We're heading up to Scotland in a few weeks, and are looking at doing an uplift day at inners on the Saturday.
A few guys have DH bikes and will be riding the DH trails, but for those of us who are on [s]trail [/s] Enduro bikes and aren't full on dowhillers are there enough 'trails' to make the uplift day worth it?
I've only ever ridden the red trail at inners so don't know what else is there.
Cheers for any help.
Yeah, definitely- as long as you're up for a bit of challenge. The downhill trails all go fine on a normal bike (I've ridden a good chunk of them on a rigid carrera and a fatbike), and you can access most of the enduro trails too. Though that does require you to move pretty quick for some of them, if you don't want to miss the bus- they take longer to get down. You can keep the longer diversions for the last and last-before-lunch runs.
It'll reward some research beforehand though to decide what you want to do and find where things are.
You can't really access much of the red route usefully, which is a bit of a shame- the 2 don't link up very well. Just the last descent really (you could probably do razor rock too but that'd be a fairly poor use of the lift)
I've rode Inners on my 160mm Reign on the uplift and was fine,pretty sure there was a guy on a HT too
won't have any issue
As above you will be fine.
The first 2 DH runs (can't remember their names) along the fire road from the drop off point will take you to the top of Caddon Bank
Yep big crowd of us, all on trail/AM bikes, did an uplift day at end of Feb. We had a fantastic time, had no trouble getting back down for the uplifts either. I was really surprised by how rideable most of the downhill trails are on a 'normal' bike but if you know the off piste stuff it's even better. Go for it.
I guess it depends what you are after and how good a rider you are.
It's nothing like the groomed trails of Bike Park Wales.
I could only ride two trails, found everything else too loose and steep.
I still had fun though.
Was on a 140mm trail bike and I'm not that good or brave!
I probably wouldn't use the uplift again but glad I went the once so yeah you should go for it. Super nice guy who runs it too 🙂
Cheers for the advice, going to fine it a go. Is trail forks / strava the best place to research the trails ?
If it's a decent size group I would book now to avoid disappointment. It's a 33 person uplift and is usually full
tbh It's all do-able on a FS trail bike, in fact we've been down pretty much all of them while night-riding on HT's 🙂
Did most of the dh on a 140mm hardtail. Wasnt fast but i am still alive. Just do it!
Booking made, time to do a bit of research on the trails. Any pointers other than strava and trail forks.
dvatcmark - MemberBooking made, time to do a bit of research on the trails. Any pointers other than strava and trail forks.
If your on the uplift just follow someone else 😀
Or ask, there will be some regulars on it who can direct based on your ability and current ground conditions (i.e. if its wet avoid x and y).
The 4 main DH runs are all perfectly doable on a trail bike (Make or Break, Cresta, Gold Run, Matador)
Where it gets tricky is where the 5 million unofficial trails criss-cross each other. There's nothing proper mental on the DH side (compared to elsewhere at Inners and the rest of the valley). Only bits I don't get down well are Pete Williams, Bart's Trail and the very bottom of Gold which is pretty steep