Forest of Dean Group Mountain Bike Rides: How to Find One and Join

If you want to ride with other people in the Forest of Dean, you've got four real options: a free shop ride or night ride with Pedal Syndicate, a trail dig with the Dean Trail Volunteers, a paid guided ride, or arranging to meet at the spots local riders use. I've lived here thirty years and have ridden with groups on and off since I bought my first e-bike in 2018, and here's how each one works. One warning first: group rides come and go, and several of the listings you'll find online now lead to dead pages, so check a ride is still running before you travel.

Pedal Syndicate shop rides and night rides

The clearest listing for a free group ride is Pedal Syndicate's. Their page describes free 90-minute shop rides around the Forest, including the after-dark Pedal Tribe night rides. You meet outside the shop at 6.15pm and you're back by 7.45pm for food at the Pedalabikeaway café.

There are three groups:

Group	Level
Intermediate	Red
Advanced	Black
Women's Only	Blue/red

They're led by British Cycling guides, and e-bikes are welcome. No lights? You can hire demo Exposure lights for £10, but you have to book them in advance (checked September 2026).

The page doesn't say which night of the week the rides run, or whether they run all year, so get in touch with the shop before you turn up. Riding in the woods after dark is a different game from daytime: go with the guided group, and ride with proper lights.

Women's mountain bike rides in the Forest of Dean

Pedal Syndicate's shop rides include a Women's Only group, riding at blue to red level and led by British Cycling guides like the other groups.

If you'd rather learn in a women-only group first, Forestry England's approved coaches at the Cycle Centre offer women-only rides as well as one-to-one sessions and group courses. You book directly with the coach.

Some older women's ride listings for the Forest go back years or no longer load, so contact the shop or a coach and ask what's running now.

Paid guided rides are not social rides

A guided ride is a good day out, but it's a booked, paid service, not a free ride where you turn up and meet locals. Keep the two apart when you're searching.

• Dean Forest Cycles can recommend guides for groups of up to 8 and arrange a guided ride to explore more of the Forest's trails. They hire mountain bikes and e-bikes too, which helps if your group is coming from away.
• WyeMTB is a coaching and guiding business based in Monmouth, in the Wye Valley. It delivers British Cycling coaching for riders of all abilities, alongside leadership training.

If you're new to an area, booking a guided or coaching session is never a bad start. You learn the trails and you meet people who ride them.

Dig with the Dean Trail Volunteers

If you ride the Cycle Centre a lot, a dig is worth a look. FoDMTB says the Dean Trail Volunteers developed and maintain many of the downhill trails, and on a dig you work alongside the other volunteers who look after them.

According to Forestry England's dig page, new diggers need no experience. Everyone gets a high-visibility vest and a safety briefing before work starts, and kit is provided. Forestry England says volunteers must be 18 or over, or 14 to 17 with a supervising adult. Check the age rules with Dean Trail Volunteers when you book.

Digs are pre-booked only. Dean Trail Volunteers says it can't accept anyone who just rocks up on the day, so book ahead.

This is proper, sanctioned trail work. It's the only kind of digging I'll ever point you at.

Where local riders meet

There's no single meeting point in the Forest, but these are where I meet people:

• Mallards Pike, on the Mallards road where the cattle grid used to be. It's a great meeting spot, visible from the main road, and Mallards Pike does good coffee.
• The Barnhill Quarry lay-by. Barnhill has been logged, but the trails will be back in no time.
• The Forest of Dean Cycle Centre. Easy to find, and it serves coffee and pints.
• Parkend. There's free parking around the village, and The Fountain on New Road is an amazing local pub, so it's good for a start and finish.

Mallards Pike and Barnhill are where a lot of the natural riding is. If a mate visits for the day, I take them on what I call the Tour de FoD, about 30 miles around the Forest, and I've written it up in my Forest of Dean mountain biking guide.

Finding people to ride with when you're new

I bought my first e-bike in 2018, when there weren't many of us. The few e-bike riders around gravitated toward each other: all ages, all backgrounds, from all over, riding together on a Saturday morning or a Thursday evening. Everyone coached each other, the banter was great, and it was a perfect mental health reset after a busy week at work.

As e-bikes got common, those groups drifted. In 2021, just after COVID, when we were allowed back out, I went looking for ride groups again and nothing really existed. The little there was sat scattered around Facebook. As a local it's lovely to drop out the door and find people, but it's nice to plan a couple of days ahead and see what's on for a Friday afternoon or a Saturday morning.

That's when I had the idea for Plus1. It's a free app with no ads: you post a ride with its level and discipline, riders near you tap to join, and everyone gets reminders. Active now shows who's out riding right now, roughly as a 1 km square, never a pin. It's on iPhone and Android. It's new, and it only works when riders are on it, so bring your mates.

It's one option, not the only one. Shop rides and digs are good ways to meet people face to face, and my guides on where to find mountain bike rides, how to find a mountain bike club and how to join a group ride go further.

The rules when you ride as a group

Groups get noticed, so ride like a local who wants to keep riding here.

• In the Forest of Dean, Forestry England asks cyclists to use stone-surfaced forest roads, formal waymarked cycle trails and bridleways, and says creating your own trails or features is illegal. At the Cycle Centre, ride only on the waymarked trails or hard-stone forest roads.
• Over the border in Wales, Natural Resources Wales says you can cycle on any forest road in the woodlands it manages, and its trails are waymarked from start to finish. If you're organising an activity or event on its land, you may need to apply for permission first.
• Check trail status before a group ride. Forestry England sometimes closes trails, and there's nothing worse than a car park full of riders and a closed trail.
• Leading rides regularly? Look at leadership training. WyeMTB offers it alongside its coaching.