At GT today and did a bit of wandering around. Couple of observations…

Betty Blue seems to be under-graded (IMHO) – at least compared to some of the lower Blue stuff. Very rocky, muddy drop-offs etc – but I also wondered how it compared to Blue runs at other trail centres.

Deliverance. What happened to it? It used to be much faster / better surfaced, but it’s like all the top surface has come off and the braking bumps are horrific in some places. Still ridable and good fun, just not how I remembered it (or is it my memory at fault- I am getting on a bit)

Not ridden Betty Blue for years but I don’t remember it being under-graded (although a number of Glentress trails are in pretty bad condition at the moment- so it may just be that winter has taken it’s toll).

I’d say Glentress trails are slightly easier than trails of a similar grading elsewhere. With a lot of work at Glentress focusing on blue runs I wouldn’t be surprised if Betty Blue was renewed in the near future taking it back to more of a blue rating.

Again with deliverance it is a case of wear an tear I think- although they have been repairing some trails such as magic mushroom, pie run, and some other sections of the red back to their former states but it takes time and money (and trail fairy volunteers).

As is the way with all trails they do suffer from wear and tear and as a consequence this tends to make them a bit more tricky than their original grade. As said by Spesh99 it takes time and money to fix these things. Also people are always crying out for new stuff and its hard to build new stuff and maintain the old stuff. Haven’t been down Deliverance for ages never seem to have the time which is a shame as its one of my favourites. I’m guessing its quite hard to get in and do work on it and as most people are going to be using the Blue and Red then these are going to get the most amount of work. But the more folks we get along on a Saturday the more we can get done and I think this also results in more money being spent too. More trailbuilding and free cake/biscuits this Saturday. Get your good selves along, even half an hour mid ride helps.

I would agree about Betty Blue, I would say that for some people looking to step up from Green it would be quite a challenge and is no different from some of the red trails.

Deliverance used to be a bit smoother a few years ago but a lot of the top surface has worn away leaving those nice sharp rocks which kick you about at speed. Very entertaining!

Both are great bits of trail. The trail fairies are doing quite a lot of repair work at the moment on a few sections of the red. Just please keep away from the Black with your buckets of ‘kitty litter’. 😀

Theres a set of braking bumps (or at least there was before the mud) at Cannock on section 13.

always made me laugh as they were on a straight line nowhere near a corner. Just a case of one bump forming, then everyone grabbing a handfull of brake over them, making more bumps, making it harder to tell your index finger not to twitch and slow down. Only solution was to death grip, which made one of the later lef handed berms onteresting as (IMO) it needs to be tighter/end in a lip to stop you exiting straight into a tree!

I should say that it was in no way meant as a criticism. I think it’s a relevant response to those complaining that the recent work on the red trails had mad it all too easy. It’s useful te remember that it’ll all bed in again.

Betty blue is the bermy section that starts at the end of spooky wood isn’t it? If so, it has been like that for quite a while – not sure that there’s much in the way of drop-offs though.

Deliverance is great just the way it is.

I agree with Smee! I like the way the black tends to get ignored (by the majority of the riders I think as well as the trail maintenance crew) leaving it to naturally degrade.