[Closed] Hebden Bridge - Any local riding info?

Honestly your best bet is to slap Hebden Bridge into Trailforks or Strava and follow any of the routes that come up, or grab a copy of OL-21 and work out your own. Either way the place is littered with enough decent stuff to keep you occupied for a week. Although bear in mind that over Xmas it'll be a nasty slop fest in the woods around there.

Do bear in mind though, while there's loads of decent riding to be had, but there's also loads of un-offical off piste stuff that you need to be a bit circumspect about as well, it'd be worth dropping into Blazing Saddles and speak with those guys, they'll be happy to point you n the direction of some nice techy stuff that won't get the locals pissed off with you. If you want a decent long ride that has a bit of everything, I always suggest This one

Enjoy. and pray the weather isn't shitty

You definitely need some local knowledge as there are some footpaths that people ride and it annoys the local walkers when people are bombing down trying to kom it.

What kind of riding are you after? Xc, longer rides and seeing the countryside or hikeabike up and down?

Thanks both. Sounds like it will be worth taking the bike then, maybe the hardtail rather than full suss unless the new bike arrives in time and then it will have to be full suss 🙂

Really looking for something I can just pop out and ride without too much faff from the house, but not knowing exactly where the damn house is will make that a challenge for now. I am a stickler for rules so wouldn’t feel comfortable venturing onto footpaths and getting chased by pitchfork wielding locals.

Will have a scan at Trail forks, haven’t used it before tbh.

I've not ridden it but I've done a few other national trails bike routes and they've all been a good base for exploring an area on legal trails.

https://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/en_GB/short-routes/try-trail-bike-hilly-hebden/

Dear god! 14 miles in 4hrs? What kind of hell do you riders go through oop north?

It’s brilliant over there! However I’m not sure how it’d be in the deep of winter! Be very prepared I’d say, some of the MTB guide books have Hebden bridge routes in I think. If I find it I’ll post it

It's hilly, I live slightly to the west, usually around 1000ft of ascent for 10miles riding. Some of it is very steep, Heben is in a steep sided valley. It's not for the faint hearted but is pretty good riding if you're fit.

We had our first visit with bikes a few weeks ago - managed to grab some ready-baked loops off Viewranger/OutdoorActive that worked for us over the 3 days we had. Loved it.

Dear god! 14 miles in 4hrs? What kind of hell do you riders go through oop north?

It's pretty "stern" I had one loop from my door that was just over 6 miles and had 1500ft of climb and descend, and another that was 11 miles and 2500ft of climb and descend

I keep flip flopping between taking the bike and not with these comments 🙂

I live in Hebden and ride year round, definitely take a bike!
I'd offer to show you around but I'm away for Christmas. There's quite a bit of good stuff, some of it's legit, alot isn't. It all involves steep hills!
Plenty that's doable in any weather. If you're lucky you'll get snow, then it's magic.
I'm happy to make some suggestions if you pm me but nothing beats being shown around. Mind you I'm not on strava or anything like that so don't know how useful that could be..

100% bring the bike, the riding is awesome. Everything is do-able on the HT if you’re used to riding technical, steep stuff but as the trails will all be new to you I’d say bring a FS if you have that option.

HB is essentially the bottom of a bowl with steep valleys to all sides, winch and plummet, winch and plummet. 1000’ per 5 mile is possible dependant on your route.

Feel free to PM me and Ill share some routes with you. I may be able to show you round but unsure of our Christmas plans yet, if you have the offer a local to show you round take it as most of the good stuff is off piste.

Definitely take the bike.
The loops we did during our short 3 day visit wasn't all winch/plummet - plenty 'unfashionable' bridleways for some corking views (weather permitting I guess).

Erm bit of an embarrassing update here. It turns out that my lovely wife, she is lovely, honest, didn't really listen when being told where we were going at Christmas. Looks like she just plucked a random Northern town out of the air and shouted Hebden Bridge at me. We are actually staying 2hrs away in a tiny place called Rosedale Abbey so I now need to start another bloody thread.

Thanks for all your input, I will use it if I ever visit Hebden Bridge