Rode a deserted Ae yesterday for the first time in a good few years. From what I remember it being (a tortuous slog with a few tiny highlights, loads of fire-road and a good final descent, it couldn’t have been more different!

Probably 90%+ singletrack, some great flowing trails, loads of rocky stuff with jumps and drops, some really nice climbs (!), the sun was out and loads of new stuff since my last visit.

Top notch – will be back.

Yup, people slag it off ‘cos it’s a bit hard. Well guess what people hard is good, as the actress said to the bishop. (the surface is/was a bit choppy, granted)

Ae red: i like it, it’s got it’s own character.

Ae blue: a deadly dull drag round the gravel roads, there’s no point going with a family / group of novices till they fix that…

Yup, people slag it off ‘cos it’s a bit hard. Well guess what people hard is good,

+1

I like it, apart from the bitey things.

thestabiliser – Member

Yup, people slag it off ‘cos it’s a bit hard.

Really? I can only remember people just slagging it for being a bit shit. Haven’t been down in a couple of years, so might as well make the trip and some point and see if it’s doing better

Agreed, its not hard at all. Doing a trail centre where 50% was fire-road and the bits inbetween had zero flow was the reason it was slagged off.

Its great now though 😀 The (new?) smooth motorway-like section with all the jumps leading into the final original bottom section was excellent…

Did the little loop on the north shore type bit at the top as well which is still pretty good.

xc hard not gnarr hard

It is great but it was better. Clear felling ruined the ridge, they gravel pathed huge sections, the wind farm climb is rubbish and the omega man used to be flowy. That said I personally still love it.

Only done it once, earlier this year, the only bit that caught me out was a little rock hump near the start of the first set of rocky berms (green granny?) because I wasn’t going quick enough. I spent the rest of the ride wondering when it was going to get hard.

Probably the easiest of the seven stanes reds.

Agreed, its not hard at all.

What I meant to say was that it gets much harder/more fun the faster you’re going. I’m not going to pretend it was a piece of piss and I bimbled around it. I thought for a red, the speeds you were hitting some sections was pretty much up there with reds elsewhere.

Going there tonight as it happens

The off-piste stuff up and around the DH stuff is well worth looking for too, most of it is on strava I believe.

I need to take a look at the off piste stuff there only ridden one of those which was good fun

Probably the easiest of the seven stanes reds

Except Newcastleton, Shirley?

Except Newcastleton, Shirley?

Not been there so can’t comment. I seem to remember the red at Mabie not being too bad but that was over ten years ago so maybe (sic) it has changed.

Mabie has changed, it’s even easier now. I don’t think there’s much between the 7-stanes reds. Ae probably is/was the roughest but technically there’s nothing in it

Mabie’s not hard (though it still has a couple of wee traps) but it’s a lot more involving and interesting than Ae, imo.

The dh and offpiste saves Ae imo, the uplift road’s incredibly dull but it’s a nice simple spin up to access the good riding from the top, some of which I love. It’s also a really nice location, especially around the water of ae. And it has MEGAPLOUGHS.

whitestone – Member

Except Newcastleton, Shirley?

Not been there so can’t comment. I seem to remember the red at Mabie not being too bad but that was over ten years ago so maybe (sic) it has changed.

nope, Mabie is still kinda mellow (in a good way), with some tricky-ish bits.

Why would anybody put of piste stuff on strava. Not just ae but anywhere. Lads go and build stuff for them to ride then some nob finds it and stravas it without doing a single bit of work on it.

Builders often put their work on strava…i know i do. The aim of building a trail is often to see others ride it and enjoy. Plus many tyres often make a much more durable well established trail.

Ae is mostly on strava, but some isn’t . The boys building here prefer keeping some stuff quieter.

And in general , i find it strange to rate trail centres by mapped trails in this way. Is there really a large culture of people who drive around with expensive bikes on racks who only ride these types of trails? All these trail centres are actually forests and collections of superb natural, cheeky made and mapped trails. There’s so much to ride that’s not “Black-Red-Blue”…

Their is only maybe 7 lads build at ae and I know none of them put it on strava

We rode Ae in May and really enjoyed it. Only saw 4 other riders, and they were sat down.

My only issue with Ae is that it’s flipping uncomfortable on a low rent HT like mine. It was a decent ride but I was knackered by the end. I’ll probably still go and have another bash at it in August when I’m up there though.