7Stanes - Glentress & Innerleithan Routes

Fixxxer87
Fixxxer87 Posts: 45
edited February 2011 in Routes
Hey all,

I'm thinking of spending a few days at Glentress and Innerleithan at the end of March. Coming up from London and camping, it's not going to be an expensive trip but not so cheap for me to go ahead and just go (I'm also potentially booking several days off work to go).

I'm mainly concerned about the riding conditions there. I'm using a Specialized Hardrock Comp; with V-brakes and some Marzocchi 22's. The standard Spec. tyres are on the bike; which are decent enough on hardpack. Yesterday I went to Aston Hill in the Chilterns after what must have been a fair bit of rain the previous night, as the place was pretty muddy and churned up - not to mention a lot of clay soils. I really struggled on a lot of the uphill sections to get any grip whatsoever, and on the downhill section my v-brakes were of fairly minimal use (I ended up face first in the shrubbery at one point).

Does anyone know what the riding conditions in Glentress and the surrounding area this time of year? I'm really keen to avoid spending 3 days pushing my bike along the uphill sections of XC routes.
|| Commuter: Specialized Langster 2010 [FCN 4] ||| Offroad: Specialized Hardrock Comp 2009 ||

Comments

  • Glentress will be fine, it drains fairly well and seems to have a really good foundation IIRC.

    I spent 2 weeks there last year in the rain... trails were superb.
  • Wallace1492
    Wallace1492 Posts: 3,707
    Did GT red and blue Saturday, was fine even after the rain. It does drain well, and has mostly good hardpacked trails.
    "Encyclopaedia is a fetish for very small bicycles"
  • Hawmaw
    Hawmaw Posts: 124
    A guy on the Retrobike forum did GT on Sunday in the heavy rain on a full rigid old bike with canti brakes and had a hoot although he had a few episodes with the canti brakes letting go.
  • covelove
    covelove Posts: 209
    have been over for the past 5 weekends in a row as it is one of the best trails at this time of year and inners DH has been closed for events. Even when it very wet it still rides really well, just expect to get super muddy!
    does my tail look hard in this?

    cove stiffee

    orange 222
  • Davy-g
    Davy-g Posts: 401
    as mentioned above... the guys in the Macretro section of retrobike will keep you right..

    http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewfo ... e3e210d8c4