Worst 5 trails in the UK

weescott

What is rubbish to me might be great to someone else but my list of trails I won't go back to in a hurry are:

1: Whinlatter - Where is the flow?
2: Epping Forest - miserable locals and no challenge.
3: Cwm Rhaeadr - Red? More like a Blue at best and too short. You are meant to ride itwice but really, don't bother!
4: Chicksands - the most over rated location with out a doubt!
5: Marin Trail - Fire road climb. zzzz, smalll piece of singletrack....fireroad climb...zzzzz

Noel PT

Weescott, your one of those "the glass is half empty" sort of people aren't you?

Northwind

I can only manage 2...

2) Ae- not so much that it's terrible, some bits are very nice and some bits are decent, but it spreads those good bits out so much that you forget about them by the end. But mainly, it's just down the road from Mabie, Drumlanrig and Dalbeattie plus loads of good natural trails so I'd have to be mentally deficient to go back

1) Official 10 Under the Ben route at Fort William. NOT the actual race route, which takes in loads of the world cup XC route, no... The one that's signposted all year round, that has an epic fireroad loop for no reason, a horrible climb, fireroad descents, about 2 good bits several miles apart, and all the good bits could be incorporated easily into the world cup lap. What a waste of time.

But mostly I only ride good places

popstar

1) Y Wall at Afan, as it is these days simply not worth riding it, long fire-road climb rewarded with very little exciting riding ... agree there is some nice feautures but simply put it, better head to Whites or Skyline.
2) Kirroughtree red XC trail ... is just an average heavily re-inforced trail, can't even carve the line properly, suppose it is built this way to withstand Scottish rain.

Didn't ride as much as others but this is my 2p worth.

Northwind

Heh. everyone raves about kirroughtree but you're right, the red is pretty uninspired, an awful lot of dead trail in it. It does have good bits though, the last section back to the car park is lovely though don't you think?

popstar

The last section is nice, but I had to drive to that part of Scotland from Aviemorre for bloody 5 hours and it just didn't click my expectation boxes. Reminded me of Cwmcarn Twrch trail which IMO is better as it is all climb, then mad descent.
Would love to come back to Kirry and ride Black trail though, couldn't do it on a day as it went dark only managed to squeeze Red trail and next day it was a heavy rain. I can't cheat myself though, as I preffer either Central Highlands Scotland (Laggan Wolftrax) or North Highlands for wild and truly amazing riding.

jay12

chicksands as one of the worst trails in britain :shock: :shock: :shock:

supersonic

It depends what you are after. Some hate very rocky, technical rides as it feels slow and laboursome. Some hate less technical, but long sweeping trails. But many like both - some just love speed and finding traction limits.

Northwind

popstar wrote:

The last section is nice, but I had to drive to that part of Scotland from Aviemorre for bloody 5 hours and it just didn't click my expectation boxes. Reminded me of Cwmcarn Twrch trail which IMO is better as it is all climb, then mad descent.
Would love to come back to Kirry and ride Black trail though, couldn't do it on a day as it went dark only managed to squeeze Red trail and next day it was a heavy rain.

Yep, that'd be disappointing... We did the red by itself one day (we did the red and black the day before and planned to go up to Drum but it was pissing down and nobody wanted to ride the Roots Of Death in the rain ) and it was OK, but you must have had high expectations too because we all bang on about KT all the time. Going there and not doing McMoab would do my head in.

If you ever find yourself there again with limited time, there's a carpark on the A712 right at the other end of the trail from the official car park, you can start up heartbreak hill, do the black and end at McMoab. Or start at McMoab for that matter, it's a short fireroad ride back though I wouldn't want to start from cold on McMoab.

But, as part of the whole route it does work and I'd feel sad to miss it on a KT trip- as part of a bigger ride it's a nice mellow loop with occasionally interesting bits.

weescott

Ae I quite liked. The singletrack at the end is amazing. Mabie on the other hand I found quite boring. Maybe I was too tired that day as I was doing the small drop offs with my eyes shut :shock: Haven't ridden Kirouightree red. I might give it a miss.

And yes Chicksands is in my book one of the worst destinations in the UK. It might be ok for the South of England but when you look at the UK as a whole it just sucks donkey balls.

I didn't rate Y Wall at Afan that highly either. Whites level is awesome though. Best in South Wales IMO.

weescott

supersonic wrote:

It depends what you are after. Some hate very rocky, technical rides as it feels slow and laboursome. Some hate less technical, but long sweeping trails. But many like both - some just love speed and finding traction limits.

very true

e.g: The people who like the Marin trail tend to be XC wippets. As much as I don't like marketing cliche's it marks true when recommending trails to people. There isn't jut a general mountainbiking category anymore.

angry_bird

Personally I don't think I've found a trail I don't like, each one offers something different and I like a bit of variety, this summer we did a tour of the 7 stanes, day 2 was dalbeattie and day 4 was kirroughtree, both very different but both very fun, we even did the big country loop around glentrool and loved that too. Just have to work out how to get the best out of the trails

rudedog

ouchthathurts wrote:

Personally I don't think I've found a trail I don't like, each one offers something different and I like a bit of variety, this summer we did a tour of the 7 stanes, day 2 was dalbeattie and day 4 was kirroughtree, both very different but both very fun, we even did the big country loop around glentrool and loved that too. Just have to work out how to get the best out of the trails

Good answer

wordnumb

Birmingham Bullring is the worst trailcentre I've ridden. No flow, shoppers constantly getting in the way, expensive car parking.

RevellRider

The Nottingham canal's towpath rates up there as the worst I've rode.

It's flat and technically unchallenging. At the weekends it's over run with ducks too, you can't go anywhere above 5mph.

beanieripper

Tarw at coed y brenin, no flow at all and just felt like lots of bits bodged together in a half arsed fashion...

roger_merriman

supersonic wrote:

It depends what you are after. Some hate very rocky, technical rides as it feels slow and laboursome. Some hate less technical, but long sweeping trails. But many like both - some just love speed and finding traction limits.

yup, I see groups going around Richmond Park, now you can (and I do) ride a road bike on that off road trail it's so tame.

i couldn't imagine anything more boring But plenty think differently.

carbonfiend

Epping Forest is fantastic and if you cant see why I'm not telling ya

lawman

sherwood pines and thetford forest are the worst ive rode in the last year, the fact that thetford is in parts classed as "black" is a joke. both are xc course for super fit people.

abductee

Nottingham canal - it's not all bad. At least you can practice your bunny hops over the unconscious cider drinkers.

shm_uk

Best/worst trail is a very personal thing, but for me the worst trail I've ridden to date is the Raven at Brechfa...

Whinlatter is (so far) one of my favourites.

stumpyjon

Llandegla is the worst I've ridden, doesn't mean it's bad, still a lot better than the proverbial canal towpath. Gisburn used to be pretty rubbish until we got to grips with it 8) .

el loco pollo

Laggan was a bit of a disappointment, we were expecting it to be sick to the power of rad but it was no more gnarly than any of our local South Wales trails. Even that cheeseboard of death thing everyone bangs on about wasn't anything special, there are parts on skyline that are much gnarlier to the rad sick. I'm not saying Laggan was bad though, we did have a good time.

popstar

I would disagree about Laggan. It may not be as flowy as Skyline but boy do those rock gardens challenge you. Can't remember where challenging if at all it's either on Skyline or Whites like that. All of them my favourites to date yet. I suppose you guys did ride Black graded trails and not red?

Northwind

I didn't find the chessboard thing hard at all, it's just point and shoot even on a hardtail, find your line and stick the bike into it... but IMO there's other stuff up there that's harder than anything on the fort william worldcup route, or at least more intimidating, like that short steep slab and some of the longer rock sections (can't remember names), I could see why so many people end up walking.

But other bits like back sack and crack attack, how good is that? One of my favourite bits of trail anywhere, the wee combinations of rise and fall and the constant quick line choices, fab.

popstar

Couldn't agree less with Northwind on that one, although over-hyped steep descent on slab rock ... c'mon, there is plenty of grip on that one and it's not that steep at all. Surrey Hills few descents are actually steeper than that and even include a step-drop in the middle of it. Hence so many overbiked riders around there .

Northwind

Just to be sure, are we talking about the same thing? Not Air's Rock, but the short steep one on the black, about 1/3rd of the way down. Er, this one:

http://vimeo.com/15500330

Just confused about the comments on grip because grip doesn't really matter at all on stuff like this, it could be soaking wet and convered in moss and you'd still just be rolling straight down it. Also it's not really hyped at all. It's just another point and shoot but it's intimidating for most people and it comes up on you quite sudden as you're climbing up to the slab then over the edge without any time to eyeball it first. And only one really good line to boot.

So challenge wise it's lower than many of the black sections but intimidation wise it's higher IMO. It's one of the two sections I had to take a second run up to for that reason rather than just riding straight through. (crack attack was the other, because I sat on the back tyre on the first attempt and ended up with a nice nevegal print up my arse )

weescott

Llandegla is OK. It gets a bit samey in places and the red is more like a blue. I haven't ridden the black yet but I'm told it doesn't justify a black rating

I think maybe Laggan is a bit overhyped and that's why some people feel let down. It's still one of the best trails in the UK, just too short. I actually lol'd at the comparison to trails in South Wales.

Ryan Jones

I'm usually one to stick the foot in to something poor, but the people who build these trails regardless how good or bad they are, have still gone out of their way to design, build, maintain and update them out of their free time. To create a thread which encourages the slating of trails is negative, discussion in a trail specific thread makes for good reading from a rider and a builders perspective, but just naming your most hated trails in a "worst 5 trails" thread isn't very productive at all.

weescott

No but it's fun.

popstar

Once things are heard about trails, maybe they get improved?

Weescot you can't compare trails really, they are all different and have their own style. But Laggan's Black graded trail is very very good, surely it will take few attempts to really make it flow seamlessly but boy do you need to be fit for that. There is simply not an inch of trail to relax on, if it flows fast then it does for a reason ... not just to relax but prepare to hit another rock garden at speed. If no speed, then no chance of clearing it. Awesome trail if you fancy a techy challenge.

But the most flowy trail to date IMO is the last few sections of Skyline's descent in SWales. The flow comes so easy to you rally style dodging trees, using every rock slab as a platform for air time. Sections as Joyrider,Deadwood,Peregrine Ridge,Jetlag (all come so instant at you, riding some proper long few miles through stunning scenery too) ... they are just magic! Note, not many rave or overhype them at all.