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Majura or sparrow hill?
Heading down to Canberra to see the world cup leg, and thinking of taking bikes. But as im yet to head that way can anyone reccommend the best ride, either majura pine or sparrow hill. I ride fairly often but will be joined by some inexperienced yet fit(ish) friends. Looking to get them into the scene so a good ride here could persued them to buy bikes! Any advise welcome.
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if your friends have never rode off road before take them to sparrow,some of the best single track in oz,not as tech as majura and real easy to follow the trail.if they are pretty confident and you want a bit more of a challenge then majura is the way to go.or the best option do a lap of sparrow in the morning 25/30ks lunch then majura in the arvo a little bit shorter, great day!!
That's interesting... now admittedly I've only been to Sparrow once, but have spent a while at Majura. IMHO Majura has practically no technical stuff, whereas Sparrow seemed to have more scope for damaging yourself and bike on more sections of rough rocks and the like.
Neither had any areas with big rock drops and rolls like we have locally but some nice gullies and humps could be found to launch off - again Majura seemed to have more of that kind of thing.
I would call Majura slightly more techy than Sparrow. Majura has more gullies / creek beds in it that you can have a play on. It is set up on the side of a mountain (more like a hill in fact) so this introduces more elevation change, downhill sections and speed. You can do drops and jumps there. There is even some basic downhill trails at the north and west ends of the forest. They are pretty tame, and if you were to fall off, you hit basically nothing but dirt and pine needles. Excellent fun, I say.
Sparrow is an easier ride, and far flatter in elevation. The gradients on the hilly parts are smaller too. Like Majura, most of the trail is dirt and pine needles. But there are no real techy sections to jump and play on. The techy parts I think Rob refers to is there are numerous rocks (albeit few compared to Sydney's trails) jutting up out of the ground, making you pick your line around them. You can hurt yourself or your bike
if you get it wrong there.
I would say they are pretty similar though.
Thanks for the replies , and they do both sound good.Either way, looking forward to riding in some forest for a change, i used to ride in wales a fair bit and loved the contrast of open single track then on through rooty forest trails. Think ill give sparrow hill a go as we still plan to check out stromlo sat arvo then looking forward to spending the day there on sunday..go peaty! (not really, looking forward to seeing sam hill i have heard he is a maniac) Any of you guys heading there? we're staying at victor lodge near the city....
Sparrow Hill is not as hilly as Majura - probably a bit more pine foresty too - so you might like that!
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6048224
But really, any trail in Canberra is good right?!
Cheers,
Lance.
sparrow hill for me is less tech than majura unless you do the sparrow loop which is signposted and marked as an optional extra and is the only tech part of the track with quiet a bit of rock garden that could damage you or your bike.both trails are very good and similar to riding in the uk with good forest cover and really smooth flowing trails,which ever one you pick will be great ride
You're right there about those rocks! Liam found out as it ate his tyre up!
Bring your bikes. Majura is fun, and really close to town. Sparrow is just as much if not more fun and has way more ST. There's good flow at both, so if there's time... maybe do both. Bruce Ridge is jammed full of track and a fun loop can be had in no time at all, so toss that in for good measure.
Al.
BTW The Mont is at Sparrow in 09