Short visit to Glentress and Innerleithen planned at the end of next month - three days riding possible, weather permitting. Just looking to get a bit of advice on tyre choice. I'm pretty much a trail centre rookie (just one visit to Brechfa last year - it seemed very smooth) and much more used to the Surrey hills root-fest. What are the Innerleithen and Glentress red route surfaces like? Big difference in wet vs dry grip? Hard on sidewalls? I'm riding a Pitch Pro with tubeless ZTR Flows.
Cheers - Robin
Dorking, Surrey
Not up on tubeless tyre choices but the average Gt/Inners rider probably has Maxxis high Roller front and Advantage rear. Good all round tyres. Trail surfaces are natural hardpack/rocky in places/gravely in places and bits of surfacing here & there when required.
Small block 8's.
It's a trail centre, it doesn't require anything more nobly than that.
Mate swears by his 8s, forgot about them. There is also the Maxxis Ardent?
any tyre at all, its a trail centre! except mud tyres or slicks or anything daft. I was at glentress last night and with the mild wind the roots were dry and there were even small areas that were dusty dry, uncanny...
Thanks - great info. The trail centre thing is another world for me. In Surrey it sometimes feels (to me at least) like you could benefit from a different tyre setup every day, according to what particular routes you've got in mind.
Any tyre at all really. I was there on Tuesday and it was all pretty dry.
If you go to Inners, be aware that there's a bit of a detour on the descent from the Minchmoor summit.
Unlike down south where we have (at this time of year) claggy mud to contend with most trail centres are built on 'hardpack' - well they have to be otherwise they'd wear out due to the volume of riders.
Something like an Ardent on the front will be good, and then a fast-rolling rear.
Putting this thread to bed...
Well, I did my Tweed Valley visit, and flippin' good it was too. I rode the Peebles Gypsy Glen circuit, Glentress red & blue, and Innerleithen red. Generally quite dry conditions, with a few puddles and sticky bits here and there.
In the end I went with tubeless Schwalbe Racing Ralph Evos front (2.4) and rear (2.25), and they were superb. Maybe once on the Glentress red I wished I'd had a slightly more aggressive front, to provide some off-camber confidence, but that was mostly in my head.
Superb routes, all of them. Thanks for the recommendations and tips.