7 Stanes advice please

mounty

Having read through the 7 stanes site, they all just look really good. I have done quite a lot around Fort William and I love the Laggan Wolftrax, but.....

I am in the process of planning a trip up to the 7 stanes in September.

A couple of questions...

1. Is it worth visiting ALL of them ?

2. I usually do the RED routes without any problems, I have a Stumpjumper HT, would this be suitable for the majority of them ?

Cheers

The Northern Monkey

Def visit glentress....that place is epic. The red is easy on a HT, so you'd be fine

switchback18

A hardtail will do fine for any red route. I only had an XC hardtail when I lived up that way, and it coped easily with the red trails and the black bits at Dalbeattie.

For me, the order of goodness, best first, is:

Kirroughtree - red is awesome, blue is fun. Never got to ride McMoab (black) but it's amazing by all acounts
Glentress/Dalbeattie - I think Dalbeattie is very underated
Ae - a bit different to the others, but still great
Mabie - OK, but the red seems all uphill!
Newcastleton - the red is like blue and the blach sections on the red route are too easy to be black. Mabie & Newcastleton are still nice places to ride, it's just that the others are so good they spoil you!

Route grading varies from centre to centre. At certain places a red might be graded mainly because the route is long, at other centres it will be short but much more technical. I'd say that the 7stanes reds are the most technical, some of the Welsh ones next, and other places can be a bit random.

Not ridden Glentrool, but it's long family trails.

miss notax

We're off to Mabie and Dalbeattie next week (and then all of them in June) so it was good to read your comments!

I've been MTBing for about 18 months and i'm hoping that i'm going to cope with the red routes ok!

mounty

Cheers for the info so far, I have to admit I am really looking forward to riding the 7 stanes.

Next, I need to have a look at accommodation etc. I will be taking the camping gear, but will look at alternatives too as I dont want to spend the entire trip in a tent ! :shock:

Dunk_911

[quote="Not ridden Glentrool, but it's long family trails.[/quote]

I rode both glentrool routes this winter, I wouldn't say its family trails, just not technical but it is a long ride it took about 4 hours (I broke a cleat) for the 60k loop. The shorter one is rated blue, i think so i decided to do it in the dark and it took me 40 minutes for the 8 or 9k. The long route is a good training ride with some good ascents and great views of Merrik which is miles from any road (paved or otherwise), a good ride if you like that sort of thing.

I also rode at Dalbeatie which was good, nice singletrack but not really chalenging on the climbs.

My favorite was either Kirroughtree or Mabie, though I ride a carbon HT so tend to take it a bit easy on the big stuff! If you have a FS then AE is supposed to be good.

Dunk.

dave_hill

mounty wrote:

A couple of questions...

1. Is it worth visiting ALL of them ?

Yes, definitely. They all ahve different characters, although Glentrool is pretty tame. Newcastleton often gets overlooked too, but it's short and compact with LOTS of boardwalk sections.

mounty wrote:

2. I usually do the RED routes without any problems, I have a Stumpjumper HT, would this be suitable for the majority of them ?

I'd say so. I prefer a hardtail for trail centre riding, though I have SubZero which is long and slack so it's ideally suited to this sort of riding.

Be aware with Kirroughtree though that the Northern section (i.e. McMoab, Talnotry Hill and Black Craigs) is all black graded and IMHO it's the best bit. You could spend all day on the McMoab section just sessioning it.

craighudson

I would recommend the 2 of these as a must do on a hardtail, they are amazing, GT has a great Black route graded on length as it is fairly long and I have done it many time on my Kinesis hardtail, lots of climbs and deliverence is to die for... Ae has an excellent red route which just flows from start to finish with a fininsh section that will have you grinning all the way home. Enjoy.

Be sure to try the plain flapjacks at GT. best ones I have ever tasted, Ever.

rudedog

If you stay in Dumfries you will have Mabie literally on your doorstep (10mins), Dalbeattie and Ae less than 30mins away. Kirroughtree less than an hour and Glentrool, Glentress, Innerleithen and Newcastleton all taking around 1.5 hours travel time.

counterculture

craighudson wrote:

.

Be sure to try the plain flapjacks at GT. best ones I have ever tasted, Ever.

No way the fruit and nut flapjacks are far better than the plain.

lucieandpaul

Why not check out the guys at

http://www.thebreakpad.com/

They have great accomodation in Castle Douglas, which is 10min to Dalbeattie, 15min to Mabie, 40min to Kirroughtree, and 60min to Glentrool

The Break Pad also run the bike shop at Kirroughtree, and organise bike and rider transport to the best and most inaccessable rides.

Id recommend Mabie for sheer difference in trails. The red route is challenging, and the skills parks are the best ive used.

The Orange Park there is challenging even for the best rider with the most expensive bikes.

Ive seen so many wipeout there, some people just go to watch the spills!