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Mountain biking Oxford falls
So, I've looked at the trails which are at oxford falls and it seems most of them seem to be illegal. I've been looking for some singletrack and i was wondering if there was any out at Oxford Falls. Also for the downhill trail, I ride a hard-tail but love to do small trails is it possible to get down without destroying my bike. I've seen some videos and it seems the first past has jumps which look ok for a hardtail. Would i have to turn back afterwards? or is there a way around all the drops.
Thanks
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Not the best with oxford falls but close by you've got single track loop at cascades and along mona vale there quite a nice single track loop. And generally with the big jumps at oxford falls there's a b-line so you can avoid the drops and jumps but as i said, im not very good with oxford falls.
hope that helps you out somewhat.
Jono
Thanks so much, sounds like oxford falls is probably a no go zone.
Bike destruction will depend entirely on your abilities.
Have seen plenty of hardtails down there.
Just about any of the decent single track at Oxford Falls is now illegal. Some people still ride through there, as a single rider just for training, or even to link up a longer ride that includes Red Hill or Terrey Hills. But generally organised rides as part of a group are no longer in fashion.
The DH trails are not really hard-tail friendly, at least to those that do not ride a lot of DH. Having said that, I saw a dude doing 20ft gap jumps over one of the fire roads there, about 1/3 way down the Morgan Rd trails. So if you are good enough, it certainly isn't the bike that will be holding you back!!
I'm not a super great rider so this probably sounds out of the question. Its a shame so much is illegal. How could a trail called xc loop be illegal, it sounds perfect for a mountain bike.
Yep, that's what everyone says!
Is there any way we can get these trails back, and is there any development of trails in sydney happening?
It's in Garigal National Park and mountain bikes aren't permitted on singletracks in National Parks.
Does anyone know where the Mona Vale area is? Is it on this website?
There is a lot of work going on in the background getting singletrack trails "authorised" for use by mountain bikes. National Parks is reviewing its mountain bike policy at the moment, Warringah Council has just concluded a survey of local and visiting mountain bikers with a report due out some time in Q4 this year, Manly Council has just built a DJ site called The Grove, so progress is occurring. Unfortunately it's happening at what we've come to call "government" pace, but there *is* movement.
A liaison group called Trail Care is in the process of being set up to provide an easy point of contact for land managers to communicate with mountain bikers about trails issues, for us to communicate back to land managers, and to assist with organising "the troops" for volunteer trail maintenance and construction. Membership will be open to all mountain bikers.
There's a fair bit involved in putting this together, and the shape it will take is still being worked through so I'm not able to advise a lot more by way of detail at the moment, but this is just to let you know that there are people investing significant time in resolving trail access issues and that results will come.
Hi mate,
You can do the trail behind the St Ives show ground (starts on Mona vale). I usually link that with Cascades. If you want to link to two then here's how I do it. Might seem long, but easy to navigate:
I park at Acron Oval in St Ives.
Ride along Acron Rd
Turn left to Blackburn St
Right at Whitehaven St
Right to Linigen Pl and immediately (5-10 meters) to the access road on the left.
This will get you to a gate and to the beginning of the trail. Ride up till you get to a gravel road, turn left and this gets you to Mona Vale Rd. You need to turn right on Mona Vale and pass the show ground entrance. Make sure you're riding on the left side of Mona Vale, because after you passed the Showground entrance (around 60-70m) you will turn left and there's a trail starting there on your right. Once you're on that trail you can't really go wrong I think..
Two things to bear in mind:
1 - at some point you will cross a gravel road - don't turn into it - cross it straight.
2 - Sometimes after that you will reach a gate (it's on a left turn - easy to remember), keep riding about 200m after the gate and you will see a turn left - take it. I think this is the only cross where you might lose the trail.
After the muddy part (at least it was muddy 3 days ago) you will climb a little bit and then you can turn left again - this will take you to the back of the show ground and all you need is to cross it to Mona Vale Rd and ride back to where you came from.
Once you're off Mona Vale again you can either return exactly as you came or to keep straight on the gravel road and link it with the Cascades. If you go for Cascades then it will finish eventually near your car.
I hope it makes sense... It's hard to keep up with textual explanations and I hope I didn't miss anything, but I think it's quite a simple trail, not really too many places to go wrong.
Have fun and if you do also the Cascades then good luck with the climbs!
J