AND ANOTHER THING. a lot of my Gf's friends (single women*) are keen mtb-newbies, but they find most trails far too hard.

they're the ones skidding down the trails, causing erosion, braking in berms, doing all the stuff that we complain about.

why do they do it? – because they're scared – mostly of the steepness. yes, for most of them Glentress Red is too Gnarly.

so they don't ride much, so they stay scared, so they don't ride much.

more mellow trails = more single women on bikes.

Glenshee = doing it's bit to find you a date!

(* [blind date voice] let me introduce you to Lisa – she's 24, blonde, attractive, intelligent, lives in sheffield, likes long walks, cider, and mountain biking. She finds most normal guys just a bit dull and she's looking for an interesting cycling man to show her some mellow singletrack [/blind date voice])

Glenshee = doing it's bit to find you a date!

Roll on October 😉

Women need to MTFU 🙂

Seriously though, the red routes at FC centres are described like this:

Red grade trails are suitable for: proficient mountain bikers with good off-roading skills.
Bike required: quality off-road mountain bikes.
Skills needed: good off-roading skills and techniques to cope with technical trail features.
Trail and surface types: steeper and tougher, mostly singletrack with technical sections. Expect very variable surface types.
Gradients or technical trail features: a wide range of climbs and descents of a challenging nature will be present. Expect boardwalks, berms, large rocks, medium steps, drop-offs, cambers and water crossings.
Suggested fitness level: a higher level of fitness and stamina is required.

So maybe the red is too much for some people and they should stick to blues until they feel more confident? I was a little shocked by all the skidding and mincing on the Glentress red 😉

I would agree though that Glentress blue style trails with uplift would be a good plan – my GF would also love it I reckon.

Well it seems your not allowed an opinion unless you support the place. I wish them luck and can see how it would be ok for some. No I'm not spolit by glentress I don't go there as it's too busy. I'll gladly ride uphill but if I'm paying for an uplift I'd want a something good out of it not a wide dull track that's only 2 miles long. Yes it's just opened we know that but as mentioned other places offered better from the off were and were free.

(that's a graded mountain bike trail, and of a similar technical level and fun-factor to glentress blue)

Well, if you're after graded and waymarked trails, then that does start to limit things a bit. We do have a lot of stuff here with a sensible gradient and, by picking the right options, without an overly-demanding level of technical difficulty. We've been running an "Alpine First-Timer's" trip this week for a bunch of girls who sound a lot like your Mrs and they're all having a good time – lots of coaching and encouragement to help with the transition to Alpine riding.

Agreed, the waymarked blues/greens at Les Arcs are pish. We have had a few discussions with our local resort about possible trailbuilding. If I could wave a magic wand, I'd get them to build GT blue, Spooky Wood and Caddon Bank in parallel down the length of the chairlifts! More likely, they'll do what most of the Alpine resorts do and pay the mayor's brother to hire a digger for a couple of weeks and build some 10ft wide excuse for a trail, but we live in hope…

You could ride up the track past the walkers, then come down again, watch out for the Bikes that spent the £15. 😆

You could ride up the track past the walkers, then come down again, watch out for the Bikes that spent the £15

I could just do that now.

Oh and yeah Woody I forgot how far North it was, when I went skiing I'd had rather lot to drink on the coach so it's a bit a blur.

AND ANOTHER THING:

biking could be bigger than skiing; cos we don't need snow, and we don't need mountains. we're not seasonally or geographically restricted.

all you need is a 300m hill*, and you've got a bike resort.

and everyone can ride a bike – even my friends who claim that they can't ride a bike, CAN ACTUALLY RIDE A BIKE.

someone, somewhere, is going to take a lead on this; the sooner we stop limiting our lift-accessed biking to a few snowless months in ski resorts the better.

i need to stop drinking coffee.

(*enough for 6km descents – no pedalling required)

ahwiles: we have mind meld

i'm amazed that no-one's asked for Lisa's number, either you're all gay – which is a good excuse, or you don't know any mellow singletrack.

i'll just tell her that you're all gay.

Not if they have any sense it won't. Given the poor snow records, last year excepted, if they are to have any chance of being viable they have to diversify and utilise the facilities all year round if possible.

I'm all for diversification but lets put biking into perspective here. Its no savior of scottish skiing. Glenshee even in a bad year gets 40000+ Skier days an in a good year 120000+. Lets face it your never going to get those numbers from biking. I doubt if Nevis Range even get 5000 biker days(paying for bike tickets) in a year. With that sort of return your never going to justify the investment needed to build the lift accessed trail centres you all seem to want. It has taken public funding to see the trails built at Nevis and I expect it will take the same to get quality trails at Glenshee.

Even with the worst climate change predictions we will still be skiing in Scotland for some time to come. Skiing will still rule the roost for the foreseeable future.

your never going to justify the investment needed to build the lift accessed trail centres

But that is just the point at Glenshee – the lift access is already there waiting to be utilised, thus creating an all-year-round revenue.

I think the biggest problem with Glenshee will be the level of exposure to the elements as there is no tree shelter………….and I speak from many miserable days having my skin blasted off by horizontal sleet !

Edit – Re Lisa, you are forgetting the STW demographic, I have a daughter almost the same age 😆 As for the youngsters on here, I agree, they are obviously all gay.

I doubt if Nevis Range even get 5000 biker days

Perhaps it could get 10x that if it had several family/blue bike trails accessible from the gondola.

Off road biking in many ways is more accessible than both skiing and snowboarding. Did you have to travel overseas several times and spend hundreds of pounds on instruction to ride blue and red runs competently? I must have spend ~£500 of ski and snowboard lessons, but £0 on cycling (and it shows 🙂 )

The bulk of the downhill skiing business is families and groups of mates on holidays and weekends. That is the direction I believe the MTB business will go in the next 20 years. But it will need facilities like Glenshee resort – reliable uplifts with access to many blue and easy red downhill runs.

The styles of riding we are doing now will become quite niche – like ski-touring 😀

your never going to justify the investment needed to build the lift accessed trail centres

i bet there are more people in Britain (Scotland) who can ride a bike than can ski – yet we clearly think there enough British (Scottish) skiers to justify installing ski-lifts…

now consider that the snow in Scotland is not up to international standards (when was the last time the ski-world-cup went to Scotland?), but the biking terrain/conditions are often peachy.

1million* people skilled in sport 'A' – for which we have limited terrain and conditions.

3million* people skilled in sport 'B' – for which we have ideal terrain and conditions.

and which sport gets the attention?

(*numbers clearly just made up)

I doubt if Nevis Range even get 5000 biker days

as per Buzz – i promise i'll spend a fortnight in Fortwilliam next year, all i want is 2 Blue Runs (10km each of swoopy off-the-brakes fun), and 1 more red run – although more fun-in-the-trees please this time.

i'm an occasional Dh racer – the Fort William world cup track is harsh, brutal and scary – there's no way i'll bother taking the Gf, and all her single mates…

I Done Glenshee on Saturday

Done you? Well did.
I realise the ski centres are shackled by environmentalists and the like but they really need to commit to this if they are to survive, notwithstanding years like last winter. I'm as "local" as you can get to these places without living in a 2 horse town and there is just no way I'm going to put the time and cash in to visit the Lecht or Glenshee on what they have at the moment. There is just far too much better stuff around. Glenshee and Cairngorm (west wall chair resurrected as a bike lift anyone?) could in theory be the best trail centres in the UK rivalling European resorts. I wish it would happen but can't see it anytime soon.

I've been hearing a lot about Glenshee developments for some time now. I know the amount of red tape they've had to get throigh has really slowed things down.
When I read on here and on their Facebook page the bike route was open I made a point of going up and trying it out.
I live closer than most on here I'd imagine so a trip up was no big deal. The wife and I loaded up the car, collected a friend en route. We got there and got unloaded, got our day tickers @£15 (single runs £5) wethen headed to the uplift. Very friendly but very 'makeshift'.' We got to the top and got started. The surface is covered in sharp, medium/large stones so it's puncture-tastic! We finished our first run and went (somewhat underwhelmed) to the cafe.
We were well fed and watered then off up the hill again. Now due fo the area being so exposed the change in the weather within the time if took for the uplift was quite dramatic! The rain was coming in sideways! Anofher somewhat, uninteresting run later and I looked up the hill, the cloud cover was right down so we happily packed up not wanting fo ride again even if the weather had sorted itself out.
Could have saved a bit if I'd payg'd but between punctures and disappointing weather and trails I was ready to go tbh.
It echos comments from my school reports. 'tries hard but could do better'

ahwiles – Member
i'm amazed that no-one's asked for Lisa's number, either you're all gay – which is a good excuse, or you don't know any mellow singletrack.
i'll just tell her that you're all gay.

No use without pictures ha

Well apart from the fact I'm married there's a rule. If a young lady is so perfect and still single there's a reason. Usually it's because they're a psycho.

The forecast is looking good today i get few opportunities to take a day off and go riding but i feel one coming. I do head to the hills come summer months but this year has been limited somewhat. Will i drive down to Glenshee bypassing the dozen absolutely stunning awesome natural trails enroute? I am going to find it very difficult to pass these then pay to do a blue run. I have a fair idea what is more rewarding. I really want to head to Glenshee to check it out but fear it will be underwhelming compared to its local counterparts. A test of will power will ensue.

MTBing will never be as big as skiing. For complete novices, sliding down a hill on snow is a novelty, easy at first but with a route for progression. Everyone can ride a bike (almost) and has done some as a kid, so trundling down a wide open gentle slope won't appeal to anyone. And anything more interesting is too scary or too physically demanding. If it's too much like hard work people won't do it. Plus there tends to be corners and trees which scare newbies – notably absent on skiing green runs.

A lot of people look down on biking as something kids do.

so why is the tour de france the biggest spectator sport in the world?

none of my newbies were scared by the GT blue-bits, they couldn't get enough, and keep asking when we're going back.

one day, i will get too old for lift accessed biking (as it is now), because the prospects of a 70 year old falling off on a typical alpine red run are too nasty to think about.

alpine green and blue trails (as they are now), are just roads, which are too boring. if these mountain towns want to keep me coming back well into my sunset years, they will need to pull their finger out.

Quirk of geography. It has the largest spectator capacity of any event, plus a high cultural significance and it's very close to a very large number of people's houses 🙂

Btw the comment about looking down on biking is a UK specific thing.

the population of the south island of New Zealand is about 1million, and that's enough to support a thriving ski-industry – and invest in new chairlifts.

the population of england is about 50million, i'd love to see numbers for 'pairs of skis sold in NZ' vs 'mountain bikes sold in england*'

just a thought.

(*being realistic – let's only count bikes sold for over £300 or something)

Of course, cultures are different in different countries.

I was talking about the UK.

We're a lazy bunch of f**kers on the whole.

"sliding down a hill on snow is a novelty"

Very true, but then so it riding a bicycle off road for the vast majority.

I asked my GF about riding down Alps on gravelly roads and she said that's the kind of mountain biking she likes, except she's not interested in cycling up the mountain – typical intermediate skier attitude!

This is Glenshee replying to you all. First thanks all of you that have come and ridden at Glenshee. We know the track is quite dull and a landrover track but you have to understand that we do not own the land and the Estate stipulated that we were to build a track their staff needed to drive a landrover up it. They were very cautious about letting bikes on to it at all because they envisaged bikers all over their grouse moors!It is only 2.4k because we have to keep it within the ski area. We have no objection to anyone riding up and down for free but we have to charge if using the chair as it envolves two wages and diesal.
This is only a start and is never going to be a vast money spinner(ref Nevis Range) but for us it is a way of getting more people up here.We run a fairly tight ship to keep costs down and to spend most of the summer maintaining the ski lifts in hope of more snow.
Any help next spring to improve the track before the summer would not go ammiss.
Cheers and good riding.

Can I just point out, it should be 'I did Glenshee on Saturday', not done. Or preferably 'rode'.

Bravo for Kilo message… Thanks Babe 😉

Kateski,
Top marks for taking the time to reply and in an honest fashion. If you need some rider input to help improve these, then I am confident there is now enough interest 🙂

Ducks flying low over Moscow…

Poppa, Can I just point out, it should be 'I did Glenshee on Saturday', not done. Or preferably 'rode'.

If I had only stuck in at school and got my grammar right I would be a happier man, NOT.

I would be making a lot less money and lucky to be stacking shelves in ASDA ( No offence to ASDA shelf stackers) 🙄

Just as well there's nae a grammar test for GFRS eh? Just a digit count.

Hi Kateski

We as your nearest mountain bike club would be glad to meet up with you to discuss our thoughts for the track as it is.

Your not wrong, bruneep

I know

Hello all,

This may be my first post on here, however I tend to spend more time riding my bike than sitting on a pc moaning or having petty arguments with other MOUNTAIN BIKERS.

To point out, I have not ridden at Glenshee, however I have ridden at the Lecht and most other trail centres in North Scotland. I ride DH too, so please do not mistake me for an £80 tesco’s special rider 😯

So, lets all try to get on a little better and help each other out. That way, we can, as a community of thrillseekers, try to improve the trails and facilities available to us.

My point is, why moan and groan about how pants somewhere is, when all they are trying to do is help us have a bit of fun.

Everybody has been for a ride out at some point and had a crap time. This is part of being a rider, but, in my opinion, the good times far outweigh the bad, which is why I ride.

Nowhere in Scotland, or indeed the UK, is going to be able to rival Ft Bill for its uplift services and trails. There is a reason why it is a world cup course! So it bugs me that people will continue to compare places like Glenshee, or other uplift trail centre’s to it.

Hats off to the guys and gals at Glenshee, and bear in mind, everyone has to start somewhere. Remember the old D:Ream tune…………

Cheers all
Happy riding 😀

5/10 for the rant, poor effort

Crawl back under your bridge troll

1/10 for typing speed.

@ liftman – Cheers. My point exactly.

My pleasure, please drop by again, its been emotional.

however I tend to spend more time riding my bike than sitting on a pc moaning or having petty arguments with other MOUNTAIN BIKERS

Yea, your time was much better spent digging out a 4 month old topic and then trolling the shit out of it…