Went up to Laggan today for the first outing of works’ MTB section. What a place! Great weather, trails are unreal, some of outstanding technical standard.

The chap in the Basecamp bike shop was sound too, when I hired a bike and swithered between Handjob and Stiffee he suggested doing one loop on one, bringing it back and taking the other!

So i did the Red loop on the Handjob, liked the steel frame, loved its climbing ability and generally had a blast.

After returning it, and a spot of lunch, headed back up the hill on the Stiffee. Immediately regretted it, because as soon as I sat on it I knew I wanted this £599 frame instead of the cheaper Handjob! Climbing{though on a longer fork} was easier just felt really responsive and immediate. When we got to the top most of the group decided to do the black, with some of the beginners doing the red again. this is when the Stiffee really came into it’s own. Some tricky rock gardens and features were negotiated, the bike inspiring confidnce at very turn. Even the jumpy bit at the end had me flying through the air.

In short I went up there struggling to choose between two excellent frames. I lft with my mind firmly made up.

Great day, fantastic weather, excellent service and BRILLIANT Bikes!

Sell a kidney, you’ll get a stiffee.

What was your verdict on the red route, did you do both loops of the red, the upper and the lower sections. I’m going next week for the first time.

What was your verdict on the red route, did you do both loops of the red, the upper and the lower sections. I’m going next week for the first time.

did it on tuesday past ….or rather i very slowely made my way to the top with one leg and coached the missus down both the old and new reds stopping and going over things she found difficult (relitively new to mtb)

lots has changed up there recently. the old red has had the middle muddy downhill section after the tight switchbacks sanitised(for the better imho…lost a brilliant technical section but also kept the red grading as the worse it got the less red it was) and they have redone the start and were working above the steep slab on more stuff there.

as for the new red….its **** pish ….its a womans track ..suppose it keeps the other red and the black emptier for me to ride 😀

Andylux- both loops are easily doable in terms of distance. Definatley do both, only criticism would be some of the corners nearer the top {and on jumpy bit near bottom} are bit tight and unbanked for the speed that the trail allows you to build up.

Some real technical challenges there and well worth the trip.

Which is Which please, loop wise, on the website it refers to the trails as being upper and lower. Which is the new and which is the older please.

New is upper. You take the black ascent and split off at the top before re-joining the black later. From there, you can spin up the hill and do the lower loop.

I rode it last July when i was there, whipped ruond the old and new and then the black. On my ti 29er.
The trails were quite interesting in many many ways. Having not been to many of the 7stanes centres before the diff between reds at mabie/glentress/laggan was quiet marked.
Anyway, i found Laggan to be realy quite nice but i would have thought it would test a few riders as it had some quite technical bits. The new trail which went out over the back into that logged area was really well built but a bit dull , maybe if they bermed the corners it would be more fun ? The older trail was a lot more natural and had some quite interesting bits on it. I did think it was quite fun to ride though although Mabie was quite a bit more natural all the way through, i suppose Laggan felt like a series of man made tech bits linked by some track. And the new bit just felt like a mahoosive BMX track !
Anyway good fun and the black was a hoot. I only spent the morning there so mashed round it all quite quickly as i was ‘between’ events.

However if you don’t know what the old red was like you probably won’t know the difference so just do them both?

yeah , if your there its worth doing em both …

start with upper and then do lower as you can do a nice figure of 8 only having to ride up 2/3rds of the fire road instead of all of it …

lindsay at the shop is sound though , what all bike shop owners should be like.