I’ve been doing stacks of mountain biking lately, and in the past week have been lucky enough to pilot my Rize Carbon 2 down some of the finest singletrack the UK has to offer. First up, I’ve made several forays to Swinley Forest this month, and the place never ceases to bring a grin to my face (except perhaps when I’ve been goaded into jumping giant tree trunks at the bottom of a tricky downhill).
In mid-air, somewhere in Swinley Forest
And just when I thought I’d struck MTB gold by discovering Swinley, a weekend up north with both bikes stowed in the back of the Land Rover led me to the fabulous Dalby Forest, and its 55km(!) of singletrack.
Somewhere on Dalby Forest's seemingly limitless singletrack
This is the kind of place you could spend a long (and happy) weekend riding and not see the same bit of trail twice. A word of caution, though: the “Black (severe)” trails really are severe – a few bits of it really need a bash guard, a full-face helmet and a healthy dose of bravado, though the Rize seemed to take almost all of it in its stride and my bottle gave out long before the bike showed any signs of being out of its depth.
Dalby Forest is hosting the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup next spring, and the work they’ve put into the trails there is obvious: idiot-proof signposting, and miles and miles of beautiful singletrack, berms, bridges and jumps.
Both forests get two thumbs up from me. If you need a fat-tyred break from London’s bedlam, then Swinley is the best oasis of mud I’ve found yet (and only 25 minutes down the M3). And if you’re in the market for a, er, dirty weekend in Yorkshire, I can’t recommend Dalby Forest enough.
