[Closed] Help, finding the knicker trail and others at leigh woods

Probably best not to post cheeky trails. If you watch some you-tube videos you should be able to work out the start and finish.

fair enough, will get searching!!

Probably easier just to find someone who knows where it is to show you rather than trying to explain.

Good fun but I've never made it down knicker without stopping and have minor facial scars from the one to the side of picnic table so they're not my faves 😈

thinboy - they're not really cheeky at all, you wont meet walkers on the DH / techie stuff in Leigh Woods. For the stuff on the level at Leigh Woods, just spend a few hours riding around and you'll find stuff, it's a pretty small area really.

Trick is to find the picnic benches and look for trails heading very downhill (torwards the river) from them. The are all steep with switchbacks, like Clubber, I cant clear most of them. Rocky Horror's easier than most, but hard to explain the start.

Good luck if you can work out the starts from youtube....

they're not really cheeky at all

..if you ignore the signs about sticking to the waymarked trails.

Thats hilarious! They're hardly cheeky!

i've been riding there for years and i'm still not sure of the best way to get to the start of any of them! i tend to just ride around for a bit until i find something...

cheers, gonna go an have a hunt at the weekend. so basically, if I find the right picnic benches I will find the trails.

The Cheesy Riders and the BMBC have excellent knowledge of LW...

Probably easier just to find someone who knows where it is to show you rather than trying to explain.

Good fun but I've never made it down knicker without stopping and have minor facial scars from the one to the side of picnic table so they're not my faves

I gained a rotational neck sprain form the knicker trail and broke my wrist in four places on the picnic bench, as per clubber not my favourite trails.

Have fun.

They're hardly cheeky!

They aren't officially sanctioned in any way, and I think we came pretty close to losing them recently - it was only thanks to people involved with the new trails making a very good case for not closing them that they are still there.

In particular if people start adding to them or building jumps, etc. the result may well be massive pressure on the land managers to close them - this is currently happening in the Plantation thanks to a rash of new DH trails springing up in stupid places.

By cheeky i meant the use of footpaths etc. The majority of the LW trails have been in existence for years and years. I think trying to close them would be futile as more would pop up elsewhere. Short of ploughing them up you can't do much to block them. The biggest issue is the constant use they get regardless of the ground conditions. I personally only ride LW about half the year and typically wont ride there from late autumn through to early spring. Shame others can't do the same really.

As for Ashton Hill Plantation, the DH style trails there really are getting out of hand. People have created so many different trails in the woods along side the road including a few that pass over a badger sett!!! As soon as Still woods was shut-down these new trails sprung up, initially at the other end and now nearer the car park. I've been riding through there for years on my way to/from Ashton Court from Lulsgate and what was once a couple of narrow bits of singletrack is now something quite different!

Hmmm must wander down to the Plantation to have a look then 🙂

Picnic Bench seems to have suffered quite badly in the last year or two.

Rode it again recently for the first time in a while. The middle section is braided with new easier lines (I had to push back up to find the original way crossing the sunken lane) and the lower section is scored with well-used bailout routes straightlining down the hill off the hairpins.

The original trail is still there but it's lost that lovely isolated feeling of threading your way down an implausible hillside.

I have to agree elliptic, the new lines that just follow the fall line are a PITA.

By cheeky i meant the use of footpaths etc.

That's by no means the only issue facing land managers. LW has a list of statutory designations as long as your arm - SSSI, NNR, etc. PB may not fall into most of these, but some trails over there certainly do.

Short of ploughing them up you can't do much to block them.

There are quite a few trails round LW that are no longer rideable (or no longer worth bothering with) because of natural or deliberate blockage. There's one about 50 yards from PB in fact.

I don't like the whole secret trails thing, and have to agree that it's getting ever-harder to do in this day and age, but until we get proper, officially sanctioned challenging trails (which may be never) I'd really like to hang on to the ones we've got.

I spent some time recently sessioning the main (original?) picnic bench trail and also couldn't believe the short cuts that have been created. The original is still there to ride but you do indeed have to look hard to see it. Once your on the right line it's obvious as it has the most flow! Unsurpisingly.

How on earth is taking a straight line more fun than doing the more flowy line??

I've given up on the PB since the stupid new lines ruin the flow and make it hard to pick the original one. Enjoying the trail off to the left of the PB though.