Having been a longstanding defender of Ae I’m now complelled to withdraw this support following what I can only describe as a catastrophic visit. Here is a list of the suffering visited upon me by this evil bewitched satan of trail centre, yesterday.
1. Loose cassette (OK this was my fault, but a sign of things to come)
2. Puncture on the omega man, came up short on one of the doubles heard the clang of impending doom but following some frenetic pumping and spinning got it to seal. The surface is really chopped up and basically consists of a matrix of pointy rocks all ideally proportioned and angled to cause puntures in tubeless tyres

3. Lost chainring bolt – again not logically attributable as Aes fault but I’m not about let the truth get in the way of my whinging and the evil pixies did it.
4. Started loosing air from puncture again on the Shredder bottom section (which is the best bit) so had to mince down it
5. Pumped up and resealed rear to head down bottom of omega man set off with gusto and the third drop hit a rock and punctured near the bead on the front, got a tube in went back to the top
6. As above but with the rear, having used the tube on the front I had to get to work with the liquorice sticks and got it somewhere near, eventually got it looking something like only for tyre to continue defalting after much head scratching and swearing found a second near bead puncture at about 30 degrees to the first.
Went back to top to start again got almost to the tree line, last drop before the tabletops and boooosh, big gash in the centre of the tread, I ‘may’ have screamed a prophanic invocation at this point. Last liquorice stick, popped it in the tyre but went too far and dropped it inside the tyre. MUtha funker! Luckily there was a stub poking uncut from one of the other punctures so used that but it was no good, wouldnt hold. All these reapirs on the bottom section had taken close to an hour and the biters were on the move so had to ignominiously roll down the push up path and back to the car. Where I discovered the bastard tyre had SEALED and was HOLDING AIR!!!!!!!! And me strava only recorded the middle bit of the ride – GAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

https://www.strava.com/activities/580338262

on the plus side the bakewell flapjack was lush.

I just read that as a stream of human error with a couple of punctures thrown in.

Adding MORE pressure to a puncture that’s struggling to seal?

Sorry.

Shoulda just gone down the Clyde again instead 😀

AMen brother. It’s my default on the way home from Glasgow sneaky hour blast. Last night it went BAD.

I remember the day when “everyone” complained it was too smooth, “like a motorway”
Then after a bit of bad weather some bits became ” too rough” Those bits were “repaired”
It was back to being ” like a motorway/sanitised” again 🙄
Now with little or no maintenance, loads of enduros, the waether(again)the trail is eroding into something close to a natural trail ie…..Rough again 😆
Can only please some of the people some of the time……… 😉

Worst trail centre in the country. As in the whole of the UK, and most of the ones in Wales are dross.

Trekster the lakes are my local trails do I’ve no trouble riding rocky stuff. Think its more the expectation of riding irail centre style I.e. fast and smooth. I still quite like it really but the last descent is pretty blown out. Need to use chunkier tyres maybe.

Never really enjoyed the place myself tbh, although last visit we took in some off piste stuff which saved the day

Worst trail centre in the country. As in the whole of the UK, and most of the ones in Wales are dross.

Mmmm have you been to Carron valley? 😕

Carron Valley has a berm that is loads of fun. Ae has no redeeming features on the XC trails.

What about Newcastlton, that’s the worst trail centre on the planet never mind the UK!!!

Not sure why Ae gets so much bad press, I enjoyed it. Although I was affected by ‘the curse’ as I snapped my frame on my only visit there.

Ae is one of my locals and I really like the red loop, yeah it’s getting a bit cut up here and there, but hey, ideal for peeps and their enduro mince tanks.

Unlcuky with the punctures. A bit harsh blaming the trail center tho.

munrobiker – Member

Ae has no redeeming features on the XC trails.

I hate Ae XC but this is unfair, it does have some redeeming features.

mark88 – Member
Not sure why Ae gets so much bad press…

Just guessing really…

(From memory) there seemed more than a few sections which looked like they should be really fun; all berms and swoopy corners. But the trail surface (which was quite new) was far rougher than you’d expect for a trail of that nature.

The effort vs fun didn’t seem to add up at all at times, but by and large I still think the red’s alright. I just wish I could say the same thing about the blue, which is a total waste of time.

But the trail surface (which was quite new) was far rougher than you’d expect for a trail of that nature

You want smooth, go for a road ride FFS.

Or a bmx track.

Why should a trail centre be fast and smooth? If it was someone else would moan I am sure.

Being local as well I like it, it’s a tough xc course and is fast and rough in places. So are the lakes !

Can’t remember last time I got puncture there or the lakes either

Agree the blue could be a lot better, one good bit but ride to it is poo – lack of money by then I think.

Ive only been twice but I quite enjoyed it last time I was there. The first time I went I remember the big berms that seemed all washed out almost like they hadn’t been built or finished properly. This was not long after it had been finished. But last time it was better than I remembered. Maybe it’s an advantage of not getting out much but I rarely don’t enjoy a bike ride, bikes are always fun, I even enjoyed bits of Whinlatter.

I bloody love Ae. Great mix of xc and fast fun enduro/dh trails, loads of off piste, great cafe, hell, it’s even got a bike shop. It’s not however for people with an inability for climbing or poorly maintained bikes as you can be a significant distance from the car without mobile signal-that only makes it more special in my book.
I can’t understand the want/need for a trail centre to be a sanitised gravel road as some on here would suggest. The black at GT isn’t getting any more funding as FA people actually do it these days so I imagine it’s a matter of time before people start moaning about that too. Fwiw I love the washed out sections of Ae-the Edge or whatever it’s called is an ace little decent.

Another fan of Ae here ,one of my favourites actually I love the washed out roughness of the trails (it is a mountain bike your on ..yeah?) and the climbs are immense,but I do ride with a few who dislike it with a passion I’m sure there not alone hence why its never overly busy …but that to me makes it even better ,yep great cafe & bike shop and only a 30 min drive away for me

I can’t understand the want/need for a trail centre to be a sanitised gravel road as some on here would suggest.

Yes, that’s exactly what people have said they want.

Nothing to do with roughness for me- and tbh people seem to be going out of their way to misrepresent those comments, which is weird. It’s just that it’s a fairly long and tedious ride with nothing like enough good bits. There’s short sections I really like but they’re too few, and literally far between. I think if you could cut-n-paste trails, you could include every decent section of ae red in a loop of maybe 4-5 miles. But it’s so spread out that I end up almost forgetting the good bits.

I appreciate there’s reasons for that, and that it never really got to realise its original vision but that doesn’t make it better, it just makes it a bit sadder.

Still as a base for other riding it’s really excellent, the dh and offpistes are really first class, and getting better. That’ll keep me coming back

The Lakes are your local trails and you’re bothering with a ‘trail centre’?
You’re doing it wrong man. 🙂

Although I do quite like a trail centre myself. The last time I visited any of the 7 Stanes must have been 10 year ago so have no idea how things have changed.
I think it might have been Ae on my last visit. Much of it was closed.

NW and ahwiles get it. To paraphrase viz the trails says go but the rocks say no Had a conti TK protection on the front and barro tnt on the back both 30psi ish. Just an oaf I guess.

Member

I can’t understand the want/need for a trail centre to be a sanitised gravel road as some on here would suggest.
Yes, that’s exactly what people have said they want.
This.
I think a lot of people on here who “hate” trail centres seem to misunderstand the purpose of a trail centre, in the case of 7Stanes and Coed y Brenin before that it was to regenerate areas by attracting visitors. In the case of the Stanes it was after the disastrous Foot and Mouth epidemic which closed down D&G, the Borders and Lakes for many months.
The trails were as others are to a “standard” the idea being if you travel from one trail to another then you “should” expect to ride a green/blue/red trail of a similar standard. The trails were funded by a few UK organisations and an original £2mil Euro grant for the first phase and a few more £s on 2 other applications.
Before all this we had a short trail in Mabie, nothing else. Ae was the last to be built but lost 3mths and subsequent resource and was as has been eluded to by Northwind quickly and poorly thrown together 🙄 It could and should have been much better but alas finance dictated its fate as is happening now to the other trails.
However being a regular as is willv, potsathome and a few others on here we can assure the “haterz” that the car park is busy most weekends, Tues night rides are well supported and many, many visitors go away happy 😆
I’ve been around here for some time and this debate keeps popping up a few times per year……..
When speaking to visitors I sometimes ask if they have revised the trail by coming on here, many have never heard of the site. Many of the people I ride with never visit this site or others, we just go and ride, make up our own minds about a trail and never feel the need to come on here or wherever to whinge.
As for my biking background I started riding Mabie on my “all mountain” bike a long time ago. Then we got the maps out and explored the local hills, something I still do. Then we found out about the Lakes via MBUK 😆 Minch Moor as Inners was back then was a regular trip as was the original GT route UP the boundary fence trail 🙄
I took MrsT to the opening of the Red Bull trail at Coed y Brenin many moons ago and she couldn’t believe the bikes and kit that people were riding(neither could I!). The same can be applied to today, the kit families turn up with and the explosion of the van culture is unreal.

It’s a sign of auld age……..