The trails near Bristol are mostly on public land. However they are managed by different bodies, including the Forestry Commission, Bristol City Council and the National Trust. To see who manages which trail, go to the trail info page.

The terrain near Bristol isn't ideal for mountain bike trails - it's mostly muddy and flat, with poor drainage. A further problem is that being near to a city centre the trails see a massive volume of use - thousands of people per month, according to automatic monitoring that has been installed. On the plus side, we have trails that we can ride to from the city centre, and large number of potential volunteers to help repair them.

In order to repair the trails, the land managers would need a budget for this, and probably dedicated staff. At present none of them have this so there are no arrangements in place to maintain any of the trails. A further problem is that none of the land managers in Bristol have experience of constructing mountain bike trails. Involving riders in the consultation and building process ensures that we end up with the sort of trail we want to ride.

The main cause of damage to the trails in Bristol is riders using them in wet conditions. If it's rained recently you might want to give them some time to dry out again (a couple of days, or longer if it's winter). Don't widen the trails by riding round puddles - there's a good chance you are avoiding a patch of trail that has already been armoured, but which has collected a small amount of standing water. Riders can also erode the trails by locking their brakes, so keep it smooth rather than skidding on downhills or before corners. Finally, this is obvious, but please come out and lend a hand on trail days.

Bristol's trails are going to be redeveloped and expanded substantially as part of the 1SW Project. Existing trails will be improved and made more suitable for all-weather riding, a new trail is going to be built in Leigh Woods, and there will be more facilities which are likely to include a proper visitor centre. Work on the ground isn't expected to start until April 2011 but the planning stage is already underway. For news and updates, sign up to the forum.

The Timberland Trail is actually a combined mountain biking and running trail, so please watch out for runners and give way where appropriate. Please also bear in mind that although the trail isn't meant to be used by walkers, it's in a busy estate near a city centre, and people do occasionally wander on to it.

The trail was built on a very low budget and there wasn't enough money to surface the trail. It's also fair to say that the amount of use (and consequential erosion) took the original builders by surprise.

The first person to contact should be the owner or land manager. If there aren't any signs at the entrance to the land saying who owns or manages it, try checking a map (for example, on Ordnance Survey maps, land managed by the Forestry Commission is edged in purple). If you have permission to build a trail and you need help, get in touch with us and we'll try and assist.

An offical trail for Leigh Woods is very close to happening! Funding for improvements to the trails in Leigh Woods has been sourced by the 1SW Project, a partnership between the Forestry Commission and local authorities across the South West.

The proposed new trail will roughly follow the corridor of the old Ho Chi Minh trail across the top of the wood, but with improved weatherproofing, and a twisty-but-flowy design. There aren't any big downhills planned, as this would mean routing the trail down the side of the Gorge (which is just too environmentally sensitive) or tinkering with well-loved established trails (which will probably be kept as they are) but there should be a small skills area in one section of the wood.

As of writing the trail is currently awaiting planning permission, which should be the final stage of the design process before construction starts in early 2011.

There used to be a section of low-level boardwalk crossing a boggy section of the unofficial trail, but this was removed by the Forestry Commission in October 2005. The reason for this is that the Forestry Commission have a policy of removing or putting beyond use any man-made structures on unofficial trails. This protects them against liability claims, as legally it's much harder to argue that the landowner is responsible if you injure yourself on a "natural" trail. The Forestry Commission are happy to have wooden structures on official trails, and have built these at venues like Afan Forest Park and Cwm Carn.

The "Wall" section of trail along Beggar Bush Lane was closed by Ashton Court Estate in Summer 2005 due to concerns over environmental damage and safety.

The area that was closed is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) which the Estate are legally obliged to protect, and it was noted that the mountain bike trail was causing damage to the roots of large mature beech trees. In addition the Estate are not allowed to prune the trees that grow there as they form a habitat for endangered insects.

Many of the trees in this section are in a dangerous condition, and the Estate wanted to discourage riders from using the trail in case one was injured by a falling tree. This isn't just rhetoric - a lot of the trees there are in a very unstable condition.