flask of hot coffee up a hill in the middle of some place with on or two good mates

Oh no. I hate that.

Well, not hate.

But I don’t do rides where you eat sandwiches half way round.

I guess Calderdale has spoilt me.

Whats the point of going on a ride if you can’t take a picnic? Unless your rides are under an hour. exercise is an excuse to eat

I can do 2hrs plus on Haribo and water.

I don’t get out much to be fair.

Haribo and water? When you can have potted meat sandwiches, battenburg and brandy coffee? I knew calderdale was deprived but I didn’t realise it was that bad

I like Glentress, etc…
Because they’re weather proofed, brain out, fun day’s out, on a bike.
Not too difficult or technical (I have that on my doorstep, almost literally), but there’s so much riding available at GT a whole day can be joyfully spent cycling….

When you can have potted meat sandwiches,

I love potted meat sandwiches.

I like trail centres particularly on bad weather days – not muddy, follow your nose, quiet, good use of precious altitude, coffee and cake.

But like non-purpose-built too.

There’s doubles at glentress !!???

I’ve never seen any.

steel4real – Member
There’s doubles at glentress !!???

I’ve never seen any.

hmm, good point! I can actually only think of one on the whole red route! Middle of spooky wood.

the first jump at the top of spooky woods is a double.
theres a nice take off ramp, and a little rock to land on on the other side.

still, most people don’t see that, they just nose dive off the first drop, nearly go over their bars and then bang their 7 inch travel beasts over the top of the double making it look a whole lot harder than it is.

still, each to their own and all that

besides, a table is just a double with the middle filled in….

i just don’t see how anyone who likes riding bikes doesn’t like trail centres. I’m not saying they’re the holy grail, but they are still bike rides in the hills – right?

I’m not saying they’re the holy grail, but they are still bike rides in the hills – right?

agreed
.
.
(and leave the other routes clearer for me… 🙂 )

Aye TJ it’s grim oop t’North 😀

and I love the feeling of just railing into stuff, or hitting rock obstacles knowing that they’ve designed it so they won’t kill you.

yes. That’s what I like about trail centres. You can completely cane it and know it’s all flowy and there won’t be a sheep or an entire family sat across the trail…for the most part. I’ve come round a corner and jumped off a mound at Llandegla just missing these two chaps who’d stopped for a chat at a very poor point on the trail. Still, I heard them go quiet as I crossed it up with my back wheel a few inches from one of their heads.

Glentress black, like it.

Mind you, I remember railing the berms on the top of the hill at inners and finding a couple of blokes eating their butties sat in the middle. That was fun.

I was sorely tempted to nick your bike when you left it in the lapierre tent Was going to pop over and say hello but I had a Cotic Soul demo booked. One Scandal for sale 😉

What the hell is potted meat?

What the hell is potted meat?

Mostly lips and hooves 🙂

TandemJeremy – Member
Whats the point of going on a ride if you can’t take a picnic? Unless your rides are under an hour. exercise is an excuse to eat

I concur. Its also a veilled reason to stop and gather your strength secretly!

I was sorely tempted to nick your bike when you left it in the lapierre tent

Well you could have asked and we’d have let you. It wasn’t why I went (you don’t put 1.3kg tyres on a bike for a demo day), but it’s always nice to get people slinging a leg over things. As it were.

the first jump at the top of spooky woods is a double.
theres a nice take off ramp, and a little rock to land on on the other side.

Yeah. That’s what I thought. And there’s some more towards the bottom of Super G.

slightly off-topic, – i’m a singletrack addict.

where i live (Sheffield) there’s no legal singletrack – all of the bridleways are arrow-straight featureless motorways, All 4 of them.

There is one exception, the bridleway descent from stanage – which has possibly the only legal corner in the peaks (a nice, techy, rocky, left-handed switchback, lovely).

But usually i get shouted at by walkers – it can get very busy, i can appreciate the concern.

(i’m even getting grumbled at for riding houndkirk road now)

so for me, Trail centres offer a chance to ride lots of lovely handwoven singletrack without fear of being shot by the militant wing of the Sheffield wildlife trust.

i know they’re not natural – whatever that means, and i don’t care.

bikes are ace.

I love ANYTHING. Thing is, unless you are local your not going to find the sweet spots in every area are you? Sometimes it takes years of local accumulated knowledge to learn the trails. Glentress works on many levels- plus there is some great views- for instance just before the first climb up the zig-zags to the hut- the view of the hills is stunning. Why dont people stop more mid-trail at trail centres to enjoy? I guess its a conveyor-belt feeling? Same with the Marin trail- Dragons teeth? Stop there and the view is gobsmacking.

“Well you could have asked and we’d have let you. It wasn’t why I went (you don’t put 1.3kg tyres on a bike for a demo day), but it’s always nice to get people slinging a leg over things. As it were.”

Balls. I thought it’d be too cheeky to ask so I bottled it! Never again, if I see it again I’ll grab it straight from your hands without so much as a by-your-leave 😆

not quite brakeless but on the cove stiffee i used to fist the front brake and try to ride without braking i can di it but have to dab at two points 🙁

It has it’s place but never been for years now just too busy and commercial for me nothing wrong with the place but I’ll stick to my quiet local trails.

An observation from this weekend in Glentress; the car parks were full, the trails between the car parks and the free-ride bit were full, but we did the Black and saw 2 other people… our feeling was that it’s getting a bit er…. convienient? In that everyone seems to be concentrating on the ‘best bits’ and can’t bring themselves to do the things that require a bit more effort.

I prefer the XC at Inners, GT has become a victim of it’s own success and is looking a bit tired. The jumps on the red are looking a bit flat and could do with building up. The good thing about GT is you’re not tied to just do the Red or Black but you can mix in the Red, Black and Blue and not shorten your ride.

I agree – I’d recommend Inners over GT. The GT Black can be good too.

And trail centres are a great place to start – I rode GT because easy and predictable and you can flee along, now I ride GT n other trail centres when it is wet and hideous because I know what I’ll get, and other more natural stuff (usually when its wet and hideous too). But shlepping over a Cairngorm or two is no place to start IMO – trail centres start you off and then you get more into the natuiral stuff, innit?

Cool – well I am deffo going to be riding Inners mid June, probably mid week if anyone is going to be around as I have never ridden it. I’ve not done GT Black so may do that too if i am feeling fit. Am sure it will be even less crowded mid week even if schools are out.

Si

Lee Quarry black run is scary. I couldn’t ride the entrance qualifier, or a lot of the rest of it for that matter, and I even failed the chicken run on the flagged drop to the quarry floor 🙁 About 6 times harder than anything I saw at Glentress.

I can do 2hrs plus on Haribo and water.

I usually do 2 1/2 hours on a Wednesday evening on nil by mouth, but I look forward to lunch on day rides 🙂

simon a wee taster of innerleithen for you 🙄

I couldn’t ride the entrance qualifier

Can say that again, took me four attempts to even get past the first 10 yards!

Lee Quarry black run is scary. I couldn’t ride the entrance qualifier, or a lot of the rest of it for that matter, and I even failed the chicken run on the flagged drop to the quarry floor About 6 times harder than anything I saw at Glentress.

Ah, see that’s much more what I’m used to, and first time I rode that lot, sort of giggling because I enjoyed it so much.

took some southern chums up to GT this weekend. did the black to the mast then joined spooky and finished on the red. sunday did a combo of red and blue. despite the car parks all being rammed the trails didnt feel congested at all (we were taking it very easy and only a handful of guys passed us – mostly on the climb from the hub)
must have been a thousand riders in the forest, and plenty trail to accomodate them all. just cant see that as a bad thing whatever way you look at it.

Went to G/T on Saturday to remind myself why I don`t go there anymore.
Mate snapped the chain ,on the bike I lent him, at top of spooky wood.
I swear that is the most well equpped place in the universe to breakdown and a power link was produced faster than a blink of an eye and we were on our way again.Thanks btw to said dude with the spare.
Still I wont go back again for a long while.

Must have been a day for braking things. Met a guy that snapped teh drop out at teh top of spooky wood and had to go single speed. We then got a flat, and saw a few more snapped bits.