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went out for my first ride today in a good long while (my "what bike for 1K" post was getting ahead of myself a bit i think) to help sort my head out a bit. Really enjoyed it, along some paths, a little singletrack, some ups and downs then a long trudge along a soft path into a head wind. Really blew out the cobwebs and not i'm knackered.
Sit down and watch a few videos on here (to the right) and realise i would have been better on a road ride.
So are there any good singletrack loops or good rides (not too many steep climbs, just learning to get back in the saddle) that i should know about in West Lothian other than the obvious Pentlands?
Cheers
There are lots of tracks around Beecraigs. I've only been out there once, but I'm sure there will be some locals with more knowledge.
Beecraigs, or (technically Falkirk) Muiravonside Country Park (accessible from Canal). Avon gorge path can be quite interesting - but not as smooth flowing.
The mtbscotland.net guys go to beecraigs occasionally.
Apologies if mentioning another forum is bad form.
Beecraigs has some nice singletrack - a little difficult to describe as the stretches are all quite short and you need to go back on yourself quite a few times to get the best out of them. Suffers a bit after a lot of rain which is a pity as most of the bad bits would take very little work to improve. Hard to get lost so just go and explore. WLC have recently announced that they intend to lease some of the forest to 'Go Ape' which I cant say I'm over enamoured with given its small size and the current managements rather backward approach to 'accommodating' mtb's (removed all the waymarked signage)
Muiravonside has a really nice singletrack loop (best accessed from the canal as suggested above) and you can link in with the Avon heritage trail which is good in parts and totally sh1t and ill conceived in others. Best continous stretch leads back from the Aqueduct at Muiravonside to Linlithgow Bridge.
Both parks can get quite busy with folk out for a walk so best early a.m or late p.m. Muiravonside same story but also with the added spice of a phantom log placer whos antics get a little tedious. All he or she is succeeding in doing is widening the erosion on the trail as folk go round the obstacles.
You can link both parks with a little imagination, the canal and/ or some road.
Another loop is to head East from Lithgae on the canal and follow the NCN to Abercorn church, through the graveyard and West above the shore to Blackness. There's some nice singletrack from Blackness to Boness along the shore then a bit of a grind by road to Grangemouth, up the back of the ski slope at Polmont then back along the canal
Beecraigs has some fantastic techy stuff but you really need to know it well to get it to flow. Also try some of the stuff over towards livingston ie mid and east calder,almondell,calderwood oakbank etc. these places can all be tied together to give you some lovely long strech your legs out singletrack there.
Some [url= http://tinyurl.com/ct5dfv ]GPS tracks from a (mostly) off-road Central Belt crossing[/url] (Google Maps and Google Earth links at the bottom of the page). Caution - there are a few exploratory detours in those routes that involved walking and thick vegetation.
As the previous poster said, there are lots of wee sections of interesting stuff in West Lothian that can be linked together if you study your OS maps and think creatively.