Aston Hill is the only bikepark I had the opportunity to ride in England: Ricochet, the Red Line, Surface to Air and the 4X track the main trails I rode. It is located in Halton, Buckinghamshire and is about 45 minutes by train from London. Let me tell you the story of my rides.
1/ My venue until Aston Hill
2/ Ricochet warm up: the tyre killer
3/ The Red Line: Roots for red
4/ Surface to Air: perfect for smooth flying transition
5/ 4X track: a guide to road gap and big table ahead
6/ End of the session
1/ My venue until Aston Hill
From London it takes me about an hour and a half to get there, depending where you live in the city it can be less or more. From South East London I ride until Marylebone train station which is a good 40 minutes rides, then take the train until Ayslebury for another 40min. After that you have a 20-30 minutes ride (depending your cardio I’d say) which is nice at the beginning, your passing by the city of Ayslebury, then you finish with an ascent to the bikepark which is tough if you’re not fond of climbing like but I considered it as proof that descent in the trails will be good. You are passing by the golf club of Aston then enter via the car park of the bike park. If you go for the first time there like me you might be surprised because there is no welcome center with bikeshop or whatsoever (as you can have with the Swinley Bike Hub for example), After the car park you just have sign explaining about safety guidance: I was expecting and ready to pay for the entrance at the bikepark, some locals explain me that you do pay only if there is the ranger in charge of the maintenance, which is cool Ill take it, as we say in French: "Pas vu, Pas pris". As I learnt that I just had a free entrance I decided to start with the pump track near the car park: it is good to warm up with pumping, turning and manual skills. I work on pumping as I am really bad for the two others. I head towards the platform which is the starting point to ride the different trails.
2/ Ricochet warm up: the tyre killer
There is a wooden platform that indicates the six different trails you have in Aston Hill. I look at the description of each of them and decide to start with Ricochet which is a beginner/intermediate level. This trail is really cool: to resume it starts with three tables to jump, you continue to a section with some roots and a rocky ground which is a tyre killer: I went twice to the bikepark and had twice a puncture on my rear tyre on the same section. I rode in two different ways when I had those punctures: first time I lower the pressure to 20psi which gave me more grips but I have to get more speed to clear jumps and my rim was having less protection and getting buckled. Second time I increased the pressure to 40psi and it was the total opposite, less grip and I was going slower. Between the two I definitely prefer the first option which gives much more confidence when riding in the bikepark.
After passing the tyre killer section of Ricochet you continue into a descent with much more roots and series of small gaps where it is adviced to not slowdown but keep racing, in the meantime you still have to look out for trees on the way. Arrived to the end of the trail, let’s ride the next one.
3/ The Red Line: Roots for red
The Red Line is a level above from Ricochet if I am not wrong. you start with few tables to jump which are close to the pumptrack, then you get to the more intense part of the trail, to sum it up quick it is a lot of roots that are slippery, with turns, some ups and down at the end with a small wooden platform to ride as a finish. Not much to say but definitely hard to ride if you have wet weather conditions.
4/ Surface to Air: perfect for smooth flying transition
Surface to air is my favorite trail if you like the air transition: you have the same starting as the Red line, when you jump the tables instead of riding straight ahead to the Redline you turn right to Surface to Air. Similarly as Ricochet you have many steps to gap, but also some tables and many turns, you have the bridge gap, and after the highlight of the trail: a gap going into a descent and a step up, after this one an other descent with a second step up, a third descent and then the final which is a gap where you need to make sure you have enough speed (you will see on the video below I was a bit short, the suspension help me a lot in this situation).
5/ 4X track: a guide to road gap and big table ahead
In Aston Hill Bikepark you do have also a Four Cross track which seems a bit hidden and is at the end of the bikepark, kind of behind Ricochet. It is also a great way to learn jumps and pumping. Moreover you do have a road gap which I think is about 18ft long and continue to a big table which is even longer (the longest I have ever jumped). You get also confident in jumping the road gap on the track, it is a good place to learn too as it was also my first road gap.
6/ End of the session
To conclude I am not a bikepark specialist as Aston Hill is the second I rode (first one was Bikepark Wales): compare to where I usually ride Aston Hill is not the biggest place to ride but it offers plenty of conditions and terrain to learn different skills for riding your bike: it is complete for you whether you like to master your riding on roots, jumping sections, turns, pumping or even road gaps. There were other trails I did not ride and deserve a try: you can have look on those videos from Ben Deakin and Sam Pilgrim.
A cyclist Amateur.