A few of us are off to Glentress next week for the first time and I am a bit concerned about the black route. I’m not particularly fit and carrying a long term ankle injury but I love the descents. I don’t think we will have time or I will have the ability to ride both with everything else that is planned.

Which is the best of the two for smiles per mile?

Do the red but detour to do the Boundary descent?

Red. The black is good, but has a lot of climbing compared to descents, and the descents are rough. You can catch the last sections of the black from the red / blue in any case, so you can mix n match. The lower blue is good as well for more mellow but fast n fun stuff.

Climb to descent ratio is 1:1 on both routes 😉
It’s all personal preference I suppose, but I actually feel like the layout of the black makes the the climb to descend ratio feel better than the red where the descent seems to go by very quickly for the climbing. The black descents being rough can only be a good thing in my book.
As mentioned, you can do the red climb, continue past where you would normally turn off to Spooky woods, climb a small amount more and pick up the Boundary trail. You then can do the majority of the black route descent either including Deliverance / Redemption or not as you want.

Go to Innerleithen first and do the red there, then go and do the red at Glentress…sorted! 😀

I know it’s a personal thing but I find the black rather dull. There seems to be a lot of mundane riding and it is barely more technical than the red, just longer. The red features more fun stuff IMHO.

the blue and the bike park friday then eh?

Rob votes Red & Blue – a nice day out.

First time- do the red. It’s not so much better/worse, it’s just better “value”, never feels like hard work. I love the black but the red is more smiles per mile.

Add-ins… Do Berm Baby Berm, which is a blue right beside the jump park, you ride past it on the red climb and it just goes back to the car park so easy to add. Likewise you can add Zoom or Bust in the same area- when leaving the top car park you follow a fireroad up which then turns right at the big wallride, just keep going for a short distance and watch for the obvious but unmarked trail on the left. At the bottom turn left then left again and you end up back at the car part again.

Later on there’s another option- at the bottom of Hit Squad Hill the red either goes up a fire road or down a short trail called Pie Run. What you want to do is, go up first, then come down either the red or black sections at the top. Then if you want, go down the black graded Wormhole as you pass. But then, at the bottom climb up a short distance past where you rejoin the red, just keep going and you arrive back at the junction and can now ride Pie Run as well.

I prefer GT to innerleithen’s red, it’s a bit of a one-hit wonder IMO. Throw in the downhill and offmap stuff and it’s possibly the best riding venue in the country though.

Look at the Innerleithen advise, then discard it cause the route’s shit 😉

Spend the day playing on all the best bits of the Red, Blue and Black at Glentress. Then pedal back up to ride from Berm Baby Berm all the way down to the cafe.

legend – Member

Look at the Innerleithen advise, then discard it cause the route’s shit
You’re probably the kind of rider that thinks Kirroughtree is shit too (the best 7Stane IMHO). 😀

Nope Kirroughtree is awesome. I also enjoy Mabie and Dalbeattie, but wouldn’t feel hard done by if Ae and Inners (XC) were swallowed up by the earth

Innerz is pretty **** dire! So much better stuff in the area that I can’t bring myself to bother again, done it once.

I went for the first time last weekend, did the Black on Saturday afternoon and the Red and Blue on Sunday. I prefered the Red and Blue TBH. None of them are particularily technical and the Red and Blue just semed more fun. The Black didn’t seem any harder, just longer and a bit of a slog at times, but then I’m not the fittest

d45yth – Member
You’re probably the kind of rider that thinks Kirroughtree is shit too (the best 7Stane IMHO).

Really? I really like Kirroughtree but I definitely prefer Glentress to Innerleithen.

Northwind’s advice is pretty good, BTW. If berms ‘n’ tabletops aren’t particularly your thing then flyinmonkeycorps’ suggestion to take the red to the top of Spooky Wood then continue up to the Boundary Trail is good too.

Or if you want to do almost all of the red but take in one of the black’s long descents, turn left after The Super G, tootle along the fire road for a while and you’ll get to the start of Deliverance. One big descent followed by Deliverance, a fairly big climb. You’ll miss out on only one section of red (Hit Squad Hill) to do this, though it is a nice bit.

Coming down the red, if you choose to winch yourself up the climb after Hit Squad Hill, then the following two sections are shadowed by sections of the black. Both trails for the first section (red: Matrix, black: Double X) are pretty good but for the second section the black (The Bitch) is much better than the red (Lombard Street).

One of the nice things about Glentress is how the trails often intersect. It’s worth the 2 quid to get a map and have a look at how you can mix and match the various trails together.

What the frak is wrong with Inners

Caddon Bank is probably the best bit of descending in the 7 Stanes.

The climb up is varied and interesting and you can scare yourself silly at the bombhole halfway up.

Plus its never crowded like GT down the road

Fair enough it only offers one way marked route but its a really good one

I think Glentress is the most over-rated trail centre I’ve come across. The only reason I go is because it’s somewhere where I can spend a full day…always after I’ve already spent a few days riding elsewhere in the area.

Inners xc has some nice sections, but the long straight descent and fire roads mean you lose a lot of height with little reward in those bits. Its all the little bits of other trail at inners that are special though.

“Caddon Bank is probably the best bit of descending in the 7 Stanes.”

Really?

bigjim – Member

Inners xc has some nice sections, but the long straight descent and fire roads mean you lose a lot of height with little reward in those bits. Its all the little bits of other trail at inners that are special though.

This really.
You pedal all the way up. Then you get to pedal like buggery down to the SUW, then you pedal like hell down to the fireroad (which now doesn’t even feel fast after the felling), then you get to pedal like hell down Plora Craig, then up and moar fireroad along to Caddon Bank…. where you do some more pedalling (although I do admit to enjoying hitting the 2nd half of Caddon Bank flat out).

Some easy improvements can be made if you swap the last part of Plora Craig for the DH Classic, and swap the top half of Caddon Bank for Jane’s Lane – but Glentress still offers a better day out if after some trail centre action imo

As above, have a look at the maps as you can easily mix and match the black.

If you aren’t that fit then the red and blue combo offers the best trail centre/bmx park style smiles per mile. They have the advantage that if you have a map you can just divert to a shorter route.

The black is a bit more of a big loop. More natural feeling (rocky, loose less berms, jumps and drops per mile etc.)

Climbs on the black are longer than those on the red and the going tougher. As such they feel harder and less rewarding.

Everybody loves the blue/red combo when they first do it with our club. It suits everybody as the faster ones just go bigger on the jumps etc.

FWIW I love Innerliethen but find it short. Generally those that don’t like it who I’ve ridden with struggle with the bigger climb as it is pretty much all done in one go.

Care to offer a suggestion of you own? Or are you happy to leave the question mark there like a piece of pregnant punctuation?

Whoah there. I’m with rich, Caddonbank is one of the fastest most fun sections of trail in the valley plus the descent off the top of the moor is brilliant, yes, you have to pedal but you’re on a bike. Plora Craig is also a fantastic piece of trail, the black section is hard going with flowing singletrack to finish. What’s not to like?

Hmm, this has gone a bit derailed hasn’t it…

Caddon Bank is all about its highlights, which are great, but when you take into account how much altitude it throws away and how much pedalling it requires to make it work, it loses the shine… Like most of inners it’s mostly empty trail with nothing much happening at all, you’re just going fast down a simple path. Which is alright but it’s not brilliant.

We are there from the Friday early afternoon through to Sunday early afternoonish.

I think at the moment the plan is Blue and play on the Friday. It looks like it might be the red on Saturday am followed by the black on the pm for the fit guys while I drink beer. Then Inners XC on the Sunday before driving home.

I have found a PDF map so some of the above advice actually makes sense, thanks guys.

How in the name of Zeus’ testicles can you make this statment with a straight face

like most of inners it’s mostly empty trail with nothing much happening at all, you’re just going fast down a simple path.

NW you have my respect on this forum as someone who talks a lot of sense but you have gone too far this time. 😯

If I had said the Omega Man at Ae I would see your point

Anyway this isn’t really fair on the OP so I would agree with you on the GT route

Then Inners XC on the Sunday before driving home.

Be sure to let us all know what you think of Caddon Bank 😉

Calm down Rich. If you’re absolutely stuck on Inners I’d recommend any of the DH trails ahead of Caddon Bank. The signposted ones are all mellow enough to be ridden by anyone on standard mince tanks/burly hardtails (or even XC bikes if you’re into that kinda thing) and there’s nothing really steep but it’s a good bit more intreresting. Northwind has described it better than I could, it’s pretty featureless and essentially a straight line down a fireroad. I prefer to be shralping corners myself….

I_ache, if you’re there Friday evening blue and play sounds good, especially if there’s a group of you, have a blast down Berm Baby Berm until your legs ache. Guaranteed cheesy grin.

richmtb – Member

How in the name of Zeus’ testicles can you make this statment with a straight face

Botox.

I’m perfectly calm – It’s all tongue in cheek 8)

But I am actually interested to here what you think is a better section of trail.

I might not have ridden it is all. So come on tell us what you favourite bit of 7 stanes trail is

Like I said in the post above, if I was at Inners I’d choose any of the DH tails above Caddon Bank. Every single one is better. 7 Stanes specifically? They’re all much of a muchness there’s not one that stands out as ZOMG amazinnngggz when compared to other stuff in the area.

The signposted ones are all mellow enough to be ridden by anyone on standard mince tanks/burly hardtails

Sounds perfect, I will be on a balls out 160mm Mince Tank (love that phrase) complete with a coil shock so hopefully I will cope OK.

In all seriousness I would love to do spend a day at the inners DH trails but we just dont have the time and there are others that arn’t as enthusiastic/daft as me when it comes to DH.

in conclusion everything is terrible and mountain biking is rubbish.

Get it done some time, Inners DH is perfect for the new breed of mince tanks, it’s pretty marginal how much slower they are compared to a proper downhill bike too!

bigjim – Member
in conclusion everything is terrible and mountain biking is rubbish.

http://www.samaritans.org

Nah, in conclusion innerleithen red is actually pretty good but the area is full of fantastic riding so it’s hard to find as much enthusiasm for the merely good.

Positivity- How to make inners red better- add a dose of Alistair Lees.

After the first steppy climb (Stell Burn Climb), instead of carrying on up the red climb, keep going up. Turn left on the fire road through the (open) gate then up the old XC climb (beside the downhill pushup). Keep going up, it joins the pushup (which does ride, but is a bit unpleasant). Follow signs for the Matador, all the way to the very top of Plora Rig.

When you reach the trailhead for Matador, keep going straight, down the grassy/heathery path for a very short distance. Take the first trailhead on the right. Enjoy. When you hit the fire road, you need to go slightly left then right onto the next trail, nice and easy to spot. Then this eventually hits the original red climb, right before the quarry. It can be downright treacherous if it’s wet but is one of my favourite descents anywhere.

This adds about 200 metres of climbing, some of it nice, some of it not. It does miss out a reasonably nice bit of red route climb, but no descent. But it gives you a massive amount more quality and variety for your lap, without taking away anything, and since the red’s short, it’s still pretty much a normal day out.

(you can also easily add a downhill Middle- when you reach the end of Oh Deer on the red, instead of going down/along the fire road, go up. When you reach the 3-way junction, instead of going more or less straight on (back to the top of Plora Craig), double back, keep climbing. This is about an extra 100m of climbing all on fire road. If you want to rejoin the red, just pick a downhill trail (Gold or Cresta probably, or the Deerhunter which is the one which has a signboard but strangely no name on the sign), head down it til the next fire road, turn right and spin along til you reach the top of Caddon Bank- again you’ve missed nothing out)

Red and blue all the way at GT.

I’d cycle all the way up to the freeride park area, maybe take in the easy section for a play, back round and have a go of BBB. Then back up and pick up the red, miss out pennels vennel and continue to the spooky wood ascent. Up to spooky and follow the red all the way back to the fire road. From there go back up the hill, past the freeride park again and pick up blue velevt, then ride the rest of the blue back to the cafe. IMO you’ll see the best of Glentress this way.

When I think of the good bits of the red/black at Innerleithen I think of the bit down from the top of Minch Moor, Plora Craig and Caddon Bank. When I do the same for Glentress I think of Pie Run, Mushroom Pie, Falla Brae, Magic Mushroom, The Bitch, Super G (or Betty Blue), Hit Squad Hill, Zoom or Bust, the Boundary Trail, Pennels Vennel, etc.

When I ride at Innerleithen I generally enjoy it but the fact that it has fewer, longer sections than Glentress works against it when I think about which I prefer.

Oh yes, and anyone who recommends missing out Pennels Vennel when riding the red at Glentress is just wrong. Only do this if the only way you can have fun on an MTB is when you’re riding berms and jumps. 😛

Pennels Vennel is basically berms n jumps. The un-marked way down Pennels Vennel on the other hand is much, much, better

I’m not denying there is a better variety at Glentress than at Inners.

I just think that Caddon Bank is probably the best section of trail I’ve ridden at the 7 stanes that’s part of waymarked route.

Glentress is probably a better day out though, particularly if you like cake