[Closed] Carron Valley trails

Lost opportunity! Thats what its was/is.

had one of those moments where you get comfy over 4 or 5 jumps, decide to nail the 6th and over-do it, seat hits you in the rear, stifle a scream and land nose-first just waiting to eat the ground lol. As I say I'll be using it for regular riding as its close but really it could have been so much more in the location.

Yeah nothing too technical but very handy if you cant be arsed driving far. Good trails for going very fast on 8)

wife loves it cause it is all smooth and bmx track like. i find it a little boring. that all weather trail surface is yuck. sure it doesnt get muddy it just gets lethally slippy.

anyway lots of politics and crap and now it is all finished and there will be no more development. a real shame.

4 of us were up there and My mate's wife decided to topple of the second jump and land on her face. Smashed it up pretty nicely. I think I have pics somewehre !

I could certainly see the trails getting very very slippery. I got thoroughly bored down the repeated corners, I just shed all my speed by half way down and trundled out the bottom lol. But at least a high speed course like that gives me chance to work on my fitness and a few key skills while not being bored or thoroughly knackered. Reckon my mrs will enjoy its lack of demanding content - she likes the tough stuff but often finds the long red/black routes at some centres are too long for her arm/finger strength.

Much better stuff in Mugdock and beyond or Lennox Forest. No built Doubles though.

I was up in lennox - all the trails have been ripped out- very little there now it seems?

Mugdock is good but again the deforestation means some of the bits out near the loch have been demolished.

I was gutted the carbeth trails had gone. Digger tracks are good fun if not full of water :-). Time to do some building up at Mugdock me thinks.

So long as it's additional, rather than replacing what exists - drives me nuts when people transform a set of existing trails! 🙂

i use them for training, just burn round the 8.3km circuit 4 times as hard as you can works for me but i agree they are rather uninteresting!

The downside to places like Mugdock is the amount of non-cycling trail users. Of course everyones free to use the paths in Mugdock but I'm always nervous in places like that in case I injure someone on a trail. At least at places like CV you can ride without that worry.

I actually spend most of my time just outside Mugdock. Less walkers and those you do meet are more open minded and less miserable or complaining about your presence.
I would never change what's there already. I hate that too. I'll just looking to add links and new bits.

Im glad Im not the only one who loves Carron valley.
Bit rubbish isnt it.Or is that ghey ?

[img] [/img]

Puncture, right at the top - pain in the bum.

Was up yesterday - only 20mins from the house (by car*) so should use it more often esp when local trails are a mudbath.

Plenty of folk there having fun - good to see. Just a shame it all drowned in politics. There were a lot of plans that got frustrated.

As e-a says best approach is to go hard - work on getting through the corners and do a few fast circuits

Its all riding and any riding is good ?

* I know I should ride there but its not a fun road ride on a MTB

I agree, it's such a shame that the Carbeth trails have gone. There's still plenty of other bits nearby but Carbeth was the longest single section by far.

The main West Highland Way track is a complete mess now too.

But as I passed yesterday I thought that the area actually looks better now that it's more open, rather than sheltered with the trees.

I thought CV was boring and missing something. I rode it on my singlespeed (which proves just how flat it is) after riding the Comrie trails and felt it was a let down. I thought it would be the other way round, I was quite looking forward to CV but it was just like a big Spooky Woods with no technical features in the slightest.

The surface will hold up, but I don't think trail centres need pavement and some mild erosion is to be welcomed (like that which the GT red is experiencing)

Hi

Just to add a little context to this post, I and Mrs Jamie were involved in the group reponsible for delivering these trail, the trails had to be constructed in a bomb proof way because of the very wet and soft underlying ground conditions. The trails are essentialy blue in nature but because of FCS politics they were graded red.

Alot of people put in a huge amount of work to deliver the trails at Carron Valley. Carron Valley Development Group had ambitious plan to deliver an excellant centre for mountain biking. But underhand tactics and actions by FCS put a stop to that. If you want to know a little more about 4 years plus of hard work by a Community Group and how the establishment ground them down, click on the link below.

[url= http://www.carronvalley.org.uk/ ][/url]

I thought CV was boring and missing something. I rode it on my singlespeed (which proves just how flat it is)

Hmmm.

Based on my rough calcs it has about 1200ft of climbing which is far from flat and given the ease with which you can do several loops, it all adds up.

I'm a big fan. It's probably the place I ride most in winter as the trails stand up very well to poor weather.

And there's nothing wrong with a "big Spooky Wood" 😉

Although it is short I'd still say Carron Valley is great fun, and is in a good location relative to Glasgow/Stirling.

I'd like to go back soon, just need to convince someone to drive 😉

Me and my 29er like it....

OK - you've convinced me. I must go have a look very soon.

I'd like to go back soon, just need to convince someone to drive [:wink:]

Just give us a shout anytime you fancy it. Lots of room in the car.

[i]OK - you've convinced me. I must go have a look very soon[/i]

you could always park up in Stirling and do and out and back via the Touch Hills/Earlsburn and Gargunnock Hills/Ballochleam 😉 Mind you now the wind turbines have gone in even that can be done on smooth tracks

CV is short - a couple of loops will take less than 1.5 hours. Anquet reckons 250m of climb - so not flat but a bit short of 1200ft

Comrie Croft is a superb wee trail and could do with more custom tho comparing it with CV is like comparing apples and eggs. I never got off my backside to trail build but I remember the original plans and the desire to handcut the trails (there used to be an ace wee DH track in there) but that didn't prove possible for the reasons given by Jamie. Mind you I don't think too many of the folk at CV yesterday would have been at all happy on some of the more interesting bits of Comrie Croft.

CV suits me as a lazy option, only 45mins from home by car and no faffing maps, walkers, cows etc... The trails are what they are - an unfinished work in progress that now unfortunately look like they will never get finished.

If the trails don't give you enough climbing start in Kilsyth and ride the Tak' Me Doon Road...

I like CV, for what it is. I can see what jamieandangela is saying about the dampness of the ground - anyone who's ridden over the Knockybuckle above Milton of Campsie can attest to the weird bogginess on that plateau, so not surprising to discover CV's similar. The rock steps (kelpie's staircase? I'm terrible at remembering names of trail features) are good, the section following is fast and flowy without being technical. The jump section is ace.

Can ride there up the Tak in under an hour from the door, so can't grumble at all, especially as my local ride used to be Cathkin Braes. This summer i'm keen to combine it with a ride back over the Meikle Bin and Cort ma Law and take in the grassy descent down from Crichton's Cairn to the crow car park (best ride in the area IMO).

Lennox forest baffles me. The terrifying shore stuff is all gone now, along with a big area of trees, leaving logs all over the place where I used to ride. The short descent to the old hospital gate is still there, but I'm struggling to pick out anything descent, which is weird because its quite a big area and a decent height. Maybe I should go during proper daylight. Anyone point me in the right direction?

2tyred - im in the same position as you with lennox - if you find anything out drop me an email, I will do the same. Just cant seem to see anything worth attacking as all the decent routes have been scattered.

I understand that CV may have needed certain trail materials, although I think as mentinoed that a bit of trail erosion makes trails trails rather than motorways. from my point of view they're just a little TOO easy - while I was fixing a puncture an older, portly chappy rode past on a ROAD bike with 1" wide semi-slicks. This explains a lot really.

Having ridden knockybuckle I'd personally say the area is totally different, the surrounding ground appears to be quite a lot better drained than knockybuckle, but it's hard to tell just from walking about cursing a puncture 🙂

If you read through the info on the remains of the CV website you'll see that the trails were originally intended to be Blue graded but "politics" forced them to be graded Red. I think that can skew peoples expectations of the trail.

IIRC it was the original Kelpies staircase that gave it the red grade. The fact that small doubles/camelbacks were included in the runway may have been a factor as well. I was very excited about CV when it began and helped out on and off for about 6 months (not long I know) when they were working on the original downhill route - Now that was a muddy route and those bridges were heavy. 🙂
Am I correct in thinking that Glasgow is now the furtherest town or city away from any purpose built trails. Other than CV all centres are over 1 hours drive away. Am I missing any? I think this is a disgraceful state of affiars.

CV was always fun for an after-work blast or a night ride. Real shame the development plans fell apart. Agree that the surface is a bit samey, but I never thought it really got that slippy. Trails are, as above, mostly non-technical but the Kelpie's staircase certainly catches a few out and the whole Eas Dubh section is very hard to keep your speed through - I came round to the idea that this was a good thing, made you work on your cornering and very satisfying when you managed to come through it quickly. Canonball Run was a blast and the Runway was great. What's not to like?

Oops, double post!

IIRC it was the original Kelpies staircase that gave it the red grade.

It was more than just Kelpies that forced the red grading...

CARRONVALLEY.ORG.UK "http://www.carronvalley.org.uk/pdfs/2005/10_05_cv_mtb_trail_-_visit_by_7stanes.pdf"

Interesting, I've never seen that doc. and if taking there description as law then I see there point in giving the red grade. However at the time other reds at other centres were far more technical.

black double diamond for the Runway FFS?

those guys were on a hatchet mission...

Got to agree with davidrussell. Have taken several riders with zero (or close to it) mountain biking experience round Carron Valley and all rode the whole thing (except Kelpie's) with no problems at all - and had a lot of fun.

Hmm, I was just about to ask - was the work recommended in that report ever carried out?

Yep. Took my 12 year old brother who hasn't got a lot of mtb experience and he rode it all, granted he walked the Kelpies but I reckon he could have ridden it on a better day. I've seen younger on the trails and like others have said seen hybrids and al types of non-mtb bikes coping admirably on the trails.
My pet hate of CV was I reckon it was one of the wettest places in the country, a total rain snare 😆

I'll just say I admire the amount of work that CVDG put into the place. Shame it was cut short.

As Jamie points out you need to look at whats there with some perspective - there's only 5km of built trail and the purpose of building what's there now was "to prove there was a need" Quite a tough gig as a cursary glance at some of the correspondence reveals.

I think the fact you've got experienced mtbr's using the place and rubbing shoulders with everyone from little kids to old guys on road bikes shows the fundamental need is there all right. Proved the need too clearly it would seem....

If you look at the plans you'll see that the top trail was to be reversed and become a climb (which would then have been extended to continue on to the top of the Kilsyth Hills) then a huge descent roughly parallel to the Tak and back on to a lengthened and reworked Runway. That would have been the Red. The middle trail was to be increased in length (another 1km) at the top and 4 km of new trail added at the end - The Blue. The Green cut back diagonally from the Loch - ending with a 1.5km gentle descent.

On construction: the Red would obviously not be finished in a similar manner and 3.5 years since opening with moderatey high (and proven) trail usage stats yet still not a penny spent re surfacing anything? Nuff said...

Oh, Dev Plans didn't fall apart - they were basically nuked by one individual.

they were basically nuked by one individual.

RT?

No

Ah. Having read through all the stuff on the website, they seemed like a major factor!

>Ah. Having read through all the stuff on the website, they seemed like a major factor!<

Well unoubtedly, but when very senior people pull rank and subordinates make that decision to fall into line the principles and morality can fly out the window. I'm sure you get the picture...

I cant personally see anything on the course that is >blue, but I suspect this is due to the restrictions put on it. It's a shame this has gone so pear shaped - is there ANY chance of revival?

Comrie Croft is a superb wee trail and could do with more custom tho comparing it with CV is like comparing apples and eggs

I agree completely, it was just that I happened to be riding both in one day. I thought Comrie would be a lot worse than it was, and I thought the opposite would be true of CV.

While I agree that a lot has gone into CV, it just seems a shame to abandon it as is and not further develop it. The existing blue is just not enough to attract me back there in a hurry and it's unfortunate that development has ground to a halt.

However, were I to be taking a newbie around a trail, I may consider visiting again as it's very easy and it was dead when I was there.

Have a read of all the info on the website...what is there was a struggle to get and wasn't plucked from the air...the requirement to prove a need was rather heavy and it had to try to do everything for everyone - which it doesn't do. What it does do is prove that the need is there and should be developed further - to allow multiple trails to be built and allow multiple gradings of trails...the need has been proven but due to some narrow-minded opinions of some people, this has been killed.

There may be a chance to resurrect what it there, but the drive has gone so no-one is going to go knocking on the doors to get it going again...and after reading through the documentation on the site, it would have to be a very thick-skinned and dedicated person to overturn all the obstacles to get it going again.

It's been killed off and is probably not going to ever be sorted...the start of the round-the-reservoir trail was meant to be completed at the beginning of 2008 - then we were told it would be done by Easter...then Summer...then before the New Year...so far nothing has been done to the trail line - no machinery, no scoping (other than the stuff done by CVDG) - so it is blatantly clear that although they claim things are happening, nothing is actually happening.

It's a real shame as most folk think what is there just now is it...nothing else to be done, truth it, what is there was simply a starting block...but we were never given the chance to build on it (even though we had approval from Senior Management)...

from that pdf document:

The fact that you could, by feathering the brakes, roll the features does not mitigate
the consequences of the inexperienced hitting them at speed

what? boobloodyhoo. so for something to be acceptable as any easy graded trail it has to be possible for an idiot to plop down it without touching the brakes once and survive every time??? no wonder it is so hard to build a quality trail centre. ridiculous.

the very narrow exit is far too precise for average riders

Are these trails still OK and being maintained? Worth a visit from Glasgow?

There's a real hill right next to CV - Meickle Binn.
Go and explore - it's an excellent couple of hours.

Or follow the windfarm track up from Todholes. Puts you into the hills and gives you great views. In addition, standing under a turbine is an incredible experience.

Yes the trails are still there, yes still fun for a quick blast..

Couple of recent (wobbly) vids here...

I'm 20 mins from CV and pop up a couple of times a week after work. Although the recent trail resurfacing may have been needed its kinda taken the fun out of the runway and eas dubh. What they did to kelpies is a bloody disgrace. Its a good wee centre though for fitness training, you should manage a couple of circuits in 1hr 20 mins without trying too hard.
The one problem with CV is there is no flow to the trails. Ironically I think they may have made the runway more dangerous than when it was all broken up as now you have to hit warp speed all the way down to enjoy it meaning an off will be a biggie.

Brake neck, I agree that they've killed the trails in places, and I've had my share of big offs on the new fun park!

I live in Denny and it's a nice ride up to CV on the cross bike, spin round the trails and home. I wouldn't have tried the trails on the CX bike before the upgrades.

It is rather good having it on the doorstep for night rides.

tis sad that kelpies is not it's former self... but I'm sure it will return after a year or two of the winters wee get..

whilst i liked the old run way i do much prefer the new one.. love all the step downs and the jumps are much fun

i like going for a couple of spins around CV now and then.. but not been much this year due to the horible drive from Glasgow these days

Yeah the roadworks and the 40limit for miles is a bit of a pain but I went on an outing there a few weeks ago and had a much better time than I thought I would going by what is said about it on here. Nice to get some speed on the runway now

Couple of recent (wobbly) vids here...

jebus what the hell did they do to kelpies, last time i was up i cycled from croy and didn't bother heading up to eas dubh i was knackered and had to cycle back(the tak ma doon is a killer!), looks like cv is completely blue now, took me a couple of goes to work up the bottle to head down the old kelpies as well. the new run way is better mind, i'm not a fan of table tops and much prefer the kerb style jumps the changed them to.

as for cv, it's a decent wee blue run and imo it's a total shame that it's not getting developed any further into decent length red trails.