Mountain bike coaching / guided rides

[designndrive62]

Thinking about what I want to get next from mountain biking, and i'm thinking i might benefit from either a bit of tuition/coaching, or might enjoy a bit of a longer guided ride that I have seen around.

Does anyone have any experience of doing either of these kinds of things? Coaching wise i've never had any, but am fairly confident on most red routes at trail centers, though without any flair or technique!

Guided rides looking for something a bit more like guided off piste stuff?

I'm based in the north west, so anywhere in north wales, yorkshire or scottish boarders is reachable.

[Voguely]

Not in your area of the country, but I did do a 1 hour coaching session with the pro at Chicksands bike park down in Bedfordshire.

Time and money well spent for me, coming from a mostly road biking background, he gave me some good pointers on cornering on a MTB and tackling rollers efficiently (knowing when to drop weight into it wasn't intuitively where I thought it would be). Felt faster and safer doing runs afterwards.

[syko89]

Can't help on the guiding but 'How to ride - Ben Cathro' youtube series is well worth a watch to get an understanding of what you should be doing.
I'd also look to find local group rides (facebook) so you can follow and learn from others

[ecs]

If you ever find yourself at BikePark Wales then I'd recommend a one on one session with one of their coaches - I was a fairly mediocre MTBer as a kid and picked it up again as an adult last year. Really wanted to do a trip to BPW and thought a one on one session would help me get the most out of the day. They do group sessions too but I was unsure of my ability so thought one on one would be best.

Ended up with their head coach Griff who was amazing, we looked at bike setup, went back to basics on the pump track and then headed out to the trails. I was clearing everything on trails like A470 and Snakebite by the end of it and was buzzing (don't think I'd have done Snakebite without a bit of help!).

[JQ]

designndrive62 said:

Thinking about what I want to get next from mountain biking, and i'm thinking i might benefit from either a bit of tuition/coaching, or might enjoy a bit of a longer guided ride that I have seen around.

Does anyone have any experience of doing either of these kinds of things? Coaching wise i've never had any, but am fairly confident on most red routes at trail centers, though without any flair or technique!

Guided rides looking for something a bit more like guided off piste stuff?

I'm based in the north west, so anywhere in north wales, yorkshire or scottish boarders is reachable.

100% recommend Tony Doyle, the guy is awesome.

https://ukbikeskills.co.uk/

https://www.instagram.com/ukbikeskills/?hl=en

He has built an amazing facility which you get all to yourself. Think of any feature at any bike park and he's built said feature in a variety of grades so you can start small and work your way up. You get to repeat each feature until you're confident, then move up to the next grade. He will tailor the day to whatever you want to work on. I went with my sons for the day and he took my youngest from quite a nervous MTB'er (he had a big crash a few years ago which hospitalised him at Bike Park Wales) to taking on 15ft gap jumps with confidence. Said son now rides Blacks at BPW with ease.

Tony is a very skilled biker, but most importantly he's a great teacher, patient, and has a great sense of humour. We're not local and travelled from Cheshire to visit him but it was 100% worth it. What we actually did was have a day with him then travel to BPW to put into practice what he's taught us straight away. Can't recommend him highly enough.

[TGCOTF-dewey]

+1 for Tony. My son and I had a great time. My son had a monster crash on the hip gap after the drop to flat as well, but still wants to go back. Thankfully it was end of day and he was just grazed and bruised.

If you've a head for heights, walk the ewok village...fk riding it though...He's a certified nut case.

[missing the VR6]

Another vote for Tony Doyle, had a day with him 12-13 years ago, probably he best money I’ve ever spent with regards to mountain biking.

I booked my wife on a half day 1 on 1 course at BPW a couple of years ago with a guy called Griff, she got a lot out of that too.

[JQ]

TGCOTF-dewey said:

If you've a head for heights, walk the ewok village...fk riding it though...He's a certified nut case.

Made my legs wobbly just walking on it, sod doing it on a bike.

[Tickle]

designndrive62 said:

Thinking about what I want to get next from mountain biking, and i'm thinking i might benefit from either a bit of tuition/coaching, or might enjoy a bit of a longer guided ride that I have seen around.

Does anyone have any experience of doing either of these kinds of things? Coaching wise i've never had any, but am fairly confident on most red routes at trail centers, though without any flair or technique!

Guided rides looking for something a bit more like guided off piste stuff?

I'm based in the north west, so anywhere in north wales, yorkshire or scottish boarders is reachable.

I'm North West based, last year I did the Advanced MTB day course with Ride MTB Coaching (fathers day present), really enjoyed it. The one I did was a full day, one other rider, the session was around Rivington and then over to Healy Nab for jumps, berms and tech descending.

https://ridemtbcoaching.co.uk/products/1-to-1-mtb-...

Guide tours, I've been tempted to do one of these, I follow him on YouTube https://youtube.com/@trailfinder?si=296DaNW3lE3Tkv... does some great rides, predominantly in the NW.

https://www.trail-findergrouprides.co.uk/

[Pablo16v]

A bunch of us have used Dirt School at Glentress quite a few times over the years and they have been brilliant.

https://www.dirtschool.co.uk/pages/about

[benny.c]

My son had an excellent one to one day with Al Bond at OPA.

https://oneplanetadventure.com/courses/

[Hugo Stiglitz]

Another vote for Tony Doyle. Hes been active for 20+ years and I've never heard a bad word.