Hello

[Thomas11]

Hello people,

Im a newbie just getting into the exciting world of mountain biking.
Have always ridden bikes my whole life but mainly to commute/recreation and a bit of fitness here or there to get of my legs as i run a lot.
Have always wanted to get into x-country/aggressive trail riding so finally bit the bullet and purchased my first decent bike to keep the motivation going.
Purchased a Merida big nine lite 1500 and plan on riding it around the bike trails surrounding Melbourne, with first port of call the Lysterfield tracks this sat morning, with the hope of expanding to the You Yangs and buxton/lake mountain areas within the coming months, any suggestions on good places to ride would be terrific.

Thats pretty much me for now.

Cheers guys and happy riding

 

[Knuckles]

bancoora.au.com (not a typo)

 

[rdurrell]

bancoora.au.com (not a typo)

Thanks Knuckles for the reference to my website - I've had to update the domain name to http://www.bancoora.com as they are closing the au.com domain. The old address will get you there for the next six months or so but if anyone is going to bookmark it, use the new domain name and you will get there on an ongoing basis.

With respect to the original question, there are quite a few trails on the Bancoora website and a good reference are Kieren Ryan's books which have a large number of suggestions over and above my ones. Refer to the home page for details. I have no commercial affilliation with Kieren - I put the link up as it was his book that got me into the sport in 2008 so hopefully will do the same for you. There are plenty of videos of the trails on the website as well - nothing flash - but they'll give you an idea of the trails before heading out which is useful for those starting out.

Have fun exploring...