Any decent riding nearby – either mtb or roadie shite?

There is some mountain biking to be had at Beecraigs above Linlithgow, and some decent road riding in the hills above Bathgate.

aye currently in linlithow and moving to bo'ness.

Best roadie riding over the bathgate alps between you and linlithgow – look up routes on the west lothian clarion

Best mtb at beecraigs / muiravonside – no marked trails but plenty of routes

So it's not totally devoid of biking opportunities then.

Looking to move to that area to reduce my commuting time to Glasgow.

You're only about an hour from Glentress and Inners at Bathgate.

Half an hour to Carron Valley

40 minutes up to the Ochils

However, Bathgate is a total shithole. The wife grew up round there and it's a grim place.

im in Bathgate, can get to glentress in 45min, carron in 30, the hills are great to explore and there's plenty to explore in Beecraigs
Edinburgh is 20min by train and the new line to glasgow opening soon-ish can only be a good thing
The pubs are plenty, and if Livi is not to far for the wifey
Not sure about the shithole part, you could say the same about every little town in the country

Pretty much every little town in the central belt is a shithole 😆

To be fair though, pretty much every little town in the UK is a shitehole.

You leaving the Walkerburn Bronx then?

Pretty much every little town in the central belt is a shithole

Linlithgow is perhaps the only exception.

Whatafackinliberty – yip we sure are. Way too much travelling and it's starting to take its toll.

Will be a sad day.

The Tweed Valley will never be the same 🙁

I'll get more time to ride. There's nothing worse than living here and not having the time to go ride my bike.

I'll come and visit. 😉

I'm in Livingston. It's not exactly an amazing place to live, all cultural activities mean going to Edinburgh but the riding is good.

Road stuff from here is good – you have the entire Bathgate Alps on your doorstep and you can head south towards Lanarkshire and the Lang Whang quite easily.

There's some MTB riding in Beecraigs, enough for an hour or two as far as I know. I can ride over towards Mid Calder and do a couple of hours offroad, mostly singletrack, and can link in with Union canal to take me over towards Edinburgh/ Pentlands. There's plenty of riding to be had in the central belt, just takes a bit of finding and a bit of imagination to link it up (can ride 100km from the front door and about 2/3rds of that would be off road, and about half the offroad something other than towpath/ sustrans routes). Can ride to Harlaw in about an hour (it's quicker on the way back!) or drive it in 20 mins.

If you're driving to ride we're less than an hour to Glentress/ Peebles and 2.5 hours will see you in Glen Clova, Braemar, Aviemore, Laggan, Glencoe, Kirroughtree or Keswick. So all just about doable as a day trip or a one-night weekend.

Tidy.

Crikey! I thought i was the only one around the area…

I work in Bathgate, i wouldn't live there it's no where near as bad as some of the other places like Shotts or Armodale etc but not really great either, full of badly educated (or not at all it would seem , obese Scots/ no offence lads) There are some nice houses out the back of it though just up from my workshop but i believe they are rather expensive. I live in Kirknewton now which is just about perfect for my needs.

Dont worry about education in Armadale, Offroading – we (read 'the construction mob I work for') just finished the new school there!

George, at least you'll be closer to Comrie Croft, still a distance away but well worth a trip. + you can call on the Pentlands collective if you're desperate! 🙂

Im not worried about the education, couldn't care less 🙂 Just i hear the folks in that area eat yah!

Beecraigs is pretty shit for mtbing for anything other than a hours blast, the hills are better suited to darkside rides, perfect place to do the two bridges loop, forth road bridge and return using kircardine bridge.

Not sure about the shithole comment, as you said most towns in the uk could be described as a shithole.

I dont do big bridges – they scare the shit out of me. Now if and when they put suicide barriers up then i'd be able to cycle over them.

Hi all

I'm new to the board an also new to west Lothian, I was wondering if anyone could give some more details on where to ride? I was up an beecraigs yesterday and I'm going again today in search of some more trails. I've been to various other forests near by and not found much! Any one got an sugestions?

Cheers
Mike

Stirling isn't too far away and the trails are bountiful. There's also a large number of friendly riders that'd be happy to show you around.

B. 8)

Great road riding in the Bathgate Alps / burgeoning Roadie scene – join the Clarion for a paltry £15 or so and hook up with other riders. Many members also mtb…

Beecraigs can be linked via Canal and or Avon Heritage trail to Muiravonside – some sweet Singletrack. Comments that BCCP is sh1te / only 1 hours riding fairly wide of the mark

I've only done night rides at Beecraigs but found that good fun.

Beecraigs is a mudfest, trails are sh!t barr maybe two descents which are pretty rooty and technical.

Some of the old forest single track which was secretly built years ago have all but be destroyed.

Not worth the effort. Pentlands which is about 30 mins away or around Stirling is a better bet.

Second heather bash – I used to live in Torphichen (just between Bathgate and Lithgae) and Beecraigs was my local. I'm now in Glasgow's West End :o(

Muiravonside and Beecraigs connected via the canal is a good few hours of intense singletrack. However outside of these there is little in the way of paths and the area mostly has country lanes to get about on.

The Ochills and Pentlands were the next best riding, then Carron Valley and the Stanes…

Have ridden at beecraigs once – after living in the Tweed you’ll be disappointed. Its a place you need local knowledge to get the best out of apparently but no real hills to speak of.

Your best bet will be nipping across Kincardine to Ben Cleugh, or near Stirling for Northern 3rd / Cambusbarron and another place I can’t remember the name of. In fact, is living in Stirling an option? Would be better, I’d say.

>Beecraigs is a mudfest, trails are sh!t barr maybe two descents which are pretty rooty and technical.<

Depends on your knowledge of the area – and yours is clearly limited 😉

>Not worth the effort. Pentlands which is about 30 mins away or around Stirling is a better bet.

Both of which he'd have to drive to. BCP is his local I presume so to suggest it's not good enough to ride out his front door is bad advice frankly.

>Its a place you need local knowledge to get the best out of apparently but no real hills to speak of.<

Yup – as above. If you are ascending from Linlithgow you can do about 50% off road to the highest point and trust me, it's a canny shank… Same goes for the Bathgate side tho that's all on road

I occasionaly ride in Beecraigs on the cx bike, Its OK, and can be loosely linked up with some other farm tracks and offroad to take you through Bo' Sneckie to South Queensferry and back.
The main problem with the whole Bathgate hills/ Beecraigs/Lithgae/ Dechmont area is that the council thoughtfully took every potential off- road climb/ descent ( Puirwives brae, Preston road , Cairnpapple and many others) compulsory purchased and surfaced it for the sole use of us road cyclists-I get really pi**ed off when I catch motorists getting in my way on these routes.( why cant they enjoy their hobby of 'Driving' on the perfectly good motorway that MY taxes provide?

Yeah HB, and you've met George and riden the type of trails he's used to ???

As for local knowledge, I've probably been frequenting BC for the past 25 yrs from the time myself and the mate's built berm's and jumps for BMX's which were destroyed by the council on a weekly basis in the '80s to riding there with my first mtb in the '90s.

"Looking to move to that area to reduce my commuting time to Glasgow."

Don't. Just don't.

As things turned out we decided to stay put.

A lucky escape.

Where do you work and currently live? I'm out the south side – just beyond Renfrew, it's pretty nice over here…

Live near Innerleithen and study in Glasgow. I have decided that the commute is fine.