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Dolby is my local and is not bad. There's not a lot of climbing but you do have the moors next door.
GT and Inners was very good, the black at Inners was the best.
I'm looking for the next weekend away with the lad's this summer, was thinking wildcat at Golspie. Is there a full weekend riding there.
Glentress. It has everything. Love it!
Heptonstall
Kiroughtree. Plus then you can then do Mabie/Dalbeatie/Ae on the other day.
heptonstall i only live in bacup but dont know round there at all.is there anywhere i can get some routes or is it a matter of buy a map and explore.seen some smart pictures from round tod and calderdale in singletrack this month but dont know them either.
I would pick a location around Dalbeattie, Ae, Mabie, Kirroughtree, if you pick well you will be less than 1hrs drive from any of them and have a differing types of riding for each day if you wanted.
Only been to Glentress a couple of times but I reckon it would get the nod over Afan, CyB good too
Kirroughtree!
I haven't been to Golspie yet, but there is definately enough up there to ride in a weekend as nearby there are also the Carbisdale and balblair trails (which can be linked together as they're both quite short). Also not that far away are Learnie and/or Laggan for your 2nd day ride. However, it's a bloody long way for just a weekend, personally I'd save them for a week trip or a very long weekend and do all the FC trails up there. I'd second Kirri, Dalbeattie, Ae and/or Mabie for a weekend trip.
Whinlatter!
The Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and Pennines round Tod way are all very good centres full of trails.
Ive done Whinlatter, Grizedale, Dalby, CyB, Marin, Glentress, Mabie, Llandegla & Kirroughtree, out of them it's Kirroughtree.
Roughneck - I've got a coach load of riders heading up to the 7 Stanes the weekend of June 19th to the 22nd. Driving up overnight to arrive Saturday AM, ride as many of the centres as we can before heading back Monday afternoon to get everyone at W**k Tuesday. If you're interested we've still got space on the coach & at the Accommodation.
email mtblee09[at]googlemail.com if you want some details 🙂
heptonstall i only live in bacup but dont know round there at all.
Brant was kiddin 🙂
However I don't want to get into trail centre slagging so I shall keep schtum :o)
i camped at Kipford HP over the road from Dalbeattie did the 7 stanes and thought Kirroughtree came top spot then followed by Glentress, Dalbeattie, Ae, Mabie. Id like to have a trip to kielder next time i'm up there as icve heard its pretty good too
Dalby is also my Local but i find it quite boring i use it just to get out 😆
North face trail at grizedale is also good once you get about 30% the way in, I did this in a very cold (-6) Icy morning, mental dont think i'l go back up til its warmer the boards were rather slippy and the rocks werent good either but it aws a day out
You won't go wrong with a stay in Dumfries to do Kirroughtree, Dalbeattie etc; but maybe consider Laggan? You've got the wolftrax to arse around with your mates on - some serious technical riding for a trail centre, plus there's 5 or 6 epic rides on the doorstep in the mountains.
Cannock, because it not a 5 hour drive (unless you live in Scotland)
Secret trail, becuae you've got the satisfaction of having dug them out of the ground with your bare hands (and the occasional shovel and rake). 5 hours i the car, or 5 hours building a kicker?
As above. Love Cannock because it's local and the stuff away from the "dog" is real good. Totally different to the welsh trail centres but I need a weekend to visit them. Maybe get to go 4-5 times a year. Cannock is on my door step and it makes an excellent night ride once a week. Been regular up there for over 5 years now and I still find the odd new bit now and again.
There's enough to keep you out from a 1 hour blast to an all day mooch.
drumlanrig
Where are you based?
These ought to give you an idea whats near one another, and just [i]how[/i] far away some of them are:
[url= http://www.mbwales.com/en/content/cms/Bases/Bases.aspx ]Welsh Trail centres without purpose-built facilities[/url]
[url= http://www.mbwales.com/en/content/cms/Centres/Centres.aspx ]Welsh trail centres with purpose-built facilities[/url]
[url= http://www.scottishmountainbike.com/ ]guide to scottish trail centres (not FC)[/url]
Can't find anything comprehensive on england but apparantly this is the lot for the UK:
[b]England[/b]
Aston Hill
Bedgebury
Cannock Chase
Chicksands
Dalby
Delamere
Forest of Dean
Friston Forest
Gisburn
Grizedale
Guisborough
Haldon
Hamsterley
Hopton Wood
Kielder
Queen Elizabeth Country Park
Rossendale Lee Quarry
Sherwood Pines
Stainburn
Surrey Hills
Swinley Forest
Thetford Forest
Timberland Trail
Wharncliffe
Whinlatter Forest
[b]Scotland[/b]
Abriachan
Ae
Arran
Balblair
Carbisdale
Carron Valley
Comrie Croft
Dalbeattie
Drumlanrig
Fire Tower Trail
Fort William
Glentress
Glentrool
Golspie
Innerleithen
Jedburgh
Kirkhill
Kirroughtree
Laggan
Learnie
Mabie
Moray
Mull of Kintyre
Newcastleton
Pitfichie
Strathpeffer
[b]Wales[/b]
Afan Argoed
Brechfa
Cli-machx
Coed Llandegla
Coed Trallwm
Coed y Brenin
Cwmcarm
Cwm Rhaeadr
Gwydyr Forest
Mach Trails
Nant yr Arian
Penmachno
[b]Bike Parks[/b]
Balnain
Blandford Forum - UK Bike Park
Esher
P.O.R.C.
I'm not a big fan of purpose-built trails but Kirroughtree's the best I've ridden.
I really enjoyed Mabie yesterday.
No better that Inners or GT, just a little bit different
I really like Kirroughtree it's very natural and best of the Stanes. I would disagree that Glentress is better than Afan and Coed y Brenin I think both are much better and offer so much riding. Glentress is way overrated IMO, too busy. Innerleithen's much better. Laggen is a great trail would love to try Golspie but bit of of a trek to get there.
Golspie is excellent and IMO the best trail centre in the UK, Laggan can be done on the way back down. Next to Golspie would have to be Kirroughtree and as people have said you have the benefit of Dalbeattie, mabie and Drumlanrig within 10 mins to under and hours drive away (Also Ae is close by but not worth it IMO).
If doing Glentress then do the Black, if you have spare time you could always cut up and do the red and the next day do Innerleithen black which is also very good.
Kirroughtree closely followed by Drumlanrig.
G/T and Inners would be on the list but are victims of their own success tbh more so G/T
Brechfa definitely for me. I've done just over 30 of the ones on that list above and brechfa wins it. The dh sections on both the black and red are amazing.
Dalby is also my local with living 30miles away, its nice just to use as somewhere to go for a blast around as its all familar. Been to Hamsterley a few times and Guisborough so far, planning to goto Wharncliffe, Stainburn, Whinlatter Forest within the next few months.
Next for me is Isle of Skye next week! 😆
The post said "center", so I'm guessing it has to be Whistler or somewhere like that!
Top Dog - I thought you preferred Thornielee?
Innerleithen is crap - not worth the effort.
I wouldn't bother with Wharncliffe at the moment, very boggy and not that easy to follow if you don't know it. To be honest not that good either and i helped build some of it. Not enough funding to do it properly and it hasn't stood up to hammer well.
Innerleithen was another i really liked, lots of biggish jumps on the last dh.
Thank for the offer but I'm on holiday with wife and kids
Suppose it depends if we are talking purely just on riding or other aspects as well such as facilities, accessiblity, fun for all and scenery?
I'd like to recommend the Pedalabikeaway Cycle Centre in the Forest of Dean. It's not the best equipped, or the largest, but the staff there are really friendly and when my son got a puncture there recently they fixed it for free!
Lee Quarry
(also missing from your list, James).
I don't think there is any "best" - only different. I have ridden Glentress, Innerleithan, Laggan and now dalbeattie.
Glentress is good because of its variety of trails and sheer amount of them. any level of skill can have fun there and IMO you get really good value of downhill for your climbing.
Innerleithan is more challenging perhaps - but less for less skilled riders and less options.
Laggan is fun for all again - and because the loops are short you can go with a mixed ability group and keep meeting up again - and its black run truly deserves to be called black
Dalbeatie is more natural feeling - I have only been there once and done the red - but there are bits on the trail that are very tricky to be red IMO and no chicken runs but a nice feel to the route - and from the maps it looks like you can vary which bits you ride and make up different loops to suit.
So there is no better or worse - just different and some centres will suit some folk more than others.