Hi folks
I’m going to be travelling back home to Glasgow from Birmingham soon and want to stop off on the way home for some biking.

Can any of you recommend me a decent trail centre? We mostly ride reds and blacks currently and like technical stuff.

Appreciate your help.

Julzm

Gisburn

Hi Russell96
Good shout but it’s actually the only trail centre in England that we’ve already done…..

Whinlatter?

Bregante that was my first thought. What’s it like?

I like Lee Quarry.

Drumlanrig might be the closest to the motorway but pretty close to Glasgow.

Cannock of course, bout 25 mins from Junc 11 M6

Whinlatter is only 30min or so from the M6. Its a red trail – not hugely technical but I like it. Its two loops on either side of the valley, with mostly singletrack climbs up and some good fast descents with lots of fun. Stunning views of the weathers ok. The blue is well, well worth a go as well, its just a lot of fun.

Ae forest is 15mins off the m74 and has a nice cafe, it would certainly get my vote over drumlanrig and whinlatter. That’s not to say it’s better than those places, just handier.
Edit: and it’s probably better 😉

I often stop at Drumlanrig on my way south from Glasgow. Ae’s easier and quicker to get to but I don’t like it. Mabie or Dalbeattie don’t seem to add that much to the journey and are both fun.

Heading further south Gisburn would add a couple of hours onto the journey though if you like rocky riding then Lee quarry is worth a visit and about an hours round trip from the M6

I’ve done all the following on similar trips backwards and forwards with work –
Cannock Chase
Gisburn
Lee/Cragg quarry’s
Whinlatter
Mabie
Ae
Drumlanrig
Cathkin Brae (Glasgow commonwealth track)

My pick out of that would be Drumlanrig, Mabie or Whinlatter

Hi folks
Many thanks for your suggestions. We do all the Scottish centres regularly especially those in D&G. However lee quarry or whinlatter are probably our short list so I’ll have a look at both of those.

Techy stuff is our preference with minimal forest road, so looking for that really.
Thanks again for the help.

Lee quarry is techy – more in some places than others. It is quite short though…

Lateral thinking:

The entire Lake District?
The Howgills are about as convenient as you can get off the M6.

Borrowdale bash. 20 minutes off the M6 and a country mile better than any trail centres mentioned above.

Lee quarry certainly doesn’t have any forest road and bits of the black and a couple of the red climbs are fairly techy. The only bits of trail that could be likened to fire roads are climbs. It’s not long but that just means you can do a few loops and it’s fairly obvious and easy to miss out sections you don’t enjoy other than the main climb.

Is the black north shore still standing at Newcastleton? I know the reds not that technical but its not terrible, just short