Rode Ae Line yesterday and again left feeling dissapointed. I’ve now riden Ae about 5 times and each time really not been that impressed, added to that large sections are closed. Any opinions ?

Ive ridden it once, on a hard tail, with large sections closed.

not much fun at all. Could’nt sit down on the bike on the flat newly laid rubble sections over the top because of the risk of pinch flats on all the square edged blocks. Had the boggy walk and push through the wood and then Omega man was closed too so descending on fire road for a lot.

I understand that trails need to be repaired etc, but making it more widely known that it’s not much cop with all the closures would have been polite…

I like Ae, but the closures have stopped me even thinking about going. Such a shame for the new cafe/shop too.

Rode it a couple of years ago. It was ok in places, but thought the Omega Man didn’t really live up to expectation IMO. Going back up to the Stanes second week of Easter so might have another look.

I haven’t been in months due to the closures. I like it usually.

Ae is a great red route.
But the forestry 7-stanes website always seems to show various sections closed for forestry operations or similar.

It’s a shame as it’s definitely stopped me from visiting much more often.

not much fun at all. Could’nt sit down on the bike on the flat newly laid rubble sections

Ditto. Only bit I liked was the last section (Omega man?), but its not worth the slog round or driving there just to walk up for a few runs. Tis a shame indeed.

LOve it but won’t be going back till its all open

Jammer – have you ridden it with all sections open? I think it’s a cracking ride, but when I have ridden it I have been living in Dumfries, so not had that huge expectation when travelling a long way. The only downside for me were some monster berms that seems to be ridiculously damaged with a lot of loose rubble on them towards the end.

I really like Ae, good variation and a couple of the sections are as good as anything at the other stanes -they have also been working to reduce the amount of forestry road sections – but it does seem to suffer more than the others by on-going forestry work and diversions. Wouldn’t consider it again until most of it is open.

i liked the berms and the impending doom of not carrying enough spped and falling to a rocky death at the bottom, i also like ‘the edge’

Love it big smile every time, HT or full sus

I always love riding Omega Man esp now as the full length Shedder was finished =- not ben up since bfore Christmas, so would be very gutted to travel up there and find it closed

Rode Ae line a couple of weeks ago. I am gutted to say its the worst it has ever been.

I was one of the people who stuck up for it as a trail because i believed it rewarded those who put the effort in to attack it. Those that complained it didnt flow, i put down to lack of speed etc.

Well now I hate it tbh. It doesnt flow regardless of how fast you attempt to ride it. The aggregate used is much much to large. It is never going to ‘bed down’ and now that the mud has worn away from it you may as well be riding in an old quarry. It is puncture city if you attempt to sit down and it hasnt really got any challeneges to speak of.

Add in the diversions. I ignored them recently and ended up knee deep in mud which i accept is my own fault. I just wanted to see what they had been doing to the trails. I was gutted to see for myself.

I felt more bashed about on whatever length of ride that is (16mls maybe) than i did the previous weekend with 100+ miles of wales trail riding. Hated every second of it.

Simon Ralli the first couple of times I rode Ae line it was completely open. Once on a hard tail and once on a full susser. Both times like TheLittlestHobo I thought I just wasn’t attacking the trail enough and the flow would come but having tried it several more times I just don’t get it.

I also agree the aggregate used is far to large which probably doesn’t help although Dalbeattie is also very rocky and I really enjoy the trails there.

I have heard it said that Kirroughtree cost about 10 X £ per metre than Ae line did.

You get what you paid for.

Ae is rubbish with the exclusion of the final descent.

Totally looove it, proper biking, haven’t ridden there for while but I have heard the trail work is nearly finished and all the diversions are about to get lifted this week 8)

Jammer

Ah – ok – well I loved Ae and will be riding there again in June. But yeah, I get why others may not get on with it though.

I love it, but ditto what folk say about the closures.

Looks like my road trip to scotland might have to be changed now after reading these comments 😥

pitchpro…why??? there’s plenty more…
Can/could show you a good time round Mabie & Dalbeattie

Was up today to see what progress is being made re opening everything for Easter, not much by the looks of it.

I still like it ht(v-old Bonty) or fs but you could say I`m biased being within biking distance.

It seems like the work at Ae has been going on for years. Ifeel sorry for those trying to make a living from the cafe.

Trekster , thats what i mean …will skip past Ae and do Mabie , Dalbeattie etc 😉

Am hoping to get some friends to join me but your more than welcome to show me round

Hey Guys,

Just thought I’d better put something up here! I’m one of the Forestry Commission mountain bike rangers for what was Ae Forest District, is now Dumfries and Borders Forest District.

The Ae line has suffered recently and we are just about to complete a large amount of works to repair harvesting damage. We are a bit behind schedule (namely due to people riding through the work sites, damaging the work before we had a chance to finish it!!!) but we have also put a lot into Ae and worked hard recently in order to get it open, which is baffling when someone says they’ve been up there and not much has been been done?!?!

Ae is still a working forest and has a lot of harvesting operations, and we in the recreation side have to work along with this. The only good thing is that due to having as much harvesting this year, it should gradually affect the trails less and less as the years go on. There is next to no aggregate used on the trails up there either, the Ae line is what is refered to as a “burrow pit trail”. Basically all the material used is dug from the subsoil level and below, hence the fact that the surface is more uneven. Some people love it, some hate it!

I have raced and ridden trails all over the uk and have done so for over 12 years, and Ae is what it is. I personally like it because it is hard work and it does have the rewards.

Anyway, the whole of the Ae red line will be open as of Thursday 9th April. Parts of the trail will be new and will settle and move a bit with a lot of use. This is something that we shall have to keep an eye on and monitor, possibly doing much smaller amounts of repair work as is needed.

We’d like to thank those people who have been patient and read and paid attention to the signs and hope that they will like whats been done at Ae. There is obviously still the cafe/bikeshop at Ae which has all the usual facilities including showers and bike wash, and Rob, Mary and Steve in there are happy to help and give advice as required. If you are looking for any other advice on any of the 7 Stanes, then there are always updated trail conditions on the 7 Stanes webpage.

FCRanger- thanks for the update – if the closed sections are re-opening this week, then it’s back on my to-do list – as I said above, I really like the trails there….

Went last year, trail was OK, (bits were closed) cafe was nice, and the bike shop was well stocked and friendly. We did it as part of a 7stanes road trip, wouldn’t have missed it though.

Nice to see someone involved putting their nose in 🙂

There is next to no aggregate used on the trails up there either, the Ae line is what is refered to as a “burrow pit trail”. Basically all the material used is dug from the subsoil level and below, hence the fact that the surface is more uneven.

I have heard Trekster state this as well when i have been moaning about Ae Line. If that new’ish section along the top which is almost 100% LARGE aggregate is from subsoil level i will eat my hat. It appeared overnight and was brought in. It had no soil holding it together and as stated earlier, it just damages your tyres/rims the faster you try to go on it. I appreciate the original trail was ‘burrow pit built’ but any repairs or new sections seem to have been ‘dump some large aggregate’ built.

Dont get me wrong, when it first opened i was riding it twice a week in my lunch breaks. Really enjoyed it untill things started to cut up. Its a nice length and i liked the fact you had to work hard.

Maybe overnight is an exaggeration 😉