Kids mountain biking, Dublin

BoardsMember

Hi All. Would like bring two ten year olds mountain biking some weekend and wondered where best to bring them. Probably keeping it simple, somewhere I can rent all rhat is required. The kids would be fairly proficient on bikes.

The alternative is to go on a trail onntheir own bikes somewhere. Would anyone have any suggestions about this type of thing. Something fairly safe and doable for 10 year olds.

Thanks in advance for any advice you might have.

nak

Ballinastoe

C3PO

Ticknock

jmrc

Ballinastoe is very Kid friendly

BoardsMember

With either Ballinastoe or Ticknock, can you turn up with your own bikes and do it yourself as beginners, or is it better to do an intro course smd rent the bikes?

nak

BoardsMember wrote: »

With either Ballinastoe or Ticknock, can you turn up with your own bikes and do it yourself as beginners, or is it better to do an intro course smd rent the bikes?

It depends on your level of experience. Ballinastoe is much better for beginners. There's only 1 trail in Ticknock that is beginner friendly (nicknamed Kiddies highway), the rest are quite rocky and I know from personal experience it can be quite intimidating at first.
If you have good quality bikes, there's no reason why you couldn't make your own way round as the trails are well signed. The Biking.ie courses are a good way of learning basic skills before you head out on the trails.

BoardsMember

Thanks for the reply Nak. I'll give it some thought as to what the best thing to do is.

Plastik

Ballinastoe should definitely be your first port of call. The Coillte loop up there has been resurfaced in recent times and it is very beginner friendly. Ticknock while also easy, is more difficult. The full loop in Ballinastoe is about 14km.

BoardsMember

Plastik wrote: »

Ballinastoe should definitely be your first port of call. The Coillte loop up there has been resurfaced in recent times and it is very beginner friendly. Ticknock while also easy, is more difficult. The full loop in Ballinastoe is about 14km.

Thanks for this. I found this link: http://www.coillteoutdoors.ie/index.php?id=173&rec_site=103&trail=135 It describes it as Difficult. Is this the one you are referring to? I'd a bit less confident taking two kids up by myself if that's the one, unless they are over-egging it completely. I had a look at a few other links, and there seems to be an easy or lower loop option in Ticknock.

Tenzor07

Ticknock is probably the best choice, you can be on the lower section of coillte trails in minutes from where you park the car, whereas in Ballinastoe there's a gut wrenching climb to get to the first section of trail, then another one before the next section of trail... Probably suited to older kids....

Plastik

Yeah that's the loop. The trails themselves are absolutely not difficult IMO and it is by far the easiest and best surfaced you'll find in Dublin or Wicklow. There are a few steep fire road climbs but you can just walk the bike up those. I think I brought my own young lad around there when he was 10 or so, when it was in poor enough condition and he got around just fine. They rent bikes there from www.biking.ie but they might not have anything small enough.

Lumen

Tenzor07 wrote: »

...in Ballinastoe there's a gut wrenching climb to get to the first section of trail, then another one before the next section of trail... Probably suited to older kids....

There was a kids race down Home Run a couple of weekends ago with toddlers on balance bikes. It's hardly a gut wrenching climb to get up there!

steamsey

Hi. Ticknock is fine for kids. It's a close enough loop in that you are never heading out too far into the hills. Ballinastoe has a bit more of that. Ticknock has a number of official trails now - at least 3 last time I checked. The first, on the right as you're climbing up the tarmac to aerials, is a good way to warm up, fair bit of pedalling but absolutely nothing tricky. When you get up to the top loops – you can do the old one or the new one. The new on is the one on the left into the forest, old one is on the right and heads alongside the hill. Old one is trickier and has a great rock garden that could put beginners off. New loop is more manicured, and better for beginners. Both finish at same spot.
The bottom loop starts at the aerials – where people stop to take in the view of Dublin, and is great fun again – some rocky parts, but nothing too tricky and finishes back at the car park, just up from the Biking.ie hut.

Balinastoe is great as well, but if you’re in Dublin and just want to go for an initial spin with kids, I see no reason to travel to B-Stoe. You would however get more MTB’ing down there - the trails are longer and well suited to beginners but there is a fair bit of climbing which could put off beginner kids.

So - I’d say Ticknock – rent bikes if current bikes are not in good nick. Talk to the guys in Biking.ie hut – you can’t miss it. Doing a course is not really necessary just to go for a spin. Arguably better use to take a course after building up some basic experience so that the course makes more sense and you can relate it back to what you’ve been doing / experiencing. Make sure everyone has knee pads, good lids and gloves and bikes are on good order and you should be fine. If you’re unsure on the condition of the bikes, drop them in for a service first. If the bikes are tubed, which they probably are – bring puncture repair kits, tyre iron (plastic) and pump. Inexperienced riders more likely to pick up punctures while using tubes on rocky trails (as Ticknock can be).

I’d say if you do the top and bottom loops with kids, it could take 1.5 – 2 hours at a leisurely enough pace. If you want to spend the entire day on the bikes, probably go to B-Stoe. Ticknock better suited for shorter day out but you can of course go around more than once. The really tricky stuff on Ticknock is “off piste”, in the forests, not on the official Coillte trails so there is nothing to worry about on the official trails - it’s easy enough going that they can get off and walk at any point.

You can turn up with own bikes anywhere – don’t worry about that. You did mention renting everything that is required – AFAIK you can only rent bikes, possibly lids. Knee pads would have to be bought but are cheap on Chain Reaction (661’s). I think Biking.ie actually gives you a little bag for the bike with puncture repair etc. Any specific questions – I’m happy to answer.

Tenzor07

Lumen wrote: »

There was a kids race down Home Run a couple of weekends ago with toddlers on balance bikes. It's hardly a gut wrenching climb to get up there!

Missing my point!

Ticknock is pretty much straight out of the car, onto the fireroad to get to the kiddies tracks, Ballinastoe requires a bit of climbing/pushing to get up towards the trails, unless you stick around by the biking.ie hut...

BoardsMember

steamsey wrote: »

Hi. Ticknock is fine for kids. It's a close enough loop in that you are never heading out too far into the hills. Ballinastoe has a bit more of that. Ticknock has a number of official trails now - at least 3 last time I checked. The first, on the right as you're climbing up the tarmac to aerials, is a good way to warm up, fair bit of pedalling but absolutely nothing tricky. When you get up to the top loops – you can do the old one or the new one. The new on is the one on the left into the forest, old one is on the right and heads alongside the hill. Old one is trickier and has a great rock garden that could put beginners off. New loop is more manicured, and better for beginners. Both finish at same spot.
The bottom loop starts at the aerials – where people stop to take in the view of Dublin, and is great fun again – some rocky parts, but nothing too tricky and finishes back at the car park, just up from the Biking.ie hut.

Balinastoe is great as well, but if you’re in Dublin and just want to go for an initial spin with kids, I see no reason to travel to B-Stoe. You would however get more MTB’ing down there - the trails are longer and well suited to beginners but there is a fair bit of climbing which could put off beginner kids.

So - I’d say Ticknock – rent bikes if current bikes are not in good nick. Talk to the guys in Biking.ie hut – you can’t miss it. Doing a course is not really necessary just to go for a spin. Arguably better use to take a course after building up some basic experience so that the course makes more sense and you can relate it back to what you’ve been doing / experiencing. Make sure everyone has knee pads, good lids and gloves and bikes are on good order and you should be fine. If you’re unsure on the condition of the bikes, drop them in for a service first. If the bikes are tubed, which they probably are – bring puncture repair kits, tyre iron (plastic) and pump. Inexperienced riders more likely to pick up punctures while using tubes on rocky trails (as Ticknock can be).

I’d say if you do the top and bottom loops with kids, it could take 1.5 – 2 hours at a leisurely enough pace. If you want to spend the entire day on the bikes, probably go to B-Stoe. Ticknock better suited for shorter day out but you can of course go around more than once. The really tricky stuff on Ticknock is “off piste”, in the forests, not on the official Coillte trails so there is nothing to worry about on the official trails - it’s easy enough going that they can get off and walk at any point.

You can turn up with own bikes anywhere – don’t worry about that. You did mention renting everything that is required – AFAIK you can only rent bikes, possibly lids. Knee pads would have to be bought but are cheap on Chain Reaction (661’s). I think Biking.ie actually gives you a little bag for the bike with puncture repair etc. Any specific questions – I’m happy to answer.

Thanks for taking the time to post so much info. I'm looking to just take them out for a first time so I think that, taking all things into consideration, Ticknock sounds like a good idea for a few hours.

Lumen

Tenzor07 wrote: »

Missing my point!

Probably!

Tenzor07 wrote: »

Ticknock is pretty much straight out of the car, onto the fireroad to get to the kiddies tracks, Ballinastoe requires a bit of climbing/pushing to get up towards the trails, unless you stick around by the biking.ie hut...

At Ballinastoe it's literally 250m up the fire road to the first drop in to Home Run.

Is your point that Ticknock is flatter?

Tenzor07

I was referring to the distance to the start of the first trail if you are following the loop.