Trail Rides Wales - trail riding on your own trail or enduro bike

TRAIL RIDING DETAILS

Mid Wales can provide some of the best trail riding in the country! There are trails to suit everyone, with amazing views and sightings of red kites. Whether you are a novice on a big trail bike looking for an easy introduction to trail riding, or an experienced rider looking for an enjoyable weekend away trail riding with your friends, we are the people!

Our minimum group size is usually four riders, although during mid week, we can offer individual tuition or exclusive groups of two or three.

If you are happy to join other trail riders, I always try to find a person or people who ride similar bikes and appear to have similar trail riding experience. 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’ trail riding.

IS TRAIL RIDING FOR ME?

You must have a road legal trail or enduro bike. It is suggested that you have a full size legal numberplate fitted when you come riding with us. North Wales Police are currently targetting illegal offroaders, and this summer they often stopped our groups. It is hard to persuade the Police that we only ride legal routes if they can criticise the legality of the bikes in the group.

Our trail riding days can vary from compact days without much roadwork when it is cold and wet, through to a long day’s trail riding in the summer. Please email Marianne or phone 01686 430522 to discuss your preferences for trail riding.

Trail riding is not only about the enjoyment of riding skillfully (or not so skillfully sometimes!) It is a day out in the country, including good food at lunchtime. If you are not familiar with trail riding and are an expert competition rider, please think carefully before booking with us. You may find the tarmac link roads a nuisance, and in spring, autumn or winter you will certainly feel cold if you wear lightweight competition clothing. If you want to ride as fast as possible, and not do tarmac roads, why not consider riding with the champion enduro riders at the Yamaha, KTM or Honda schools in Wales or entering one of the competitions held in this area? See below for some suggestions.

If you are new to trail riding, or wish to learn more about looking after your bike, we can offer a day or two trail riding, plus some time in the workshop. Colin is a very experienced mechanic, both two and fourstroke, and is especially familiar with Husqvarnas and Yamahas. If you are not keen on working on your own bike, he offers a delivery service if you decide to leave your bike with him for service and set up.

Sometimes we hold Special Days such as Treasure Hunts, or days for specific groups, such as riders with bikes over 600cc which tend to be heavier and not good on mud, but cope very well with rocky going. Other special days are for groups of women riders or for sidecars.

SUSTAINABILITY OF GREEN ROADS

We promote 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. But of course someone always will!

NOISY BIKES!

IMPORTANT!

Your bike must not be excessively noisy. 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, 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. Colin can supply an insert for a DRZ if required. Please ask, or If you want advice, please email or phone 01686 430522.

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 in many parts of the country. 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.

BREAKDOWNS and ACCIDENTS

If your bike breaks down, we will do our best to help you fix it. If it cannot be fixed, we will normally be able to arrange pick up of bike and rider. We can usually supply of one of our bikes if you wish, 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. Likewise, if you have an accident and cannot ride any further, but do not require emergency services, if possible, we will pick you and your bike up, and take you to hospital or to your accommodation. Please note that this service is not always available if both Colin and Marianne are out riding.

TUITION

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 have experience, so if you are new to trail riding, please let us know when you book.

TRAIL RIDING SHORT HOLIDAYS

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.

If you would like to combine a couple of days’ trail riding with other activities, or with activities for partners or children, please enquire. Available nearby are the Mark Higgins Rally School and the Raptor Experience. Not too far away are white water rafting, horse riding and pony trekking, mountain biking (with or without bike hire), the Centre for Alternative Technology, the Devils Bridge Steam Railway and plenty of walking! We can book these activities and accommodation to make your complete holiday.

ENDURO SCHOOLS AND COMPETITIVE EVENTS

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.

The Hafren Dirt Bike Club organise one or two a year: the main one being the Hafren Rally in October. The club also run British Championship enduros.
MWTRA organise plenty of hare and hounds and enduros of a more challenging nature than the Hafren Rally.
The Rhayader Club organise hare and hounds and enduros, and an evening motocross series in May, June and July.

Cautionary tale number one!

Three miles of main road were being ridden to the start of the next green lane, when a Police car 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 was an expensive weekend!

SO DON’T COME WITH US IF YOU ARE NOT ROAD LEGAL!

Cautionary tale number two!

"I didn’t think it would be that deep!"

In wet weather and winter, the routes we do have deep puddles with rough bottoms and some fierce river crossings. We advise riding these sitting down, because if you are standing up and the bike hits a dip or rock or slips on algae, you can’t get a foot down quick enough to save it. If the bike’s air filter gets water in it, either because the puddle is too deep or because the bike leans or is submerged, water will nearly always pass into the combustion chamber. If your bike is a fourstroke and you try to start your bike with water in it, you are likely to bend the conrod, or you may damage a valve. Either way, your day is finished and you have a costly engine rebuild. To check, first see if the air filter is dry. If not, take the spark plug out and see if water comes out when the engine is turned over. If it does, drain the carb, and repeat the steps until no more water comes through. Fit new plug. You may need several people to hold the bike vertical to drain the exhaust system. Please bring a plug spanner and spare plug for your bike.

It constantly amazes both Colin and I that riders usually ignore this advice!

TRAIL RIDERS FELLOWSHIP

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.