Riding the 7Stanes
Flanders85
Posts: 2
New here, so hope this is the right place for this.
Me and a mate,both with hardtail bikes, were looking at riding the 7Stanes after we finish exams at the end of july. We had planned to do it last year, but it just didn't happen!
Anyway, i am just looking for any advice on how best to go about doing all 8 of the routes, in about 10/14 days if anyone has done this before, but prefereably without the use of a car(so any advice on getting between them all would be really helpful, as i've found many of the travel sites really unhelpful, especially on the carriage of bikes!), as we are travelling up from the west country and getting the train up to Scotland(if we can help it!).
We have limited trail experience but have quite a bit of cycling experience, are any of the trails likely to be best avoided?
Regards
Joe
Me and a mate,both with hardtail bikes, were looking at riding the 7Stanes after we finish exams at the end of july. We had planned to do it last year, but it just didn't happen!
Anyway, i am just looking for any advice on how best to go about doing all 8 of the routes, in about 10/14 days if anyone has done this before, but prefereably without the use of a car(so any advice on getting between them all would be really helpful, as i've found many of the travel sites really unhelpful, especially on the carriage of bikes!), as we are travelling up from the west country and getting the train up to Scotland(if we can help it!).
We have limited trail experience but have quite a bit of cycling experience, are any of the trails likely to be best avoided?
Regards
Joe
0
Comments
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Kirroughtree is my favourite of the 7 Stanes (mainly the red) but I love Innerleithen XC too. Personally I think Glentress is overrated (don't tell anyone I said that though!)
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/achs-5rnf8m
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-5S4F4P0 -
What 8 routes are you referring too? Do you mean 8 trail Centers?
There is a lot more then 8 trail routes in the whole 7stanes trail network (Glentress has 6 trails alone)
The various 7Stanes trail centers are spread over the south of Scotland, with some grouped together. But without personal transport or some sort of guided tour, although possible, it will be tricky to easily ride "all" the centers while keeping to a low budget, as some are in out of the way locations with out direct public transport links.
The map on this site will give you an idea of the various trail centers locations relative to each other around Scotland.
http://www.scottishmountainbike.com/
And obliviously the official 7stanes site has everything you need to know.
http://www.7stanes.gov.uk/
Glentress and Innerleithen are very close to each other. I highly recommend riding both.
Dalbeattie , Mabie and Ae are all in the same area ( Near Dumfries ). Each of these have there own feel, that complement each other. Also recommend riding them all.
Kirroughtree is around 1 hour by car west from Dumfries. Could be my own personal favorite off all the 7stanes, well worth the effort to get there.
Newcastleton is on the boarder, but i have yet to ride it.
Glentrool. from what i know is aimed at beginners and family's, so i have also not been to this center.
All the centers have near by accommodations, to suit all budgets, and facilitys are often aimed at Mountain bikers ( some might even offer offer transportation to the trail head).0 -
Hi,
Me and my brother stayed at at a place just outside of Dumfries in february. We rode 3 of the 7 stanes, Dalbeattie, Ae and Mabie.
We were very lucky to get a lift off one of the members of this forum, Trailpuppet. He took us to Dalbeattie and Ae which definitely would have been a big trek riding all that way aswell as riding the actual trails! Maybe he can help you out?
We made our own way to Mabie and then did the trail there and started our journey back. After a few minutes though my brother was exhausted from all the riding, feeling sick and faint. We ended up getting a lift from a kind stranger! At the time we were both quite limited in our trail experience and fitness, it was a really exhausting but fun few days.
So I guess it depends how fit your both are, the trails there were amazing and definitely worth travelling for. If you have a couple of weeks there you could spread the riding out more, maybe spending a day riding to the trail centre, next day riding it, next day riding to the next trail centre etc. I wouldnt recommend riding 10/15 miles to get there, then riding a very hard technical 15mile trail, then having a journey back!
You could get in touch with some of the bike shops there and maybe arrange travel with them if they have a van or something. The 7 stanes website has info on the cycle routes into the trail centres.
Hope that is some help!0
