Newcastle trails and the surrounding area.

kanifee

First off Hi and glad to have found the forum.


Im Just starting off with riding again after many years and have never really done it serious, have been doing a bit of just getting on the bike and riding but this generally leads to sticking to built up local areas, i have made a trip to chopwell twice and ridden derwent a couple of times, and im really liking the more off road challenging stuff but im struggling to find trails around the central Newcastle area.

Royal Dragoon

There are a few guys from www.MTBE.co.uk up your way, you could try asking on there, may be able to help you out, worth a try.

kanifee

Thanks ill take a look

YIMan

http://www.newcastlemtb.org/

These guys can almost certainly help - think they have weekday night rides in and around Newcastle itself, further afield at weekends.

bluehelmet

Also try http://mtbnortheast.ning.com/#

and a bit further afield:

http://www.kieldertrailreavers.co.uk/
http://www.hamsterley-trailblazers.co.uk/

for forums and organised rides to tag along on.

Rides - try Blanchland / Edmundbyers area (the descent from Bolt's Law to Edmundbyers is class), Hexham Common, the cheviots, anywhere that's shown as a long dashed red line on an OS map and hunt down a copy of the holy bible - http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesw ... d/3446043/

Yes, the photos are dodgy but the routes are class.

lifeonloop

kanifee wrote:

First off Hi and glad to have found the forum.


Im Just starting off with riding again after many years and have never really done it serious, have been doing a bit of just getting on the bike and riding but this generally leads to sticking to built up local areas, i have made a trip to chopwell twice and ridden derwent a couple of times, and im really liking the more off road challenging stuff but im struggling to find trails around the central Newcastle area.

same as me! there does not seem to be much out there. I normally ride Chopwell woods/Derwent too as well as Blaydon Burn,Newburn to Prudhoe and Wylam but most of that stuff is pretty flat. Jesmond Dene is ok but its too small for a decent ride.

kanifee

I know what you mean, i used to go to jesmond dean alot, lots of single track technical stretch's but they are like 40-50 meters long max and nothing seems to flow, as you say its just far to cramped to get any sort of ride out of it.

chopwell was lots of fun, lots of fun until i took a serious spill and nacked my back, shoulder, hip and neck from a head on collision with a mound of dirt on the top half of the power line trail, helmet was broken but i remained conscious thanks to it not going to dent my confidence though as i want to be back on the bike asap, injury permitting i wreckon a week more tops!

derwent walk is fine but its very linear, streight gravel/mac path and structured path, the odd time i have managed to find a gate on the side of the path that me and my friend have lifted the bikes over, ignoring the no cycle signs we had a great time but these are short runs and actually pretty hairy your so high up, the drops are shier and the trail quite quick indeed, problem is there arnt very many atall! infact ive counted 2 so far at a totel of m,aybe 150m each.

i have been told about blaydon by some locals (southerner in Newcastle for the last 12 years )but i havnt had a chance to get up there, if its flat like you say it will just be new scenery and nothing really technically enjoyable.

The thing that really surprises me is that compared to the abundance of choice in every direction 60 miles + there is very limited here even though there is massive amounts of rural land and woodland area, i know kielder and hamsterley are just an hours drive away but this is no use for short blast on a week night!

Really getting into the mtb side of cycling and starting to build myself a decent durable machine to ride, just a real shame there arnt local trails to rip up.
definately thinking about joining mtb north east, seems as though its going to be the best way to learn local knowledge, it just seems strainge going for a ride with a pack of straingers lol!

butcher of bakersfield

Should be a few on here: http://www.nemountainbikeroutes.co.uk/

The more you head along the derwent walk the more you'll find. But the derwent walk itself is tedious. Most are footpaths, but I've never came across anyone that has been bothered by my riding them. And it could be a big ride out if you're riding the whole way.