I would have thought with either bike you’ll end up with plenty of spare time. You could easily do the black and the red in the same day so I’d say take the full sus if you’re worried about getting beat up but as above, Glentress really isn’t that bumpy.

Personally I’d go on the HT, the jumpy bits at glentress are more fun on a hardtail and not big enough for a full suss.

Totally agree with Chris. Take which ever you enoy riding the most.
You don’t need a FS for any trails anywhere as far as I’m concerned. Sure, I’m not as quick as I would be on a FS on some stuff, but I’ve yet to come back from a ride thinking “that would have been better on a full bouncer”.
Arguably the FS might save you a bit of energy for day 2. Can also recommend GT black one day and then Inners the next.

Here here for Inners as well. Do GT red then Innerleithen Red and marvel at how much polarity there can be between two trails of the same grade 5 miles apart!

take both and ride each trail on both then come back and tell us all what you thought 😀 Have fun!

ht in my opinion too.
(from a local type)

but then i prefer riding a ht everywhere.

found i got bored with a big bouncy bike…

Either one. Take the one you like best. Personally i’d go hardtail but it’s pure personal preference. I just can’t be bothered hauling a couple of extra kilos up to the top of the hill

We were having this very discussion just a month or so ago when I was in Spain for a weeks biking.
Mate and I hired these for the week, 6days riding, 4/5hrs/day;

The discussion centered around how much fun we were having on a relatively cheap hardtail with disc brakes and fork with no adjustment at all.

We usually ride, mate;Cove Handjob, Kona Dawg, Orange 224.
Me Kona Dawg Primo and Bontrager with 85mm Marz(deceased :cry:!!)
We ride Stanes/Lakes/Howgills and various other unknown places.

There is no right/wrong bike for a Stanes trail. My workmates started out on some very, very old “bikes” made by Raliegh, Giant and Peugeot, all rigid hardtails with canti brakes.

A bike is a bike just ride whatever takes your fancy on the day.

I am having the dilemma of whether to replace the Bonty with a new steel ht or send her for a repair estimate.

Current thoughts are along the lines of Genesis or P7. Just need work to settle down before I commit tho 🙁

If you could take both and I could join you can I have a go on the Pace pls 😉