• Where to Mountain Bike in Britain
• £9.50
• Open Air Books; ISBN 0-9547041-0-X

Where to Mountain Bike in Britain isn’t a traditional route guide book. In the style of the Trailrider Guide to Spain it’s more of an overview of a whole country. Or a large subset of one, anyway – “Britain” here means England, Scotland and Wales.

What you won’t find in this book is maps and detailed descriptions of specific loops and trails. What you get is 176 pages of useful background information about potential MTB destinations, pointing you towards the best bits of each and telling you handy things about accommodation, cafés and bike shops. Destinations range from forest parks like Cwmcarn to huge tracts of moorland or ranges of hills (Exmoor or the Lake District), although most of the latter appear as large over-arching entries and as more specific locations – so there’s a big Lake District entry but Whinlatter and Grizedale also appear separately in more detail.

Inevitably it’s a fairly broad-brush approach, and with information drawn for a wide range of sources (FC and National Park rangers, various freelance journos, local shops, clubs and riders) compiler Nicky Crowther’s had her work cut out to impose consistency on it all. Given the acreage covered in a fairly small number of pages it’s a pretty impressive feat. The information presented varies according to what’s available, so hill and upland areas are given highlights and suggestions for the adept navigator and forest parks contain descriptions of waymarked trails. Needless to say, there’ll be quibbles with some details (we’re not sure that the powers that be would be too keen on the suggested ascent of Winter Hill, and no guide to the Quantocks should be complete without mentioning Stella’s Tea Rooms) but if you want really in-depth local knowledge you’re better off with a more specific regional guide.

What Where to MTB does, and does well, is to let you travel to a new area with a reasonable idea of what to do once you’re there. It’s also bound to draw your attention to trail hotbeds that you’d never have thought of. In fact, that’s probably our favourite thing about it – there’s no shortage of information elsewhere about the Peak or the Lakes, but Britain’s packed with hidden gems like Woodbury Common, the Isle of Purbeck and the Cotswolds that don’t get as much attention as they ought. This book helps to redress the balance. All the areas are listed in alphabetical order within countries, and there’s a map at the beginning of each section so you can see where everything is.

The rest of the book is made up of the usual general off-road riding advice, including a handy section from the British Horse Society explaining how and why horses react to bikes and what to do about it. There’re also loads of pictures, although some of them seem a bit redundant – the Slab at Dalbeattie is an undeniably impressive bit of trail, but it doesn’t get any more impressive for seeing it from three different angles on one spread.

Positives: Gives you the basics of just about anywhere in Britain, good value.

Negatives: Slightly inconsistent style.

Verdict: A useful addition to the bookshelf of any well-travelled rider, at a very reasonable price