Closest trail centre to Birmingham

chrisga

Hi, we live about 20 miles south of birmingham and are looking to go out on a day mtb'ing on sunday. We have done follow the dog to death, so were wondering what the closest decent trail centres are that people could recommend, an early start is not a problem if its the right place and we dont mind going in to wales for distance. Any ideas - should we head for wales or up to the peaks? Any sort of technical trail welcome, skill level not a problem, even if fitness is.....

chrisga

has anyone been to or tried hopton woods? Is it any good?

Cps

Do you mean done FTD to death or CC to death ?

Loads of good stuff is to be found away from the official trails and its good fun 'exploring' and finding it.

chrisga

follow the dog, but have also done a bit of exploration.

landranger

I live in Brum and have the same problem mate.
I tried Hopton once and enjoyed it but I'm still very much an amateur so can't really give much feedback. I've still to give CC/FTD a good go yet, have no idea on the routes as I've only been there once myself :oops: .

Good thing about Hopton, though depends on your viewpoint, is that it was fairly quiet. Me and the GF went on a Sunday so pratted about till our hearts content on sections

SDK2007

Close Trail centers to B'ham means Wales.

Llandega
Coed y Brenin
Afan
etc

More info here : http://www.mbwales.com/

Otherwise try and join some rides that are organised on this or the Cannock Chase Forum. Riding with other people will not only show you new trails but push your fitness as well

chrisga

Ta SDK, Afan close to birmingham? We have done Aafan, Coed-y-brenin and were looking for somewhere just to nip down to, have a bomb round, and come home again.
We tried Hopton Woods on Sunday. We thought it might be a bit like cannock, but there is nothing there apart from a car park. We rode round for a while, really struggled to link any of the trail sections up, rode down some ridiculously slippery (bucket loads of rain overnight) and really steep rooted singletrack, pushed up a monumentally steep, rutted, slippery and overgrown hill and found a bit of fire road. There were some guys who seemed to be getting uplifts from the downhill course which seemed like a better idea though!

If anyone goes I would recommend getting a map first. We struggled to make any fun out of it to be honest. So perhaps FTD isnt so bad for a blast round if you have a spare couple of hours and live in the midlands....

ste_t

Hi. If you fancy making the trip to Llandegla, I used be able to get there from Bromsgrove in about 1 hour 45 mins so its quite easily accessible from Brum and great for a thrash round for a couple of hours.