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Where do you ride when the trails turn to gloop, do you hit the road and allow the trails to recover, ride the regular trail centre faire or just find an alternative form of exercise, for a little maintenance.
When I lived in the Burg, winter was the only time I rode the trail centres. They are, after all, constructed for that purpose.
I was inferring when you are riding mainly off piste, I would just lose motivation riding the same old all weather trails.
I guess if they put a lift in at Inerliethen, you could go skiing..or maybe not.
I still ride everything that I ride in the summer. Although, autumn/winter is 'puffer training time which involves mainly forest road climbs/descents but if I'm out for a fun ride I'll head up to Cademuir or the Golfy.
He answered your question, what answer would you like?
You ride the Golfy in the deepest dark winter, how do you survive, how do the trails survive, or am I just being a tad precious! remember the carnage during the practice for the EWS, after a little rain.
PS stevemuir your conscience bothering you, i'm not looking for a fight.
The inners "enduro" stuff is mostly pretty durable, so that plus the dh gets a lot of my time, I can ride there a lot without getting bored. I feel pretty bad cutting up other people's tracks so I try to stay off anything more delicate though
(Lone Wolf for the SES was a problem of traffic plus weather IMO, the trail just couldn't deal with that many wheels after all that rain so rutted up like a mofo. 800 riders in 2 days, that's probably a year's worth of traffic)
I'd only just started exploring more widely up there last year and it wasn't a bad winter so not sure what to expect. Some'll probably be fine, others not so much.
Golfy in winter is no worse than Golfie in summer half the time - although limited light levels have been known toile things a tad interesting
Inners dh stuff is completely weatherproof.
Very true, way to cowardly to ride the Golfy in the slop though.
I come from it with a different outlook, an influence from the alpine regions or north America, they get snow, so change discipline, I like this, the same as climbing, follow the seasons. I only ask the question to get the other perspective, obviously if you keep at it all year round, you are going to be strong, with honed skills, so when it's good, you are not playing catch up, I do respect this commitment.
Not looking for a fight, just didn't understand your response and I have no reason to feel guilty. Most of my riding this year has been on a sustainable pump track. Most of my riding in the winter is at night which makes more weatherproof, less interesting trails more interesting. I mostly ride near home, avoiding the muddier bits as much as possible. I'll mix this up with some riding at Falkirk with friends, rides at Glentress and the occasional foray into East Lothian. If its cold and frosty I'll venture onto the more interesting stuff in the Pentlands. If I'm fed up with the mud I'll go and do a bit of trail maintenance. I'll often play football once a week during the winter. I'd love to go running or swimming but not a fan of either of those. HTH.
I turn my attention to my beer belly
Golfy is great in the winter, a lot of the time there's more grip than when it's dusty. Magic Mary up front, a vigilante on the rear and a bit of luck will see you through.
The problem with Lone Wolf in the SES is that the top is pretty flat so there's no place for the water/slop to run off, the steeper parts were fine as you could keep speed up to get through plus the aforementioned 800 riders. It'll probably be good fun again by May.
fergal, the Americans that don't ride in winter don't ride as the snow lands and stays for months making riding many trails impossible for them. From the chat I've seen on the likes of Ride Monkey, it's not because they want to stop
Golfie was decent at the weekend, muddy and slippy but nothing mental. Repeat offender a particular highlight, riding lovely.
Didn't dare chance lone wolf... that'll be getting left for next summer.
Trail centred or routes I know will be ok and not ridden by many. Some are too delicate but battered. Which wrecks them. There's a couple in yair which merida used in wet conditions. Probably permanently ruined. Been out exploring for next year.
Winter = night rides at trail centres but going round the trails in reverse. GT red and black routes are much harder in reverse. As is Inners.
+1 GT and Inners, especially at night when you can go in any direction and order.
Parts of Yair and Elibank can be ok, but you need to pick the trails plus we do more XC-type rides across walkers trails/SUW etc.