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Hi, is there enough at the Forest of Dean to keep you busy for two days? Initial plan was two days one at fod and one at BPW but can’t book anything in June.
Yes. But if I were in your situation I’d like to try the Black Mountains Cycle Centre as a BPW alternative
Yes, but it all looks the same.
Black mountain cc is brilliant - uplift is on a trailer behind a tractor, and there're no facilities as such (fairly rudimentary but perfectly functional bike wash is about it). But they're really friendly, and lunch can be easily bought from the tardis-like shop in the village.
Most importantly, trails are great, and the price is really good!
It’s certainly possible to spend an entire day riding the FoD, but when I’ve done it it’s been with a mate who had intimate knowledge of all the cheeky trails north of the Peddleaway centre, and I know for a fact I could never find them on my own! Combining the FoD with another centre would be the best bet.
If you know the off-piste stuff in the FoD you can spend a week there. But if you just do the Cycle Centre then one day.
There's enough at FoD to keep you busy for weeks, but you'd need a friendly local to show you round.
Put the days up you want to visit and what you want to do and you'll probably have locals out and about, there is so much up there, day 1 you could spend doing the Cannop stuff, wastelands off-piste stuff and even down to Dowies/Shutcastle, day 2 could be over to Mallards, Oakenhill, Pillowell and so on.
I've been going for years and still find stuff, depending on your level and what you like there is stuff for you there to fill two days, you could even do a day in FoD then move to somewhere else, either South Wales (Cwmcarn/Barry Sidings/etc) or the other way to Gloucester area (Leckhampton/Cranham/etc), even the Quantocks are just over an hour or so from the bridge.
+1 for BMCC, it is absolutely fantastic. Way better than BPW imo. (the vids on their website are misleading as they mostly just show big jumps, don't be put off if that's not your bag)
I could easily spend 2 days on the uplift at FOD though. TBF I could probably spend 2 days riding Sheepskull/Flatland. Never mind all the non-uplifted spots
Thanks all. Wasn’t aware of black mountain cycle centre. Will take a look.
BMCC is absolutely ace! Bomper is quite hard from what I can see and I haven’t tried it due to the large ish drop at the top. Sooner or later I’m going to go for it though. Full Moto is massive jumps too.
However the rest is all decent for an intermediate level mtber. It’s different to BPW - there are lots of berms / lips / compressions etc and it’s not full armoured trails. I’d say it’s mostly flow style trails than tech.
The vibe is much more chilled than BPW - nowhere near as commercial and a much smaller site. Sometimes there is a burger van there, sometimes not. The tractor / trailer is very Covid friendly and a nice change from a sweaty minibus.
Lots of people in the car park will probably have downhill bikes and full body armour on - don’t be put off by that - they’ll be the boys whopping down bomper and over the huge jumps on full moto. I rode it last time on my 140/130mm trail bike, as did my mate.
Just take it steady the first run down the blue - there are lips on the tabletops to get used to 👌
Edit - there is loads to ride at FOD - you could probably spend a week there without running out of trails - but the majority is unofficial / not marked and quite spread out into seperate areas.
You could probably ride for five days at FoD, easily.
Only problem is, all the unofficial trails have been removed from Trailforks, so you need local knowledge.
Dowies/shut castle is still being felled by the forestry but I rode Dowies 1&2 last week and they are back open but need some trail love.
As various people have said, and from my own experience, you really do need a local to guide you around the off-piste FoD trails, or someone like my mate from sadly closed John’s Bikes in Bath, who has ridden them for years - I wouldn’t be able to find any a day after riding them, they’re very well hidden.
Been riding down the FoD for 20 odd years on and off... The place never ceases to amaze and inspire me! There's enough to keep anyone busy for at least a week, but as others have said, local knowledge is everything...
Spoke to a local last night and he said that Dowies 3,4&5 are running again and better than 1&2
Cwmcarn is closer to FOD then BPW, np uplift at the moment, but an easy-ish pedal up the freshly tarmac'd road gets you to the uplift drop off.
If you look up Riscariders on IG, you could then also look for some of the risca bike park trails which are excellent (most start within few hundred metres of DH drop off). I drive two hours each way to ride them!
As others have said there's more than enough in FoD, but the off piste at Cwncarn/Risca is easier to find as a lot of it is on Trailforks and they're not shy about promoting it.