The Dirt Directory: The ultimate guide to mountain bike parks and trails by Leeds author and biker Hannah Collingridge

For each riding spot, there’s information on the number of trails and their length, style and difficulty; facilities such as parking, bike hire and shops and refreshments; and local information. "The information exists in very very many places, scattered all over the internet but it’s not available in one handy place,” the 53-year-old says. “If you’re looking for somewhere new to go riding or you’re going somewhere else on holiday, it’s actually quite hard to know where to look (for biking routes) without any prior knowledge.”

Cue The Dirt Directory. As well as big and well-established venues such as Coed y Brenin and Dalby Forest, the book also includes details on newer and smaller places to ride, such as Gnar Bike Park in Cumbria, Leeds Urban Bike Park close to her home, and Lady Canning’s Plantation just outside Sheffield. "I hope it’s a really useful resource for people,” Collingridge says. “And I hope it inspires people to go riding somewhere new.”

From almost the day Collingridge learnt to ride, she was hooked on biking. "Kids today have all sorts of places to go riding bikes and we had building sites,” she says. “Where my parents lived, there was lots of new housing estates being built and we used to build ramps out of breeze blocks and bits of timber and things like that...We used to go play in the woods, build ramps and I’ve never got out of the habit really.”

She raced BMX as a teenager in the 80s and for the last 15 years, biking has not just been a hobby but a job for Collingridge too. After a decade doing events and engagement work at the National Railway Museum in York, she worked as a professional bike mechanic for over seven years. That still remains one of her income streams, but these days Collingridge is also a freelance writer and commentator.

Her work has appeared in biking magazines and she has two other books to her name – a guide to the Pennine Bridleway, an off-road national trail from Derbyshire to Cumbria; and a guide to walking routes on and around Pen-y-ghent, Ingleborough and Whernside in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

It is fair to say that biking fills her cup. The camaraderie, the fresh air, the exploring. “I like the way it makes me feel,” she says. "Some people get that from swimming, or walking, or running. For all of us there’s something that makes you feel good and for me it’s riding bikes.”

The Dirt Directory, published by Vertebrate Publishing, is out now.