Glentress red vs black

mr mangos

Afternoon all,

I'm a semi-regular on the red route at Glentress. No problems there. Not the fastest rider but not the slowest either.

Question is, what can I expect on the black route? The reason I ask is I've seen lots of pics of what looks like fantastic singletrack but the last time I was there I thought I'd try a black section. I think it was 'the bitch' and consisted of quite large rocks snaking down a pretty steep chute with a wooden fence halfway down (which I met with quite hard). I don't know how you could ride the thing without dragging your brakes all the way. It was not fun.

Have I just managed to pick the hardest part of the black route or is the whole route this difficult? Can I just go for it?

FAT_ROB

Hi

Not sure what bit your talking about there, with the fence half way down, but all the same

I have ridden both routes and can honestly say the black run is just as fantastic as the red, The last time I did it visibility was atrocious and it was blowing a gale, but we still managed to have fun.

It's probably 80% plus singletrack I can't remember any prolonged sections of fire road (think the longest was probably 1/2 a mile linking sections together)

The climbing is a lot harder than the red route and there are some tricky technical sections, but on the whole if you can style out the red route the black should be a good test.

I always wear pads on the black run, basicaly because being further away from 'safety' I would hate to do mslef the sort of hop back to base bruised knee style injury.

There are some good flowy descents and one or two hang onto your back brake and hope sections but usual have a look and assess first rules mean you can avoid the worst of it.

Oh and there is also Ewok village, I think you can get to this from the red route its a nice little north shore section which comes just at the point where I for one was getting a little knackered.

get out there and give it ago it definatly is FUN!!!

trailstaron

Hi there, I know the section you mean, I think its called Black Dog and it comes before the Wormhole and the excellent Magic Mushroom - it is one of the most challenging sections on the black run. The steepness and rocks put people off, but if you're confident and comitted it shouldn't be a problem.

It's possible to do a red alternative to this section, and I know some people who take it despite riding the entire rest of the black route.

The next section - the Wormhole - looks tricky too to start with, but once you roll over the rocks into it, it's actually quite a nice tight technical section.

The rest of the black route is pretty well described by Fat_Rob and should give you an enjoyable, more challenging ride than the red. The black is basically more naturally surfaced, whereas the red is just more 'surfaced'