Reviews for Gisburn Forest Mountain Bike Trails

Summary:
FANTASTIC!

Review:
Trail makes figure of eight so you can just ride either half if you're stuggling for fitness or new to the sport. Been riding this weekly for a while now, 1 hour drive to get to it is well worth the effort!

I ride this in all seasons and love it as much in the snow as I do in the dusty summer. Awesome place.

Hully Gully is the cherry on top for me!

Summary:
Fun, fun fun!

Review:
I've ridden a lot of the trail centres in the North of England and Scottish borders. Whilst Gisburn doesn't have the length and flow of Dalby or the smoothness of Glentress, what it does have in spades is personality.

The Hully Gully is, in my opinion, the most fun piece of trail in existence - even if Gisburn were nothing but fire road, with this piece of sweeping, swooping genius it'd still be worth a two hour drive. As it is, there's much more to it than that. Fast, twisty forest tracks,a butt-back slab descent and some north shore riding just long enough to make an intermediate rider start to twitch a little are all here. There's also some terrific work done on the skinny front by a trail building team that have added sections that are challenging or avoidable but always fun.

The one slight downside is that there are some areas that really could do with some levelling out (coincidentally the sections that are hardest to reach by a dig team) Also, certain red-blue sections are often ridden by over enthusiastic dads who forget that fast riders will charge round the section. Letting your five year old drop fifty feet behind round a blind turn is not good parenting when there's guys hitting it at speed. There's also a little confusion over rights of way coming from the main car park to the reservoir which is not helped by signs that look to have been vandalised by walkers

All in all a terrific centre that's well worth spending a day / weekend over. The icing on the cake is the Dog and Trumpet pub in Tosside that's a couple of miles up the road from the official car park (or take a tip from the locals - park at the pub and join the trail mid-height from the forest road). Great food, great beer, a Hope-linked bike shop, a perfectly smooth pool table charging 50p a game and a barmaid that never tires of cracking the 'fancy a pint? Ewe Tosser?' (in reference to the local brew) gag and a bike wash. Carlsberg don't need to do pubs - these guys already have it covered.

Summary:
Great day out

Review:
Gisburn Forest has recently had a lot of money spent upgrading the trails and in my view it was money well spent. The Red trail seems to hit a nice balance of technical and flowy sections. Signage seems to have stalled a bit, in the sense that there is little more signage there now, than when I first rode it in Sept 09. There is enough to follow the trail but you may find yourself occasionally scratching your head first time round.

There are no massive descents but the contours of the terrain are used well as you undulate up and down and there are some gems. I loved the first downhill section through the trees but watch out for the cheeky rock garden near the end. The black Rollercoaster section is now officially named 'Hulley Gulley' and is an amazing ride in the dry. I remember whooping my way down it and thinking 'this is why I mountainbike' on the way down so really it is that good. In the wet you lose a lot of speed in the gloop at the bottom of the berms.

Gisburn is a great trail but suffers a lot in the wet. If we have a few dry days before a weekend cancel everything and go but in the rain there are probably better options.

If the numbers in the car park are anything to go by the upgrades have already made this a pretty popular destination so it is worth noting that you can park further along the lane on Stocks reservoir dam where the trail hits the road again.

Summary:
One of the best

Review:
First time here last week, dry hot day course is fantastic with lots going on. Tough on the legs. Could see it been a bit difficult on a wet day.

Summary:
nice but wet!!!!!

Review:
took my new shiny bike(and 3 kids )here on sunday.had a great family ride on the red route. the slog up the hills are worth the excellent forest trails (in the dark!!!) back down, quite technical in places
all 3 kids had a good time(even with a minor crash at the start)
and then son number 2 said look lets do this "8" RED route,ok then sent the other 2 back to the car and of we went, mmmmmmm dont listen to youngest children after 12k then this alot of ups (and downs) if i were fitter and it werent lashing it down would have been excellent :)
overall super 3hr ride
recommended and we will be back