No fear PR. Steve Williams takes the plunge

If you bike in the Borders then you’ll know Glentress Forest. It’s the Forestry Commission’s flagship biking venue for cross-country riders.

It boasts three great mountain bike routes including the famous Helly Hansen V-Trail – a cracking 30 km monster, full of technical climbs and challenging singletrack.

Over the past few weeks the V-Trail has been getting an added attraction built on to the route courtesy of the forest’s volunteer trail builders – the Glentress Trail Fairies (pixies in Wales and Fairies in Scotland!).

Not content at having made one of Britain’s best cross-country routes, the Forestry Commission has given Chief Trail Fairy and Glentress’ trail designer, Pete Laing, the green light to incorporate some North Shore-style timber ramps and other into a new section of singletrack near the end of the V Trail.

Got wood?

“I had loads of good reasons to introduce North Shore to Glentress; it brings the V Trail bang up-to-date, it gives the Trail Fairies something innovative and exciting to work on, it provides obstacles that challenge the ever-improving bike technology and riding skills, it manages the construction before some mad canopy-high trail appeared in the forest. I could go on, but let’s face it; everybody in the sport wants to ride North Shore trail, and nobody needs an excuse to build it, especially if the Forestry Commission are kind enough to pay for the timber!”

“650 metres of singletrack in two sections are now getting the North Shore treatment, with ramps, see-saws, drop offs’ and balancing beams being built over the next few months. The first stretch will have optional chicken routes, but the second will be a real ‘do-or-die’ Black grade challenge. Riders who don’t want to tackle this fiendish beast can opt to ride the nearby ‘Moguls’ trail instead.”

Those Fairies produce a solid log

“What we are building is certainly not as hardcore as you’ll see in the British Columbia videos. We can’t build anything dangerous on an official FC route,” Pete adds. “Nearly all the mountain bikers who regularly run the V-Trail are experienced cross-country riders with a number of skills up their sleeve. Many are starting to venture into more aggressive cross-country riding and are happy to take on drop-offs or small jumps, so it seemed a logical idea to take it a step further. The feedback so far has been excellent. Riders are generally taking two or three attempts to ‘clean’ the harder features, but almost everybody wants more of the same.”

All of the trail-building costs are being covered by the Forestry Commission, and they have given their blessing to Glentress’ new biking attraction. In fact, some of the neighbouring Forestry Managers in southern Scotland are making a trip especially to see it all – and their press officer is part of the building team and rides it all regularly.

To make sure that the guys at the Forestry were happy with the levels of risk, Pete had to stick to design guidelines produced in Whistler, British Columbia with help from the North Shore Mountain Bike Association. Their document suggests limits on trail width vs. height, ramp angles and drop–off sizes. In addition, all timber surfaces are chicken-wired for extra grip. “We’ve not gone big, or super-technical or super-high but we’ve got a good balance in there to test all standards of rider,” adds Pete.

Various members of the volunteer squad have had a hand in designing the ramps. One of the first to be completed is to be called ‘Big Gonad’ after…..well anyway, it’s best just to come to Glentress for a look!

To join the Glentress Trail Fairies visit www.stirlingbikeclub.org.uk and add your name to the list of dates.

For more information on Glentress Forest, log on to the Forestry Commission Glentress page.