North Bristol Mountain Bike Club

Bristol Mountain biking in and around Ashton Court, Leigh Woods, Bristol, XC,Trail All Mountain and Downhill, GPS Maps and Routes, Videos and photos

Club News

Leigh Woods, Yer Tiz Trail Map

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Yer Tiz Trail in neighbouring Leigh Woods was completed in late December 2011 and is a ‘moderate’ Blue grade narrow and engaging trail weaving it’s way through the woodland. The trail features berms (banked corners), rollers (bumps) and drops and climbs, requiring a mountain bike but suitable for relative novices to off-road cycling. Expect to meet other people enjoying the woods, including walkers, dog walkers and children. In places the trail splits for a short distance, giving an option of a more difficult challenge in the form of the ‘difficult’ Red grade Gert Lush Trail. Narrow and technical, it is only suitable for experienced off-road cyclists. A great ‘taster’ of a Red grade trail. The Keener Skills Loop is graded ‘moderate’ Blue along its main route and includes features such as small drops, rock gardens and rollers to progress your riding ability. Along the loop you can divert onto more difficult features once you are confident. Develop your riding by building up to riding new features once you are ready. Leigh Woods Bristol

Route notes

The new £400,000 trails at Ashton Court and Leigh Woods are a rare wonder: varied, well-maintained mountain bike trails on the edge of a big city. Ashton Court's blue (moderate) Nova trail loops four miles through woods around the golf course of Ashton Court Estate, giving a rewarding experience to relative novices. It has small rock steps, rollers (bumps) and berms (banked corners), and splits in places to offer red (difficult) challenges. The half-mile red Super Nova trail has step-ups, rock gardens and berm after berm. The Yer Tiz trail in neighbouring Leigh Woods is a narrow blue with berms, rollers, drops and climbs, but is suitable for novices. The short, red Gert Lush trail is narrow and technical, but a good introduction to more challenging riding. The Keener Skills Loop, off the Yer Tiz, has small drops, rock gardens and rollers to practise on.

Ashton Court Trail Map, The Nova Trail

Les arcs Bike park

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When we ride

Our main ride time is a Sunday. Depending on what we did the weekend before, we decide where to go some time the following week and advertise this on the web site. The new club will set out to include one major ride every 4 to 5 weeks, or more if the demand is there. These rides can be anywhere from South Wales to Ashton court or the Quantocks.

The weekends between major rides are normally spent on local rides, Ashton court, Leigh woods or even Cheddar. The longer rides start around 8.00am to 9.00am and usually finish plan to arrive home around 3.00pm.

This year our midweek ride is normally on a Wednesday or Friday night around 6.00pm - 7:00pm to give everyone a chance to get home from work and climb into bike gear. These rides, because of the obvious time restrictions, are usually concentrated around the Ashton court and Leigh woods area. We don't set targets for ride times but do try to get back home for about 9.00pm in the lighter summer nights. We cover anything from 5 to 20 miles, depending on the mood of the group. The slowest man always dictates the pace and we never leave anyone behind. Occasionally we interrupt these rides with practice or fun "test" sessions over a particularly difficult or unique obstacle for a short period.

What you might need

You might want to consider this list of "desirable" items for our rides:

01.Hardware

Pump - Allen Keys - Tyre Levers - Puncture Outfit - Spanner if you need one - String - Tape - Inner Tube - Chain Tool - Screwdriver - Blade - Cable (zip) ties -

All this stuff is probably carried anyway by us "Old hands", because we learned as we went along. Chances are you'll survive without all or most of it if you ride with us, but one day ... The current trend in Mountain Bikes is for them not to need any spanners - they only use Allen keys for most adjustable parts. If your bike still has it's nuts, you'd better find a spanner that fits them and carry it with you - just in case one of us old bods doesn't, coz we don't need them.

02.Software

Waterproof Jacket - Waterproof Socks - Gloves - Thin Ski Hat under your helmet for winter - Ear Warmers - Change of Clothes for wet rides (keep in the car) - Overtrousers - Elastoplasts -

Notes on Above

01.Clothing.

If you're out with us somewhere bleak, things can become tricky if the weather turns either cold, wet or both, and it can happen suddenly without warning. On higher ground it can be extremely cold in winter, so you have to be prepared. This means either wearing plenty of clothes - many thin layers are better than two thick ones, and you can add or remove them and carry them easily if necessary - or taking extra with you in your backpack or rackpack. Wet feet can make you feel horrible if they get cold, so think about investing in some waterproof socks, such as SealSkinz. Even if the water gets inside, your tootsies shouldn't freeze. If you are 20 miles out into the wilds of Northumberland, that means you have to do 20 miles to get back out, and you can't do that easily with Hypothermia setting in, so try to avoid getting cold and wet.

Human skin is waterproof, we know, but if you can pedal wearing waterproof overtrousers, they can keep you feeling comfortable in the wet stuff. Spare a thought for your car driver if you're sharing - she or he may not appreciate your muddy arse all over their car seats, or muddy boots all over their carpets and seatbacks. I've suffered this for years because I'm different, but not everyone can cope with imbeciles, and why should they?

02.Sustenance.

The human body uses energy to produce output, like pedalling a bike. That energy has to come from somewhere. It also has to be replenished at regular intervals to maintain peak performance. That means you have to EAT stuff. This is extremely important always, but even more so in winter. So feed up before you go off on a ride, and snack while you're out. We always have a lunch stop, sometimes short maybe, but we'll have one. And probably a few more food breaks on longer rides. In winter it isn't good to stop for too long anyway as you cool quickly, and you can damage muscles and ligaments if you push too hard when restarting. If you get hungry or thirsty on a ride, SHOUT IT OUT! We'll certainly agree with you that we need another break!

A Thermos Flask with a hot drink is a great idea for winter rides. Unbreakable stainless steel ones are quite cheap now. You can either carry it with you during the ride, or take it to drink after you finish, but DO NOT stand your flask or your helmet - or anything, in fact - on the roof of someone's car. This is common sense but some Mountain Bikers treasure their few hundred quid bikes more than your 15 grand car. Or they're just thoughtless bastards. This I know.

Don't want hot drinks? That's fine, but you must take some liquid, and preferably plain water, as it's by far the best way to stay safely hydrated. Being dehydrated really hurts, and can do so in some strange ways. Most MTBers wear a Camelbak or similar backpack with a rubber water bag inside and a tube to drink through, as it's more convenient than a frame-mounted water bottle and a lot bigger for long rides. You should take a heavy swig every 15 minutes or so. After a while you'll discover how long your water will last on a long ride.

If you think some of this sounds like Survival Tactics, you'd be dead right. Don't become a victim.

More useless, uninformative stuff coming later.

What to do if you want to ride

What do you need -A mountain bike, anything will do but it should be reliable and safe, and a cycle helmet which we absolutely insist on for all rides. If the weather is bad then either a good warm layer, or if it is raining then a waterproof jacket of some sort. Try and not wear anything to heavy as this will only slow you down.
Why you need it - So that you can stop trying to keep yourself amused on lonely rides around your local area.
What will it cost you - Squat. Nuffink. All you need is you, your bike and a helmet, and may be a few quid for Tea and Cake half way around.
What to do next - Send us an e-mail from the contact page and tell us that you're interested, what type of riding you like to do, your approximate skill level, your age, area you live in (address not required) sex and as many other details as you dare. We will compile the data and begin the task of categorising our new membership and setting up some initial ride sessions. Phone numbers (home or mobe) may help us to organise things, but e-mail is perfectly acceptable.
To see what we've been up to so far take a look at our Forum

This is where we normally start for a Weekend Leigh Woods / Aston Court ride

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