How hard is it? DH beginner friendly?

Did a few runs down a local DH track and managed no bother also managed GT red descents at a decent pace and Fort William Red run.

Only issues I have are big drops really – more than 2′ for example and big gap jumps. Might be heading up and trying an uplift day but dont want to be out of my depth.

Will i die?

There’s plenty of variety and difficulty levels. I’d gamble and say most do not have >2′ drops nor gap jumps. (I haven’t been for about 6 months though…)

There are lots of older trails, no longer signposted, which are more mellow, with no significant drops. Marked trails like Make or Brake are pretty DH beginner friendly – none of the jumps are obligatory. What normally gets me at Inners is the steepness; quite a few trails have some tricky steep bits. I normally mince down them 🙂

Well if mincing is the order of the day then I may excel. Bugger it, whats the worst that can happen.

Riding a Five AM with coil Lyriks – presume this will cope more than I will.

Start with gold run and when you get more confident try the cresta then the matador. The matador has a 6 and 8 foot drop but these can be avoided and you get plenty notice. Just take it easy go slow first run and have fun.

The great thing a out inners is all the different lines you can take on the hill…plenty to keep you busy.

I can think of less than a handful of big jumps/ drops in the entire place. The thing about Innerleithen is that you can just point the bike down the hill and follow your nose and never ride the same trail twice. There are literally hundreds of permutations for trails.

there’s very little tricky steep stuff at inners and all drops/jumps have chicken runs or are rollable
it’s not very high level DH TBH until you are hitting everything at DH race pace.

You played at Wooler yet? There’s a few in there not tricky but good fun to warm up on.

Yep was there on Saturday – loved it. Great fun on all those lines in the trees.

I’m no downhiller (I ride a 100mm XC bike), but I rode Make or Brake from top to bottom as an add on to the XC route on Saturday. I think it is one of the easier DH routes at Innerleithen (I’m told that the Matador has the biggest drops, and presumably the others are in between).

There is nothing bad at all on Make or Brake. The jumps are fun and easy, and you can always roll the bigger doubles if you don’t fancy flying over them (I rolled a few since I’m a bit of a mincer over doubles).

Die? No. But it’s possible you’ll be maimed 😉

There’s no unavoidable big drops, is the first thing you’ll probably like to hear. Matador has 2 big ones but there’s chicken runs and they’re both signposted. Either Gold or Cresta Run is pretty steep if you’re used to XC trail centre stuff, passed a few big dh bikes that had come a cropper there and briefly hugged a tree once myself, in a stylish and controlled manner of course. If you know Glentress, it’s not unlike Broon Troot and Andy’s Flume in places.

I had a brilliant day… I won’t pretend I attacked the courses or anything, I was very cautious on the first runs and I guess some would say I didn’t ride it “properly” but I just treated them all like any other trail and had a blast in my slow mincer’s style, picking up pace through the day. I wasn’t the slowest there but I did have about the least travel

As far as skill levels, well, I’m not bad- let’s say competent trail rider, I can’t jump but I’m alright on rocks and roots and steepness and that’s what the 3 main trails are made of. That got me down fine, on a pretty nice 5 inch bike (Hemlock)

I was fully armoured up and with a full-face, I wouldn’t say it’s essential though but it’s nice to have. Arguably you’re more likely to hurt yourself badly on the nevis red, it’s not as difficult but down most of innerleithen if you crash it’s more likely to be on something soft, it’s not like fort william where you’re pretty much going to land on a gigantic lump of granite.

I did invest in a fat, used DH front tyre and I was glad for it, there were quite a few bits where finding traction was tricky. I could’ve done it on my normal tyres but I don’t think I’d have enjoyed it that much, it might tip too far towards surviving rather than riding. And I reckon that’s probably going to be even more true now that the weather’s turning a bit. It’s a nice cheap skill compensator

I’ll definately be going back… If you were comfortable on the nevis red I reckon you should do OK at innerleithen, it’s not a bad benchmark. The innerleithen trails are faster but they’re similiar in that they’re more about intimidation and commitment than about pure skill.

Oh, last thing… A few people said “Ah well, if you’ve done Caddon Bank on the XC, that’s part of one of the DH trails”. And yes it is but Caddon Bank and Make or Brake in general are sod all like the other 3 trails. Make or Brake’s got some lovely stuff at the top but after that it’s just berms doubles and tabletops. Some big ones but it’s still pretty tame, more like a big version of spooky wood. It’s a bit dull unless you like jumps really.

Well i wouldn’t start with Gold Run – at least not the lower section.

Matador is probably the easiest – just look out for the 2 big drops (If you take it easy you’ll see them) and do the chicken runs.
In order i’d say
Deerhunter (If you can find it)
Matador
Cresta
then Gold

Have fun 🙂