Malvern or Forest of Dean?
Discussion
My GF has organised a day out tomorrow with two choices for me. As the title suggests I can go to either Malvern or Forest of Dean and am not sure which one to choose as have never been to Malvern.
I went to the Forest last summer and really enjoyed it. The mix of fast trails and the technical climbs up into the hills was really good as my GF doesn't like anything too difficult. Scenery was great also with shelter from the trees.
I have done some research and was wondering if Malvern offers a similar terrain. It wouldnt want to be technical as my GF won't ride of a pavement unless she has to!
Any advice on what I should choose?
I went to the Forest last summer and really enjoyed it. The mix of fast trails and the technical climbs up into the hills was really good as my GF doesn't like anything too difficult. Scenery was great also with shelter from the trees.
I have done some research and was wondering if Malvern offers a similar terrain. It wouldnt want to be technical as my GF won't ride of a pavement unless she has to!
Any advice on what I should choose?
agent006 said:
Forest will be a complete mudfest at the moment.
Hmm, thought the main trails would be okay as it hasn't rained in Cheltenham all week 
It looks like Malvern at the mo and found a good link to a bike shop which has three routes starting very near to it, 'Back on track'. This looks like a good starting point unless anyone else has a better idea?lingus75 said:
agent006 said:
Forest will be a complete mudfest at the moment.
Hmm, thought the main trails would be okay as it hasn't rained in Cheltenham all week Well, went to Malvern and parked in the car park near the bike shop. Didn't bother with the map as just went exploring. We had a fantastic day, weather was amazing for Jan and trails were very dry which meant my GF enjoyed it also. We were both shocked by how windy it was as we went up towards the 'Beacon'. I guess this is the highest part?
One downhill I decided to have a go at resulted in in me jaming on the anchors as I thought I was going to get blown down a very steep drop and my GF who is very slight needed help to stand! When we got to the beacon I held my bike of the ground as the wind tried to take it our of my hands into Great Malvern!
Its the first time I have taken my new bike out in anger and it was brilliant. My old Orange clockwork is so fast for commuting but this one http://tinyurl.com/2w9mxz excelled on these trails. Once the discs had bed in I was only needing one finger to slow (against breaking my fingers to slow on the flat with XC pro canti's!) and the lockout on the forks was very good for the climbs. I guess the only negative was the fact I couldn't get a positive shift on the XT Rapidfire for rear shifting. I liked the fact downshifts could be done by pressing or pulling but after using thumbies for the last 14 years changing up one gear usually ended up with me missing the shift. When it was right it was very smooth, is this a usual trait as the shifters were anything but positive.
One downhill I decided to have a go at resulted in in me jaming on the anchors as I thought I was going to get blown down a very steep drop and my GF who is very slight needed help to stand! When we got to the beacon I held my bike of the ground as the wind tried to take it our of my hands into Great Malvern!
Its the first time I have taken my new bike out in anger and it was brilliant. My old Orange clockwork is so fast for commuting but this one http://tinyurl.com/2w9mxz excelled on these trails. Once the discs had bed in I was only needing one finger to slow (against breaking my fingers to slow on the flat with XC pro canti's!) and the lockout on the forks was very good for the climbs. I guess the only negative was the fact I couldn't get a positive shift on the XT Rapidfire for rear shifting. I liked the fact downshifts could be done by pressing or pulling but after using thumbies for the last 14 years changing up one gear usually ended up with me missing the shift. When it was right it was very smooth, is this a usual trait as the shifters were anything but positive.
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