Melrose Bike Track

With over 50km of dedicated singletrack, Melrose is setting itself up as one of the premier mountainbike areas in the state if not the country. The trails are narrow, off camber and technical. Five kilometres down the road at Bartagunyah Vineyard the trails offer something completely different: steep, short climbs offer views of wide plains or gulf vistas and sea breezes. More of a journey than technical circles; it gets a lot more technical after a couple of the local wines!

Melrose is about 270km North of Adelaide and is on the tourist trail to Wilpena Pound and the Flinders Ranges. Melrose township sits in the shadow of Mt Remarkable, named so because it rises abruptly out of the Willochra plains. Our playground lies in the foot hills of Mt Remarkable.

One of the attractions of Mountain biking in Melrose is once you’ve parked your car that’s it, you won’t need it until you leave, and leaving is the hard part. The Melrose trails can sting you as quick as it takes to sneak a peak at the awesome views.

“Hellrose” is fast and furious with g-outs, jumps and a couple of sketchy corners. “Greener Pastures” is a fast flowing trail with drop-offs, more g-outs and a techy little creek bed to force you to concentrate.

“Hidden Valley” offers a punchy little climb into a pristine petite valley with log rollovers, scree slope crossings and technical switchbacks, just to name a few of the 25kms of local stuff.

From Adelaide drive north-west on the B82, heading towards Clare and the Riesling Trail. You can also follow the A1 as far as Port Germein and then turn inland to Melrose.

In either case, Melrose won’t register on the road signage until you are almost there. Once in Melrose, head towards Over the Edge Bike store for all the local info, maps and updates.

These are trails that demand a little respect. Whilst the technical levels of the trails vary, most of them are quite exposed and a tumble will usually have consequences!

Bring a little sun protection, trails are mostly exposed, particularly at Bartagunyah.

The beauty about Melrose is you really can just duck out for 45 minutes with nothing more than a drink bottle because it will only take 15-30 minutes to walk back if it all goes wrong.

The North Star Hotel and has great food, Mt Remarkable hotel is also pretty historical and a good spot for a feed.

There’s a caravan park with ensuite cabins, a museum, Bluey Blundstones for a coffee, a general store and of course the bike shop “Over the Edge”, great new bikes, hire bikes and great chocolates!

The nest time of the year to ride is April through to November, Spring and Autumn being the best.