Reviews for Billinge Wood Trails

Summary:
Could be worse, could be better

Review:
Strangely badly signposted and lacking in promotion. It's not a bad little area, especially if you're local but it's definitely not worth a trip. Considering Healy Nab is close enough there seems little point going out of your way here.
Both trails have plenty of small berms and a couple of rock drops but nothing that'll really set your heart fluttering.
it's a dull slog up there but to be honest it makes a decent rooty descent which at speed felt more interesting than the trails itself.
Add some jumps, drops and bigger berms and this place could get good be as is it may well just dwindle away into insignificance with little or no investment and maintenance

Summary:
Short but sweet.

Review:
Ideal to visit if you live locally, and can 'ride from home'. I wouldn't recommend anyone drive there thinking it was a big day out. I've rated it based on the quality of the trail rather than quantity...

Summary:
short, tight, fun

Review:
Nice little trail for a quick DH blast.
few videos of the trail:
http://vimeo.com/24756365
http://vimeo.com/24648271
http://vimeo.com/24601841

Summary:
A nice effort but lacking in ability

Review:
I certainly love how more and more trails are becoming available to us nowadays so I dont really like to bad-mouth places but I was not very impressed.

As mentioned in other reviews it is not sign posted but it is still easy enough to find and upon arriving the two trails both looked quite promising from the top. Me and my friend tried the trail of two trees to begin with which is graded a red route. The first quarter of it was quite nice with the path splitting and remerging. However, with no proper berms and an over the top amount of twists in the trail there is no real way of keeping your speed, and braking and pedalling to control myself around corners downhill isnt really my idea of fun.

The tricky sixty route, labelled a black, had a couple of nice drop offs at one point and nicer turns with a few more berms but there always seemed to be a problem with placement as the few table tops/jumps in there were usually placed in between two tight corners meaning getting speed and airborne was tricky.

Overall it has to be said that I think better things could have been done with a spot like this by putting a little more thought and less turns into a trail of this size, if you live in the area then by all means give it a go as im sure with a bit of practice the runs might become more familiar and easier to nail but with trails like Lee Quarry, Llandegla and the Lakes close by I would certainly try better places if you can.

Summary:
Short but fun attempt at Urban Mountain Biking

Review:
The Witton Park trails are part of the growing tendency toward urban bike routes the thinking being that mountain biking comes to the masses. A very laudable aim but does it work?

Well first things first, signage at the moment is non existent which makes the trails pretty hard to find if you are not a local. The website has directions which basically are head through Crows Wood till you get to Upper Billinge Lane. This track is muddy and rooty (and fun) so acts as a kind of unofficial qualifier. Once you get to Billinge Woods there is pretty much no signage (well at least it is consistent) but with the odd bit of head scratching and backtracking you can fairly easily find the start of the trails with reference to the pdf map. It is at the top of the hill which is a big clue. If you start going down again you have gone too far.

There are 2 trails which start from the same point: Tricky Sixty and Trail of Two Trees.
Trail of Two Trees is a nice little glide between trees (surprise, surprise). Very twisty so it is hard to open up fully but you can definitely get faster with practice. Be a little careful as the lack of signage can lead to confusion, on my first run for example I encountered 2 horse and riders coming up the trail. At the end of the trail you turn right to bring you back up to the start. If you turn left there is a very steep muddy and rooty descent back to Under Billinge Lane which is fun in a buttocks clenched sort of way but I would definitely rate the left turn route as Black.

Tricky Sixty is a more open and flowing trail albeit still a little tight and twisty (you can see the emphasis was on controlled speed when building the trail). There is a Black option about a third of the way down which I did not try as I was not padded up but basically it looked like a boulder fest with a 3 foot or so drop off at the end (most of the piccies on the website are of this section). It is to cut a long story short a nice bit of trail.

In summary as urban mountain biking goes this is a pretty good attempt. It is not worth travelling any great distance to get there but there is certainly enough there to keep you interested for a morning. The bad points are obvious really, the trails are short and you always feel like you want more, and being close to Blackburn Town centre means dogs often wander across and up the trails with the odd confused horse rider adding occasional traffic.

If you live close give it a go.