Me & My Bike Update 7th August '10
 My XtC is having another revamp, I last did some upgrades in 2008 with forks and brakes, and I've now have started  upgrading again with Shimamo XT wheel set, XT Crankset, XT rear derailleur, Sram redwin cassette and Sram chain, pics and story to follow. August 2010 is my 25th anniversary of my cycle trip from Derbyshire to Skegnesss as a 15yr old kid way back in 1985. I got up early on August '09 bank holiday Sunday and decided to redo the cycle trip to Skegness. 
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Introduction to Dave's Cycle Trails Site
 July 2010, makes me 40, and hopefully not too unfit, although the old waistline is ever expanding! I returned to cycling at the age of 30 in 2000 after giving up cycling at 18, I was a keen cyclist all through my childhood and teens (My Dad always encouraged me to cycle back then, and he even takes a keen interest in cycling to this very day), then I grew up, motorbikes, cars, beer, fags and way too many late nights took there toll by my mid twenties, Then you get married etc. Then the kids get to an age were they want to go bike rides, you think to yourself, god! can I even ride a bike anymore and more so, am I even fit enough and do they make a bike strong enough to take my weight? (Lets just say I'm a bit on the large side!), Kids ehh!!!....

So in September 2000 we took the plunge, I bought a couple of cheap n nasty mountain bikes each for me and the wife after the kids nagging about going bike rides, I decided I would give up smoking and off we pedalled (cough, Hey, gasp, errr, wait for me you lot). We started just by going a couple of miles around the town were we live. We also started to find rights of ways and local trails on our travels. Then getting braver going further a field, bike rack on the car and off to proper cycle trails.
I started this web site early in 2003, mainly because I couldn't find virtually nothing at all at all on the internet for the east midlands and because I like to build websites in my spare time, and I also wanted to do a cycling website, and maybe someone else might even want to look at it!
  As I used to cycle as mostly a family group with the wife and kids when they were at school, I like to cycle off road traffic free cycle trails,  this web site is for such routes. If you are new to cycling or looking for new routes to try, this site gives brief description of cycle routes. These off road routes are for families or people wanting no traffic which means there's no chance of being splattered by some young boy racer driving his barely (if at all) legal Vauxhall Corsa.

Email about anything cycling related Dave@mtb-mania.co.uk
 

Routes in Derbyshire & Nottinghamshire
The amount of off road cycling available in these two counties is getting better and better, especially with the National Cycle Network building 10,000miles of cycle routes (on and off road) and Forestry commission building trails in woods and forests, along with local authorities reclaiming former pits and open cast sites turning them into small country parks with visitor centres with quite a few miles of trails which are hugely popular, and also former railway lines turned into cycle trails. Derbyshire & Nottinghamshire has really become committed to cycling on and off road over the last several years and has routes all over.

Cycle Trails on your own doorstep!!
There are quite a few trails appearing all over the place, some may be only 2 or 3 miles long but you will often find them within minutes of your own home surprisingly enough, and you probably have not even realised that they are there. Some are part of existing public footpaths that have been there since the year dot, and have sections of them turned into trails.    
 
 Cycles and rights of way!!
Where can you cycle? Click here to find out