Innerleithen XC Route Trailwork

As part of Phase 2 of the 7stanes Project we were able to add a couple of new sections of singletrack to the XC route at Innerleithen. One of these sections, 'Oh Deer' enabled us to bypass the most technical sections of Plora Craig and make the whole route Red graded (with part of the old Plora Craig becoming a black graded option).

The other section comes straight after the first descent off Minch Moor at the summit of the route and links in to the 'Enduro Path'. This new section enabled the previous natural climb back up to near the Minch Moor summit and boggy descent following, to be removed from the route and added a really fun new section of descending trail, making the climb to the top more worthwhile and the route more complete.

These 2 additions made an already very good route even better and make the Innerleithen XC trail an excellent alternative to the Red Route at Glentress. It's a similar distance with similar amount of climbing involved, but a little more challenging thanks mainly to the frequent rock features. I'd highly recommend it - as well as some brilliant riding, the views from the top are stunning and it's much quieter than Glentress.

On Wednesday myself and Andy Weir (fellow mtb ranger) were up on the section on Minch Moor doing some maintenance work. The first job was to make a rock step feature approx 3/4 along the trail more 'rollable' (as it's on the main line of the trail). The second was digging out a blocked topside drain and pipe which had badly silted up resulting in a pretty substancial puddle on the trail.

Rock step before..

Rock step after.. (still as 'huckable' as ever, just now more rollable too)

Blocked topside drains/pipe and muckle puddle!



Pipe unblocked, topside drains dug out, puddle mostly gone.

We got both jobs done just in time to catch the most stunning sunset i've seen in a while.



cheers,

andy

News from Ae

Trail Demons Wanted!

If you have some spare time and are willing to help out please phone 01387 860541 and add your name to the growing list of volunteers joining the trail building team at Ae. Lots of work coming up, dates to follow soon.

Ae Halloween Bash,  Friday 30th October

Family fun, games and spooky goings on at Ae Forest! Get your costumes and your bikes ready. A great range of demo lights from Light and Motion will be available to try out, with a group of bikers leaving Ae Café at 7pm for a ride around the green route (watch out for the ghost of Ae!).

Ae café and bar will be open till 9pm with the usual tasty offerings as well as a Halloween spaghetti bolognaise special (in adults/kids portions). Dooking for apples, prizes for fancy dress and lots more for bikers and non bikers alike.

Dining Nights at Ae

the popular dining nights will be starting again at Ae in November. The first offering will be on 6th November, menu will go on the website www.ae7.co.uk in due course and booking is essential for these sell out nights.

Ae Downhill Team

Congratulations to all the Ae team riders on an impressive first season. Highlights were Ryan Chambers winning the SDA at Dunkeld and getting podium finishes in the NPS races at Ae and Fort William. We’re expecting big things from him next year!

Ryan finished 4th overall in the Scottish Series, Callum “Cub” McCubbing came 10th overall in juniors and Lewis Cochrane finished 28th in seniors. Well done to all the lads and their bright orange Ae Team tops are part of the circuit now.

Swedish trailbuilders visit to Glentress

Last week we had the pleasure of showing 3 visitors from Sweden the trails at Glentress and Innerleithen 7stanes centres. Niklas, Per and Erik are part of a trailbuilding group that are developing mtb trails at Falun in Sweden so were keen to learn about how we build and maintain the trails here as well as getting plenty of riding in.

Cue lots of riding, big smiles and plenty of trailbuilding chat. I think they really enjoyed the trails and their visit.

They've done a write up on their blog including an article with some beautiful pictures of the trails (which proves the sun does shine in Scotland sometimes!).

Here's a link to it translated from Swedish:

http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=sv&js=y&u=http%3A%2F%2Flugnetmtb.blogspot.com%2F&sl=sv&tl=en&history_state0=

The translation's a little wonky but still absolutely readable, oh and “stigbyggarskola” means “trail building school”, “leads” or “joints” means “trails”.

cheers,

andy

Electric Blue Flyover Bridge Reopen

Mark (fellow MTB Ranger at Glentress) managed to get a new layer of grip paint onto the Flyover bridge on Saturday and Sunday before the rain came on Monday and Tuesday.

Ideal!

The bridge is now open for business once more with a super grippy surface, ready for the wetter weather autumn and winter will no doubt throw at us. I also did a bit of loose stone clearing on the runout from the bridge whilst up taking the diversion down.

Next up on the grip painting front - the log skinnies on Cardie Hill Climb. Aiming to have these completed and open before Christmas.

Get your uplift on

Uplift Scotland will be running their uplift service for the downhill/freeride trails at Innerleithen almost every weekend from now up to Christmas (weather dependent of course!). There's never been a better chance to get downhilling on the world renowned Innerleithen trails.

See the Uplift Scotland website for dates, all the info and to book on line. Dates for uplifts at Ae are there too.

U16's Mini Spooky Downhill event at Innerleithen

I'm convinced short course downhill racing where riders race down a short 1-2 min course and push up to the start, has a bright future. These types of races are an excellent way to develop the grassroots of the sport and introduce more people to downhill racing.

So I was stoked to find out about an upcoming event at Innerleithen being organised by Innerleithen MTB Racing and Scottish Cycling - an U16's Mini Downhill Race on Sat 31st October (where the Spooky bit comes in!).

It's a great opportunity for young un's to try downhill racing and even better, Scottish Cycling will be providing coaching on the course in the morning before the racing.

For all the info and how to enter go to www.innerleithenmtbracing.com

The Mini DH event is just one of many happening during the upcoming Tweed Valley Forest Festival which runs from 23rd Oct to 1st Nov. www.forest-festival.com has all the info.

Ladies stylin' it up at Air Maiden

Air Maiden, the UK's only womens only Freeride event was back at Glentress at the weekend for the second year and was a huge success.

Lots of ladies developing their skills and getting some sweet air on the trails in the Freeride Park.

Read all about it at www.airmaiden.co.uk

Grip tastic!

Just a quickie - the 2 log skinnies (balance beams) on Dougie Bank Climb at Glentress we had closed recently to replace the rabbit netting with grip paint, are now reopen! Mark (fellow mtb ranger) did a super neat job with the paint roller.

With the High pressure sitting over the UK and resulting forecast of fair weather I had pencilled in a whole lot more grip painting this week. Make hay whilst the sun shines (or atleast rain doesn't fall) and all that.

A good start to this Monday and Tuesday has been slightly tempered by overnight rain. Hopefully though, we should get the Flyover bridge on Electric Blue aswell as some of the timber trails on the Essentials Freeride painted and reopened by the weekend - if the weather gods go easy on us..

Yesterday we got the riding surface of the Flyover bridge scrubbed and cleaned off with water - once dry we can get the paint on and it should key really well. Look out for a very short diversion on Electric Blue whilst we have the bridge closed.