Good morning all. I’m going to be up in Fort William for a few day and Quite fancy some lift assisted riding, i’m riding a nerve am will my bike be able to handle both courses ok? and does anyone thats riden there on anything other than a full blown DH bike have any set-up tips or general tips for making the most of it.
Cheers
Rab

The bike will be fine for both. Will you? 😉

The red is pretty challenging, for a uk red- personally I’d call it black, and even then harder than many blacks. Quite committing in places and high prices of failure. No bother riding it on an XC bike but a bigger bike can be more fun. If you’ve done Laggan or Golspie black, it’s not as hard as those IMO.

But the good thing is, you’ve got all day which can mean lots of runs- so do a sighting run first taking it easy, and build up. It’s not like a normal trail centre where you do one lap so you regret not hitting everything first time. The main thing is, it’s pretty constant so it’s easy to get a bit frazzled if you’re not used to that.

The world cup course is rougher and, in places, a fair bit harder, but it’ll still go on a normal bike- I raced the endurance downhill on my Hemlock last year, without too much drama. Check it out from the lifts, and take it easy on the first run. Again, very constant and if you’re not used to extended hard descents it’ll beat you up a bit.

Basically if you find yourself comfortable and quick on the red, then you’ll probably be OK for 95% of the DH. The rest is a little different- steeper, or bigger rock gardens, some moderate drops etc- but that stuff’s short enough to walk if you want, and no shame in it.

No shame in wearing all the armour you have 😉 Personally I don’t change my bikes at all but if you have bigger tyres that’s a really good idea- no real disadvantage to it and it’ll give you traction but also more puncture proofing, punctures are very common there. And that’s a balancing act, you want grip so there’s a temptation to lower your pressures but there’s a good chance you’ll be hitting some rocks harder than you meant to!

you’ll be fine with that bike (remember : its the rider not the bike), plenty of people do both the Dh and the red trail on hardtails. A mate of mine did both several times on a 400quid specialised hardrock with seized forks.

I have no real tips for you (I dont think I’m good enough to offer tips), but it is technical and tough, so take your time with it. Its very steep in places, so I found that more air in the fork helped prop the front end up and stop nose diving. And take some armour/pads – its the only place I’ve ridden where I felt pads would be useful

Oh and lastly- Jesse Wigman raced the endurance downhill this year on a rigid-forked Specialized, and still came in 40th overall with 13 laps in 6 hours 😉 (I beat him by exactly one place on a big dh bike, go me!)

Personally I don’t think DH tracks should be graded at all.

but I’m a grumpy old ****.

you don’t need BIG tyres but dual plys are a good idea

The red’s not supposed to be a dh track though, it’s graded as a red XC track that just happens to have a lift.

Good point on tyres, I should have said the same but waffled a bit instead.

Ive done lagan black and golspie a few times and had no real problems, point taken on the tires il stick my dual ply minnions on and give it a crack. Whats the conditions like on pads etc there. Thanks to all who posted so far

As far as conditions, the red is mostly rock and dirt so not hard on your brakes. The DH if it’s wet can be more gritty and abrasive but even so you’re not likely to have any bother. Fresh, bedded in pads would be a good idea but should get you through a couple of days even in bad conditions.

But, you’ll probably be braking quite a lot especially to start with… My first time down the downhill was very, very slow, 10 minutes IIRC (trailbike, normal tyres, XC helmet, mincy rider…) TBH I barely let off the rear brake, so it got as hot as the sun. Still worked fine but 160mm rear + scared rider wasn’t an ideal combo!

Thanks for all the tips guys hopefully i make it through the 2 days alive

The red’s not supposed to be a dh track though,

fair enough, it’s shite on a DH bike.

it’s graded as a red XC track that just happens to have a lift.

Who graded it red? 😕

the DH track is pretty much one line for decent DH rider/racers. try to learn the track (especially from the end of the last boardwalk to the woods.). there are a few sections you need to commit to your line so for these it is worth stopping and picking the lines you think suit your ability and speed, learning where the turns and drops are will allow you to brake drag way less and the less you brake on your first run the less arm pump you’ll suffer for the whole day. also try to brake less if it’s wet if you can, the DH track’s actually quite a bit grippier and slightly slower rolling when damp.
You get a good view of the track from the gondola to see what you’re in for but to really learn it I’d recommend walking the track first if you have time. (same goes for any DH track TBF)

GW – Member

Who graded it red?

The people who designed it, same as every other trail. So er, where’s this going?

Genuinely wondered who grades trails, and how. You seem the best qualiied person to ask (on this thread) 😉

I thought there was a lot of fuss made at the time it opened about it being a red DH track, not a red XC track?

In this thread, maybe TBH it’s all cobblers, as you know grading’s all over the shop… Usually comes before building, they decided they wanted a red trail to draw in a different market sector, then they built the trail. But whether the trail turned out harder than planned, or was planned as it is, I don’t think it’s all that red by comparison with other trails, especially with the other reds at nevis. But if they graded it black it’d put folks off. All cobblers.

FC Scotland grade their own but the detailed trail design goes to the enemies of fun for approval first. Not sure if they do a further assessment after it’s done though.

Maybe we should offer our services as Independant Trail Graders.

Cheers!

I’d just rip all the signs down and replace them with a massive one at the entrance that said
“use common sense or **** off!”

Ps. never ever ridden the graded XC routes at Nevis, are they any good? how do they compare to other trail centres?

The waymarked 10UTB one is awful… But you can get all the good bits into a lap of the Witches red with a wee bit of navigation. I really like it, it’s got a bit of rough and ready character unlike a lot of trail centres… Good if you’re in an XC frame of mind though it’s fairly hard work on the climbs.

And I have to admit, I totally shat it off Nessie in the rain last time we were there Bloody horrible slippery thing.

hmm.. cheers, will need to get round to trying it one day (the gondola is just too distracting 😉 )

never even seen Nessie in the flesh. looks like one of those pretty easy features mincers love to clip clop down in their disco slippers in vids/pics. 8)

It was pretty annoying tbh, I’ve ridden it before but after a day of pissing rain I bottled it after finding how slippy the rocks were (couldn’t walk up or down it either!). But don’t tell anyone!

1st time I rode Nessie was with 8″ of snow~ was hairy, but with commitment and some braaapy foot out action, made it down with some degree of style, even if I do say so myself. There is loads of unofficial trails dotted all around Fort William (and Glencoe + Kinlochleven), but short of having a well trained local, you’d need a guide.

Also worth considering is the new trail at Glencoe, also lift served~ I rode it a couple of months back just after it opened and it was good, but at the time, lacking in features, though apparently they had a dig day last weekend and it’s much improved… if you’re in that neck of the woods anyway, it’d be well worth a visit

Along with rhe witches trail, I did four goes of the red trail yesterday and think it is superb. By the final run down there was only one bit I walked: the slippery stream crossing in the wood. I fell off the boardwalk once, quite some drop actually, but happily into a soft bog! The long rock gardens full of wheel traps I found quite challenging to put together tidily as we dont have that where I normally ride. I’m not used to braking and riding off the back so much. I think taken in 10 metre chunks it’s red grade. But as a complete descent it needed so much concentration it makes it much harder. I think the drop is 550 metres ie half of Snowdon. So my riding day was like descending Snowdon twice. There’s only about three places where you need to pedal so it’s hardly an XC trail though.

I saw just two other people on the trail so away from the lift it felt really quiet. Well worth the £30 gondola ticket IMO.

i quite like the Red – feels a bit like proper big mountain riding in places, but as GW says – def not for DH bikes as there is a fair amount of pedalling and slow speed maneuverablity required.