That was a brilliant course, there was one rooty section I just couldnt get on with. First time I have been to an endurance event but really liked it!

Wasn’t looking good on Friday night when we went out for a pre-course ride. A few beers were not the best choice- one broken bike and one slightly broken person. It wasn’t looking good at that point! Forced to change to singlespeed after catching the shifter with my foot while bailing while the injured guy hobbled round. First 3 laps went well and then on the fourth the only person in the team who had escaped unscathed from Friday ended up in the back of the ambulance in the back/ neck brace. Thankfully nothing serious, just bruises! We eventually carried on and just missed out on the podium (I think by about 5minutes).

Cracking weekend: well organised, great weather, amazing course.

Well done No Fuss!

Not another injury john? Has the wrist fixed itself yet?
If you’re going for steep and rooty then sure you will be able to find something!

Is anybody heading over to 10 at kirry this weekend?

Missing in action? Did 50km of riding at mabie last week finally found pipeline- got some free sausages off the guy who lives in the house down there! Trail off the back of the ridge was overgrown as you said- the other one down towards the dark side had 2 trees down but otherwise good. Everything else was riding well but dark wood no longer exists (at least not the bit I know).

Will keep an eye on this thread, Steve it sounds like you have a few offers.

And yes, john is quick on the climbs but quite happy to pootle around at normal speed!

You have come to the right place! The best man for the job is Trekster, but there are probably half a dozen people on here who could show you bits and pieces around here. All depends what you are looking to ride aswell- there is some natural riding away from the trail centres which tends to be more for scenery than technical riding, but we have some great scenery around here!

My preference will always be Mabie, but that’s just me- enough good off-piste riding to keep most people happy. If you are struggling for a guide I will show you some bits but not next weekend- I am in Yorkshire, would have to be an evening the following week?

Yep I will be there, a last minute stand-in and my first team race!

Bike close to ready- hoping the weather is better than the forecast.

Went out on Saturday evening to have a play on some of the lesser known Mabie tracks. Got lost on a very overgrown track and ended up walking-in on a BBQ in the forest. All was well once I was offered beer and some very good sausages. Might have to get lost more often…

Try a local area or set of hills, nice to see no trail centres have been mentioned.

If I couldn’t move then Mabie (it’s the closest)- but off the track. Been here nearly 3 years and still havn’t ridden/ found it all. Can be out for hours without seeing a trail centre sign. So yes it is a trail centre, but you don’t have to ride it as one!

If I could move then the trails around Briancon in French alps would get a very good vote. Never see anyone else riding the trails and not a lift in sight…

+1 for Hugin. Only needed to use the automatic tools, upload, press button to make panorama, save. been good so far:

Mam Tor Panorama

Caerlaverock Castle

Mind you today’s heavy, constant rain is an improvement on Saturdays ride in the Peaks, where torrential hail showers were the order of the day

+1

done exactly the same. left the rain in scotland for the hail in the peaks last weekend. My riding buddies had come from East Anglia and hadn’t seen rain for 3 months, even with all the rain it was probably drier than Scotland.
Must have been the only people going the “wrong way” as someone put it round the ladybower loop. At least it stayed dry in the morning for bacon rolls and taking the tent down, however driving home in damp clothes was not fun…

Mind you, it hasn’t rained here in Dumfries for ages now- about 6 hours 😉

So where exactly is the natural riding in that? One 20m cut through and a slippy downhill trail? There is at least one good length natural track that I thought they might use but glad they didn’t!
Definitely not 50:50 though.
Were there not 6 or 7 stages last year think you used stages 2,3 and 4 the same can’t remember the rest apart from shredder/ omega man finish which the top riders were landing very flat on- mind you nico vouilloz turned up.
Any more videos floating around?

Is there a list of the other stages (i.e 2,3,4)?
I only ask as on the website it said the stages were a 50-50 mix of man made and natural stuff. I know Ae pretty well so interested to hear where all this ‘natural stuff’ is?

Downhill course in the wet for non-downhillers would have bene an interesting spectacle, even with the main obstacles removed.

We used to hire bikes from him as a club as there was no alternative hire shop. rarely got even a smile. we returned broken bikes nearly every time we returned the bikes including crank arms falling off, broken chains, and the constant brake pads disintegrating. all were apparently our fault which I could believe if we were treating them badly but we only rode around the trails and were careful. told them where to shove it on more than one occasion. never bought anything from them.
thankfully not living even in the same country anymore. surprised to hear he is still in business. go somewhere else for bike bits

We did the full loop including but instead of going 3 to 4 in balfa’s link we went for the bridleway further east (the other red line on balfa’s link on the far right) as we had heard it was boggy 3 to 4. It was a long push up maybe an hours worth. The descent down the other side was pretty good. Great cafe at the bottom which is the one mentioned above by mrmichael- the blue river maybe?

Here is a thread from a while ago I keep linking to:
sligachan loop

The out and back for the good bits, the full loop for the epic bit! Pick a good day for added pleasure

Another emergency tax coder here. Looking forward to a nice bonus off the tax man!

Helped to Marshall a mtb race this morning and then took my first look at drumlanrigs trails. I will be going back. Those roots look like they would make a good ride in the wet!

Some good stories. It was the fact it all happened within a minute of starting the ride. Left work early to get the ride in aswell. Just been for a dog walk so all is right again.

Bring on the weekend!

Would need to get a map out to confirm route but cat bells- honister- great gable- scafell- glaramara- seatoller was a long day out in the lakes.

In Snowdonia llyn ogwen- tryfan- glyders- tryfan before breakfast with some brilliant scrambles then pen yr ole wen (i think- opposite tryfan?) loop finishing with a swim in a lake.

Just get a map out and keep walking. Probably more options for the lakes

Used to live just outside Reading but worked there at weekends.
Lots going on, plenty of choices for living, playing, etc… Like any large town or city there are good and bad places to live as said above. Oxford Road just avoid, unless somehow they have knocked it down and rebuilt it with a police station at every corner!

Too many people, takes ages to get anywhere at any time, but especially bad for rush hour. Public transport links are good, but they cost too much to use so not really a good alternative to the car. Car parking is definitely an issue for weekend town centre parking, don’t know about residential permits though.

Left for uni about 7 years ago, and now live in Scotland. I don’t like big towns or cities, so living up here I have space, no congestion and lots and lots of really good riding which I don’t have to share the trails with if I want some away time. If I was returning I would be looking outside Reading for living to avoid the issues above.

Wouldn’t say I hated living in the Reading area, but I’m not going to rush back! Scotland is just too good (as long as you don’t mind the long distances between places)!

Trekster is a dumfries man but rides regularly all over the place and is the man in the know for all the trails in the area (and will probably be along shortly). In terms of clubs you are probably best looking at dalbeattie hardrock or the galloway hillbillies they are the 2 closest to you that I know of. Not sure whether the hillbillies are still a club but saw a few club shirts last year so they must be out your way somewhere. Dalbeattie is a road and mtb club no prizes for where they are based!

There are a few other individuals on here that ride Kirroughtree a couple of times a month but dont think they are ‘locals!’

But if you are over in dumfries we will show you around now that you are a local!

Coud it possibly be related to chainline or chain tension as it seems strange that the freehub and cranks spin freely on their own? Either that or how tight are you doing up the qr skewer you may have done something to the bearings although if its hope they are probably sealed and just clutching at straws here? I wouldnt start taking it apart if its only 4 weeks old if there is something wrong with the hub take it back to the shop and get them to check it.

Good luck!

All you need to know you should find on these 2 pages about adjusting cones:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/cone-adjustment.html
http://www.bikemagic.com/maintenance/adjust-your-cones/3318.html

They say it better than I can but basically you need 2 very narrow spanners and turn against each other to prevent them working loose as you are experiencing. There should be a cup and cone set on each side try adjusting the one that keeps coming loose first but you may have to adjust the other one aswell. Slightly trial and error too make it perfect- we are talking fractions of a turn. Can get fiddly but such a common problem on these hubs you will be happy to figure it out!

Let me know how you get on!

If you were willing to spend 300 then ae7 bikes were selling American classic all mountain sets but they are out of stock. might be worth trying them if you are able to wait?
http://www.ae7.com/american-classic-all-mountain-26-disc-wheelset-p1419

tom- sounds like one of the cones is loose might need to take the axle out and tighten it with a vice or two cone scanners. tightening one side as you are doing will never fix it and you will end up either overtightening and blow the bearings or leaving loose and causing more damage. take it to your lbs its maybe a 10 minute job to figure out if that is the problem. Could be other things but start with that assuming it comes apart like a shimano hub?

Can’t make a morning ride as working 11 til about 12.30
If you want to make it an afternoon ride I could be there around 1ish? Depends what you have got for numbers. Will probably still go even if it is my own gotta meet the new mechanic in the shop at some point.

Was hoping to get out there myself this weekend but may have to work- boo!
Will forward this on to a few people that might be interested who are not stw’ers. Will hopefully get out to ae later on might see you at the omega man.

Don’t worry Simon I know mabie well enough just don’t know if the diversions mean getting round some bits would drop you out in closed off areas. Might be at ae next weekend aswell there are a couple of tracks there that are not on the regular red route! Not quite as many options though!

Local sawmill here. Used to be 5 quid a bag any size. Take along some building sand bags and fill up the car. Gone up this year to 10 quid a bag but still good value! Then find some neighbours cutting down some hardwood trees buy them a few drinks and leave wood to mature.

More of a rider than climber. Managed to get as far as leading VS multipitch but not been getting much done recently. A few years back I did a lot of the harder scrambles and long mountaineering routes but strangely since i moved to Scotland I havnt had a regular climbing partner to go climbing with. At least with mtb you can just pick up th bike and go. I dont like climbing or even bouldering outside on my own. Hoping this summer i will get out a bit more!

Sorry I missed it I had a few things on today. Maybe next time. How severe ae the diversions at mabie? No pics of secrets wood there is that closed off atm?

According to uplift Scotland there was no snow this morning- they will be back again tomorrow. As simon said its raining here in dumfries forecast is not showing any snow if that is what you are asking. Trail conditions were good a few weeks back. Could always ring the bike shop between 9 and 5 tomorrow and ask them? No. is 01387 860541

Turn upside down in vice with bearing on top. Hit through on the axle and bearing will pop off top. This is all much easier with the tools. Can be pretty easy to cause some damage so take it easy putting it back together. Watch a few videos make sure you put it all back in in the right order

Well done its not easy. Unfortunately you have now ticked off the longest scramble in the uk. I would suggest taking a look at the routes on the north face of ben Nevis next. I found some of the scrambling sections on tower ridge pretty tough and it took us 5 hours a few days after completing the cuillin ridge. Observatory ridge is harder but there is so much loose rock that we struggled to enjoy it as much as tower ridge. Other than that you could try doing 2 or 3 of the scrambling routes on buachaille etive mor in glencoe and link them up by downclimbing say curved or crowberry ridge. Gives a good day out.
Was scrambling in the lakes today and there is still some ice on the rocks (well it was a ghyll scramble).

Another bump for this in case anyone missed it last week, and in case people are looking at Alan’s history and thinking it might not be real. I can assure you Alan is a real person working for Scottish Cycling- all the local clubs (road and MTB) in the region have been working hard with Alan to put this series together!

This is the first year for the series taking in many disciplines including MTB XC, Open road racing, closed circuit racing, time trials and grasstrack racing designed to boost the standard of racers from the local area.
If you have any questions, feel free to email either of us. Entries are available now through the website link in Alan’s post.

Looks like it might be vertigo. Has anyone got any pics or video? I only did the bottom link but we had seen the obvious line further up the hill but one of our group wasn’t keen so we only did the bottom part while she went down the road.

200 switchbacks!? Did a trail near briancon that had over a 100 I think but your mind starts to melt!

I want to go back again this year but my mates are doing the Megavalanche- not really my kind of riding. Much prefer to stay away from the crowds not ride in the middle of them!

Has to be the one day I spent near verbier a few years back. If there are any Verbier area specialists on the forum could they tell me if there is a name for the trail south of Lourtier below ‘Le Tongne’ and ‘Le tailon’ (i think this is the trail we rode but it was a few years ago now)? We only did the small link between the roads but that was a cracking trail. Been trying to find out for years what it was called (if anything), and we never took any pictures or video of it but it is possibly my most enjoyable piece of technical trail riding I have [attempted] to do.
Don’t think it ranks tough among some of the other trails mentioned here, but the hardest section of trail I have attempted to ride.

Done the ridge over 2 days with ropes. The climbs although technically not difficult and given v. diff grades are highly polished and the squeeze out of the td gap with a rucksack is usually undignified. While we were using ropes at one point (easy climb but big exposure before the td gap) a guy actually solo climbed past us. He joined a pair in front and used their rope when climbing the kings chimney- lucky he was as he pulled off a hold and pendulumed into the rock about 10metres below (yes – below!) His belayer who could do nothing while the guy was screaming. We didnt see him fall but heard the screams. We got to the bottom of kings chimney about 30mins later by which time mountain rescue had turned up! The guy was still screaming and his belayer was still in the same spot and was obviously unable to tie off his partner and free himself from the belay. We had to wait until it was all cleared up about an hour after the initial fall. Turns out he had shattered his leg.

Just a warnih that although a lot of the rock is grippy there is always loose rock for feet and handholds. I am also told that some of the rock gets very slippy in the wet although I have no experience of this.

Worth googling as I think one of the cuillin guides had put up a pdf of useful equipment. We used a Harvey map and the associated route in a guide book as you standard OS map is a black mess of crags. Not a route for beginners but as mentioned above there are day routes involving the easier parts of the ridge which give a good taste for how it feels.

Enjoy it. One of my best mountaineering weekends

Please do something more technical than the riverside trail at Ae

There are other bits of the riverside trail that are more interesting (but may not be suitable for racing)! I guess you understand the problem though Rik- making it easy enough for the youngsters but still fun enough to provide some challenge for the older riders. Seeing as this series is being used to promote grass roots racing the course will probably be on the easier side than what more experienced xc riders would like.
Mabie route is ideal as we just added on a bit extra to add a challenge for the older racers.

At ae if we could use the bottom part of Rab’s as a descent then the old line from the Enduro race last year would offer a shortcut that would reward those riders with some technique, and the rest can come down the easier, but slightly longer way. There are a couple of other options around there that I will try and take a look at after work tomorrow. I can think of a few really good bits of track at Ae but they are in the wrong place or can’t be linked up to anything but fireroad.

I will have to make a visit to Drumlanrig before the race and take a look- it is so close and yet I still havn’t ridden there!

Cheers for putting up those links john. I have one idea for ae that I will take a look at on saturday and report back to Alan. Apparently gibb had some ideas but I don’t know what they were. As it stands ae will host two mtb races so ideally need 2 different courses.
Sorry for hijacking the thread a little.
Ae is looking good at the moment especially while there is a lot of work on at mabie. The course seems to hold up well in most weather aswell even in the snow last month! Plenty of events going on this year too!

Richmtb- I am out at the moment on my phone but will send you the website later. It is short course racing so 10-15 minute laps. It is part of a 25 race series covering road racing, xc mtb, and grass track with all the local clubs and Scottish cycling. It is aimed to encourage younger riders so the courses will not be too technical to encourage road riders to try mtb and mtb riders to try road. The grass track racing sounds like it will be a good laugh!
We think we have a good route for mabie. Other mtb races are at ae heathall and drumlanrig.

Agreed. Some great new sections and talking with the same guy trekster talked to there is likely to be more work done very soon. It’s a shame the volunteer trail builders havnt been able to get back out but I think that will change at some point.
After many attempts I finally cleared the face climb over the weekend but the steps at the top nearly got me!

John- I will have to show you the route we have laid out for mabie for the xc race. We think we have a really good course suitable for all ages. It involves the causeway for the older riders but then a good loop on the walking paths near the ghost stane. Now just need to get it stamped for approval and figure out the course for ae. Thinking up the fireroad and down rabs maybe taking in the footpath next to the river.

Simple Aldi and lidl cheese and tomato and then add your own topping if you have to have supermarket pizza.
although the best are homemade pizzas from scratch. add prosciutto ham chorizo and chopped hot dogs and you have restaurant quality. costs about 3 quid a pizza but by far the best. big pizzas so eat hot for dinner and cold pizza for lunch the next day.