im thinking of going up for a few days from south wales is it really worth a 12 hr drive??
the nevis red looks really good and would love to do the dh there but what the xc traill like??

cheers

chris

gives an idea

XC trail is ok, well worth a ride if your there, not as good as the 7 Staines courses in my opinion. You would be close to Laggan though, which is brilliant.

One of my favourite places to ride…

The red’s mint… If you had to ride to the top I’d mark it down for wasting altitude but since you don’t, it gets 2 thumbs up, I love it. Also if you’re the sort of rider that likes to improve and practice, well, you could do 10 runs in a day so you’ll never have a better chance to work on details of your riding.

Do be aware it’s difficult and high-price-of-failure, for a red. I was up just before the official opening and the word of mouth wasn’t out, as a result the mountain was covered in blood-streaked riders on Hardrocks. If there’s a harder red in the country I’d be pretty surprised, but there’s a hell of a lot of easier blacks. It’s had some of the rough edges taken off since then but it’s still no picnic.

The downhill’s less horrifying than you’d expect, if you’re having fun on the red then you might want to give it a crack. You can do it without ever once having both wheels off the ground, if you’re sufficiently cowardly, and it’s a lot of fun.

They’ve just changed some sections of the descent, and they’ve added trail to the red since I was last there, but it used to be that you could cut from the red onto the downhill, just after the wallride, and the ride down through the woods is ace- wasted on the downhill boys, they barely touch the ground through there but on a little bike you need to work it.

Last word on the uplift trails- don’t waste your day, they open late and close early so get there for the start, don’t stand about gabbing, don’t eat in the car park then moan about the wait for the lift- keep moving, eat and drink in the lift, get your money’s worth.

OTOH the waymarked 10 Under the Ben route is absolutely crap, a total waste of time- actually has much more fireroad than the race route and misses out most of the fun bits! There’s good riding on it but don’t do the route, just read the map and get creative. You can do the first singletrack section as far as the auction mart then ride back on the road, and you can build Nessie into an extended red route. Don’t judge the race by this, not the same thing at all.

I really like the world cup red- it’s kind of hard work for the reward but it has some lovely trail. I think it’s Haggis Trap that I always remember, it feels properly primeval and ripped out of the ground. But, it does have to be ridden flat out or it’s just dull.

Ah, that turned into a bit of an essay. Turns out I quite like it!

hahaha cheers northwind a good read tho

Ahh, now I know. I wish Northwind had told me all this 3 weeks ago! I was up there for the SSDT & did the (supposedly marked) 10 Under the Ben. It was shite. I didn’t even know wether it was the red route or not since the signs were very misleading/dubious, all very confusing & misleading! For duncybrain here anyway. 🙄

OTOH the waymarked 10 Under the Ben route is absolutely crap, a total waste of time- actually has much more fireroad than the race route and misses out most of the fun bits!

Agreed, waste of time really.

There is plenty of proper mountain biking in the area, apparently.

😈 🙄 😈

(all subsequent posts shall be ignored as they miss a valid point)

“the signs were very misleading/dubious”

That’s a good point, the signing is bloomin awful at nevis range. The map they sell’s not very good either but still, buy it or regret it as sooner or later you’ll come across something brilliant like a fork in the trail with no signs, or a red route sign pointing in 2 different directions.

The 10UTB route is based on the original 2005 course isn’t it? The best stuff at 10UTBs has been the handcut stuff that can’t be waymarked/mapped.

Best fun course I’ve ridden in Leanachan was the 2009 SXC Champs course.

Wouldn’t personally drive for 12hrs just to ride purpose built trail but appreciate that floats a lot of folks boats… and the DH is the WC course after all. But as Waderider points out we have some ‘natural stuff’ up here that aint too shabby 😉

And to think I was expecting a load of a abuse from my previous post, This place is slippy. What about a wee personal insult, no?

I did the nevis loop when i was up there 72km round the base of ben nevis, awesome ride is all i can say starts at the car park in fort william, a very natural ride and you are out there all alone for about 75% of the ride so take plenty of food and supplies!!

Red Route is also amazing route, ive can’t think of any man made trail that comes close, but saying that if someone said a day at nevis or a day at laggan, i would take laggan every time.

@Northwind

totally agree with regards the uplift trails. The Red route and Red at a normal trail centre are miles different. I’m one of the few that really likes the complexity of the red route – although, you really need to ride it with body armour, full face and either; plenty of skill or a big bike. The blood stained folks on hardrocks usually caused by trying to ride off the drop offs on the red route. yump all of them and you’ll be fine.

last season the orange route was probably a bit easier to ride than the red because there are lots of wimp-lines round some of the harder bits and you tend to have options around some of the jumps. If you are riding it fast – you *WILL* have to be prepared to leave the ground for extended periods of time!!!

don’t waste time in the carpark – use the gondola as your re-fuelling/drink/rest time.

the red route takes twice as long to descend as the orange route – so if it’s really busy, I stick to the red route for a bit. It always gets quieter in the afternoon as bikes and bodies are trashed.

oh, and remember that glencoe are improving their mountain biking uplift facilities – if you are more of a hill rider (but want a 1200ft helping hand) then glencoe’s the place – lots of routes to explore on the way down – not limited to their pretty tough DH course.

Interesting about Glencoe – are the other tracks marked or on maps or anything? Or is it relatively easy just to explore?

rapiddescent – out of interest where are the drops you refer to on the red, I did it last year and didnt notice anything that couldnt be rolled? we also went with a mate on a hardrock, and that was what made him decide to change bikes to an enduro. He did fine on his hardrock though, no real issues.

I’d echo what everyone else has said, its a very hard red, far harder than a lot of blacks, and you could really do yourself an injury. Its the only place I’ve ridden where I felt I should have been wearing some sort of body armour.

I didnt enjoy it much to be honest, the lower section once you get into the trees is good fun though .

We were up there last weekend and it’s a bloody awesome place. Didn;t do the red route as I was on me big bike but I would say the DH track is fine for anyone of a reasonable standard on a trail bike, you just won;t be going so fast. It’s just a really good fun track and the uplift is brilliant.

Did Glencoe DH the day after and it’s a different kettle of fish, very techy especially in the wet and mud. Still good fun but a lot more challenging to do it with any kind of style.

The guys I was with did a XC ride the day after that which they all absolutely raved about. Think they did the devils staircase and ciran path which was apparently better than the DH tracks of the previous two days. Unfortunately I buggered my leg cartwheeling down Glencoe on my head the day before and didn’t go on that ride.

We didn’t see any routes off Glencoe other than the DH track? Which is mental by the way, if you’re not a very competent ride, you’ll be pushing down at least half of it. Our group were all decent riders, but less than half of us rode down Scott Laughland’s Corner of Massive Death (See youtube for the video)

You can’t ride the World Cup course at FW and keep both wheels on the ground either, there are at least two drops with no chicken runs that aren’t rollable and a few more that would be hit and miss and much better to launch off. They’re all keep your bike straight and you’ll be fine type drops though.

In answer to your question about the XC trails, there are some excellent lines in the forest, and some really decent loops to be had but just following the waymarks results in a seriously mediocre ride. If you’re in the area and just want a fuss-free trail centre XC blast then the drive to Laggan is worth it IMO.

The red downhill is very tough for a red, so just take it easy on the first time down to get a measure of it. Quite a few of the scarier bits fall in the ‘not as bad as it looks from the top’ category.

@julians

there is a dashed red paint line that shows riders where they can attempt to roll some of the wee dropoffs on the red route (none of which are more than 2ft) but you would have to be a pretty confident rider to be able to hit them dead on each time. Even my reasonably experienced pal got it wrong and went over the bars injuring his ankle.

Probably the hardest bit of the red route is just before the woods – once you get into the habit of jumping off each decking to decking section or off the rocks then you’ll be fine.

I rode my bullit – on the basis that my orange 5 wasn’t really “big” enough. Even a SC bullit isn’t really big enough if you want to hit the orange route hard – but it’s OK for my skill level.

@glencoe questions

Since glencoe was bought last year – there has been a massive push to improve their mountain biking resources. Since it is scotland, you can ride where ever you want to – although please take into account weather conditions (there is snow there today)

I know that there is a trail over the glades from the top of the access chair and it winds down the long way down to car park. I think the macavalanche used some of this route so it should be pretty bedded in.

potentially you could just find your own lines way over to the SW and then back round. Ask one of the folks there, or one their face book page – the Glencoe resort people are pretty active on facebook.

I rode it on my 100mm full bouncer lol now at being daft at trying the route, but would love to go back up and do it again on a proper bike

The witches trail is good IMO, rode it loads, a bit of bruiser going up, but the downs are good…

I also did the puggy line and other trails on that route, but that was with a local group of riders, these guys; http://www.whwheelers.org/

Laggan is def worth the extra distance…

I was there with Northwind last year and I can’t recall any problem drops on the lift assisted red. I vaguely think there were some very little drops on the boardwalk section at the top but anything droppish below them I think I treated as rock steps.

Northwind and I rode the red with a couple of other riders. 3 of us were on 140mm-ish travel full suspension bikes but the other one was on a Merlin Malt 4 hardtail with a long stem and 110mm travel forks. I don’t think that Northwind was suggesting you couldn’t ride it on an Hardrock rather that it is a common bike choice amongst less experienced riders and the grading of the trail had misled people into thinking it was more within their ability range than it was.

I really like the big of singletrack between the main car park and the auction mart car park but except for it I can’t think of much on the waymarked 10UtB that’s worth bothering with. The World Champs course is waymarked as the Witch’s Trail though, and does have some entertaining stuff on it.

Mounty 73 – good to hear some-else has done the puggy line, that’s a wee secret day out in Lochaber. I did it on my ‘crosser a few years ago with walking boots for hiking up and down the ravines 😆

(I entertained the idea I might have been the only person in the world who has done it 🙄 )

For Glencoe google “glencoe weasel” it’s very hard to find out anything about their lift-XC stuff but that should get you some hits.

apiddescent

last season the orange route was probably a bit easier to ride than the red because there are lots of wimp-lines round some of the harder bits and you tend to have options around some of the jumps.

Yep quite a lot of massive chicken lines, should anyone want to “ride” the downhill just to say they did, without actually riding it 😉 But the main lines still aren’t that hard.

paulrockliffe – Member

You can’t ride the World Cup course at FW and keep both wheels on the ground either, there are at least two drops with no chicken runs that aren’t rollable

I guess you’re talking about the full world cup course with the world cup woods in? That’s always been closed off on the public days when I’ve ridden there. On the public route there’s nothing that couldn’t be rolled, though the optional log box jump thing on the motorway is a stupid thing to try and roll, so easy to drop but hard to roll.

ChrisL

I don’t think that Northwind was suggesting you couldn’t ride it on an Hardrock rather that it is a common bike choice amongst less experienced riders and the grading of the trail had misled people into thinking it was more within their ability range than it was.

Ah- I specifically mentioned hardrocks because that was what Off Beat were hiring out. Speaking to some of the walking wounded, the responses were “We’d done the other red route” “I’ve done some blacks in England” and the like, all ending with “so we thought it’d be fine”. Nothing to do with the bikes really, it was just obvious that they were hires.

I was on my Soul that first time, definately no need for a big bike, hope I didn’t put anyone off! It’s a very cool trail in that it rides totally differently on different bikes, on the Soul I was picking lines with care, really working the trail, thinking my way down it… On the Hemlock it was much more attacking with reckless abandon. I’d like to do it on my rigid…