[Closed] tell me about Mabie

Sounds like you would enjoy the red route, it's standard 7 Staines, 'flowy' singletrack and has quite alot of broad raised wooden trail.

Th FE have tacken out all of the off wee bits of shore that used to hang off the side of the trail.

There's bits of wide boardwalk at the start of the XC loop, and there also used to be some skinny wooden stuff round the route, but I think it got taken down.

The XC red route is ace, I think. One of my fave trail centres!

edit: D'oh, Rik got there before me.

I didn't see any raised wood on the Red route when I rode there in September, and it's one of my favourite trails.
Not ridden the darkside, but I found the taster section in the skills area quite easy once I'd got my head round the idea of doing it.
Treat it like narrow singletrack through an overgrown section of trail, and you've got it nailed.
Basically zone in on where you DO want your wheels to go and forget everything else.
I cleaned it 1st time. But I rode 2yrs of trials about 8 yrs ago.
I guess you don't lose the skills as much as I thought.

There is some wide boardwalk at the begining of the red route , but nothing challenging really 😐

[url= http://s95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/bigjohnskona/7Stanes/Mabie/#!cpZZ1QQtppZZ12 ]A little taste of Mabie[/url] The spiritual Home of the 7Stanes project.

elaine anne - Member
never been through on a bike, but walked through parts of it good few years back,lol (there was a good swing in there once.. bit like a mini zipwire

Zip wire is in the kids play area 🙂
The trail can be blitzed by the fit racers in under the hr but the rest of us meander around in the 1 - 2hr range.
The New Year stw ride lasted 4 - 5hrs utilising some of the "local" stuff we know 😉
Being local I ride there and Ae [i]quite a bit[/i] 😆
If you fancy a "local" stw ride out I am sure another can be organised. The next one is/was going to be Dalbeattie when I can find a weekend free 🙄
As the others have said there is a section of wide boardwalk at the top of the first climb before heading up to the 2nd section, the Ridge. The other section is near the begining of Elevator, again wide but with a right hand turn in it.

Skyline-GTR - Member
I didn't see any raised wood on the Red route when I rode there in September, and it's one of my favourite trails.
Not ridden the darkside, but I found the taster section in the skills area quite easy once I'd got my head round the idea of doing it.
Treat it like narrow singletrack through an overgrown section of trail, and you've got it nailed.

Taster section Skyline refers to is Vaders lair. Worth a look. If you do not fancy it ride around it and drop down to the Loch. Take a left out to the Darkside but only as far as the section known as the Race Track where the Kona jump/drop is situated. If you can do the jump, fine, if not the rest of this section is a good ride and adds a bit of distance onto the Red route. Something we would have liked to have been incorporated into the route at the time 👿
Then head back up the hill and join the Red proper.
Other stuff to over that end of the forest is to head out towards New Abbey via Troston and Shambellie woods and on up to the monument above the village. But that can become an all day event 😆
If I can stay awkake post night shift and get my "new" brakes fitted I will be heading out later to test them and do a Trig point pic for the photo thread.
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I like Mabie. The darkside is good fun and he XC route has got some nice bits on it. All in all a good day out.

Whenever we've ridden Mabie, we do the red but have never seen any sign of the skills area of the 4X track? Where is it all (in relation to the red/the cafe etc?)

head out behind the bike shed and keep to the fireroad until you hit a crossroads.. the 4x is on the left at the x-roads....

Before the bad step take the little track to the left, this takes you to the jump park entrance. If you carry on down the Bad Step track turn left back up the forest road about 400mtrs.
As davy says follow the forest road ➡ instead of heading left up the start of the trail.
Hi davy_g 😆

What condition is Mabie in at the moment as I had heard that the trails had been messed up by the heavy frost heave ? I was thinking of a night ride there on Wed

Trekster, there's something up with that brake set-up. The pads are only contacting around 3/4 of the braking track. What do the pads look like?

yeeees Mabie noooo

Cheers - we're there at the end of March for the weekend so might pop in on the way to/from Dalbeattie from our base near Ae.

Can't see the clip at work but I know which one it is... one of the best bits of comedy ever! I like the riddle about the TV thats broke "err, thats a window".

What condition is Mabie in at the moment as I had heard that the trails had been messed up by the heavy frost heave ? I was thinking of a night ride there on Wed

they were fine in the wind n rain last weekend.

Trekster, there's something up with that brake set-up. The pads are only contacting around 3/4 of the braking track. What do the pads look like?

that's not a problem as long as the whole of the pad is being used. Just looks like a rotor with a deeper braking surface than the caliper needs

Hi davy_g

eh up John.. hows it hanging bud... 8)

Three_Fish - Member
Trekster, there's something up with that brake set-up. The pads are only contacting around 3/4 of the braking track. What do the pads look like?

Cheers Three_Fish. Had a look at the old pads, the ones fitted are near new and they all look fine. Had a look at install and disc is almost touching pad springs therefore not much room for any bigger disc. Must be the way they are designed? Never really rated Hope brakes but mate was selling these ata price I could not refuse. He does maintain stuff very, very well otherwise I would not have considered buying 2nd hand.

A couple of pics for the O.P.
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is that part of mabie ?

Sure is, taken yesterday. scotabroad from forum is the rider. We live about 15/20mins away 😀
First pic is near the top of the Ridge climb. 2nd/3rd pics are on the Butterhole section. The second one is looking up to the Ridge descent, you turn left off the boardwalk.
4th/5th are the boardwalk on the Elevator climb.