Where to ride? North Yorkshire based.

newbiketime

My 7 years old and has rode mountain bikes for a few years now, but has started to more get in to going down the hills so have built him up a little 24 full sus and got him a full face and pads. So now looking for some more trails to take him.

He loves going down hills, flowing berms, tight single track, small jumps, small drops and well anything that is not to extreme. The problem is he can not ride to far up hills as he gets worn out hulking a big bike up a hill. He struggles on really rutted ground due to small wheels and not much travel.

We live in Great Ayton in North Yorkshire where there is loads of XC riding that he has done for a few years and I know of a few more steeper runs but they are tending to be pretty very bumpy or requiring a lot of pedalling to get to so a proving not ideal. We have done the green/blue trails at Sutton Bank, Dalby, Hamsterley Forest and Whinlatter that are all fine for general peddling but not really giving him what he was after. He really enjoyed the flowing bits at Whinlatter but there was so much riding in-between he was spent after a run and did not really get to do much down hill work.

So my question is can you recommend any trails at these locations or any other locations not a million miles away that will possibly be more suitable for what he is after? Something that is not padded out with to much XC. Perhaps just a not overly hard DH ride just a strait ride back to the top? Possibly better still something with a uplift? Or somewhere we could ferry him most of the way up in a car? But at the same time not being overly ridiculous form a skill level perspective?

Any recommendations would be most appreciated.

me-109

The old quarry outside Ayton has the jump tracks that you probably know about. Slightly different I know.
Descend at Hamsterley has downhill options plus the 4x track which only requires punching back up half the hill. It's the only one I can think of with uplift options, either easy means to get your car up and down or on their uplift days.

newbiketime

me-109 said:

The old quarry outside Ayton has the jump tracks that you probably know about. Slightly different I know.
Descend at Hamsterley has downhill options plus the 4x track which only requires punching back up half the hill. It's the only one I can think of with uplift options, either easy means to get your car up and down or on their uplift days.

Thanks for the reply. We spend most of our time around the Quarry these days Though he is more in to carving up the bends than big air, so it's a little limited for him.

We just watched a few videos of Descend and the 4x track defiantly looks a possibility thanks. Certainty something different for him to try We just watched a few videos of the DH track too, but it was mostly showing heavily rooted paths and rock gardens, Is that what it is mostly like? He really struggles on the ruff stuff due to the tiny wheels on his bike.

me-109

The 4x would probably be good as you can roll a lot if he can't get speed to jump. There are gaps near the bottom he could ride round or treat as a drop and bypass the landing ramp, from what I remember. Likely it'll get boring after a few runs though.

The DH runs offer a varied level of technical difficulty. I've seen some young rippers riding all sorts of stuff that would scare the pants off me, and I wouldn't know what your lad is capable of. They don't do many runs that a beginner would get on with.

I think at that age it's still a case of riding trails and enjoying the downhills when you can, but accepting that he/you will be pushing some of the uphills. Bikes weigh proportionally more for the youngsters, and often don't weigh much less than an adult bike.

Have you asked at Bike Scene or NRG for any thoughts on this? They may not have much to offer where smaller / younger riders are concerned, possibly getting more interested once they are big enough for full size wheels.

oxoman

If your already doing the lower grade stuff at Dalby and Sutton why not add a few sections of the red in as well. TBH Dalby red is only red in a few sections but gets rated red because of the distance, sherwood and cannock near me are similar rated red but would normally be blue. Good luck on keeping him motivated, my youngest copped out at about 14. Best thing I can suggest is try and make his bike as light as possible to keep him motivated.