You’re lucky you get a bike…

Bloody heretics

It’s fair to say they are all bland, gravel paths with no view or character
[url=https://flic.kr/p/4AnZfa]McMoab[/url] by Mike Smith 79, on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/6wZsXW]Boulder Run[/url] by Mike Smith 79, on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/6vz4W5]Today I will take over the world[/url] by Mike Smith 79, on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/cEtmk]View from the shelter[/url] by Mike Smith 79, on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/6vzbCb]Sublime Singletrack[/url] by Mike Smith 79, on Flickr
Bonus points if you can name them all

I live just down the road from Afan, – never go there now since it lost its trees – go to Brechfa now and agian but the best bits there are about to be wind farmed and de treed. My cx bike means i ride mostly from the front door now which opens up all sorts of other options.

Pedalling back up Weird Wood is one of my favorite bits of a visit to Stainburn

We just put new stuff in there, hope you enjoy. For those who enjoy Stainburn, next dig on 5th October will be a big effort on rerouting the climb, more switchbacks, get the water off the trail and make it last. Every pair of hands will help, no experience necessary! For insurance reasons you need to be SingletrAction members but that comes with loads of discounts etc.

Ridden all over the world since 1986 on mtbs and I’ve yet to visit a trail centre. This is not because I don’t want to, its just when the opportunity arises to be away from home I want to get out in the big hills away from everything. There are a few I would love to try mind you!

I know a couple of fellow Glasgow based riders who, despite the plethora of superb natural stuff handy at Mugdock and elsewhere, insist on driving an hr to GT or inners every week.

Hey ho its all riding 🙂

I thought riding was riding, whatever? Be it slopping around a field edge, sitting atop a real mountain, or pumping down a specifically shaped track at a trail centre.

Personally I prefer getting ‘out in the countryside’ so ‘natural’ rides are more my cup of tea, but show me a trail centre with views and a sense of remoteness and I’ll love it just as much as a ‘classic’.

unklehomered – Member
Pedalling back up Weird Wood is one of my favorite bits of a visit to Stainburn
We just put new stuff in there, hope you enjoy. For those who enjoy Stainburn

Was there yesterday, liked the new right hand line. The left hand one looked very difficult! I’ll give it a go next time.

Yesterday we done a decent sized loop in the lakes, it was ace.

This morning we went for a blast round Newcastleton, that was ace too.

It’s great being out on natural stuff with flow and techy bits combined with a great view, and it’s nice to hit man made stuff with well placed features and berms. The new(ish) bit at the end of Newcastleton was so good we did it twice!

Tis all riding.

Nipper99 – Member
I live just down the road from Afan, – never go there now since it lost its trees – go to Brechfa now and agian but the best bits there are about to be wind farmed and de treed

Cwmcarn is about to suffer similar thanks to more tree disease. Afan has more wind farm stuff being built I believe also.

In the South East we’ve been lucky that everything has generally been natural… until Swinley got Trail Centred. What was for ages a place you made of what you wanted, explore and make up the route as you liked and people needed to be pointed to the trails, but is now a motorway and impossible to ride at weekends due to traffic. Though it had to happen given the situation there, how busy it was getting, and the amount of people suing the estate crashing on unofficial trails and stuff people were randomly digging.

Not that Swinley was representative of the good stuff in the South East. Thankfully there’s loads more, though the tourist spot of Peaslake in the Surrey Hills is very busy these days and MoD lands are at risk of being closed off. There’s still plenty more though and most is more natural in feel.

show me a trail centre with views and a sense of remoteness

How’s this?

There’s also the knowledge that if you stack it at a trail centre and need help then someone’s going to be along in a couple of minutes (unless you are there midweek at 9pm!) whereas away from TCs you could be there for days before someone comes along so again you have to have the confidence to be self-reliant.

Whooah there mr_ride_beyond_limits and hope someone else will pull me out of it…
It intrigues me reading stories like this, and then hearing statements like yours. An interesting approach to risk and self reliance. 😕

Is this another
“I don’t drink alcohol”
“I don’t drive a car as it’s a pollutant”
“I don’t eat meat”

Type STW thread where everyone has to prove they’re superior than the rest by NOT lowering themselves to do something..

Crazy….

Occasionally but not for ages. Too much good, fairly weatherproof local riding to do. I have some that I really like – Glentress, Inners being my favorites. But most are quite dull.

I don’t like the fact you are always in the forest and cant see much – or that you cant properly scare the pants off yourself like you can on wild or self built stuff. I also don’t think it helps at all in terms of practicing for gravity enduros. Doesn’t even compare.

An interesting approach to risk and self reliance.

Who said anything about self reliance? It’s **** about on your bike ffs, you’re not being some kind of extreme mountain man by riding your boring natural trails.

boring natural trails

You need to explore more – lol

or that you cant properly scare the pants off yourself like you can on wild

Just speed up!

Cheers molgrips
I’ll try my bestest

Whooah there mr_ride_beyond_limits and hope someone else will pull me out of it…
It intrigues me reading stories like this, and then hearing statements like yours. An interesting approach to risk and self reliance.

Ride beyond my limits? Not me – too scared!

I think either I didn’t write what I meant or you misread it. Rescues take a long time: I was at one a few years ago, it was maybe 400 metres from the end of the road, a clear day and in open country. Emergency services were called within 10 minutes. The air ambulance was called straight away as there were no vehicles available. It still took nearly two hours from accident to evacuation. Add in time to get to somewhere with a phone signal or even to somewhere with a phone and you can add several hours – a friend had a climbing accident and it was twelve hours until he was rescued, not pleasant hanging in a harness with a broken femur for that length of time.

Sorry for the slight digression …

Oh, sod it, I’m going to stand up and be counted:

****** I love trail centres – they’ve changed my life!!! *****

I love the way they are designed specifically to put a smile on your face, I love how the ups will always be rewarded with exhilarating downs, I love knowing that the trail design will probably rescue me when I get things wrong, and that I will probably not die of exposure if it doesn’t, I love being able to ride without being attacked by brambles and without having to stop constantly to open gates and check the map, I love the fact that almost all of them are entirely free to use (how lucky are we?), and how the latest pump-track style trails make my kids (and me) very happy, I could go on.

As it happens, I probably ride “natural” trails more, but then they’re cool too.

Oh, and while I’m at it:

***** I love Strava – it’s also changed my life!!! *****

Wow, I feel so much better already. And cheaper than a therapist.

Riding beyond limits in some situations gets you a grazed knee and hip. In others it would get you killed. You have to know the risks of your immediate surroundings.

@dunmail – fair do’s 🙂