While I wish we had been able to ride every single trail in the Gothenburg region during my visit there, doing so would be a monumental undertaking—in fact, it’d be the work of a lifetime exploring this expansive trail network. Thankfully I didn’t have to do all that work myself, as Leo Ranta, owner and founder of Hillside Cycling, was willing to guide me to the very best that Gothenburg had to offer. Here are two more great trail areas to consider when you head to Gothenburg to explore this natural terrain for yourself.

Riding past ancient stone walls in the Rada area. Rider: Leo Ranta. Photo: Greg Heil.

Kasjon Lake Trails

Our route through the Kasjon Lake Trails was unique compared to all of the other routes that we’d pedaled during my week in Sweden. Generally speaking, all of our other rides were pedal-driven loop routes. When we road Kasjon Lake, however, we got a ride all the way out to the lake in the car, and then pedaled back into Gothenburg. Kasjon lake is indeed higher than Gothenburg, making for a net elevation loss on the day, but it’s not much higher; unless you look at your elevation profile afterwards, you’re not likely to notice it.

Since Kasjon sits further out from Gothenburg, some of the trails in the area are less well-traveled, but still quite rideable. In fact, I found the trails in this area to be a bit flowier, swoopier, and with longer sections. Basically, this is what singletrack riding is all about!

While Kasjon is a great ride for early intermediate riders, don’t expect the entire area to be easy: tricky skinnies above swampy areas demand complete control, and we detoured out of our way to ride one of the sketchiest descents in the Gothenburg region. It’s not necessarily the burliest or the most impressive looking, but it WAS the trickiest: it took me about a handful of trys to even hit the line to access the descent correctly—but I nailed it eventually, with some coaching from Leo.

Leo on one of the trickiest skinnies in Kasjon. Photo: Greg Heil.

Sweden is covered in lakes small and large, but some of the lakes along this route were, in my opinion, the most scenic and idyllic that I got to experience on this trip. Relaxing on a sunny rock that slopes away into crystal-clear water, with nothing but trees lining the lake shore, while chowing down on one of Natasja’s delicious homemade energy bars—yeah, it doesn’t get much better than that.

Get an action-packed taste of what Kasjon is like, with this video:

Day 3, Part 1 – Kåsjön area, Sweden from HillsideCycling on Vimeo.

Rada Trails

The Rada Trails are located across a highway from Skatas/Delsjon, and while it’s easy to connect the two areas, they each offer a particularly different flavor. The trails in Rada don’t seem to have any of the steep hike-a-bike and butt-on-the-rear-tire descents like Skatas—but there are some rooty, rocky, and challenging spots. Rada is also home to some easy, flowing singletrack, as well as some graded gravel paths along a lake. While we skipped the graded gravel, Leo said that that path is one of the best places to take total beginners–such as people who have never even ridden a bike before. The riders get to enjoy beautiful views of the lake and the Swedish countryside without getting in over their heads.

One of the most interesting things to me about the Rada trails was the history that we rode through and around at every turn. We’d be pedaling through the woods and come across a straight line of stones piled three feet high, running through an overgrown forest and covered in green moss. It’d just be one of many old farmers’ fences, built a century or two before, reclaimed by the forest.

Crossing a tumbled down stone wall. Rider: Leo. Photo: Greg.

Finally Eating Burgers in Sweden

After so much seafood and vegetarian food, I was ready for some beef! Burgersson is known as one of the best burger restaurants in Gothenburg, and it’s conveniently located right next door to one of the best MTB shops in the city. Coincidence? I think not.

Burgersson is definitely on the boutique end of the burger spectrum, but with downright delicious burgers, fries, milk shakes, and one of the best beer selections I saw in Gothenburg, you just can’t go wrong here.

MTB Store: For All of Your Mountain Bike Shop Needs

MTB Store is a ski shop during the winter but during the summer, it transforms into the most legit mountain bike shop in Gothenburg. Sure, there are plenty of other shops in town, including a Specialized concept store and an ancient shop that’s been in business for about a century. But MTB Store knows mountain bikes.

Hanging out at MTB Sweden. Photo: Hillside Cycling

When browsing around their store, I took note of what bikes they had on display, but maybe even more importantly, what they didn’t have on display: there wasn’t a single road bike in the store, and I couldn’t even find so much as a hardtail mountain bike. Every bike in the store—rental and sales models alike—were full suspension trail/enduro bikes. This singular focus on full suspension rigs show that MTB Store has their finger on the pulse of Gothenburg mountain biking. You don’t want to ride a hardtail on the singletrack here in Gothenburg… and if you are a hardtail rider and live in the city, generally you’re solely riding gravel roads. And is that really mountain biking? I’d wager that the folks at MTB Store would say, “hell no.”

If you’re looking for a place to rent a bike for your Gothenburg mountain bike experience, I’d recommend that you start here. Their fleet of full suspension Konas are more than capable of tackling the rocky, rooty tech fest that is Gothenburg riding.

Parting Thoughts

Mountain biking in Gothenburg isn’t easy and it isn’t forgiving. But if you can brave the technical trails and the lack of signs, you’ll find a vast web of natural singletrack that offers challenge, history, and scenic views that all combine to create an unforgettable mountain biking experience.

Want to experience Gothenburg for yourself? Be sure to catch up on any of my articles that you missed, and then get your trip on the books!

Are you a local Swede that’s been following along with my series, and do you know of a trail in Sweden that we don’t have listed in our trail database yet? If so, we’d love for you to add it!