Any Downhill Mtb Trails in Gauteng?

[Troy Hussey]

Looking for any Challenging but fast and flowy Downhill style trails ( similar to UCI DH Trails) in Gauteng or just outside.

[BaGearA]

Harties , steep and technical in the middle but flowy and fast at the start and end 

 

 

Groot fontein maybe but they don't have the elevation needed 

[porqui]

You need a mountain for a Downhill Mtb Trail

Sorry could not help that !!

Edited February 1, 2022 by porqui

[Steady Spin]

Sadly we just don’t have the elevation. 

Best we could offer was short runs like Helderkruin, Thaba Trails, Fort Klapperkop, 139 (i think) in Waterkloof and Hakahana. 

Harties is now your best bet  

Try growing up in Bloem and being an aspiring downhill racer in the 90s. That **** was the real struggle. 

[Rolf Hansen]

Yep, Iron Throne is the only one that comes to mind.

[Pieter1]

3 hours ago, Steady Spin said:

Sadly we just don’t have the elevation. 

Best we could offer was short runs like Helderkruin, Thaba Trails, Fort Klapperkop, 139 (i think) in Waterkloof and Hakahana. 

Harties is now your best bet  

Try growing up in Bloem and being an aspiring downhill racer in the 90s. That **** was the real struggle. 

How about the enduro lines at Buffelsdrift? Then again I suppose pedaling a DH bike is not the most fun thing to do.

[patches]

It's been some time (about 6 years) since I lived in JHB, but when I did the DH spots we rode were those mentioned above: Helderkruin, 139, Klapperkop, Thaba, Hakahana, Haarties, etc.

Most of them have a few commonalities... rocky, dusty and fairly flat.

However, when it comes to "UCI DH Trails", some of these were suitable for nationals, but nothing really UCI World Cup standard (like PMB).

Keep an eye out of the DRI (Dustin Rudman Invitational) FB page or website. Although some of the events may be outside of GP, they often have shuttle days at some of the local trails.

Also, a road-trips to the KZN provincials are well worth it! Enduro and DH on the same weekend, plenty of riding and great trails. 

 

[stephenplumb]

I have to drag my son to these places and prefer more cross country style myself, but that means we pretty much go to enduro places. 
I like Wolverspruit the most because the felicities are very nice and they have options for a peasant like me to practice jumps and more advanced options for those lacking a frontal cortex. 

We were at Grootfontein two weekends back and I like the enduro trail, and the flow trail is quite nice. I did most of the enduro tracks, and I think you need to get used to them before going all out. 

Last of last weekend I did Iron Throne and it did not go well due to a barded wire incident that nearly killed me. Assuming that they barbed wire has now been removed from the trail, it remains very advanced and I noticed that my sons tyres went from New to almost completely destroyed in one day, so there is that. 

Giba george is still my favourite and we spent a lot of time there in December. Advanced enough to be fun, but not life threatening and much more enjoyable if you can get a shuttle. 

[Stretched@Birth]

13 hours ago, patches said:

It's been some time (about 6 years) since I lived in JHB, but when I did the DH spots we rode were those mentioned above: Helderkruin, 139, Klapperkop, Thaba, Hakahana, Haarties, etc.

Most of them have a few commonalities... rocky, dusty and fairly flat.

However, when it comes to "UCI DH Trails", some of these were suitable for nationals, but nothing really UCI World Cup standard (like PMB).

Keep an eye out of the DRI (Dustin Rudman Invitational) FB page or website. Although some of the events may be outside of GP, they often have shuttle days at some of the local trails.

Also, a road-trips to the KZN provincials are well worth it! Enduro and DH on the same weekend, plenty of riding and great trails. 

 

Been a lot of changes at Thaba with the new Balwin development going on there.  The whole white house side of the trails have been cut out for now, hopefully they will be included again sometime in the future.

The DRI line is also very overgrown.  Going to be interesting to see what become of Thaba as a riding spot in the next 18 months.

[NotSoBigBen]

16 minutes ago, Stretched@Birth said:

Been a lot of changes at Thaba with the new Balwin development going on there.  The whole white house side of the trails have been cut out for now, hopefully they will be included again sometime in the future.

The DRI line is also very overgrown.  Going to be interesting to see what become of Thaba as a riding spot in the next 18 months.

As an aside when there was a downhill track at Thaba a lot of effort and time was put in and maybe ... MAYBE 10 people used it.  @patches was one of those till he moved to the land of the long white cloud. 

[Steady Spin]

2 hours ago, NotSoBigBen said:

As an aside when there was a downhill track at Thaba a lot of effort and time was put in and maybe ... MAYBE 10 people used it.  @patches was one of those till he moved to the land of the long white cloud. 

Only 10 people could hit those jumps and rock gardens. 

My broken ribs and concussion confirmed that. 

Had they done more in terms of flow lines or a b-line it would have encouraged more riders to give the DH thing a go. 

[Alexi]

21 hours ago, Troy Hussey said:

Looking for any Challenging but fast and flowy Downhill style trails ( similar to UCI DH Trails) in Gauteng or just outside.

Best place would be harties 

[Jewbacca]

3 minutes ago, Steady Spin said:

Only 10 people could hit those jumps and rock gardens. 

My broken ribs and concussion confirmed that. 

Had they done more in terms of flow lines or a b-line it would have encouraged more riders to give the DH thing a go. 

I don't really agree with that. 

B-lines and flow trails encourage more B-line and flow trail riders.

DH is one of those things that if you want to do it, you will learn how to do it. Jonkers certainly hasn't encouraged too many people 'stepping up' from the regular trails to the big DH ones and the big drops and gaps on trails like Iron Monkey and to a degree on Plumber are hardly hit at all.