The orange dot grading system is used to grade the features on the trails. Some parks however do use this system to grade the trail entirely so it is best to familiarise yourself with it.
| General Grades | "Lozenge" grading of Technical Trail Features | What Category Bike? |
|---|---|---|
| Green Trail - Easiest of the trails. They do not contain any challenging features. The trails are usually paved with gravel, sand or mud meaning most bikes will be fine to ride these trails. Take care as some surfaces may be loose or exceptionally muddy at times. | Lozenge grading will not apply here. | Category 1 and above bike required. |
| Blue Trail - Relatively easy trail to ride, contain no features that the rider can't roll. Will contain some technical areas that the rider can tackle at their own pace and will contain table top jumps meaning that if the rider doesn't make it to the landing, they will just land on the top of the jump. | 1 lozenge - Fairly easy features contained within the trail. Features will be rollable. | Category 5 and above bike required. Although these types of trails are usually paved by grave, sand or mud and have no mandatory features such as drops and jumps, to get the most out of the trail a full suspension bike is recommended to ensure maximum rider safety and to get the most out of the trails. |
| Red Trail - These trails offer riders a good challenge. The trail contains steep descents, small to medium-large mandatory features such as drop-offs and gap jumps. | 2 lozenges - Fairly hard features, may have less rollable options with medium-large features. | Category 5 bike required. |
| Black Diamond Trail - For expert mountain bike riders. These trails contain large gap jumps, large drop-offs and very technical sections of trail. | 3 lozenges - Very hard, unavoidable, large features. | Category 5 bike required. |
| Double Black Diamond Trail/Orange Grade - These are extreme trails and are only suitable for experienced riders. They are basically one long pro-line. Risk of injury is high as features will require the rider to leave the ground. The whole trail will require total commitment. | 3 on lozenge grading system. | Category 5 bike required. |
| "Pro Line" / Orange Grade? - These are little additional lines, most commonly seen at bike parks on the black diamond trails. These are for advanced riders and are extremely hard to ride | Named pro-lines for their extreme difficulty. 3 on lozenge grading system. | Category 5 bike required. |
Many trails aren't official and therefore are illegal according to UK law. This means
they have no official
difficulty rating.
You can gauge your local unoffical trails by walking them and seeing what features they have and compare that
to the grading systems out there or prior riding experience.
It isn't illegal to ride these trails but it is illegal to build them. Therefore the land owner has every
right to destroy the trails.