Brand new rider in Newcastle

chriswindsor

Hi everyone,

Brand new to mountain biking and tomorrow I pick up my new (last years model) Boardman Mountain Bike Team.

It had a lot of god reviews, and seeing as I'm brand new I don't think I'd find that much difference between all of them really. Once I get really into it I will look to fully upgrade and be coming back for more advice.

I was wondering if anyone knew good trails around the Newcastle area to get started on, I have a few but they are all flat with minimal challenge such as Gosforth Park (if you know the area), does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks for any advice

Chris

Rad2474

You could try chopwell woods, i go to Beamish woods if that's not far for you to take your bike to.(assuming you drive).
Hamsterly is really good but you need transport to get there.

davenewcastle1973

Second that for Chopwell. There is only one marked trail, but loads of runs through the woods. Head up there, look for someone on a bike and ask directions... whereabouts in Newcastle are you?

chriswindsor

I'm in Forest Hall, Chopwell is a really good shout.

I used Gosforth Park and the Rising Sun as a warm up on my old bike, an old full suspension Mongoose which was a pile of rubbish from day one.
I am picking my bike up soon from Halfords for a trial run to check there set up, I'm tempted to pick up a bike rack as well, hoping they have something suitable for my motor. Would make road trips a lot more plausible.

davenewcastle1973

Have a look at Newcastle Mountain Bike Club (Mid air crisis) - I don't ride with them, but they are based in Longbenton and seem like a good bunch...

Good luck!

chriswindsor

Thanks for the help. I work away at sea, so I may just use this month as a getting in to shape, or warm up phase and then go to them in the summer.

Thanks again for helping.

All I need to figure out now is if I need to upgrade the tyres!

Long_Time_Lurker

My Sunday rides are around the trails in and around Holywell Dene and the Rising Sun as I'm based on the coast. We take the odd trip to Chopwell, but if you know where to go, you can find all the technical stuff you need around here.
As for tyres - it's thick claggy mud at the moment, and it isn't going to dry out any time, so me and everyone I ride with have switched to mud specific tyres.
I'm on Conti Mud Kings - I'll switch back to my Racing Ralphs when it eventually dries out

Initialised

If you want something not too technical head to Team Valley, up past Team Cycles, the first right under the A1, go left until you get to the Beggars Wood turning on the right, follow the trail up to Tanfield Railway via Watergate Forest Park (plenty of off Piste riding around here), at Tanfield Railway go left onto the Bowes Railway Path, then you have three different sections, the first is flowing but fairly narrow, (turn right and follow the road for a hundred metres or so and you get to the north entrance to Beamish Woods) the next section (assuming you didn't divert to Beamish) is fast, straight down hill, rutted with the odd bit of air possible. Cross the road to the north of Kibblesworth and you get to the meat of the downhill section, the Kibblesworth Staircase, more flat rutted, muddy trails, through the metal sculpture/chicane then on to a series of increasingly steep steps (made by the floods in 2012). At the bottom of the upper staircase you have to cross another road, then you hit the lower staircase. More of the same but steeper and bigger and technical if you want it to be. I usually follow this to Greenford road then head back to the Valley. I can do the route in around a hour when it's dry, in the wet it takes a bit longer so I chop bits out. It's around 10 miles with about 800ft of climbing so quite a workout.

welsh_14

If you are willing to drive to get to decent spots there is any amount of riding in the cheviots. Some amazing natural riding which is well worth the trip up, or a bit further and you have Kielder which has some good rides, including around the lake on the designated cycle track.

markhewitt1978

If you are new to MTB and want a gentle introduction to riding your bike rather than doing jumps etc, then you could do worse than follow one of the may railway paths up into Consett. Starting from Blaydon/Swalwell you can follow the Derwent Walk path (make sure you get the railway path bit not the parkland which is full of dogs!) up to Consett then you can follow the Lanchester Valley path to Durham or the C2C down to Beamish & Birtley depending on how far you want to go.

All of that is easy surfacing, passable on a road bike in the summer months.