Gisburn Forest

Muttly1981

TheGeneralist wrote:

frankspencer1979 wrote:

off to Llandegla for a day soon and was wondering how it compares to Gisburn. ....... is there anything I should outright avoid at Llandegla,

If you live close to Gisburn then the only thing I'd tend to avoid with Llandegla is going there.

It's a gross oversimplification but fairly accurate for all that.... Gisburn is amazing and has some lovely technical challenges. Llandegla is a dull overgrown bmx track with only one technical challenge in the whole route. If you can ride all Gisburn and enjoy it then you'll find Llandegla dull unless you like jumps.

If you class nailing your testicals to a tree then getting the repeatedly smashed by a transvestite as amazing i'd agree. Rode Gisburn 3 times now and each time i dislike it more and more, Bottoms is fun, Hully Gully is ok and a bermy bit near the carpark is ok but the rest is meh. At least Degla has some decsents

The Northern Monkey

Gisburn is a challenge... if you want a trail that will give you grins with zero effort, the Llandegla is for you.

Gisburn is a quality trail centre, the work that some of the guys have done there has been outstanding and its only going to get better!!

Muttly1981

The Northern Monkey wrote:

Gisburn is a challenge... if you want a trail that will give you grins with zero effort, the Llandegla is for you.

Gisburn is a quality trail centre, the work that some of the guys have done there has been outstanding and its only going to get better!!

Llandegla is the tougher trail center now the new stuff is open imo and i agree that Gisburn is a challenge but it seems theres is soooooooo much flat/climbing for a few quick descents may aswell stay local and ride Rivington which has one of the best natural descents around

Dirtrider

I can see what you mean, but you cant judge a trail centre on how many descents it has, otherwise you might as well just go to downhill tracks.

Llandegla is long (I think) and you can make more of a day of it than Gisburn (probably) however, the opportunity to session tracks is better at Gisburn.

Basically, there are advantages and disadvantages to both, Gisburn is much tougher and technical, while Llandegla is basically smooth throughout, aside from the routes which have purposly been made rough.

Go to both and decide for yourself.

frankspencer1979

Went to degla for the first time a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed it. But I would argue that gisburn is a much more "complete" ride. I found degla to be a long slog out to the black section and a bit of a slog back, like that's all you're aiming for, whereas as gisburn is more like a continuous xc ride. At th'end o t'day, they're a different experience, each with their own pro's and con's (like gisburn though coz it's me local!)

Great to hear about the new funding, pretty exciting. Especially like the idea of the skills area, that's something that llandegla has over gisburn at the moment.

DodgeT

Its similar to the FS v HT argument, what one person likes, the next won't necessarily.

Degla is closer to me than gisburn, but gisburn gets it every time. For me, gisburn is fun for pretty much the whole route, except the few bits of fireroad. You don't have to be on a descent at gizzy to be enjoying it. It's (as been said above) a challenge.

Degla is just a get your head down and churn kind of event, more like a typical XC kind of ride. Yes there are a few good descents and they are really good. But do I want to churn all the way round for the 3 or 4 good descents? Nope, cause the rest of the route is boring.

My mate is the complete opposite, he can't get enough of degla, loves it. Took him to gisburn, he hated it. Why, in his words cause he just wanted to get his head down and get the miles in, it was too technical.

1mancity2

Both are good, the freeride at degla is great fun and I could do it all day but Gisburn gets it for me, just out of curiosity are you doing the extras at Gisburn like, The slab, Hopeline etc? I f not your missing some great technical parts of it.

DodgeT

1mancity2 wrote:

extras at Gisburn like, The slab, Hopeline etc? I f not your missing some great technical parts of it.

That' s just the thing though, some people don't like that kind of riding. Couple of the guys who came with us at xmas don't like stuff like that, they just want a smoothish none technical track.

1mancity2

DodgeT wrote:

1mancity2 wrote:

extras at Gisburn like, The slab, Hopeline etc? I f not your missing some great technical parts of it.

That' s just the thing though, some people don't like that kind of riding. Couple of the guys who came with us at xmas don't like stuff like that, they just want a smoothish none technical track.

Thats why the canal is there

delcol

Thats why the canal is there

what does it spell if you remove the c from canal... :roll:

Rivington which has one of the best natural descents around

which one ?

mintedox

The descent to belmont from the mast gets my vote.

TheGeneralist

delcol wrote:

Thats why the canal is there

what does it spell if you remove the c from canal...

Sorry, don't see the connection.
1Mancity2 is right, If they don't like technical riding but prefer smoothish none technical track then there's plenty of roads out there to ride on, why bother going "mountain biking"?

delcol

the decent from the mast to belmont is man made though,, it was going to be turned into a bridal way around 12 year ago but the tv company put the blocks on it.. they did the work and constructed it but the company who were incharge of the transmitter put the stop on it(becoming a bridal way), hence why it it classed as a footpath..
thats what a lancashire county ranger guys told us when we were talking to him a few years back...

still one of the best decents in the area though.

TheGeneralist wrote:

delcol wrote:

Thats why the canal is there

what does it spell if you remove the c from canal...

Sorry, don't see the connection.
1Mancity2 is right, If they don't like technical riding but prefer smoothish none technical track then there's plenty of roads out there to ride on, why bother going "mountain biking"?

you cant work out what canal with out the c is :P

prefer smoothish none technical track then there's plenty of roads out there to ride on

there is your connection.. roadies canal roadies lycra shaved legs :roll:

TheGeneralist

you cant work out what canal with out the c is

No, I can't work out why you're saying 1mancity2 is being anal by pointing out if someone doesn't like bumpy riding then he should ride on something flat and easy.

stubs

All tracks in Britain are man made. There is no such thing as a natural trail, it might have started out as a deer or sheep path but several thousand pairs of tyre tracks have turned it into a man made track.

delcol

TheGeneralist wrote:

you cant work out what canal with out the c is

No, I can't work out why you're saying 1mancity2 is being anal by pointing out if someone doesn't like bumpy riding then he should ride on something flat and easy.

think you well and truly missed my point.... :roll: :shock: :?
lost in interpretation...

not saying mancity is being anal,, ment that canal minus the c anal usually has walkers on them who can get anal when you pass them and fishermen who get anal when you have to navigate round their equipment.. and roadies and lycra well i sure i dont have to spell that one out...
that was a joke before someone gets uspet about roadies and lycra.

TheGeneralist

Doh sorry

k8lly

Hi everyone, I'm a newbie here, and more importantly to mountain biking! :oops:

My hubby and I have had our bikes (Giant Rincon and Boulder respectively) for a few years, and have used them relatively little off road. We usually go riding in Grizedale around their "normal" routes; he has done the North Face trail a couple of times up there, and I’ve done a few sections of it, but not completely. We went to Gisburn about two(ish) years ago, when there wasn’t much around, it was very quiet and there was a lot of construction work going on, so we knew we’d have to go back when the work was completed.

We finally got around to going back last Sunday, and absolutely LOVED it; we can’t wait to go back!

In comparison to what I’m used to with Grizedale, Gisburn was a bit of a breakthrough! Unfortunately I just can’t stand the slog of long uphill “roads” that are needed in Grizedale, although I can’t get enough of the rush of going down the hills, and really enjoy the challenge of technical riding (knowing that what I consider to be technical is likely to be next to nothing in comparison to what you guys can do!).

At Gisburn we followed the majority of the blue route taking in the first small red section (between the car park and Home Baked). And because it didn’t take very long we even considered going round again after lunch! We found a couple of bits a little tricky, like uphill single track where you’re negotiating rocks and tree roots, but managed fine on the majority of it including the bridges and boardwalk. I was really pleasantly surprised at how we coped with what we came across.

So, my questions to you all are; when we go back next weekend, would we be a bit foolish to attempt the full red 8? Are there any bits we (or our bikes!) should avoid?

I will add here, in case newbies are a nightmare for you, we are very polite, and will always get out of the way quickly to the side to “give way” when we’re approached by experienced riders behind us!!

Thanks,
Kelly.

DodgeT

Welcome

Glad you enjoyed it, we were there again (there couple of times a month usually) on saturday and had a mixed bag of weather, good thing is that the weather doesn't really affect the trails so rides good no matter what. Apart from ice of course...

I've never done the blue, but from what i've heard, it is a lot of fireroads / smoother tracks than the red.
However, sticking to the red, there's nothing you'll face any trickier than homebaked, so if that didn't phase you, i'm sure you'll be fine.

Give it a go, worse you can do is take it steady and walk the odd thing.

stumpyjon

Excellent, glad you enjoyed it, if you're up there Sunday you may bump into the trail building team. The section of red you rode is called Circle and is fairly representative of most of the red route. We built that last year to remove a mile of uphill fireroad because we knew you'd be coming

Bits to take care on, the rocky staircase at the end of Homebaked after the long downhill section freaks people out, The boardwalk section after the quarry is longer, narrower and tighter than the section on the blue and has two humps in it (although it's closed at the moment as they're extracting stone for the new carpark and trails). The section immediately after this has some large rocks end to end which can catch people out. The section under whelpstone can also be a little intimidating as there are multiple line choices. I'd miss Hully Gully (it's graded black), it's fun but take some confidence and it's really muddy at the moment (there's a nice fast descent on the red a little further down the fireroad. The rooty section on Bottoms is also a little interesting at the moment although I haven't ridden it recently. All these sections are no more than a 100 yards long so easily walked without ruining the ride.

As DodgeT says take it slowly, there's a suprising amount of climbing although it's not always obvious, if you don't like the look of a section, walk it. Don't worry about getting in other peoples way, you've got as much right to be there as anyone else.

Do you have a map? If not you can download one from http://www.pmba.org.uk/gisburn.htm, if you do see the trail builders (we'll be off the fireroad on the lower (blue) loop somewhere) feel free to stop and ask for a paper copy of the map as I'll have some with me.

There will be some graded skills loops being built along with the new carpark over the next few months which should be excellent for improving your skills and confidence (more info at www.pmba.org.uk/news.htm).

If you really get bitten by the offroad bug consider doing a one days skills course, everyone benfits from those, I'd been riding a few years when I did one, made a big difference to my riding and improved what I could confidently tackle by quite a large amount.

Have fun and keep coming back, there should be another kilometre of singletrack open sometime in the summer the volunteers have been working on.

k8lly

Thanks for your replies! Great to know we can just give it a go! Will look into the skills courses; and the developments look great too!

homers_double

Rode the full 8 this morning, trails are slowly drying out, wetter than expected but we do live in England...



Top section of bottoms was quite hairy due to big wheel sucking puddles hiding behind tree stumps, I think this section could do with some work.

Hully Gully is as fun as ever, at one point I was so high on the first few berms it felt like dropping into the verticle side of a half pipe!

andymc06

Went to Gisburn for the first time in over a year yesterday. Did the Hope line four times and did the slab for the first time whilst on the 8. Spent five hours there in all. Absolutely superb!

1mancity2

andymc06 wrote:

Went to Gisburn for the first time in over a year yesterday. Did the Hope line four times and did the slab for the first time whilst on the 8. Spent five hours there in all. Absolutely superb!

Hope line is brill, I spend a good 3hrs on it nearly ever week, DH bit and leap of faith get some time as well.

Well done on getting down the slab

andymc06

Cheers. 3 of us conquered it yesterday. We were buzzing all day after that!

1mancity2

andymc06 wrote:

Cheers. 3 of us conquered it yesterday. We were buzzing all day after that!

Yeah it has that effect on you first time,

next time you go down it look for the stone slab jump that allows you to flick the bike into the corner. :shock:

frankspencer1979

Just got back from a ride round the red route, first time I've been in about a month. Everything is drying out nicely, made a change not getting completely caked!

Things to be proud of : riding up hamburger hill in one go without keeling over! Cleaning some of the obstacles that have had me dabbing the past few times I've been. Getting down the rooty hill on the way to bottoms in one go.

Disappointing things : still chickened out of those damn rock steps in home baked!! :x Got off, checked them out, watched a couple of other dudes go past, thought yeah, I've got these sorted, walked back up, set off, eyed my line...... Bottled it! :roll: It was still a bit slippy you know

Thought a lot of the trail seems a bit worn though, a lot of braking bumps. Hully gully was pretty brutal, I really feel the need for a full Susser

Saw the start of the link to the new section near park wood, is that close to completion now?

stumpyjon

That links probably got four months of work in it at least so no still some way off. We did do some repairs as have the forestry team but it's rather never ending and we don't have the manpower to do it all. The new carpark is taking up a lot of resource at the moment.

mintedox

I went on monday afternoon and it was lovely and quiet. I can get air when no ones around. We had a little mooch near the leap of faith and stayed there for about an hour messing about, Gisburn gets better every visit and im looking forward to the weekend now.

Hully gully hurt me a bit, it is quite bumpy but still had to go back and do it again.

1mancity2

mintedox wrote:

I went on monday afternoon and it was lovely and quiet. I can get air when no ones around. We had a little mooch near the leap of faith and stayed there for about an hour messing about, Gisburn gets better every visit and im looking forward to the weekend now.

Hully gully hurt me a bit, it is quite bumpy but still had to go back and do it again.

Did you do the "Leap"?

Im going up tomorrow about 11:30am to get some air time on the hopeline and leap of faith trying to get moto whips nailed.