What Trails Should I Ride? Deciphering MTB Trail Ratings For Beginners
Decode trail ratings, maximise fun and improve your skills on trails that suit your ability.
As you may know already, starting out in mountain biking is not always the easiest task. There is a lot to learn, and the thought of just hopping on the bike and heading out can be pretty intimidating when you’re completely unsure of what will happen, or where you’ll go.
There are a lot of factors to take into consideration and finding the right trails for your level can be a very important factor in the enjoyment you get from a ride, but also, your safety.
What we want to avoid is beginners arriving at the top of a steep, gnarly trail without realising what they’re getting themselves into- fear can cloud your judgement, you won’t enjoy carrying your bike down rough, steep terrain and, worst of all, you could hurt yourself. Riding trails that suit your ability will maximise enjoyment, help you learn new skills faster and hopefully keep you safe.
So let’s say you’ve found yourself a suitable bike, got yourself kitted out with the right safety equipment and the other things you’ll need for a ride, and you’re ready and raring to go- but, where exactly should you go?- Finding Trails -
Thankfully, in this modern age and with all the wonderful technology we have at our disposal, finding a trail is a lot easier than it used to be- but that does not make it easy for a beginner.
There are lots of tools to help you get started but one of the most widely used is TrailForks. TrailForks, and many of its competitors, use live maps to allow you to see your real time location and display trails, car parks, toilets and lots of other useful information.
You can select a trail and check the status of it, see who has ridden it recently, check how steep the trail is and the length of it- but most importantly, you can find countless trails near your location with ease.
A much more traditional way to find local trails is by popping into your local bike shop and simply asking questions. Most of the time, you’ll find bike shop staff are just stoked on bikes and will be pumped by the idea of you looking to get on your first ride. These guys are the local experts and will happily point you in the direction of a trail to suit your ability level.
If you have nothing MTB specific near you, then sticking to single track, bridleways and whatever else you can find is a great way to start. You generally won’t come across anything too challenging, and will be rewarded with great views and the thrill of exploration- just make sure these places are bike friendly before you start.
So, we have a few ways of finding places to ride, now we just need to make sure we know exactly what we are looking at. Let’s take a look at the way we rate trails in the UK, and how you can interpret these ratings in order to make the most of your ride.- Trail Ratings in the UK -
There is a main trail grading system used in the UK, and it is not dissimilar from the way ski runs are rated across Europe- any skiers or snowboarders out there may be familiar with the system, but make sure you pay attention to the specifics, MTB is a very different sport. - Tech / Flow -
You may notice at some of the locations you ride at that there is a lot of talk about ‘tech trails’ and ‘flow trails’. These are essentially the two main types of trail you’ll find at a trail centre or bike park. A tech trail is exactly what it says on the tin- technical. There will be rough uneven ground, roots, tight corners, rocks and varying lines. ‘Tech’ can appear on any track from greens through to blacks and requires a different kind of riding. Flow is once again, pretty self descriptive. You’ll find wider trails with a much smoother surface, banked corners (or berms), as well as jumps and other features. They are designed to be ridden at a certain speed and also appear in varying difficulties from green to black. - Green -
Green trails are generally the easiest and most accessible trails. They will have relatively even ground and a hard packed surface, there will be no major features and absolutely nothing that is not rollable. Basic bike skills will be required, but pretty much anyone, of any age, on almost any bike, can enjoy these trails. Just because these trails are the ‘easiest’ does not mean they aren’t fun; some greens offer incredible flow and they are a great place to practise cornering and pumping. - Blue -
Blue trails are the natural step up from greens and can cover a huge variety of trails, from rough down hill tracks to flowy and smoothe jump lines. They require a higher level of bike skill than a green, but can still be enjoyed by all riders. Blues generally have features that are rollable (although this is not always the case) and can sometimes feature jumps, although they will never be with mandatory gaps. Blue trails are a great place to get a feeling for higher speeds, improve your cornering abilities and feel comfortable on your bike. - Red -
This is where we start to lose the ‘good for all level of rider’ tag that we have seen on the two other trail ratings. Red trails require a proficient level of bike control and will often have mandatory gaps, or blind jumps where you can’t see the landing. The trails will often be designed to be ridden at a certain speed, and can be unsafe if ridden incorrectly. Red tech trails will feature steeper gradients and much more technical ground obstacles. Red trails are for experienced riders looking to push themselves and develop new skills, they are not beginner friendly and should be ridden with caution. - Black -
Black trails are top of the pile in terms of difficulty, and are mainly ridden by extremely capable riders. They will contain features with gaps, high consequence obstacles and require very good bike control. Black tech trails will be steep, rough and extremely technical. You’ll also find things like steep chutes, large rock features and large jumps and drops. Black trails are pretty dangerous for those who don’t have the right bike skills, and should never be taken lightly. These trails should not be attempted by anyone other than extremely proficient riders- but they are a great goal to work towards one being able to ride. - Pro Line (Orange) -
This is another self explanatory category. Pro lines are pretty much for professional or extremely proficient riders only. These trails often don’t even consider a rider lower than extremely skilled and can be difficult to walk down, let alone ride. Pro lines will feature extra large jumps, very technical drops and features and really only be accessible to those at the highest end of the skill spectrum. They are a great place to watch extremely skilled riders strut their stuff and if you can build up to riding one, there can be no greater goal. - Trail Centres -
For the lucky few in the UK, living near a trail centre can be a great way to get into riding and hone your skills, but sadly, they are few and far between for us Brits. A trail centre can mean a lot of things and they range from a small collection of trails in one area, to an outright miniature bike park. Some will have organised trail crews doing maintenance, and some will operate on the goodwill of locals.
It’s important to pay attention to the signage at trail centres, the difficulty ratings will make the difference between a scary run that’s too hard, and a fun flowy trail with no gaps or dangerous features. A lack of attention may also see you riding down a climb trail, using a path that’s for pedestrians or riding over something that is not rollable. - Bike Parks -
Bike Parks are their very own breed and pretty much offer the epitome of mountain biking to every type of rider out there. Bike parks are probably best known and loved for the flow trails, which when coupled with uplift services make for pretty much endless lapping.
They can be excellent places to work on your bike skills, improve your cornering, practice jumping, shredding tech, and improving line choice- basically anything you could possibly hope to learn on a bike.
The trails are maintained by full time professional trail crews who generally have a good budget. You’ll find long machine made flow trails that are perfectly fine tuned by thousands of wheels, incredible features and creative sections of trail in abundance.- Pre-ride, Re-ride, Freeride -
This is a mantra you may see at some bike parks and even a few trail centres, but most people could do with remembering this on their everyday ride- never ride anything blind.Pre-ride suggests that you very slowly ride, or even walk with your bike, down a trail the first time you see it. Familiarising yourself with the major features of the trail, inspecting landings, and clearing debris can all help to avoid an unnecessary crash. Hitting features blind in particular is a big no-go in the mountain bike world. Re-ride means you should ride the trail with a little bit more speed and get a feel for what the trail requires from you as a rider- don’t just send it straight away. This is about getting comfortable and testing your memory of the features you just explored. Freeride- now it’s time to start pushing the speed up and experimenting with lines, maybe even trying a few features. But it’s important to remember that just because you know what’s coming up, doesn’t mean you can easily send it. Ride within your limits and let the progression come to you. Don’t ever be afraid to get to a feature, old or new, and decide that it’s not for you. Sometimes the vibe is not right, the dirt is making you uncomfortable, or you’re just not in shape- and that’s okay. It’s better to say ‘not today’ and walk away, than it is to have a silly crash on a feature you didn’t even want to ride; it will always be there next time you pass by. - Explore -
Once you’ve familiarised yourself with the UK’s trail ratings, been online and found a sick place to ride, and decided what skills you want to work on, there’s only one thing left to do; get out there and get those tyres on some dirt.