Reviews for Chopwell Woods Mountain Bike Trails

Summary:
3 trails but fun

Review:
Power line is the only train well cared for and very fun but the others don’t look as if they are taken care of but I enjoy powerline

Summary:
Family Fun

Review:
Took the wife and kids here. The blue trail did not take long and so we went off exploring. That was fun, there are plenty of step ups and downs.
We also found a couple of bowls to play around in.
If you want elevation without distance this is a good place to ride.
Be warned there are no facilities, we saw a sign for a café but could not find it.

Update: rode the powerline, that's a lot of fun but pretty short. Watch it for the gate at the end of the top section.
Also using a GPX file followed some great paths through the woods. This is a fun place to ride. More facilities and sing posts and this place would be rocking

Summary:
Good for a few quick rides.

Review:
Trail was rather challenging on the first time around, this was more so because of the constant braking into tight corners after a steep descent. The berms were fun but as I said tight. I haven't had my 650b very long but cornering is still something I have to perfect as they don't seem to respond like the 26"s .. But where else better to learn than at chopwell.

Little bits of timber trail are fun!

It is a shame the trail only took us 15-20 minutes despite it being rated at 45min... This meant we did go 4 times around!

I will most certainly be visiting this trail again, yes it needs work but it is on our doorstep.

Like on of the other reviews here - good for beginners and for keeping your hand in.. Although beginners be careful. theres a few nasty ruts that can easily take you off.. happened to me first time around!

Summary:
A shared route. It doesn't work.

Review:
I spent a frustrating, if short, time on this route.

A route shared with walkers and horse riders. Anyone think that is going to work? No, of course not. The majority of my 40 minutes riding this route was spent slowing down to avoid hitting dogs and their owners and slowing down and waiting to pass groups of walkers who do not want to give you any space. It doesn't help that some sections are very narrow and that the path runs in both directions the whole way.

The signage is poor, even by Forestry Commission standards. Several times I arrived at junctions that had no signs and had no choice but to guess. It's another forest where a coloured trail branches in various directions but there are no maps at junctions, so you have no reference point to make a decision which way to go.

Ride wise....boring. It suffers the Chopwell curse that the start is down down down and more down. Then up up up and more up. And that is it. Chopwell sorely needs a few quid investment to run a road down the valley with one or two more car parks so cyclists can choose to set off from either the bottom or part way up the valley. There's just no enjoyment, because your off roaring downhill with no chance for warming up and your first pedalling is to come all the way back up the valley. Not fun.

Oh...did I mention the horse 'mess''? Everywhere. I know regular bridleways are open to walkers/cyclists/horses, but Chopwell is more of a park than true countryside. It isn't right for this amount of excrement to be literally all over paths that walkers and cyclists will go through. It's everywhere.

I combined this 'ride' (aka dog/person dodging) with the red trail (all 5 minutes of it) and the only conclusion I can reach is that the cycling facilities are no more than a token gesture. I don't know if they either do not really want us there or are heavily restricted in the use of the wood for dedicated cycle paths, but I will not be going back. Why bother packing the car to carry the bike all the way here for around 1.5hrs poor cycling on shared paths when I can add a simple 30 mins extra to my drive and head to Hamsterley for a full day out on three grades of mile upon mile of cycle-only trails?

Summary:
An atrocious waste of time.

Review:
I should have paid attention to the other negative reviews.

I completed this route in 15 minutes, having spent about 25 mins warming up on the blue shared trail. It was not 15 minutes of thrills however. Starting from the car park, the red trail immediately drops off downhill. And that is all it does. For about 5 minutes. They've clearly had to squeeze this trail into a tiny space as it follows a constant and very tight S shape. It's so twist and narrow that it is impossible to get any kind of speed built up. The layout seems to have been developed with little thought. One section has an extremely steep drop but it isn't long and has a 90 degree right turn at the end, so you have to brake and crawl down the loose drop to be able to negotiate the turn. So so pointless.

I visited on a very rainy day and the route was littered with huge puddles. I wouldn't have been bothered by this, however several turned out to have large rocks in them, hidden by the water today. I nearly got thrown off the bike twice because of this. Very annoying. I am not a fan of dangers you cannot see and do not even have a fair chance to avoid.

Anyway, not to worry because before you even realise you are on this trail it ends! And then you have to trudge back uphill. I prefer trails where you have to out some work in then received the reward of going downhill. This does things in reverse. A boring and annoying end to a short and annoying little bit at the start.
They need a rethink. There are so many paths criss-crossing the forest and the red trail could be extended so much, by a few miles easily. It frankly needs to be way way longer and for the start to be either half way down or at the bottom of the valley, with a cyclists car park added.
Honestly, for cyclists Chopwell is only worth visiting if you can easily cycle here. As I discovered, if you are going to the trouble of coming by car (and all that is involved in bringing your bike etc on the car) you may as well just keep going and head to Hamsterley instead. If you're coming by car you presumably have a day available, so honestly make it worth your while and go a little further afield. This was literally a waste of time.