caught the same coaching group up half way down the blue. Forgot I had about 50psi and a tube in the front, lent the bike over and washed on some gravel and cartwheeled in front of said coaching group. Broke my garmin and destroyed what little pride I had left.

Spent 30 quid on two valves and a few CO2 cylinders and then proceeded to remove the tube, put the insert back in and re-tubless the front wheel.

It was now 2pm and I'd achieved sod all. I had however broken my garmin, broken a valve, badly injured my pride, landed bloody heavily on the same hip I injured loosing the front wheel of my road bike on leaf mulch on Tuesday morning, oh and bitten through the bite valve on my pack so that had pissed water all over me too.

It improved a lot from there and I got a runs down over near elephant man done, but I must have taken a wrong turn at brixlade quarry as I didn't find a (downward) gradient and given it was now nearly 4pm thought it was high time to sod it and go back tomorrow!

Ha ha. Top day

@dangeourbrain

How did the rest go ?

I've been thrown a minor curveball that the lad is being picked up by his uncle after Katy... That in itself isn't the curveball but he may aslo come riding, which would restrict me to the blue stuff and maybe a bit of Launchpad. But it'll take out the proper tech. But it would be good to show him and try to improve his skills so he can ride more with the boy when they spend time togehter.

i'll know more in the coming days.

It didn't in the end, between a combination of the weather being awful, me not knowing the trails at all and feeling like I'd been beaten up such that I kept wincing every time I moved I thought the opportunity to get it badly wrong was a bit too high.

Disappointed but it was the right decision.

but I must have taken a wrong turn at brixlade quarry as I didn’t find a (downward) gradient and given it was now nearly 4pm thought it was high time to sod it and go back tomorrow!

It's highly unlikely that anyone will find the majority of the Bixslade trails on their own. Those are ones you'd need a guide for since they're out of the way and the route to the top of them is not the most obvious. We did some trail maintenance on them and a couple of the steeper Barnhill trails a few weeks ago though so they should be running a little nicer and less rutty at the moment.

I'm guessing I should have turned left or maybe straight on at the cross of tracks up top, rather than skirt round to the right through the woods past the limestone piles. (Having just looked at an is it's very obvious where my mistake was made, serves me right for following the track through the trees rather than the broad forest road).

Had I realised quite how sore I'd be yesterday I may well have persevered for another hour or so on Saturday.

Still, something for next time - which is to say once I no longer feel I should no longer have stabilisers on my bike!

BiL not riding, so i'll just be dropping the lad off with him...

I will need to think about what to do with the SWorks though so i guess i'll be getting the car dirty if we ride after 1.

Weather looks grim all week, so likely won't be out if it is as bad as it suggests, am very bored of riding in filth now. If by some miracle it improves, i'll be there at the original time. Likely on a black & blue Dreadnought.

IT's a fair point H-N and only the fact that i'm already going means, well, i'm already going lol

Not looking likely for me... Just tested positive with COVID! 🤦🏻

tetrode
Full Member

It’s highly unlikely that anyone will find the majority of the Bixslade trails on their own. Those are ones you’d need a guide for since they’re out of the way and the route to the top of them is not the most obvious. We did some trail maintenance on them and a couple of the steeper Barnhill trails a few weeks ago though so they should be running a little nicer and less rutty at the moment.

As above, also you probably want a guide to take you from easy to hard on them, or give a little info before heading in blind!

Where’s the fun in that?

To be fair, crashing is usually my job, but the worst of those trails do tend to be over the bar crashes, probably worth giving folk a heads up ;o)

To be fair, crashing is usually my job,

You may have some competition on Saturday... 🤣

Dunno about Sat, i'm going on Sunday 😀

I'm childcare this saturday, might be out sunday, but more than likely Lydney Woods or Parkend for the runs that do a little better in the wet.

I'm unsure at the moment - daughter has Covid...

Last time I went to Doeys after a week like this it was a pond, or do you mean other Parkend trails? I don't think I've ever ridden Lydney Woods.

Weird how we all think differently about trails, Doey's does tend to run well in the wet, but does puddle up impressively.

Whereas I wont go near Lydney/Pillowell when it's been raining. Apart from I find most of them a bit flat & dull.

It's my summer weekday lunchbreak spot & that's about it for me. It's much rather ride the steeper, rocky stuff off the side of the tramway.

Whereas I wont go near Lydney/Pillowell when it’s been raining. Apart from I find most of them a bit flat & dull.

Wow, never ridden Widowmaker, Wango Chango, Wang 2, Neptune etc over there?

I'm not too hot on the names, but I think they are the ones over the Pillowell side (by the campsite) - the ones that generally are tight as hell through the trees up at the start?

Other than maybe one or two nadgery corners, I don't think there is anything I have ridden that's tough in those woods.

Other than maybe one or two nadgery corners, I don’t think there is anything I have ridden that’s tough in those woods.

Based upon your results and posts, if something were tough to you, it's downright impossible to 99% of us.

tetrode
Full Member
Whereas I wont go near Lydney/Pillowell when it’s been raining. Apart from I find most of them a bit flat & dull.

Wow, never ridden Widowmaker, Wango Chango, Wang 2, Neptune etc over there?

Yeah, they're the ones i tend to enjoy as well, Wang2 is probably the favourite over that side, as it's just a nice longish run, but i do like the stuff over the other side like Area52 and so on.

As for weather, i'm not that bothered about puddles, off camber, roots, etc do make me wary though, like Widowmaker over in Staunton, i'll avoid those types of rooty/stoney slippery in wet routes like the plague!

@Hob-Nob, you probably do stuff a level above me, i've downgraded a bit of late as well due to a knackered hip, so most of the stuff at Lydney/Pillowell doesn't go past that limit, bar the DH run with the huge gaps and hip jump!

I like the Parkend stuff as well, mainly the runs from the football pitch down to the road, there's so much over there you can just move across a bit to find trails that work a bit better in the wet as there's so many types, the steep ones down the hill to the road, or the flowy runs that end at the bottom of the doey's runs and so on.

Oh it's changed to 9am.

Well, i say 'changed' but it's only in my mind it's changed as apparently it's always been 9am start on this one. LOL... i didn't pay enough attention.

Anyone fancy showing me and a mate round Lydney Woods this weekend? Either day works.

Wish I could, kids stuff again this weekend, looks wet as well, but some of them hold up alright, they’re easy to find depending on where you park, but the pillowell ones are a bit further along and up from the lydney ones

Anyone fancy showing me and a mate round Lydney Woods this weekend? Either day works.

9am on Sunday for the other ride might be a bit early for me, but as Pillowell is literally <10 mins from my house, I don’t mind showing people round it.

Am riding Merthyr Vale on Sat though, so assuming I don’t write myself off there…

Yeah i understand H-N, it's a bit earlier than i'd like too as it means a 7:15 leaving my house to get over.. which is a bit of a pain. But it'll be a fun day for the lad.

It does mean though after 12 i'm free to ride as he's heading pretty much straight off after training. That does of course depend on my legs 😀

@Hob-Nob I’d like to take you up on that. We’ll be on KSLs.

Drop me a message nearer the time. I will probably be on the leg bike as the climb is pretty easy there. If it looks like its going to be horrific weather, I may not be out at all!

Daughter is now Covid free and back at school - I'm 50/50 for Sunday, I'm building her a new bike and if the bits come in time (prob will not) I may take her for a test run around the family trail.

I'm still going but i'm not sure if i'll be alone now anyway as all the big hitters are heading somewhere else lol.

I'll still hang about by the Gazebo with the pink pedalled G170 at 9am just in case for 15 mins and then head out for a little ride if no-one else comes.

@weeksy not sure if you've seen, but the centre is closed Friday and Saturday - cafe, shop, toilets, car park etc all closed due to the storm warning.

Yup, but we're due on Sunday and it's currently showing as open, although that is of course very open to what happens in the next 24 hours i guess.

We've had nothing yet to say coaching is cancelled... so currently we're still going.

But thanks for the heads-up.