[Closed] Berm Baby Berm at Glentress

Looks fun, but I reckon a bmx would be pretty fast down there...

Rode it Tues and Weds this week,smooth and fast as you like.
First time to Glentress,well worth the 4 hr trip,especially with wall to wall sunshine!

a bmx would be pretty fast down there

Yep - its almost like a skate park!

Looks very like a 'metalled' version of the orange/blue at Laggan.

slainte 😀 rob

"new red run" - that's about as red as General Pinochet.

🙂 Its defo part of the blue.

Very good wee section , tried It for the first time today very quick and great for begineers and Race snakes alike. Well done Andy Wardman.

Is that a wheelchair access path? How smooooooth is that 😕

that looks awesome 😀

Is that a wheelchair access path? How smooooooth is that

yes, but it is rated blue

Looks like a great little section.

No brakes required, fantastic little section of trail. No doubt it'll be full of braking bumps in a few weeks though.

First time visit to GT for me over the holiday week just gone, surprised how ''smooth'' everything was. The 'Bitch' was more like it for me, but only lasted a few secs or a min or two. Fun but waay over rated imo. Inners was a bit better.

They're all fairly much a muchness with the Welsh centres from my experience. Probably won't go again, and unlikely to visit a trail centre more than once a year - there is very good riding just on my doorstep I've concluded.

woodsman - there is plenty that is not smooth. In some ways GT is a victim of its own success - traffic is so high that trails have to be armoured to a high standard to prevent them just disappearing in a few weeks. Its cyclical - trails degrade and then are resurfaced but there is plenty of rough / technical bits if you want them.

I know that TJ, I bet there is some lovely secret/locals' stuff. Was fun 🙂

even some of the waymarked stuff. i don't visit it very often but I do think its a fantastic facility.

Was fun 🙂

thats the key thing of course

if you are going to build a trail like that, why not make it a dual slalom ?

Klunk - cos its a part of the blue route

it doesn't have to be a higher grade, even duals can be ridden solo...
it would add a nice edge for better riders.

Thats the point - its a section of the blue route Not intended for better riders to race down. there is red and black routes parallel to it (the freeride bits)

does it have a sign at the top , beginners only ?

Woodsman there is as TJ says lots of non signed un smooth stuff 😉
like Brown Trout etc..

We rode Berm baby Berm twice yesterday...its ace, nice wee trail, freewheel and pump or pedal and brake,take your choice its fun...
if you don`t like flowy stuff like this guess you need to take up golf or gardening or something... 🙂

Well said 'Coastie' , cant believe how much people moan on here. Its smooth because its a Blue run and built on the old Fire road down to the Buzzards nest so Its a welcome new addition to the already great Blue route. Some people are never happy.

The Blue routes at Glentress are superb. Really well constructed so that anyone can bimble down it and enjoy it but more experienced riders can take it really fast and still find it a challenge.

It's also a brand new trail - give it a few weeks or months and it'll bed it, maybe roughen up a bit off the main line.

Is that a wheelchair access path? How smooooooth is that

I suspect that it'll wear in a bit, as no doubt thousands of riders will go down it in the next few months. In time undergrowth will start encroaching the bits of the trail that aren't on the ride line so it'll look a bit narrower (but still with some wiggle room if less able riders stray from the line). While it'll never look like it was created by sheep having wandered along its length for centuries it won't stay looking brand new either.

TJ is right, the amount of effort required to get Glentress's trails so they're capable of withstanding the the amount of use they see is immense. Yet many people on here seem incapable of realising that they do wear and change. When the cartwheel on Magic Mushroom got resurfaced a couple of years ago some people reacted like the sky had fallen, that its roots were gone forever and everything was ruined evermore. Yet oddly enough, the cartwheel's roots are starting to show through again and even that wheeltrappy little drop on the inside line is starting to reappear.

If you want to get more technical stuff built at Glentress, persuade umpty-thousand more people to ride the black instead of the red each year! The trailbuilding budget gets spent where it'll provide the most benefit, generally that results in it being spent on trails that appeal to the most people and that seems to be mainly fairly smooth, fast and swoopy trails.

That said, I wonder where their rider counters are kept? I wonder if they count how many people ride The Bitch or Double X compared to how many ride the full black? If the black's rider counter is on the Goat Track or Deliverance it may not give the FC the full picture of how many people are riding technical trails at Glentress.

if you don`t like flowy stuff like this guess you need to take up golf or gardening or something

Or you could ride some natural stuff [url= http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/10089098 ]Glen tanar[/url]

😉

ChrisL - actually remembering parts of a section of trail? wow!! 8O!!!
but nothing on GT black is technical

Bruneep - *swoon* 🙄

Bruce - firstly, WTF are you doing back on here? looks like flipping the mount is needed afterall, eh? how bad was it on my chest footage?

I very much doubt I'll ever ride "berm baby berm" again if it develops bad braking bumps all over it. pump tracks with braking bumps and holes are just shit!

Oh i got excited there.Then i viewed it.

The final part of Golspie (closer to home by 3 hours) will do me just fine!

there were woops of elight coming from my 3yr old on the back of my bike at the weekend, so someone enjoyed it at least

Thing is, compared to the amount of natural trails in the UK, the amount of blue type swoopy stuff is pretty minimal. So those who like natural can get out and enjoy that, and people who love this kind of swoopy bermy stuff can enjoy it no probs yeah? What's the problem? 🙂

I forgot to say great little video - shows the trail well.

LOL at the lines on the trail, proving the skill of the riders 😀

ChrisL - Member
the amount of effort required to get Glentress's trails so they're capable of withstanding the the amount of use they see is immense.

Really? Any figures?

I ride red usually but think the blue at GT is brilliant. OK, so not so technical but the smooth fast flowing nature of the trail is a delight. The final descent with optional red feature is awesome and a great place to learn - presumably precisely how/why it was designed like this. Very well done to the builders. If you want something harder just do Spooky Wood, or try your luck on Cadon down the road. Horses for courses and GT has them all.

This looks great

sadly at Coed y Brenin we missed the new blue being opened by a few days

both trails look bermalishus. A word my kids have banned me from using...

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Really? Any figures?

Nope, just my personal experience as a volunteer trailfairy. 🙂 The trails I've worked on always seem to swallow far more hard core than I'd expect and despite them being whacked very thoroughly it doesn't seem to take long for them to start wearing in and in places getting damaged.

Actually, thinking back, about 6 years ago I recall Pete Laing mentioning that originally about £5/metre was spent on the old Spooky Wood trail at Glentress. Newer trails like those at Kirroughtree had 3-4 times that amount spent on them as experience had shown by that point that spending less on the trails had a critical affect on the amount of maintenance they required. Since then vistor numbers at Glentress have continued to increase so it's quite possible that even more is being spent per metre of trail when they're built in order to keep them serviceable for longer.

(Note that I am trying to remember a casual conversation from 6 years ago here so I may have to the figures wrong but I think they're in the right ballpark.)

Had a great day at Glentress yesterday, my 2yr old had a ball on his balance bike at the skills loop, as did my 11yr old. Loads of family groups having fun. Great to see.
Rode with the eldest down the elctric blue and then onto the admiral, thoroughly enjoyable wizz down from the buzzards nest, even on a 7in travel bike 'cos its the only one I have.

Does ampthill's pic look...well.."wrong" to anyone else?

Looks like a tarmac path in the countryside to me.

No offence, like.

Not everybody likes the same thing shocker. What next? Not exactly my cup of tea but it beats riding on the road and my seven and three year olds enjoyed it. Sister enjoyed it too, might see more of this kinda thing at other locations in the Borders 😉

Don't forget that Glentrool has an absolute cracker of a blue descent - most people seem to forget this bit of singletrack when discussing the Stanes.

Swoopy has its place on a trail as much as any other 'feature' surely? I certainly wouldn't stop and divert around it! Let's not forget, it's a man made trail after all...mmm, scalextric! I'd love a go on it.

I like it, it's hugely succesful- does exactly what it's supposed to. The tabletops are a bit pointless, they've got no lips at all so getting any air is basically a case of heroic bunnyhopping but the berms are fab, big and swoopy but not just a case of following them round, they need a bit of effort to link them up.

As for smoothness, it's brand new so of course it's smooth 😕 Sadly it won't stay that way for long.

Good riders will get out of it what they put in. Glentress is becoming a bit of a masterclass in building blue trails, they're all straightforward enough that a complete novice could roll down them, but they're still good fun for a more experienced rider once they add more speed.

And for anyone who doesn't like it- well, if you don't like manmade trails with berms then riding at the home of manmade trails with berms and doing a feature called Berm Baby Berm is probably incredibly stupid really.

Klunk - Member

does it have a sign at the top , beginners only ?

You get a genuine 🙄 for that one, daftest comment in a thread of daft comments.