Road trip. best trails in the UK?

boxermatt

In the last week of august me and a couple of mates are doing a road trip of the best trail centres of the uk, afan is definately going to feature for a day or so but i need peoples ideas of other trail centres to ride and cheap places to stay/camping sites near these trails as this is being done on a budget. Also if anybody wants to join us you are more than welcome.

boxermatt

Has nobody got any ideas, we are looking for trail centres with technical trails, i think lee quarry is going to feature as well now so thats afan and lee quarry so far. A ny more ideas would be welcome.

The Northern Monkey

Scotland... no contest.

Stay in Peebles... you've got Glentress (amazing, possibly one of the best trail centers going) Innerliether is just down the road, not far from other centers... possible Ae, Mabie etc etc.

The Northern Monkey

plus me and my bro will be there in August (but the 1st 2 weeks)

topsey_turvey

Lake District.
Yorkshire Dales.
The Pennine chain.

All are excellent trail centres. Save the planet and don't do so much driving. Just go to any one of these and you can ride your heart out, on a different route all day every day.

CAUTION - you'll need to be able to read a map, and be prepared to be away from a cafe for more than 2 hours.

softlad

if you want 'technical', then skip Afan and head straight for the Raven at Brechfa...you won't be disappointed..

sniper68

Topsey Turvey wrote:

Lake District.
Yorkshire Dales.
The Pennine chain.

All are excellent trail centres. Save the planet and don't do so much driving. Just go to any one of these and you can ride your heart out, on a different route all day every day.

CAUTION - you'll need to be able to read a map, and be prepared to be away from a cafe for more than 2 hours.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Agree,skip the trails centres and go "natural"

pdid

If it has to be trail centres then from Lee Quarry, head up Keswick an do Whinlatter, then up to Dumfries and do Kirroughtree (a must), Ae, Dalbeattie and Mabie, then up to Peebles to do Glentress and Inners, then continue North and head for Fort Bill and Laggan Wolftrax.

boxermatt

Wow thanks people all your responses have been very helpfull, im now split between afan and brechfa for the welsh leg of the tour????? Then its defo lee quarry and after that from what im reading i reckon we wil head into scotland and maybe stop off for a day in the lakes on the way home. Any more ideas or recommended cheapish places to stay near these rides please let me know.

softlad

this might swing it:

if you can get to Brechfa for first thing in the morning, you should be able to get round the Raven trail within 2-3 hours, depending on pace. Load up, then head north for about an hour and you have Nant yr Arian, where you get most of the rest of the day to take in the syfydrin trail - which is the long one with nice techy bits.

Kip overnight locally, then you can either head north and take in Coed y Brenin and Llandegla next, or head east out of Wales and pick up the M5...

I would avoid Afan - especially at that time of year - it ends up looking like the cycling equivalent of Butlins in the summer...

tempting..?

boxermatt

Very tempting, i think thats the first two days sorted, only 5 more to go.Is there any good b and bs near brechfa

softlad

I was going to suggest www.bikebrechfa.co.uk , but their site says thay are not taking bookings at the moment, for some reason. They would have been the obvious choice for B&B.

Should be plenty of B&B accommodation around Carmarthen or Brechfa village itself...

edit - Bikebrechfa's site also states that the Raven is closed. It was, but it is now fully open after repairs - I rode it on Sunday...

Carwynfarwyn

Hi there.We r planning a similar trip up to the Dumfries area to ride Ae, Kirroughtree, Mabie and Dalbeattie in a long weekend in June.They're all part off the 7stanes which have a good website. We are also looking for tips on where to Camp.Ideally close to Dalbeattie as it's central to the others. If you do come down to West Wales ,then you won't be dissapointed! Brechfa has the well known Gorlech red, 8) Raven black and a good blue route.This all adds to a good 40+K. There's also a cracking natural ride (6k downhill singletrack !)which starts at Llyn Brianne bout half hour North east which was featured in i think MBR.Nearby to that, there's also a smallish red route in a forestry 5 mins away which is bout 8k.Small it may be, but it's got a cracking descent! So there's plenty down here to ride.
Caz

boxermatt

Awesome, thanks for your help peeps this trip is going to be brilliant,definately doing brechfa raven n surrounding routes for the first day then on to afan for a day, next day we are off to lee quarry, then working our way up to scotland spend a day on 1 of the 7stanes trails then on to fort bill for a day of balls out crazyness then maybe on the way home we will go for a blast in the lakes somewhere, just got to sort out accomodation now :roll: