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Heading to Dalby Forest on Friday morning. I do not normally mind paying to park in these kind of places but 15 quid for the day is taking the piss.
Any places to park up outside the forest area? I don't mind riding a few miles to get there.
Thanks
Loads of parking in Thornton le Dale and you can then head up via Ellerburn and into the forest. Alternatively, park at Allerston and ride up the road to the campsite. Benefit there is you can finish on Let Loose For Lewis which is a classic descent. Could also park at the Hole of Horcum (but I think thats P&D now) and ride toward the northern edge of the forest on the BW.
*theres also a few little layby type things on the road in before the gates where you see tight bastards parking their cars but they're a bit iffy with narrow road/access for farm/forestry equipment so I'd stick to one of the above. Or buy an annual ticket and get in for "free" (think at this time of year the annual ticket pays for itself after 3.5 trips).
There is a car park in Thornton le dale off Maltongate for £6 a day. Last time I parked on the road just past the bike shop heading upto dalby then rode in via Ellerburn. Spent money in the bakery at Thornton instead.
£15 all day isn't bad. Take a mate or two.
I agree, 15 quid feels expensive to park in a forest car park but 15 quid for days riding on trails that need building, maintaining, managing is good value for money.
I get disappointed when I see MTBers parking in laybys or roads to avoid paying for the amenities they are using.
Another vote for the annual pass. Gets you "free" parking at all Forestry England sites.
Mine has more than paid for itself in visits to Sherwood Pines and Dalby.
Thirded on the Forestry annual pass, I bugged them for years about doing this till they finally saw the light about 3 years ago. Yes, it's 90quid but mines probably paid for itself by March each year with the amount of biking trips I do all over the place.
I agree, 15 quid feels expensive to park in a forest car park but 15 quid for days riding on trails that need building, maintaining, managing is good value for money.
I get disappointed when I see MTBers parking in laybys or roads to avoid paying for the amenities they are using
Very much this. £15 for a day's entertainment sounds pretty good value to me.
You can ride in from the NYM National Park car park at the Hole of Horcum and ride in via the Bridestones. Pay and display but less than £15. Main reason to park there is less driving if coming from Whitby direction. Often has an ice cream van in summer if I'm thinking of the correct spot.
I don't generally object to paying for parking, but earlier this week we cycled through Boggle Crag car park in Grizedale. It was completely empty and at £12 more expensive than any of the other car parks we saw.
It's not a surprised it's empty.
By the time you get charged 60p a go to use the toilet , maybe they should charge to ride the bike trails instead.
It's not a surprised it's empty.
Sometimes, charges like that are to either encourage the purchase of an annual pass (which pretty much guarantees repeat visits cos you want to "get your money's worth" out of it and of course each repeat visit will result in purchase of coffee / cake etc) or it's there to discourage anti-social behaviour.
If you drive in from the Langdale End direction, the first car park you come to, at Bickley Gate, is outside the Toll barriers and is on the red route.
Been to Llandegla tonight, there was a dad and his lad just riding away from the car they had left in the last passing place before the gate. 9 quid it would have cost them for an evening entertainment, but no, they stole it.
Sorely tempted to go and take all the valve cores out of the wheels and lob them in the grass.
“Sometimes, charges like that are to either encourage the purchase of an annual pass (which pretty much guarantees repeat visits cos you want to "get your money's worth" out of it and of course each repeat visit will result in purchase of coffee / cake etc) or it's there to discourage anti-social behaviour.”
Nope - charges like that are there because it costs a shed load of money to run a big mountain bike centre and the other safe, modern and clean facilities that you expect.
FE only gets less than 20% of its funding from govt, the other 80% is from things like car parking and timber sales etc. It costs shed loads of cash to run somewhere like Dalby and provide all the things you expect for a recreational day out.
If nobody pays then the thing will cease to exist. Nothing is really free - someone is paying for it somewhere.
£23 a day for an e-bike pass at bike park wales…. “Free parking” though!
I don't really care if Grizedale ceases to have a set of built trails.
The regulars park in the out of the way places and don't pay and Boggle Crag has no facilities other than a hard surface and pay machine.
Charge the users of the trails.
How much did your bike cost? How much did your car cost? How much petrol in driving there?
I cycled there on a 26 inch wheel mountain bike. so very little, my hybrid car cost about £30 to 35 of petrol to get to where we were staying in the Lakes and back.
So a lot less than going to Alaska, New Zeland and Australia.
When I went to Ulswater to paddle I was happy to pay for carparking, which cost ,£12.
As mentioned several times, it's not just £15 to park, it's £15 for parking, facilities, trail upkeep etc... IMO it's pretty decent value. Look at what other activities cost these days and £15 for a full day is really good!
Dalby's a funny one, innit. I don't think the parking charges are really set for MTBers - sure there are a few in the car park, but the majority are families there for a day out. £15 for me to potter around for a few hours on my bike feels quite expensive. £15 for a day out for a family of four with walks, playparks and decent facilities feels like an absolute bargain.
£15 for a day out for a family of four with walks, playparks and decent facilities feels like an absolute bargain.
Same in Sherwood Pines - the majority of people there are families off to use Go-Ape and the cycle hire and also people walking dogs. Plus Sherwood and Dalby are always busy on Saturday mornings for Parkrun.
My sister uses Dalby very regularly - takes the kids there for Parkrun, takes the dogs for a big day out, her husband joins a regular running group there. They've got an annual pass but they're there so often it works out as about £1 to park each time!
It’s not £15 to potter for a couple of hours though is it? You only pay for the time you’re there so stay 2 hours and it’ll be much cheaper than £15. Up to 2 hrs is £6 on the website!
Bruce - apologies - my post was not aimed at you but the OP - just realised why you reacted so strongly 🙂
What percentage of that £15 actually goes into building and maintaining Dalby's trails?
TJ, I am also sorry, I am a little under the weather at the moment and sightly tetchy. I normally type a grumpy response and then delete it and ride my bike instead.
What percentage of that £15 actually goes into building and maintaining Dalby's trails?
Singletraction seem to do a lot/all of the day to day maintenance and I think thats (all?) voluntary? I guess materials they use are paid for (which must come from the money that comes into the forest in some way) as well as when they have something like Storm Daragh earlier in the yaer which left a lot of the trails unrideable so they had to bring in people with chainsaws to tidy up. Also new sections occasionally get built like the jumpy bit above Go-Ape which can't be cheap. To be fair, outside of that I doubt Dalby's official trail network actually needs much maintenance - the stuff Singletraction do seems pretty small scale in the grand scheme of things. I was thinking the same at CyB last weekend - fireroads and heavily armoured trails... how much looking after do they need as long as they get enough traffic to keep the undergrowth from encroaching.
Either way, happy to pay my annual pass which I think offers pretty good vfm, not that I often ride much of the waymarked stuff at Dalby but theres all the other stuff apart from the MTB trails that need looking after too - walking trails (the Ellerburn trail which we often walk had a load of work done earlier this year), toilets, open spaces, playgrounds (which i think are having a major revamp?), roads and car parks etc.
I'll just leave this here
Left the car in a passing place on the narrow road near Thornton Dale.
Rode all day, never spent a penny. Result.
Thanks for all the helpful tips/advice/sanctimonious shïte
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So congratulations you parked somewhere that blocked others from passing. That will go down well with us locals. If you don’t want to pay ride somewhere else - maybe try some bridleways rather than a trail centre?
I'll just leave this here
Left the car in a passing place on the narrow road near Thornton Dale.
Rode all day, never spent a penny. Result.
Thanks for all the helpful tips/advice/sanctimonious shïte
170
Yeah. Dick-move.
I was up there a few months back and was surprised it was £15, and then another £5 to wash the bike.
I didn’t think the facilities were that great ie no showers, bike charging etc
I did make sure I had a dump though to get some vfm
I do think people should be prepared to pay to ride a maintained trail though. However the trail isn’t that good there to make me rush back and pay £15
Off to Delamere this week and after last week's success at Dalby I'm looking for any tips on lay-bys or passing places where I can dump the car and avoid paying the ridiculous parking fees.
Many thanks
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