Got back late last night from a long weekend at Glentress, the first time any of us (including Bushwacked and Keyses2 of these parts, and my GF) had been... We also had the good fortune to meet up with a certain Mr. Sharki of this very forum, as he's up there right now too!
Anyway... What a weekend! OK, I'm sure if you get to ride the trails all the time cos you live next door to them, the shine might begin to wear off, but I've not had such a good time on a bike in a bloody long time quite frankly! And I think it's fair to say that everybody else had an excellent time too. Even my GF, who's not been riding offroad for that long, loved it, and I'm sure when she's a bit more confident at descending would love it even more.
On Friday afternoon we rode the Glentress Blue and the Green, and had a brief messabout in the freeride park. Saturday morning/afternoon we rode Innerleithen Red, followed by Glentress Red Saturday afternoon. And on Sunday, realising we were all too knackered and didn't have enough time to attempt GT Black, went back for another run of GT Red after a bit of a messabout in the freeride park again. Got to say that I loved it all, the Blue has got to be the single most perfect trail for getting newbies hooked to the sport (my GF loved the blue!), GT Red is just incredible, and Inners red was pretty damned amazing once you've got over that absolute complete bastard of a climb that goes on forever!
Here's a pic of me nearly bottoming out my suspension off the first drop of Spooky Woods (later realised my suspension was a bit soft, so pumped it up a bit more!), having fun... Got some more photos to come once I've got my camera back off the GF (left it in her handbag, ooops!).
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Oh, and cheers to those who convinced me to take my mid travel full sus bike, I'd DEFINITELY have regretted taking my heavy long travel bike given the amount of climbing we did, and there was no descents that would have made taking a long travel bike worth it anyway. And cheers to the guy we got chatting to on the Carbon Specialized Hardtail who told us where some of the lesser well known routes were, we didn't have time to check them out as we had to get back, but next time (and I'm sure there will be a next time) we will do...
Sounds like you had a great weekend , we do kind of take It for granted up here as It's on our doorstep . Hoping to head there tomorrow as I have some time off this week the only hard decision is GT or Inners , The climb at Innerleithen normally puts me off but I know It's definately worth the effort when you reach the top. But you were right about Gt Blue which Is the most fun trail at Glentress.
suspension too soft?
you've not taken up smuggling woks as well have you?
you've not taken up smuggling woks as well have you?
Not yet mate, I am trying my hardest though! 😉
sounds like you had a quality time.. nice.. 🙂
but i do think glentress is over rated
Blue run is ace for teaching newbies, my GF went from novice 'I'm not sure I like this'
To
'can we go to Glentress this weekend again, oh, and by the way I'd like to come to Verbier as well!'
but i do think glentress is over rated
Horses for courses of course, but I think for me it's the fact you've got pretty much something for everyone right there. I've ridden much more technically challenging trails before of course, but for an XC trail centre, you get some very good downhills with lots of variety, from fast open and flowing you get to rooty and technical very quickly. And then there's the blue run which although not in the slightest bit technically challenging, is just so much fun in a laugh out loud kind of way!
I think people are to blase about GT when its localish to them
It is a fantastic facility with something for everyone. Very well laid out and with a huge amount of trails. Even when busy there is plenty room on the trails.
If i enjoyed it then it must be good.
Of course the company you're with makes up a fair bulk of a riding experience.
This weekend i was treated to some great company, which clearly made shite trails feel great. 😉
GT is good for banter, Inners is good for getting the taste of blood in your mouth. Totally different places.
mboy and co, i only wish i was there too!
This place sometimes likes to be down on GT but I love it. I ride there a lot (more or less every 2nd week through the summer, plus night rides quite often) and by rights it should be dull by now but I can still find new things to play on. I think it's innerleithen red that's overrated myself, though it's still very good
I've only done GT the once, and it felt like a bigger version of Afan. It was alright, especially good in the winter to get away from the gloop I'd imagine. The 'double black' timber stuff and round that area was the best stuff.
i will be there on Friday woo! 8)
It is a fantastic facility with something for everyone. Very well laid out and with a huge amount of trails. Even when busy there is plenty room on the trails.
Totally agree TJ. I think it would take me a long time to get bored of it, as there's so much variety...
If i enjoyed it then it must be good.Of course the company you're with makes up a fair bulk of a riding experience.
This weekend i was treated to some great company, which clearly made shite trails feel great.
Touche! 😉
GT is good for banter, Inners is good for getting the taste of blood in your mouth. Totally different places.
That's kinda how I'd sum them both up too, from my limited experience. At Inners you seem to spend very much more time on your own (whether it's a long climb, or a long descent) whereas at GT you seem to spend more time together as a group.
mboy and co, i only wish i was there too!
Next time I feel! 🙂
This place sometimes likes to be down on GT but I love it.
The too cool for school bunch... You get them everywhere!
i will be there on Friday woo!
I'm 99.99% sure you'll have an awesome time mate... Don't wanna sneak me and my bike in your car do you? 😉
there's three of us and three bikes in a Fabia, so i doubt it!
I think it's innerleithen red that's overrated myself
I think it's close to perfect! Breaking down the sections:
Climb: you can really open up the valaves and do some serious damage to your lungs and legs
First descent: fast, fast, fast, sketch-free fun, getting out what you put in
Rock garden (black option): challenging and immensely satisfying, but nothing too scary/difficult
Cadon Bank: balls in your mouth excitement!
Sweet.
To the OP - awesome to hear you had a great weekend and GT, and I totally agree with your comments about the blue route. Such a good trail.
I have recently departed Edinburgh for the south of England and only now (3 weeks later) do I realise how fortunate I was.
The blue route at GT is a near perfect example of what a blue route should be like. Easy enough for novices but still gives them a great buzz. And I know plenty experienced riders who love it too. Much better than some blue routes which are pretty much just fireroads.
If you get a chance next time GT red (or blue) is a great night time spin...off there tommorow night again actually
It's real local to me but having previously lived places with crap riding for years I don't take it for granted
Top top top weekend! Properly enjoyed the riding and the company was awesome which really made it. Only downer was this bloody cold / bug I've had which made the climbs a challenge.
I wasn't sure what to expect of GT as there's been so much hype and diss about the place. But I think it is a great example of how biking centres should be done. Something for everyone whatever age or ability. I was surprised by how much body armour I saw though - was like a stormtrooper convention.
The trails were awesome - properly well thought out and built and some nice sections. I can't believe I whoooped my way down Magic Mushroom and Mushroom pie but it felt right.
Defo like to go back again (soon) and explore some of those routes off the beaten track.
Great place. Memory of the weekend - Thongs and Carbon HT nutters!
I was also at GT on Saturday for the 1st time and left entirely underwhelmed.(Red route) Big fuss about hee haw. Kirroughtree, Innerliethen and Mabie are streets ahead. The best bit of GT was the blue section from the car park in the middle to the bottom.
Glad you had a great time, though that is largely unavoidable at Glentress.
TandemJeremy - MemberI think people are to blase about GT when its localish to them
It is a fantastic facility with something for everyone. Very well laid out and with a huge amount of trails. Even when busy there is plenty room on the trails.
Posted 2 hours ago # Report-Post
I find myself agreeing 100% with TJ. What is the world coming to????
I don't know how it became cool on here to hate Glentress - frankly we don't know how good we got it living so close to a world-class MTB facility.
It was an awesome weekend, loved it 😀 😀 😀 😀
GT is great. For somewhere that is free, and you can ride man made trails till your legs fall off, I don't see what there is to diss. Sure, it is mega popular and people do hype it up, but if you just go and take responsibility for choosing the route _YOU_ want to ride, it has got to be a really jaded rider who cant have some big grins on it.
The climb from the bottom carpark I love now. The descent also (electric blue) is great fun at the end of a ride. Spooky wood is good. Freeride bit is fun. The Black is challenging in length and also in roughness in places. Extras and hidden bits are there for the taking.
And if the owner of the affore mentioned thong comes on here or her fella, Thankyou [img] 
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Bushwacked hitting up spooky.
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I can't believe I whoooped my way down Magic Mushroom and Mushroom pie but it felt right.
You were screaming so loud at one point, I thought you'd fallen off and hurt yourself!
High 5's all round! 🙂
We were seriously lucky with the weather too, nice end to the summer :y
That's great that you had a good time. For me the black is all about the descending, not just Deliverance, but the descents before that too. It makes for an excellent day doing the black, then after Deliverance cutting back on to the red and then blue. Fabulous.
A good few days adding in Kirroughtree, Mabie, Ae and Dalbeattie, and maybe Drumlanrig too makes for one heck of a week or so riding if you have the time and the legs.
thats 7 points in thong snooker!
TJ has it, far too easy to take it for granted, but easy to tire of if you get lazy and go nowhere else.
I love the Glentress red from the top. It just feels soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo nice 8)
Pennels Vennel, Spooky Wood, Super G, The Pie Run, Magic Mushroom, Electric Blue, Good Game, Falla Brae, The Boundary Trail, Britney Spears, Deliverance.
All at one trail centre, what's not to love?
Yeah - How can anyone really complain!
The GT red is a near perfect mix, gentle climbing with options to make it a little more technical if wanted, none of the forest road sections are long and dragged out, you soon pop onto a single track ascent which keeps you concentrating.
Descending from the top is jumpy bermy fun and has enough features for riders of any ability to rinse a smile from, then as the trail gets a little natural it flows through trees with scatterings of roots, the odd little table and rougher berms, this spits you into a slightly rougher trail with braking bumps, avoid them and find fun lines into the corners.
Further down the red takes a new guise as it get pumpy, rooty and twisty, time to check out your line choices in a confined area, with polished off camber root sections multiple lines over boardwalks and fast turns, it's a perfect trail to play star wars speeder cycle racing with your mates try and pass them taking the quicker but more challenging line choice.
The smiles, grins and tales of near misses tell it all. If not perhaps you need a road bike. One little climb later and you get the final flurry, popping off kicker into two linking berms, the second firing you out flat out into a straight, passing the blue a nothing of climb then swoopy, rooty giggles, cutting through trees jumping over roots and widening berms drives you down, down, down, a sharp turn at red squirrel car park, and accelerate away for the final 200m of wooping..
I can only imagine it getting better and better the more you ride it, which looked evident from the racer on his carbon Spec HT as he launched off seemingly nothing up onto the bank so he could fire around a switchback at speed then down seemlessly into super G, which on one occasion left the pajama wearing over biked brigade, staring through their fogged up googles and full facers in disbelief and awe.
Boing boing weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
GT is great. For somewhere that is free, and you can ride man made trails till your legs fall off, I don't see what there is to diss.
It's the mentality of many people on here that if something is popular it can't be good - Glentress isn't niche enough basically. I think it's ace and wish I lived nearer.
There will always be that 'it aint good if it isn't remote/lonely enough' element in mountain bikers.
I like both and see trail centres as training grounds for riders to go out and explore/feel comfortable.
Both are great in my books. :p
And cheers to the guy we got chatting to on the Carbon Specialized Hardtail who told us where some of the lesser well known routes were,
I can only imagine it getting better and better the more you ride it, which looked evident from the racer on his carbon Spec HT as he launched off seemingly nothing up onto the bank so he could fire around a switchback at speed then down seemlessly into super G, which on one occasion left the pajama wearing over biked brigade, staring through their fogged up googles and full facers in disbelief and awe
and Carbon HT nutters!
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Hi guys, that was me you saw in my 'planet-x top?'. I ended up speaking to you for 10 mins at the bottom of the 2nd red. Was on a semi-training run so as you probably guessed wasn't hanging around.
Sharki - At the top of spooky there was loads of downhill clad boys on big bikes so i thot i'd show em what you can really do on the jumps, except on a seat up carbon HT.
Good talkin to y'all anyway and if your ever up again give us a shout to learn more trails
Gratuitous pic of me on my 5 spot jumping off first ramp at spooky
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GT and Inners are fantastic. The new section at GT on the way up rather than slogging up the fireroad has made a real difference, giving you the total single track feel.
There is no doubt in my mind that the cross country route at Inners is more smiles per mile than any of the other Stanes trails. (The uphill isn't that bad at all, slip into a low gear let your mind wander and away you go.)
Saying that the Good Game section on the blue route at GT pretty much taught me how to do drop offs after many years of mountain biking. Hit it hard and fast and you can not fail to have a massive grin on your face at the bottom of Good Game. Take that confidence to the descents at Inners and you've got a winner.
Still need to man up to the last to big drops on Caddon Bank mind..!
I wanna be back there now....
Raddogair - Good to chat and you defo showed that it really isn't about the bike! 🙂
Guys i am still there 🙂 but watching the rain and cloud covering the trees 🙁 and not the blue skies like the weekend.
Raddogair, i'm in the area for a while(inners) and would love to see some more(though not at a training pace) I was on the blue ss BTW. Nice to see some quality trail skills, thanks.
Sharki - working all week including Saturday. Unsure about What riding is happening on Sunday just now. How long are you there for?
All this week, the weekend and as long as my captive holds me here in inners, though i want to try and make it to relentless.
balls - i had a chest infection so missed out this weekend - looks like the weather was good.
trails dry, aye ?
Dry enough.. damp at most.
