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There's more information on what's happening around the 7stanes in our press releases section.
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Latest news
Uplift Scotland are back at Ae. Tally has sorted out the transport, and, starting this month on the 18th & 19th October, riders will be able to book their seats for a full-on day at Ae. You get 10 uplifts and a choice of the Ae downhill course lines or the new Shredder freeride trail. The Stanks (Ae Bike Shop's manager and mechanic) will be on hand to deal with any bike problems you get and the cafe is open for business as usual. Plenty cakes and coffee available for consumption!
See www.Ae7.co.uk for further details and book your seats for the uplift through www.upliftscotland.com.
If you like using news feeds to keep up to date with your favourite sources, you might be interested in adding 7stanes news to your list. We've been providing a feed for trail conditions for several months now, as you might have spotted, and have made some tweaks to this to make it more obvious when items have been updated.
You'll find the feed links - and a brief explanation of what this is all about - on the 7stanes RSS feeds page.
PS - we've kept this article out of the feed, in case you were expecting to see it.
180 degree wallride
Work has finally started on a 180 degree curved wallride in the Freeride Park at Glentress. The timber wall will act like an upward extension to a 180 degree berm so will be easier to ride on/off than the current wallrides in the Freeride Park. The section will also include a dirt wallride and an easier flat timber wallride.
It's one of our most complex builds to date, so alongside the MTB Rangers at Glentress, Andy Hopkins (7stanes Technical Officer) and his team of builders from Dumfries are also working on the project. We're all very excited with the feature, especially as it will be the first of this size in the UK to take in a full 180 degrees! It's shaping up nicely and should be completed and ready to ride by the end of October.
Freeride skinnies
We are also working on completing a new short 'skinny' northshore line in the Freeride Park that will require even better balancing skills than are needed to master the existing, fairly straight log skinnies on the CycoPath trail. Expect to see this open in early November.
Blue trail changes going down well
The recently opened blue-graded singletrack climb up to the Buzzards Nest car park has been going down really well with riders, many commenting how much more interesting and pleasant it is than the old forest road slog! Where the 'Electric Blue' descent crosses this climb, we're going to be building a timber flyover bridge - a first in the 7stanes trail network! This should be completed by mid-November as should some additional wee timber challenges on the climb up.
Salute 'The Admiral'
The Admiral is a new section of Blue trail that comes after 'Good Game' on the descent back to the trailhead. Some of you may have noticed we've built a further section just up the valley from here. This 350m section will link into the Admiral and provide even more singletrack on the Blue.
It's closed just now though as we're waiting for some very soft sections of trail we've built to dry and firm up and we've got a 40m section of boardwalk to put in too. Please be patient, we should have this section completed by Christmas (weather permitting!).
Natural descent
The Trailfairies have been busy of late working on a new 'natural' descent that was used and loved by riders in the recent SXC Mountain Bike race at Glentress. For those who like their trails a little more natural and rooty, this is for you. Over the coming weeks they'll be working on extending 'Zoom or Bust', making the whole section over 1km long. Upcoming volunteer building dates with the Trailfairies are: 11 Oct; 25 Oct; 8 Nov; 22 Nov; 6 Dec and 20 Dec. See the trailfairies page for more info.
Repair work
Starting in November and carrying on through the winter, we have lots of trail maintenance work planned at Glentress as part of the 7stanes wide maintenance program. Look out for repair work on the Freeride Park Trails, Tourist Trap, Magic Mushroom, Super G and Spookywood descent amongst others. Your parking money helps directly with these works, which will help to keep the trails riding sweet. Thank you!
Ewok Village
Ewok Village on the Black Route at Glentress was the first northshore trail to be built with official approval on FC land in the UK, way back in 2002. Back then we used natural (untreated timber) for the structures and although they have lasted incredibly well, the features are coming towards the end of their lifespans.
The sections are requiring more and more maintenance time to replace worn out parts and for one ramp we are going to have to unfortunately remove the whole structure. The other ramps will remain for now though and we are planning a complete overhaul of Ewok Village for 2009/10.
If you haven't ridden the Glentress Blue route for a while, you should make a point of trying it next time you're there. 4 new sections of singletrack have been added this year, and there are a couple of features still to come before December. Look out for the 1.2km Good Game section, which is packed full of tabletop jumps, rock steps and other features. We've revised the Glentress Blue Route description accordingly.
The Newcastleton and Innerleithen maps have been updated to reflect the grading changes that have taken place recently. The maps will also be updated to the revised map format in due course.
New sections of singletrack have been opened on the black and red routes at Kirroughtree, helping to keep riders off public roads.
On the Twister (red) route, the White Witch now exits on to the road just a few metres away from the start of Rivendell,while on the Black Craigs route, the exit from the end of Hissing Sid has been brought swooping further down the hill to within sight of the start of the Jabberwocky.
The spin along the A712 on the black route has also gone, replaced by a singletrack link starting across the road from the Talnotry Hill exit. Although quite short, this new addition packs in several natural rock features and a raised timber section before reaching the top of the Dallash access at post 66.
The Kirroughtree map is being updated to show the changes but at the moment still shows the trail between post 65 and 66 as being on the road.
The new Downhill track at Ae - The Shredder - is now open. The track starts at the summit of Knockespen at junction 32, next to the top of the original Downhill track, and ends by joining the last section of the red route, leading back to the trailhead. For more details see the Ae trail map (PDF 870k).
It's not like mountain bikers to be so coy about having their photograph taken but we would welcome a few more submissions for our 7stanes photo competition. We have decided to extend the closing date for submissions until the 30th January 2009 (so you've a chance to capture some cool shots in the snow). Prizes include a fabulous camera worth £200.
The bike shop at Ae is expecting a delivery of bikes towards the end of October. Cyclists will soon be able to demo some top end bikes before deciding whether to buy or not. You can't beat trying something before you buy it - especially if you get to try it out on the trails! For more details of this and other information about the bike shop see http://www.ae7.co.uk/
The Tweed Valley Tourist Consortia have developed a brand new Mountain Bikers Hospitality Scheme after listening to mountain bikers and finding out exactly what they need from accommodation during a visit.
The scheme members are a special collection of hotels, bed and breakfasts and self catering properties which are totally geared up to providing mountain bikers with everything they need for the perfect break. As well as a lovely place to stay and a wonderful bike-friendly welcome, riders can be assured of safe, lockable storage for their prized mountain bike, a bike washing and maintenance area, a clothes drying room and plenty of quality high-carb meals to re-fuel for the next day’s adventure.
The Tweed Valley, which takes in 7stanes Glentress and Innerleithen, is the first area in Scotland to provide such a scheme, which assures riders of finding genuinely mountain bike-friendly accommodation and is focussed on providing a world class mountain biking experience in this beautiful corner of Scotland.
To find out how to book just visit www.visittweedvalley.co.uk and look out for the sign at accommodation properties throughout the Tweed Valley.
Other articles
If you've ever visited the MTB venues in southern Scotland, the Mountain Bike Business Network would like to find out about your experiences to help their members improve their services. All information is completely confidential and the MBBN will be very grateful for your input.
Take the 7stanes user survey.
The Ae 7stanes centre is now fully up and running, with new toilet and shower facilities, bike hire, bike shop and cafe. The cafe is open from 10.00am to 4.00pm, Monday to Friday, and from 8am to 5pm on Saturdays and Sundays . See www.Ae7.co.uk for details.
There's been a change in the way that we are grading trails. Grades are now split between those for cross-country singletrack trails and those for bike parks (including downhill trails) and forest roads.
This is to highlight that forest roads can be of variable difficulty and are not part of a progression on to green and blue level singletrack trails, and similarly, orange-graded bike parks are not simply a progression on from singletrack grades.
You'll see these changes reflected in maps and on signage around the 7stanes. For a full explanation of what each trail grade means, see the trail grades page.
As part of the 7stanes arts project, seven sculpted 'stanes' have been created and placed around the 7stanes forests. The sculptures reflect local myths and legends and can be accessed on bike, on foot or by horse.
To mark the stanes' arrival, we're running a couple of competitions. You'll get full details on the arts project page and for details of the stanes themselves see the revised what are the 7stanes? page.
As at Mabie, there's now a regular weekly mountain bike group at Dalbeattie. Organised by the Hardrock Cycle Club, the group meets on Thursdays at 6.30pm, starting from the Dalbeattie trail head. All abilities welcome. For more details, visit the Hardrock Cycle Club website.
There is a regular weekly mountain bike group running at Mabie on Thursday evenings, meeting at 7pm at The Shed. If you're new to biking there will be qualified leaders present to take you or your kids out. We would prefer if Primary School age kids rode with a parent/gaurdian. For more details call Greg Knowles of Dumfries Cycling Club on 01557 332034, or look at www.ddcc.ik.org.
Run as a partnership between Foresty Commission Scotland and Scottish Borders Council, this project aims to provide an introduction to off road cycling for young people across the Borders.
With a fleet of new bikes, expert On Yer Bike tutors can provide skills sessions for school groups and equipment can also be hired by qualified biking instructors for sessions with local clubs/groups. Contact the On Yer Bike Mountain Bike Ranger for further information on 07926 998121.
Press releases
There's more information on what's happening around the 7stanes in our press releases section.