Looking to meet up with my mate for a ride next week who would be coming from Perth, me from Glasgow. Probably have 3-4 hours for an evening so 25-35 miles or so depending how tough.

GPXes welcome since I have no idea what to make of Scottish OS maps.

whats your difficulty with the maps?

Fair bit of stuff around stirling.

Dumyat ?

From what I can gather, most of the trails people ride aren’t on the maps.

Is that not ture everywhere?

Anything here – I believe there is a lot of riding around stirlg

http://www.stirlingcyclehub.org/routes/destination-stirling/21-mountain-bike-routes/210-mountain-bike-routes

YOu can both get direct trains to stirling

What about starting in Comrie then going up Glen Vorlich and down Glen Tarney?

Is that not ture everywhere?

Not so much. Where there are PROWs on the map, people tend to follow them which then keeps the trails going. So in upland areas you can be reasonably confident they exist. There may be other unofficial trails you won’t find, but there is generally much more on the map from what I can see.

We will have cars this time.

comrie croft has a small but very nice trail centre

Or maybe start in Callander, over to Brig o Turk then up past Glen Finglas Reservoir then loop around Benvane. Bit long but should be good.

~That glen finglas loop is a known route – double track all the way and very steep one side with a lot of climbing IIRC – I have never ridden it

comrie croft is well worth going to – much more “natural” feeling than most trail centres although its years since I have been

Cool. Double track will help with the distance. You’d either have to finish on the road or carry up over the pass to Strathyre. Although that descent looks like it has some heat on Strava so could be good.

Comrie croft, out the trail centre onto the road for a bit, then turn right and theres a really nice ride all the way up to Turret reservoir, lovely spot. Then loop back down to Comrie, finish with a play there, it’s a great wee trail.

I have a GPX somewhere….

Glen finglass is normally just done as a circuit from brig o turk

Geograph is useful for checking out the state of the paths
http://www.geograph.org.uk/browse.php?p=640342

~That glen finglas loop is a known route – double track all the way and very steep one side with a lot of climbing IIRC – I have never ridden it

Yep, excellent route that gives easy access to a real big mountain feeling.
Only done it anti-clockwise (the shallower climb) and its still very steep in places. I would expect its hike-a-bike done clockwise.
Possible to pick up crazy speed on the way down – worth keeping in mind its a long way from help and not going too crazy.

From Callander take the marked path along Loch Venachar to get out to Brig o Turk – lovely little path.

I’d plan on it taking near enough your full 4hrs from Callander. I did it with my Dad from Loch Katrine which is closer and that was just under 3 hours moving time.

comrie croft is well worth going to – much more “natural” feeling than most trail centres although its years since I have been

Agree, its been a couple of years since I went, but very much a different feel to most trail centres and enough there to keep you occupied for an evening.

So wait.. you’re talking about the circuit of Moine nan Each? This one:

https://binged.it/2sGB6Mf

I was thinking of continuing north towards Ballimore from Glen Finglas reservoir.. what’s that like? Marked as single dashed line on the map – probably a push up.

EDIT that might be too far.

From the Geograph link above, just keep moving north. Looks somewhat faint on the ground.

Glen Finglas loop is good for that feeling of getting out into and up onto the hills but the actual mountain biking is poor as it’s mostly potholed land lover track the whole way round, except the singletrack ride in at the start which is ok. If you go for it, anti-clockwise is best.

https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/lochlomond/glen-finglas.shtml

The extension to Balquhidder was a faint path/bogfest the only time I’ve walked it.

https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/lochlomond/balquhidder-turk.shtml

What about this?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7jYe9__4MEyQ3JGSVBPeFo4MTA/view?usp=sharing

Re the extension – yeah looks non-existent, having studied google maps a bit more.

Menteith Hiil track and the trails around GoAPe/Aberfoyle. You can lap the Aberfoyle routes till your goosed.

Aberfoyle.
Ben Cleuch / Andrew Gannel

Scottish miles are a lot harder than English miles – so expect to knock out a max of 15km in the Ochils 😉

Good job neither of us ride in England then isn’t it? 🙂

What about this?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7jYe9__4MEyQ3JGSVBPeFo4MTA/view?usp=sharing
That just opens as a text version of a gpx (I think?) log for me.

Scottish miles are a lot harder than English miles – so expect to knock out a max of 15km in the Ochils

Ah, a Lakes virgin…..

That just opens as a text version of a gpx (I think?) log for me.

It’s a tcx file, should be a download or save link somewhere?

Aberfoyle. There’s an xc loop up to Loch Venechar & back. The hand built techy stuff here is superb; if you get down Shirley’s without getting off your bike you’ll be doing better than most! They’re all on the Traiforks site.

Menteith Hiil track

Do you mean the trail labelled “Rob Roy Way”?

This one?

Re the trail centre – we’re not after anything technical, more just a nice mountain spin.