Routes in Mid Wales are excellent! Some are suitable for big trail bikes and novice trail riders, while other provide challenging and technical trail riding (although not enough to make up a day without some easy lanes).
Our minimum group size is four riders. However, if one-to-one tuition is required, or there are only two or three of you and you don’t wish to join other riders, we can do a midweek booking for you. The price is a little more each person.
If you are happy to join other riders, I always try to find a person or people who ride similar bikes and sound as if they have similar experience to join you. If there are more than eight riders, we are likely to split into two separate groups. Please see the Prices page for the cost of one or two days’ riding.
You must be road legal. Our trail riding days contain breaks to chat and admire the views and wildlife, and if the byway or road is one which is likely to have other users, the leader will ride at an appropriate pace. There will be a mix of fast flowing lanes and slower more technical going. Unfortunately there are a lot of gates which need opening and closing.
If you or your group will find the tarmac stretches annoying, and will not be happy following a leader who may be slower than you, then please think carefully before booking with us. You may find an enduro school with champion enduro riders more to your taste, or may wish to enter one of the trail bike rally, enduro or hare and hounds events held in this area. See below for more information.
We are promoting a positive image of trail riders, and many of the local people we encounter frequently are friendly to us. In order to continue to build on our good relationships, we will not tolerate gates being left open, wheelies, stoppies and high revs in towns, villages and particularly the farmyards we pass through. You will receive a warning, and if not heeded, then you will be led straight back to the meeting place, with no refund of your payment.
In pursuance of sustainability, we prefer that you don’t get your bike stuck in a bog!
Many of the unsurfaced roads go through farms and beside rural dwellings, and to ensure continued use it is important that we are considerate. If your bike sounds too noisy, you will not be allowed to come trail riding.
Most enduro bikes with standard exhausts and silencers are OK. However, some of the early DRZ400Es and some KTMs from a few years ago (mainly 400s and 450s) had very noisy standard exhausts. Honda CRF250X and 450Xs are OK as long as the silencer insert is still in place. If you want advice, please email or phone 01686 430522 and ask to speak to Colin.
Trail riding has become considerably more popular during recent years; just at the same time as new laws have substantially reduced the green road network. We are lucky here in Mid Wales that most of the green lanes we ride are unclassified county roads and have not been affected (yet).
We are concerned to maintain a future for trail riding. There will be areas where we ask you to ride gently to preserve a delicate grass surface. Too much throttle or braking hard on the grass tears it up. Once damaged, the grass is unlikely to grow again, leaving a slippery muddy lane in winter and a dusty rutted one in summer. Gates must be left as they were found.
Enduro schools are run Geraint and Dylan Jones, with Wyn Hughes, and by Ady Smith. See the Yamaha Offroad Experience and Ady Smith KTM.
Trail bike rallies are ideal for the first time competitor, being aimed at the leisure trail or enduro rider. Hare and hounds are a shorter day’s riding but are more demanding in terrain.
North Wales Police put more resources into policing the roads than any other Force. Recently a group was stopped by Police because of small number plates, and several riders received fixed penalty notices. One had his bike impounded for no insurance or road tax.
If your bike breaks down and cannot be fixed, we can usually supply one of our bikes so that you day or days don’t end prematurely. Price will be proportional to our usual rate, less the fee you have already paid.
If you are a trail rider and have friends you would like to introduce to it who don’t have their own trail bike, we can provide bikes for them. If they are not experienced trail riders, the route they do will be our usual beginners’ route. If you want a more challenging day, please ask. Please do not say they are experienced when they are road riders with no trail or offroad riding experience. This has happened often, and inevitably the route has been too difficult and the novices have had accidents and been injured, which ruins the day.
Enduro riding tuition is available if you wish. Colin has ridden and trained with Wyn Hughes and Geraint, Rowan and Dylan Jones. In the past he has assisted Wyn in running Husky Sport enduro training days. We assume that riders with their own bikes are experienced trail riders, so if you are new to the game, please ask for tips on techniques.
Please email or phone 01686 430522 for prices if you would like more than two days. We can be flexible to fit in with your plans, and can provide accommodation for groups of up to five (six if one person doesn’t mind a mattress on the floor of the living area). If you only want accommodation, we can provide marked maps with notes on routes. Suggestions for other places to stay are available on our accommodation page.
Three miles of main road were being ridden to the start of the next green lane, when a Police joined the back of the group and stopped a bike which had no numberplate. It turned out that the rider had no motorcycle licence, no insurance or road tax, so the Police impounded the bike. They did give him a lift back to his accommodation, but could have left him to find his own way back. The Police did not complete their paperwork that day, so his bike was impounded overnight. In the morning, a rider who had a motorcycle licence had to accompany the unlicensed rider to the Police station, and then drive out to the pound which was about 50 miles away. If none of the group of riders had been able to produce a licence, the bike would not have been released. That might have meant a journey back to London to pick up the licence, and another day’s fee for the impounded bike. As it was, the friend missed most of his second day’s trail riding, and for the unlicensed one, it will have been an expensive weekend!
SO DON’T COME WITH US IF YOU ARE NOT ROAD LEGAL!
The TRF is the National, voluntary and non-competitive body formed in 1970 by people who enjoyed exploring ’green lanes’ by motorcycle. Our aim is to conserve our heritage of green lanes for everyone to enjoy. Trail riding is an ’active recreation’.
Visit www.trf.org.uk for more information.
We give £5 discount to TRF members. (You may be asked to produce your membership card)
Trail bike riders are unfairly blamed by groups opposed to any legitimate use of vehicles in the countryside, for damage caused to green lanes in certain parts of the country. While members of the TRF agree that bikes can and do cause damage when ridden in an irresponsible manner or in the wrong places, they often find when the evidence is examined that motorcycles have not been used to cause the damage, and are fighting back to refute such ill-founded claims. DEFRA commissioned a report on the state and usage of Byways in 2004 by Faber Maunsell, the report was published January 2005 and supports the TRF's View.