Ayrshire rides??

GMARS70970

Does anyone know of any rides around the ayrshire area?
Looking for something to improve my fitness levels and enjoy a some offroading after work, so I can actually enjoy the 7stanes without my fitness letting me down!!!
Anything appreciated

woodywmb

There are tracks either side of Darvel, Whitelee Forest to the north (although it's been worked on by Scottish Power and half of it is out of bounds) and Lanfine Estate woods to the south. Carrick Forest around Dalmellington has a full range of trails from singletrack to tarred C roads running alongside Loch Doon. Above Largs and up towards Greenock there is Loch Thom with the Greenock Cut and Kelly Cut tracks, also Leapmoor Forest at Wemyss Bay. In Irvine, the Beach Park has some easy but enjoyable tracks. The River Ayr at Auchincruive has a tiny skills area. Muirshiel Park above Lochwinnoch has some desolate cross country paths on the route of the old Duchal Moor railway. New Cumnock has a few tracks near Afton Reservoir and more between Corsencon Hill and Glespin. Sanquhar has paths along the Euchan Water to Polskeoch Bothy (Southern Upland Way) and beyond. Barr, Straiton and Dailly all have paths, eventually leading into the Galloway Forest. Try Drumlanrig for dedicated MTB trails or Ae forest for downhilling. Glentrool , just south of South Ayrshire, has an easy MTB route through the trees and an all-day CTC created route on fire trails and farm lanes, Check out the relevant OS maps or www.walkerscycling.co.uk (cycling club section).

GMARS70970

Thanks for that, had heard there were some rides over the Largs area but most of the others were new to me, i'll need to give it a shot.
I know the trails wont be waymarked but are they pretty easy to spot? I forgot Walkers cycling have a trails page, I actually bought my new Cube from them.

woodywmb

Thought Cube came from Walkers. Routes can be found on OS maps of Ayrshire, Harry Henniker's 101 Mountain Bike Routes book, Bikefax,Southern Scotland book, Out There on Bikes by Renfrewshire Council and on the following sites:

http://www.cycle-route.com/routes/Scotl ... tes-1.html

http://www.bikely.com/

http://www.geocities.com/wheehamx/mbkeymap2.html

The last one has some tortured routes - but they're different! Someone's put a lot of work into the site although the mapping needs to be configured on OS maps.

GMARS70970

Some one has definately put a lot of effort into: http://www.geocities.com/wheehamx/mbkeymap2.html

New years resolution to get out on the bike more, so if you you see a cube rider out off breath localy be sure & say hi.

Thanks