Tell me about Innerleithen uplift please?

There are so many variations of the trails on that hill its tricky to know which one you're riding and almost all end by the car park, no need to use the red trail

There are a lot of marked trail but they can be a little tricky to follow as the whole hill is criss crossed with so many trails.
You can't really go "wrong" however you may find yourself on a different trail to the one you were aiming to stay on.

If you want anyone to show you round some of the other multiple better trails in the valley and you're here in the week drop me a PM.

The uplift drops you off in what seems to be a random layby on a fire road with nothing actually there...

My advice? Take trailforks on your phone. The official red and orange trails are marked but the rest of the off piste aren't marked. And the official DH tracks criss cross each other so much you'll probably never ride the same trail twice, unless you're riding angry sheep or similar (recommended as a warm up to the off piste).

As above though, everything pretty much end up at the same place so you can't really go wrong.

It’s (imo) taking you to the least good trails in the Tweed Valley. Yes there are some good trails there but all the main DH ones are just blown out and a cross-crossing mess as nobody will mark them out properly and/or try to close bits off and/or maintain them.

Several ways down to the car park. The red XC would be the last choice of them

As others have said, it's a lot of crossing trails so keeping track is difficult. Trailforks helps but you may inadvertently end up on something different to what you thought you were on. A good warm up is Angry Sheep and the one next to it, both are far less steep than everything else.

Yes there are better trails nearby but when I spent a few days there, having an uplift day was a good rest day for the legs as every other day had a lot of pedalling.

Thanks everyone.

@singlespeedstu I'll take you up on that offer if you're around, thanks.

Another question, how on earth do you navigate on a bike in Scotland? The paths aren't marked on OS maps like they are in the UK.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'Noto Sans', sans-serif, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Noto Color Emoji';">Another question, how on earth do you navigate on a bike in Scotland? The paths aren’t marked on OS maps like they are in the UK.</span>

Use OS maps (also try www.bikehike.co.uk)  & Trailforks.

We can ride anywhere that there's a trail on the ground.

maintain them.

Gordo is contractually not allowed to touch the trails, but is actively trying to change this and get some trail work done.

As for trails, Angry Sheep and Greenwing are good places to start but there's a pedal (pretty flat) after to get to a route back down, usually Caddon Bank.
Deer hunter is fairly mellow.
Cresta is my go to, nothing overly tricky mostly fast and flowing.

Loads of videos on YT to prepare, but hard to get a judge of steepness.

If your feeling brave, give Date Night a go. But be careful.

Oh, and nobody bothers to push to the top from the uplift. Its not really worth it.

Another question, how on earth do you navigate on a bike in Scotland? The paths aren’t marked on OS maps like they are in the UK.

Apart from the obvious, it is in the UK. You mean rest of UK? 😛

Paths/tracks are on the maps, just not coloured in to denote whether it's got any bridleway/footpath designation. You can go anywhere you want subject to the constraints and responsibilities in the outdoor access code. It's brilliant!

Ha ha, I did mean the rest of the UK, well spotted.

Gordo is contractually not allowed to touch the trails, but is actively trying to change this and get some trail work done.

Apparently he's tried but FCS have said no. I'm guessing it's a huge liability issue. Either way, a lot of stuff needs some work. I was on the uplift for the first time in ages a few weeks ago and was quite shocked at how blown some bits are. Went down 39 Steps for example which is in a helluva state. I would like to see them do something to reopen the tunnel section, luge etc. That bit isn't great now with everyone forced down IXS which again is a bit battered. From memory I cant remember the TVTA being near the Inners side in a while but apologies if they have and I've missed it. TBF it's such a huge mish mash of trails that proper maintenance would be a near impossible task.

<span style="background-color: #eeeeee; color: #000000; font-family: Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'Noto Sans', sans-serif, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Noto Color Emoji';">If your feeling brave, give Date Night a go. But be careful.</span>

And when you do, consider that my first time down it was during a night ride when a pal said "oh, there's a new trail I've heard of, let's try it"...

And when you do, consider that my first time down it was during a night ride when a pal said “oh, there’s a new trail I’ve heard of, let’s try it”…

I bet that was "exciting"!

I won't comment too much on the politics behind Adrenalin not being allowed to do any work on the trails, but I think the entire model for that hillside needs a good look at.

I'm fairly sure it was Date Night that led to the demise of my first carbon front triangle. I managed to straightline two of the steep switchbacks, somehow remain on the bike, but then came to an abrupt halt sideways back onto the track with an almighty bang. A few weeks later I noticed that the main pivot was no longer firmly attached.. :/

We’ve been a few times, but honestly wouldn’t rush to book it again, as above, I personally prefer most of the other riding in the valley that isn’t the uplift served DH.

depends on what your after and preference ymmv.

and as above, trail forks is the way to navigate the whole valley and have a great time 🙂

I have a good time when I'm there but always regret paying for a full day because I only tend to do about 5 lifts.

On the wider topic, I think the current model's kind of obviously unsustainable tbh, it's an unhappy middle ground. Nobody's fault though, the whole benevolent neglect thing worked fantastic for innerleithen for so long. But it's becoming a bit of a perfect storm.

As far as riding it, most people seem to have a good time regardless, just as long as you don't set out with any specific goal to ride any particular trail, and are happy to take random turnings and end up at the bottom on a magical mystery tour. There's very few bad options but you does make it a wee bit more challenging, it's just hard to set a difficulty level. Equally valid is "don't stress about missing the bus" though- that opens up a load of riding that isn't quite so easy to loop. Depends on the rider.

Definitely hammered compared to the old days when you could manage it on a hardtail. Agree with everything posted tbh, it's not bad but not what it was.

I read a few threads on here before my first visit. One warning was that it's easy to end up on a different trail (or multiple ones!) to the one you intended, and so end up on more difficult or dangerous stuff than you're comfortable with.

Used to love an Inners uplift day. Last time I was up (~Nov last year), the tracks were so blown out and gubbed it was really hard work and largely unpleasant. Lots of old favourites were still smashed from Arwen then so it may have improved.

Probably did 5 or 6 + uplift days a year before but it's telling I've not been back since last winter.

Angry Sheep remains a masterpiece, mind.

Done the inners uplift a couple of times and last time decided without more maintenance it's not worth it again. The trails are all far too blown out, poorly maintained. The Golfie is far better IMO, but we did also notice that they do uplifts at Glentress too so next time we go we will do that one instead for a bit of variation.