DbRiders.com | All Things Mountain Bike

This week the DbRiders team went to Gisburn Forest to tackle the red route. Photos of the team at Gisburn are now on the photo gallery. you can click here to see the pictures.

It was Nov 2008 and four of us set off to Gisburn Forest to ride the red route. We had our map and found Gisburn with no problem, but then spent another hour or was it 2 hours looking for the forest. We eventually found a local jumping out of the bushes with his dog (strange) who told us to head for Tosside so our mini convoy was now heading in the right direction. Once reaching Tosside we somehow picked up the signs for Gisburn Forest and eventually found Cocklett Hill car park. This is where the red route begins.

By this time the heavens had truly opened and it was going to be a very wet ride. We set the bikes up and followed the red route which was basically fire roads and a little single track. I would like to say it was a great route but unfortunately having spent 2-3 hours in the car looking for it and then 1-2 hours riding in torrential rain it was a let down.

However having heard about some of the developments at Gisburn Forest and the funding they had received to develop the course we decided to give it another go. So in Aug 2009 we made our way to Gisburn and this time it was much easier to find so we reached our destination without any problems. Hartie, Pete and I were ready to ride. We followed the red arrows and eventually came across the new part of the route which wasn’t disappointing. This led to a rocky bit of singletrack through the woods (we alway let Pete go first as he has the most experience and is technically gifted). As Pete was heading along the singletrack all i heard was an aargh..and saw Pete flying over the handlebars. (Now you see why we always let him go first). No damage done apart from a hole in his knee.

Anyway the red route just got better and better more techy bits and more and more singletrack. We reached the halfway point of the course and came across a black route sign so we decided to have a go, now I’m not the greatest downhiller in fact a bit naff really but decided to give it a go. The thrills on this section are simply awesome you don’t need to go to Alton Towers and ride Nemesis, Rita, Air and Oblivion it’s all here for FREE at Gisburn.

Dbriders have done several courses around the UK but found Gisburn to be the best for all round enjoyment it has it’s climbs, fireroads,wooden slats, streams, bogs, roller coaster downhills and high berms.

The route can be easily completed in 2 hours but you might want to do the roller coaster again.

I would recommend the red route (12 miles) to all who love mountain biking………..

Author:  I'm San, i am from Halifax, U.K. I ride a Marin Mount Vision 5.9 and my favourite terrain is dirt.

Read more posts from this author