Riding in Dalby Forest.

We're just back from a week in Yorkshire, where we stayed in a lovely cottage in Sawdon. We planned to spend a day riding in Dalby Forest so we took our bikes, my Mojito and Dani's Genesis.
So last Wednesday we loaded the bikes back onto the car (the cottage has a secure shed) and parked up at the visitor centre. I've not been to a trail centre for about 7 years (there was a time when I knew some of the Welsh centres quite well) but Dani's never ridden on man-made mountain bike trails before. We rode the red Newclose Rigg route enjoying 6 miles of superb singletrack, switchback climbs, berms, drop-offs etc. until we reached the skills section at Dixons Hollow;

Dani at the start of the trail.

Enjoying the singletrack

Coming to the end of a section.

Dixons Hollow is made up of a variety of downhill style short sections, built to suit different levels of skill. We spent time playing around, albeit on the easier parts of the course.

Rare photo of me riding, at Dixons Hollow.

Dani started feeling the cold and I was rather hungry, so we decided to hit tarmac and follow the forest road back to the car and gorge on tea, crisps, bread and cheese (we took a picnic). Dani still wasn't warm enough to continue riding so she went off in search of hot chocolate, and took the dogs for a walk, whilst I rode up the blue (easy fire-road) route to meet up with the start of the Riggs & Dales red route, which at 8.5 miles is about the last third of the total red route. Again the riding was superb (no photos this time) but I soon came to the conclusion that I was on the wrong bike! I didn't miss having gears, in my opinion singlespeeds are the best tool for singletrack, but the Mojito is fully rigid and left me feeling rather beaten up with aching elbows and back! The ground was rockier on this section, in places made up from fist-sized rocks firmly embedded in the singletrack. Now I like rigid bikes, I like to feel the ground that I'm riding on, but I think I'll take my full suspension Kona with me next time. The problem is, it needs a good thorough service before I ride it again...

Paul.