Favourite trails

Although i haven't ridden too many trails and although i'm not sure you would classify it as sydney i would have to say ourimbah.

Just a perfect mix of speed, flow and technicality. Fun at low speed but even more fun when you push it and surprisingly easy to pedal.

Damn. I need to get back there...

Jono.

... I don't get a lot out of riding round in the same circles all the time and prefer:

a) rides that I can do from home rather than wasting riding time driving somewhere
b) extended loops rather than purpose built circuits.

Hence my favourite "track" involves riding from the mid north shore to St Ives (Acron Oval), cutting across to the descent off the end of Douglas St, popping back out on Cambourne Ave, roading it round to Linigen Pl, taking the fire trail through to Mona Vale Rd, St Ives sniggle, Muppets, Larool Track, Larool Ave, under Mona Vale Rd, up to the equestrian area, back onto Mona Vale Rd, down the sniggle after the last house, out onto the Forest Way/ Mona Vale Rd intersection, then back via the sniggle and Linigen Pl track. If I want a bit extra climbing, I can throw in Blackbutt Reserve and / or Cascades / Quarry Track, or for more distance there are bits of Terrey Hills to add in as well.

That way I get 2-4 hrs of solid riding, some good hills, some techy bits (techy enough for me anyway) and max riding for my available hours.

If I had to pick a dedicated XC track that is worth riding to, it would probably be OMV.

Actually Lach, what you're outlined there is what I do most weekends, albeit with a different starting point.

And it's actually Simon's vision that we've been trying to get NPWS, Warringah and Pittwater councils on board with: a 40-50-50km epic trail loop.

It would also be nice to have a decent XCO race loop locally that could sustain a club.

Like Lach said, I personally prefer longer rides that take in a whole variety of terrain (as much as we love ST, it gets exhausting if we stay on it for ages). I usually do a 70km training MTB ride on Saturday mornings taking in OMV and two other local singletracks, linked together by a series of firetrails and roads, and personally I think that is essentially ideal for me.

But from a holistic viewpoint, I'd personally say the best track in Sydney (well, it's in the Sydney street directory) is the Great North Road - it involves technical skills, views, heritage and hills that are unmatched by anything else I've been to.

If we include the ACT in the NSW region, I'd rate Stromlo as one of the best places for MTB in general, even after I am still sore from 84km of it at the AMB "100." Some great features for all levels of abilities can be found there, not to mention the facilities that are the best of any place I have been to in the country. Literally, there's something there for everybody. Kowen Forest is pretty darned impressive as well, for its length (I mean, they put a 100km that was almost all unique singletrack), however less variety

That I've ever been to? Well, I've never been MTB outside of Australia. But I everyone who's ridden in Rotorua says it's amazing so I'm keen to make that change in the near future!

I was mainly interested in discussions re the new trails but the link posted seems incorrect.

My answer is variety - Having a few options to do different rides and types of rides is important. The new Ghania and Serrata are good to work on the technique but not very suitable for endurance training so one has to pick the tracks that suit the riding one wishes to do on the day.

As already mentioned, the ability to string together tracks to get some decent mileage down is also very valuable. The less time one has to spend on the roads with cars to achieve that mileage - the better.

One of my favourite rides is to combine the hills of Davidson starting at Wyatt Ave with a bunch of laps of the single track along mona vale road in all possible directions. That combines a bit of fun with grinding out the distance and enough uphills to hurt towards the end. No problem getting a few ks down and only cross a road once.

Link indicated in original post is wrong. I think you meant this one - http://nobmob.com/node/49218

+1 to Ourimbah and also Awaba definitely deserves a mention. Just so much fun. Flowing, fast, berms, jumps, gaps; it's all part of the experience. OMV is also great for the same reasons.

Then I also love the Sydney trails around the Dam (and including the Dam) for their rocky, technical terrain. Menai and Kentlyn are also great trails.

Thanks for the heads up. Link corrected.

The beauty of mountain biking is different trails challenge you in different ways.

I'm a huge fan of ghania and serrata because they are so true to the 'original' northern beaches techy, ledgy, droppy trails that got me hooked on mountain biking in the first place. Trails like the old xc loop at oxy, ourimbah and the back of red hill that were perfectly suited to a 6 inch 'xc' bike in the days where bikes were either xc or dh.

The sport evolved, stromlo got built, canberra style smooth singletrack became the rage, 24hr races got popular, xc mountain bikers started wearing heart rate monitors and training, I went to NZ and Canada and like a lot of others got a little addicted to flowy, pumpy, jumpy trails.

OMV opened and was a great example of how to do good xc trails with local councils thanks to the lessons learnt by ku ring gai at jubes.

I got fat and slow due to kids and houses and life and after seven or eight years of strategising, consulting and gritty effort, ghania and serrata are completed. It's techy, ledgy and droppy like all the stuff I haven't ridden in years. It shows how lazy I've got riding the smooth flowy, bermy, pumpy, jumpy trails that I thought I enjoyed so much.

Now I've got something to challenge my riding again to relearn how to ride the type of trail that's pretty unique to the northern beaches terrain. If I want to ride smooth single track I'll head down to Canberra for a long weekend, if I want gravity park trails I'll plan a holiday to whistler, for jumpy free ridy trails oxy is great, if I want fun xc I'll hit up OMV.

There's a place for all types of trails but techy, ledgy, droppy are the northern beaches specialty so enjoy them for what they are rather than wishing that where you live was more like Canberra!

I recall that someone at NPWS or a council said at one point that they had tried to establish where they could put a 'proper' dh trail in sydney. Locals riders had said that it had to at the very least be shuttleable and have 400m+ vertical for it to work. Consequently the logical conclusion was that it couldn't be built in Sydney!

Enjoy the challenge of all of Sydney's trails, firetrail, single track, techy, flowy, fun, fast. Rather than giving land managers an impossible specification to try to accommodate to keep all riders happy, we need to help formalise enough of the informal trail network to offer something official that leaves everyone smiling when they get out on the bike.

Then northern beaches mountain bikers can stop worrying about strava trophies and fitness stuff like training, recovery and nutrition and get back to the simple holy Saturday morning trinity of bike - beach - burger.

Just hurry up an build us a mini Rotorua some place out the back of terry hills will you?

I'd nearly burn my road bike for anything like a Kowan or an Ourimbah on the northern beaches.

The Wicked Wombat course at jindi was perfect.

Local? Muppets.. Possum.. but more more more and there's some sniggles up top at Red Hill (corner cut and rim ride) that are nice, Red Hill fixed up could nearly the perfect MTB place, its just that it gets soooo trashed.. and that's getting off topic.

I love the trails at Loftus.

They have a bit of everything: flowy, smooth sniggle; rocky & techy sniggle; firetrail (if you're in the mood for it); and enough of them intertwining with each other to allow lots of different loops and all rideable in two directions.

In other words, it's a real trail network that lets you escape into the bush on your bike for a good couple of hours.

Northern Beaches is evolving in that direction too: Ghania and Serrata add some excellent, purpose built options to be incorporated into a wide-ranging ride. But being so much more built up, it seems inevitable that the trails in the north are going to be a bit disjointed.

The more NPWS and other land managers can be shown that we're responsible land users, the more opportunities for trails there will be, as Ghania and Serrata show.

I’ve given this a fair bit of thought and realised that I don’t have any true favourite tracks.

I think that as we improve, our needs change (and they should in order to challenge ourselves and avoid staleness). I think that a great track will be one that works for a wide spectrum of abilities. A novice (not uber beginner) should be able get through and handle most sections, with B lines being created for the tougher parts and / or clearly harder sections (gaps, rock gardens etc) having a break off line. But as skills improve, there is a chance to ride the same track differently and faster (not just by being fitter) such as gapping rock gardens instead of riding through them, linking up rollers to double them, allow sections to be ridden at warp speed for faster riders but still maintaining an element of fun for those who are still learning.

Rotorua is by far the most enjoyable place I have ridden. Of course we don’t have the vertical drop, the area size or soil type however I still think that many lessons could be taken away. There are numerous trails in all grades that could be ridden by a wide range of riders. Some trails were clearly suitable for novices but more skilled riders could challenge themselves on A lines or approaching features differently in order to maintain or even increase speed. More challenging features could be skirted around without losing flow, other features could be considered challenging but low consequence (eg 6m table tops, 2m step downs with long, well sculpted transitions). I was shown a track by a local (he built and “owned” it) where entire corners could be cut by using a berm for jumping over ferns, numerous small steps could be missed if you were off the brakes from the top of a slope and simply bunny hopped off a small root to clear the steps. And at the same time, his beginner wife could happily trundle most of it without too many wobbly moments. But a key learning point was using the land better. Some trails were fast and fun with minimal fall. Natural features were used to provide great features and there were multiple places to generate speed.

The truth is that many of these attributes exist on some Sydney trails but they are illegal or at least tolerated. It shows however that enjoyable, sustainable and wide appealing trails can be constructed with nothing more than basic tools and sweat.

If it was less of a faff to shuttle, I think the Sydney tracks that I enjoy most (at the moment and that I’d mention on-line) are Bunnings & Ya Mum and Warriewood.

Without a doubt I would have to say - Simons ladders (strava name?), powerlines at oxy and Ya Mum. Some of the best riding I've ever come across in Sydney. Challenging, steep and technical.

A good mix of everything, that is why I don't like to ride at the same place 2 times in a row. Got to mix it up.

I do not have any specific favourites.

Wingello for a camping weekend of day and night riding.