There’s lots of foodie news from our award winning cafe this summer!
Firstly, our new Summer Menu is now live in the Cafe at Forest of Dean Cycle Centre featuring lots of fantastic burgers, sides and snacks including plenty of gluten free and vegan options as well as refreshing drinks menu including iced teas, coffees and all your favourites in chiller – soft drinks, ale and cider. There’s even a selection of snacks for your dog too!
We have dedicated Friday Night Pizza Nights every week during holidays from 4pm to 7pm serving Margherita, Pepperoni and Hawaiian Pizzas to order from our PizzaBox outside. Pizzas are also served every weekend from 12pm to 3pm.
Our Late Night Thursdays also got even more delicious with our new Flavour Club weekly specials served between 5pm and 9pm every week too (last orders at 8.15pm) with global themes each week. Watch out for Bao Bun Night, Gourmet Burger Night, Mac & Cheese Night and more. No bookings needed just come and refuel and enjoy the summer vibes.
Here’s a breakdown of what’s happening when:
Summer Café & Pizza Hours – Now Until End of Holidays
☀️ Monday–Wednesday
• Café open 9am–5pm
• Full summer menu served until 4pm
• Fresh sandwiches, salads & savouries in the chiller
☀️ Thursday – Late Night Thursdays
• Café open 9am–9pm
• Flavour Club specials served until 8.15pm
• Full summer menu available all day
☀️ Friday – Pizza Night
• Café open 9am–5pm
• Full summer menu served until 4pm
• Pizza Box open 4pm–7pm for stonebaked pizzas
☀️ Saturday
• Café open 9am–5pm
• Full summer menu served until 5pm
• Pizza Box open 12pm–3pm
☀️ Sunday
• Café open 9am–5pm
• Full summer menu served until 4pm
• Pizza Box open 12pm–3pm
Photo credit: Forestry England.
Meet Old Bob – the new Green MTB trail in the Forest of Dean. The perfect bridge from the Family Cycle Trail to the Blue Verderers Trail and beyond:
The Story
Our motto at Pedalabikeaway has always been ‘Cycling for everyone’ – so we are delighted to finally have the missing piece in the jigsaw, the new Green MTB trail, “Old Bob”.
The original “Old Bob” was the pumping engine at Cannop Colliery, ensuring the mine shafts didn’t get flooded as far back as 1880, and the new Green Trail name is a nod to our Cycle Centre’s industrial heritage.
Since 2011, we have had the blue Verderers trail, green Family cycle trail (now called the “Colliers Trail”), red Freeminers route and several downhill lines.
Old Bobs is the final piece in the puzzle!
We feel it now makes the Forest of Dean the most complete trail centre in the UK!
What to expect?
It is a 2km flowy green trail, with 3 skills areas that you can session and lap. Expect a small climb, lots of berms and flow and a whole heap of fun!
Starting a sort distance from the Cycle Centre along the link trail, Old Bob starts with a gentle gradient climb. After a few hundred metres you’ll find the first of 3 skills areas, this one with a range of different corners to help you build up your confidence…
A little more climbing gets you to the ‘top’ of the trail, where you’ll find the 2nd skills area to practice on! After honing your skills once more, you can start your journey down the hill, and here the real fun begins…
The whole trail is suitable to lap time and time again, building up your confidence and skills, and tiring out little legs as you go.
All of this is no more than a hop, skip and a jump back to the Pedalabikeaway Café, and a much needed hot chocolate and refuel!
Check out all the info on the trail on the Forestry England Website here
Plan your next visit
With half term just around the corner, it’s the perfect time to enjoy the Forest of Dean’s autumnal glory and check out the new trail!
Need to hire a bike? Not a problem. Just head over to our website to book here
See you out on Old Bob soon!
Photo credit: Forestry England
June is one of our favourite times of year, as it is the start of the Pedalabikeaway FOD Thursday series! FOD Thursday is when the team tape out an enduro style track and bring in timing equipment, so you can measure how quickly you ride the trail!
How It Works
You collect your timing chip from the café, and each time you complete a full run your times pop up on the café TV, so you can track your runs as you go through the evening. The timings go live from 4.30pm for 12-18 years old to do some laps, straight from school, with adults’ timing going live from 6pm-dark. It is a great opportunity to have some fun with your mates and session a trail!
Why Session A Trail?
Sessioning a trail is a great way to improve your skills. You get repeated practice over the same course, and can learn from your mistakes and put them right on the next run. It’s something a lot of adult mountain bikers don’t do enough of, and why kids get so fast so quick! Repeatability is also great for getting your bike set up perfectly, making small tweaks to suspension, tyre pressure, bar roll or even brake lever position. Just don’t go changing them all at once if you want to feel the difference!
Who is it for?
All mountain bikes are welcome, electric or analog, hardtail or full suspension….So why not come and join us for 2024 Series of FOD Thursdays. You can grab your place here – limited to just 100 people each week.
The café is open until 9pm too, so after getting as many runs in as you can manage, you can relax with an amazing burrito, beer or cider, while comparing your times with your friends!
One of the advantages of being a newsletter subscriber is that you’ll hear about (and get to book on) upcoming events first (if you’re not a subscriber you can sign up here!) And here’s the next one – our first big E-Bike Demo event – a partnership between Pedalabikeaway and Pedal Syndicate.
If you haven’t tried an e-bike yet (where have you been hiding?) or want to know which one to choose next, this is the event for you.
There is such a wide range of bikes, motors, weights… lightweight, midweight, full fat…it’s difficult to know which is best!
Whyte Bikes will be showcasing their new E-Lyte 150. It’s one of the first opportunities to demo it in the UK and you can directly compare it with the Transition Relay, Pivot Shuttle SL and hopefully the Specialized Levo and Kenevo SL (TBC) – the only other lightweight e-bikes worth riding in our opinion.
Yeti will have their amazing 160 E and you’ll be able to compare it with the Pivot Shuttle LT and AM, Whyte E-160 S, and the Transition Repeater.
That’s a lot of riding!
Book your place here
It’s £20 per person per day and you can demo as many bikes as you like for up to one hour each.
ps. Just don’t forget to bring your drivers licence or passport as proof of ID.
See you there!
Gareth and Ian
At last, there’s holiday sunshine in the forecast, upgraded trails, a new hire fleet and the FOD Thursday (Race your Mates) dates are available to book! We are also closing briefly between 12th-23rd June for a rewiring project. Read on for more detail.
With the final May Bank Holiday and half term just days away, our hire bikes are booking up fast. We have a wide selection of leisure and mountain bikes for all the family plus e-bikes and accessories such as tagalongs, child seats and trails. We typically do sell out this time of year so if you are thinking about a ride in the Forest of Dean – please book to avoid disappointment.
The Cafe and Shop will be closed on Wednesday 24th May and then again from 12-23rd June with a limited outside cafe service on 17th & 18th June. Please note Bike Hire will be open from 16th-18th June.
29th June, 6th & 20th July – Now includes an earlier session for U16s. As usual food and drink included in your ticket. Book your slot(s)
Our popular Late Night Thursdays continue every Thursday with a cafe special each week – last food orders at 8.15pm. Showers & toilets also open until 9pm.
If you would like to help out with trail digging get in touch with Dean Trail Volunteers who are always looking for more hands!
There’s now just a few of our ex-hire bikes left! As well as a selection of Specialized Sirrus and Whyte mountain bikes in small and medium sizes (great for kids and smaller builds!), we also have a large full suspension Orange Switch, plus a large Whyte e160.
All bikes have been regularly serviced and come with 3 months warranty. They can be collected from the Cycle Centre or delivered free within 10 miles or couriered anywhere in UK for £20.
Going, going…
If you’re planning to visit Pedalabikeaway and the Forest Cycle Centre in the coming weeks, then this is a heads up that there’s going to be some disruption as there are both roadworks which will mean some roads are closed, and pylon works which will mean detours and closures on some trails.
What’s happening and when will evolve as the situation progresses, so the best way to stay up-to-date is to keep an on the Forest of Dean Cycle Rangers account on Instagram. They’ll have the latest info to hand.
Roadworks will start on Monday 24th January 2022.
From Monday 24th January to Friday 28th January the A4136 will be closed from Mireystock Crossroads, which is the junction with the road past the Cycle Centre) to Edge End for tree felling. Closed between 9.30am and 9.30pm.
From Monday 31st January to Friday 4th February the A4136 will be closed from Mireystock Crossroads to Brierly. Closed between 9.30am and 9.30pm.
This will affect access to the site, but diversions will be in place you’ll still be able to visit, park on-site and go ride! There are no weekend closures planned, so you’ll be able to access the Forest Cycle Centre as normal on Saturday and Sunday.
There are a lot of pylons across and around the trails at the Cycle Centre, many of them are over 100 years old and in need of replacing. Western Power is in the middle of replacement works, and you may have already seen them working in the Forest at other sites. Now it’s time for this bit of the Forest.
Dates are estimates at the moment, due to the nature of things, but as mentioned if you keep an eye on the Forest Cycle Rangers social media account and website, they’ll have all the latest info there.
While the following trails may have some disruption, and this will change day-by-day to minimise impact, the vast majority of the site will be open as normal, so don’t worry, there’s still plenty to ride!
Week commencing Monday 31st January: There will be a trail closure and diversion around the Spooky Wood section of Freeminers. Work will then move on to the end of GBU, Endo and Mr Rooty with the sections of these trails below Black Ride closed for most of the week. Towards the end of the week, the Advanced Skills Area will be closed for a day or two.
Week commencing Monday 7th February: The final section of Ski Run will be closed, and this may also affect the Advanced Skills Area. The lower parts of Ski Run and Sheepskull will be closed for most of the week, and the final descent on Verderers will also be closed for a day during that week.