Are WildBike holidays for me? If you are ready to ride the wild natural trails of this beautiful island … YES!
We like to put the emphasis on the Wild in WildBike because we love the natural trails of our glorious National Parks.
If you are used to tackling the red and black runs at your favourite trail centre, you will revel in handling all the rocks, roots, rubble and drops that nature might throw at you on one of our UK MTB holidays.
If you are more comfortable with a blue run, you might find some short sections a little more challenging than you are used to. However, help will always be at hand and we are very happy to offer skills coaching through some of the more technical sections of trail.
This said, we should be clear that our holidays are not suitable for beginners, as having too wide a span of skills within the group leads to dissatisfaction for all.
You should also possess a good level of fitness. Most of our rides will see you out from our base for 6 to 8 hours. This means you will need to be enjoying 4+ hours in the saddle on your regular weekend rides.
Our ‘Toughness out of Ten’ rating
All our holidays sit firmly on the wild side of the fence, that’s why we’re called WildBike! This scale is deliberately lacking in finesse because technicality of trail and rider fitness are such subjective measures. But just to give our own comparative scale, we’ve added our Toughness rating, which needs to be taken seriously!
9.5
To give some meaning to this, our toughest break is our Lakes End to End (and back again) trip, to which we give a big 9.5 score. This is because it is tough physically as well as technically: long days of steep climbs involving carrying your bike and rocky, steep, tight, fast, long descents requiring strong bike handling skills.
6.0
Whereas our least tough holiday is Exmoor Wild Trails, which we give a score of 6. Many people would think this a pretty tough riding experience, but compared to our other rides, it’s a little more sedate. Although steep, the climbs are not too long or technical and no special bike handling skills are required for the downs.
Our other breaks fall somewhere in between these two – see each trip for details.
All Mountain :: Enduro :: Singletrack Safari :: Wild Trails
Explained
All Mountain.
All Mountain means riding uphill, pushing sometimes, riding across the tops, riding downhill, along valleys, as much singletrack as possible, long days. You could just call it Mountain Biking!
Enduro.
Like All Mountain, but looking for more technical downhill sections, probably steeper, likely to be tougher, likely to be more hike-a-bike.
Wild Trails.
Like All Mountain but a little gentler. Still as much singletrack as possible!
Singletrack Safari.
All of the above sampling different locations within an area.
Our guided groups
We keep our groups to a maximum of 6 per guide. Small group sizes minimize the impact of our riding on the environment and allow valuable time with your guide to enhance your riding experience. If our group size stretches beyond 6, we will run with 2 guides. In this way we can be flexible with the pace and to some extent, the routes we choose.
This makes our mountain biking holidays ideal for mixed ability groups. Our guides are all highly experienced, British Cycling, MBLA or MIAS qualified and mountain first-aid trained. Without spoiling the flow of your riding, we will ensure you know what to expect on the trail up ahead.
What about my bike?
You need a well maintained mountain bike that will be at home on rocky, rooty singletrack. Most riders will choose a full suspension bike on our All Mountain and Enduro holidays, but if you are a dedicated hardtail shredder – no problem!
It’s recommended you bring spare brake pads, inner tubes, gear cables and importantly, a derailleur hanger specific to your bike. Our holiday venues are all equipped with bikewash facilities.
Our rides are supported by our fantastic specially converted MTB race van, complete with tools and common spares. Our vehicles will together seat 12 and carry 12 bikes all securely clamped in fork mounted racks.
Our policy on e-bikes
Our policy on e-bikes is designed to ensure everybody enjoys their riding.
You are welcome to ride your e-bike on most of our UK MTB holidays. If there are 4 or more guests on e-bikes, your own dedicated guide also on an e-bike will be available. This means you will travel further and faster than a group of riders on unassisted bikes. If there are fewer than 4 guests on e-bikes it is likely you will ride as part of the whole group, at the pace of the group, expecting to wait to regroup at the top of climbs. Depending on the total number of guests on the trip, we may still be able to assign you an e-bike guide to a smaller group of 2 or 3 e-biker guests, but we cannot guarantee this.
The description of each holiday under the DESTINATIONS pages will tell you if it is suitable for e-bikes.
Please be aware that due to the fragile nature of the soil on some of our trips, we will request that you use low power modes on trails sensitive to damage in wet conditions.