Drumlanrig doesn’t get any grant cash whatsoever and has been roundly ignored by DMBinS.
I’ve been asking Graeme for a chat for ages and have had no response.
It doesn’t play a part in their thoughts as there will never be £100Ks spent here, and it probably embarrasses them that there is trail that has cost buttons that is actually awesome and longer lasting and more fun than the gravel path stuff the FE builds.
We are having huge issues following in from catastrophic storm damage and with larch orders down here and a bit of help from the national quango would be helpful tbh ..

Nobeerinthefridge I guess it depends on wether or not you can pump a trail… Or you’re just a whiney wanna be that can’t… Just an opinion 😉

The red and blue at Drumlanrig intertwine giving you the option to pick and choose, and ride separately but together !?!

pop into Rik’s Bike Shed onsite for a blether and map.

I may have come out with plenty of drivel in my time, that I do not deny. However I have never said that a trail should ride ‘equally’ well in both directions.

You may have taken something out of context there i think..

If you ridden any trail I’ve built, anywhere across Scotland, they are all single direction and would be pretty tough to ride the wrong way round. Maybe I was chatting about pump tracks or something..

Any way, ride them both, AE has it’s plus points but Drumlanrig has plenty too, they’re chalk and cheese. Both seem to get a Marmite reaction on here, but I’ve had a few drum haters to start with who totally love it now that they’ve got more skilled and can actually see what line to ride and carry speed. Yep line choice at a ‘trail centre’…. who’d a thunk it??

If you want a wheel to follow at the right speed book a guided ride, I can show you the best lines and how to levitate the roots 😉

Pow’r tae yer pedals……… rik

Make sure your warm roof really is a warm roof. I moved into a house with a flat ‘warm roof’ over the kitchen extension, with nothing at all between the ends of the rafters and the void under the old slates of the apex roof it joined. So all that lovely insulation doing nothing at all…twunts!!!

Hmmm….makes me smile a wee bit when folks complain about lack of flow at Drum…

Just cos you didn’t find it on your first visit don’t mean it doesn’t flow..

It just means you didn’t find the flow!!

Ride faster.. get fitter..figure out how to carry speed thru flat corners.. look further ahead maybe…pump everything!! All that stuff that you don’t really have to do on the rest of that list above 😉

Stop pussying about and do it!!!!

I took my gears off for the SS worlds at Badaguish ages ago and it was about my third ever SS ride. Never put them back on..

Not really a podium botherer but it is a hoot and you race your own race anyway..

Just putting the finishing touches to a pump track just down from the kiosk today anaw.. 🙂

Ha.. Yup I’d be up for that.

First weekend in September’s out, got a big corporate thing going on, but any weekend after that would work for me.

If you’ve not been for a while there is now quite alot more ‘air’ to be had on both the red and the black routes..

Pow’r tae yer pedals

Rik

I was just coming on to shout Drumlanrig, when I see Big Jim has already mentioned it. An easy and picturesque 20mins off the motorway if you’re heading further north (or heading home again) or as a wee Jewel to ride alongside the Stanes..

All trails are riding well even after the torrential weather. The black and red routes have been upgraded after some heavy harvesting last year and is getting good feedback.

If you’re just passing thru this might not apply so much, but a season ticket is only £15 which gets a free hot beverage every month and 10% off in the already reasonably priced cafe, and discounts in local hotels etc. (£25 for a family)

And, as the season and country park season is over you won’t have to stump up at the kiosk.

The loos, showers and bike wash are all open tho’ but you’ll need to take your own food and beverage.

All the trails are open, and have been tweeked and tickled thru the summer so are riding well.

The first black loop has only just opened and may need some bedding in before full speed is gained.

Rik

A lot of very nice (and light) Merida’s arriving at the end of the month. Cheapish too!!

Drum has been hammered by wind and harvesting but the red is pretty much complete and I’m working on the rangers/forestry dept to get the black finish sorted.

The first black is mashed under all the harvesting and will need rebuilt as will the last bit of red by the river..

I know it seems pricey but as has been said above you can ride all day for a comparatively cheap price compared to drinking beer or a cinema showing and the estate makes a helluva lot less out of mountain bikers than the other industries mentioned.

It’ll cost a fair whack to rebuild the mashed trail which has to come out of the entrance revenue, simple as that and it doesn’t strim itself or clear the windblow on its own.

Cheers for the positive comments above it all helps when negotiating new trail expenditure.

To ride at Drumlanrig cheaper buy a season ticket for £15 or a family season ticket for £25 for the whole year (2adults 3 kids), and the park is getting a big revamp right now….

Drumlanrig red trail is pretty much up and running again.

Only the very last section is shut so there’s a diversion up the black climb onto the road and a freewheel back to the castle.

First black is devastated and will be shut for a while.

To make a decent ride head out for a lap of the diverted red approx 15km then if you want more do a lap of the red bail out to make it up to 20km…

At Drumlanrig we installed two shower/changing rooms as there’s obviously a potential clash of cultures.

Most riders, however are more than happy to flash their big, muddy, hairy bums at the families and sophisticants visiting the castle and park (and that’s just the girls).

Never mind tho’ as if anyones so shocked that they storm off in a state – there’ll be at least 10 naked kayakers by the roadside at the bridge; as nature intended with out a stitch of modesty among them..

I required, I use a big towel up top and an Ikea bag on the ground that keeps the feet outta the mud and collects the muddy gear (not that my car’s ever mud free)

Not advocating pinning the pup down. Just rolling him over onto his back for a second or two.. No stress and it does work. I agree that pinning the wee fella to the ground would be counter productive.

Have a look at Ceaser Milan’s book for a good read.

My ‘naughty’ noise for Ifor is a sharp Pssst which works really well as the dog seems to hear it very quickly and there are no long vowel sounds and it can be used without passers by becoming alarmed …..
It sometimes works with the kids too ;

For puppy nipping or biting just hold the pups lower jaw with your thumb in its mouth, it’ll soon get the idea – it’s unpleasant for the pup but not stresslfull or violent.

+1 for rolling the wee fella over and holding him on his back in a submissive pose..

Big encouragement and cheese rewards for any good behaviour worked a treat for my collie pup.

He’s now 4 and gets many comments about his good behaviour and general loveliness 🙂

The Castle Tea Room is open, just the Snack Bar in the Stableyard that is shut.

Sections are already open.

It’s actually a blue grade trail, but kinda on steroids..

AYe what about a lap of the red/black at Drumlanrig.

The Mrs Convert can have a look at the shops or do a lap o’ the castle..

There are a couple of new sections opened which are jumpy/pumpy and the old black finish has been redone.

Aye Colin or Digby at Comrie Croft can sort your woes. And you can go play on the trails and pump track when your fixed..

on the way out of Toulouse there is a park with a BMX park and a row of dirt jumps 🙂
The Missus and I rode the Canal du Midi on our ‘Lune de Miele’

After a very nice couple of days in Toulouse ( eat at ‘Le May’s) we left on a leisurely pedal out of the city, we passed a delightful lockside cafe at about 11:30 but thought it a little early for refreshments so carried on – we didn’t see another person until after dark!!

There are more than a few diversions into some pretty interesting scenery if you want to vist some vinyards and pretty spectacular villages.

We went in November and the the leaves were off the trees at Toulouse but still green at Agde it was like a weird seasonal reversal. Watch out for the Mistral at that time of the year – vicious headwinds with no shelter makes for a very hard few days pedaling along to Aix en Provence (where we finished our tour with a day in the spa). For a treat you have to go to Lou Pescadou’s in Agde for the set menu, we never ate so much for so little – it is legendary and amazing, the courses just kept coming…

Check the sills and chasis for rust, there running gear and engines are fine and will go forever, it’s rust that kills them.
I’d get someone who knows to have a look and good poke about underneath before buying..

Great thread!!

+1 for the Gnat , once built virtually indestructable and a great toy for a wee lad.

The Hawker Hunter makes a good ‘play with’ model too.

It’s all coming flooding back – even the Victory – it’s like a tick list of my childhood 🙂

http://alpina-sports.com/bike-helmets-junior/articles/Rocky_en.html?id=4#2

This……

My wee lad (2yrs) wears his proudly.. It fits and adjust really well, adjusts much lower under the occipital bone (than the Mets and Giros any way, which we also sell plenty of as thy’re cheaper).

Very cool looking lids for wee folk.

If you have a dog or cat the Miele Cats and Dogs adaptor is brilliant.

Ha – what Hels said !!

Although I’ve never been that fit, I was fit enough to beast the field on the second climb (perfect gradient for a SS stomp) , just before 3k of wet, rooty singletrack – tee hee!!!!! It was a shockingly wet day so I maybe had an advantage in ‘knowing’ the trail. The bike was an old XTC SS frame with a recycled xt v on the back and a hope open pro on the front, none of which worked by the last lap.

The point about the Puffer is also valid, about less to go wrong.

Big hills are good – faster up (if you get the gear right) and I’ve never missed pedalling a high gear on the DH sections as you can pump most technical trails quicker than pedalling anyhoo -but flat bits are a pain – the end of the Kirro lap is a killer and you could lose a place there just spinning to get nowhere 🙁

cheers

Very nice vid by the way Boardin Bob – good choice of tune too!!!! What’s the band??

The £6 is all that supports the creation and maintenance of the network of trails. Drumlanrig hasn’t been funded in any way by public money: unlike most, if not all of the other trail centres, whether on public or private land.

You get some pretty fine facilities along with some very sweet trails too – free maps and bike wash, clean toilets and showers; not to mention the gardens and adventure playground. It’s not really comparable with any where else really.

I’ll ‘bang on’ some more about the season ticket option which is only £25 for the whole year individual or £50 for a family..

Or you can join the bike club and put something back in to the local community for £20 ind £10 youth or £30 family which gets you access to park ride wash & go 🙂

If you don’t want to pay £6 there are plenty of Stanes and natural stuff around so no one’s being forced to part with their cash 😉

Drumlanrig is only 30 mins from Dumfries by the way 🙂

Considering that almost all of the red and black is either hand dug bench cut singletrack or digger built, there’s actually very little ‘natural’ trail at all.

‘Rik’s’ pumpy section is actually a really useful coaching area to find the skills for the rest of the place (which is basically one huge pump track) – it’s pretty hard to coach pump in amongst the roots as it can get a bit too ‘busy’ for folks that ain’t ready. By the way most of rest of the trail is ‘Rik’s’ as well 😉

The long term plan is to put in a lot more ‘green/blue’ very flowey singletrack to give the ‘family’ riders alot more fun fun fun, also some more faster floaty jumpy stuff.

A skills park is just that – a place to coach and practice skills.

Most of the trails I build are inspired in some way by shapes that I know and enjoy somewhere in the Drumlanrig trail network – sometimes i’ll build it bigger and probably a bit more obvious but the shapes are all there in amongst the rooty bits.

Carbisdale and the Sutherland trails have a train station right in the middle of them.

bump

Cheers, I was just having a look at garageband on my mac, it would do the job but I don’t think there’s a PC version.

I’ll have a look at audacity.

Ta

She has a laptop with Windows 7 on it and 4meg of ram but it’s sub £300 job so i doubt it’ll have any fancy sound cards in it.

DON’T WATCH THE FILM!!!!!

Book great – film way beyond cr@p…

Commentory should be specific ‘what’s coming up’ rather than, hold your line etc.

‘Left hand, off camber corner’
– which leads to actions to be taken for a left hand corner type thoughts ie.- brake(maybe) – off brakes – check exit – wide in / tight out – right foot down – etc etc

The best IMO is the Kokua Jumper.

Very, very light and a wee bit of sprung elastomer which makes bumpy tracks a breeze. Just try rolling over a bump without any pedals to stand up on!!

A low standover, lightweight, two post lengths (and springs), proper schwalbe tyres and virtually indestructable.