Thinking about entering the Innerleithen round in August as I need a physical challenge to aim at and excuse to ride my mountain bike more. I’m pretty fit, ride a bike most days and happy doing hilly 50 milers on the road bike. How hard will it be? Not looking to ‘race’ per se but just complete the thing.

‘Physical’ is not what you need to focus on, the trails they use can be (and generally are) properly steep and techy. Most of them are pretty hard to ride, never mind race on.

Best bet would be to go there and ride some of them, and then make a call.

Indeed, what nobeer said, if you are road fit then the distance won’t be a worry, it’s whether you can avoid bouncing down the hill on your face or not 😆

As already said above, take a trip to the tweed valley and have a go at some of the trails which have previously been used.

it’s whether you can avoid bouncing down the hill on your face or not

I still largely fail to avoid that during the Tweedlove events!! 🙂

Thanks for the feedback. I live in Edinburgh so I’ve ridden the Tweed a bit, though I’ve never done the golf course side of Innerleithen. Pretty comfortable on the Glentress black downhill bits if that’s any guide. I’m sure I will end up off the bike a bit!

It’s a couple of levels up from GT black tbh mate. As long as you don’t care where you finish, and just enjoy the riding, then go for it.

You’ve got a while to practice. Focus on technical trail riding, not fitness.

First port of call I’d suggest would be off piste at Glentress. So Brown Trout, Hush Hush, Mud and Roots – have a look at Trailforks. There’s a fair few more.

These trails have technical features similar to the ones you’ll find at Inners/Golfy, but they’re less sustained. Get some experience on those, then head down the valley.

King of the hill is the week after and might be slightly easier technically wise but still a big weekend of riding if you do the whole loop on the Saturday.
Ses also has a light category which leaves out a stage so is a bit easier

How hard will it be?

Hard

It’s advanced a lot in the last couple of years. I’d say each SES round is significantly harder than the Tweedlove stuff nowadays with the exception of maybe the International.

As above it’s significantly more advanced than the likes of GT black or any trail centre stuff to be honest.

I’m crap and I can get round, though I’ve dropped to the short course category this year for various reasons, but it has definitely advanced a lot in terms of skill level required since the 1st year in 2014

Inners from a couple of years ago

That’s good advice especially from ehrob. If you want a bit of a guide I’m sure you could find someone too.

Fitness isn’t quite that simple, road fit isn’t the same- it’s a good base but sustained technical descending needs a different sort of fitness, and the timed stages can be ridiculously physical, the mix of long slow liaisons and shorter, flat out stages is an interesting change.

TBH the SES is fairly full on. I wouldn’t want to put you off, it’s just not an obvious first enduro. Something like a muckmedden event would be a gentler introduction, or even some of the tweedlove ones.

(having said that, I was in at the deep end with one of the first inners enduros, way out of my depth because nobody really knew wtf an enduro was back then… and that whole “barely surviving” thing was a huge part of what made it awesome and got me addicted. So maybe not!)

ok, thanks for all the advice. I’m well up for a bit of a challenge and if the ‘training’ helps me push my riding in technical ability ways that’s all good too. But maybe tweedlove is a better shout, didn’t realise there was one on later in the year. Basically thought of the SES as it’s local and far enough in the future for me to build my schedule around.

Hmm, my advice wasn’t the best- the Tweedlove Enjoyro is probably pitched too low for you, and the Fair City Enduro which would be a superb first enduro, is in October 😆

Decent tyres and a mudguard lol

Like it’s already been said the trails used are steep and techy. Probably best to visit before hand and have a go at the trails.

It’s like normal Enduro you just pronounce it slightly different.

Instead of the normal “En – jur – Ohhhhhhh” there is more of a “En – Jewer – Oh” you then obviously cap your sentence with Rad / Dude etc as you normally would whilst typically moving the hands in some slightly jaunty fashion (whilst also wearing safety pads of course)

Best thing to do is look on Trailforks for the off-piste stuff (GT, Inners, Golfie, Caremuir and Thornie) and then just come down and ride them.

The valley is drying nicely, yesterday evening we were at Thornilee and the only muddy bit was the bottom fireroad.

http://www.highlandperthshirecycling.co.uk/events/enduro

I did the first one, my one and only enduro. Beware what the organisers consider trails suitable for “all abilities” !!!!!!

I ride some of my local Enduro trails @Ae but would never consider entering any event

Right, entered the King of the Hill, bring it on!

Your road fitness will definitely help you get round a big weekend out, many enduorists struggle with that, but in terms of fitness it’s my arms and hands that usually let me down in an enduro, so get used to say several x 10 or more minutes of rough technical descents at your race speed per day. I did an SES at Inners a couple of years ago and had to stop mid run to shake my hands about as I genuinely could no longer hold onto the bars. It was March though and my only upper body training over winter was lifting beer into my face.

My advice would be to ride Golfie and Inners DH trails as much as you can and in all weathers. You will probably want to be on flats too if you’re not already. Try out some different tyres, Maxxis Shorty are a good front tyre choice for the valley trails. The main thing though is to have fun 🙂

If you have ridden golfie and inners enough then most of the enduros are pretty chill if you want them to be.

You should be fine if you ride a load of Golfie and off piste inners/inners DH for a summer.

Based on today, High Rollers would be fine on Inners off-piste.

I found Hush Hush and Mud and Roots yesterday. Mud and Roots was pretty ok, Hush Hush was a bit of a challenge in parts. I guess it would be even more hectic in the wet. At least I know what I am up against now!

Those trails are step 1 remember:

” ehrob – Member

You’ve got a while to practice. Focus on technical trail riding, not fitness.

First port of call I’d suggest would be off piste at Glentress. So Brown Trout, Hush Hush, Mud and Roots – have a look at Trailforks. There’s a fair few more.

These trails have technical features similar to the ones you’ll find at Inners/Golfy, but they’re less sustained. Get some experience on those, then head down the valley. “

Get yerself further down the valley at some point when you’re comfortable with the GT stuff

I did it, and I didn’t die! Came very low down the pack and really struggled with stages 1 & 2 but the rest were good. The traquair two were wicked. Stoked to have made it round despite patently unsuitable tyres and a distinct lack of skill for and distaste of the really tech stuff. Give me fast and open every time? Now, what bike for more enduros??