7 Stanes Glentress Mountain Bike Trail Review – Intro

Glentress is a mountain biking centre just outside of Peebles that has the largest and arguably the best network of trails in the 7 Stanes collection. It has the full range of terrain on offer, from the green run’s pleasant forested fireroads up to the black’s leg-busting natural trails. In between there is a really fun blue run, an awesome red run and a huge freeride park, all topped off with a small, but thorough skills loop for those new to the sport. In short, no matter what you ride and how you like to ride it you’ll find something for you at Glentress, and you’ll find it in some amazing surroundings!

Glentress is my local trail, only about 45 minutes from my front door by car, so I know it better than any other. The centre is also, as I’ve already metioned, one of the biggest and most varied selection of trails in the country and so I’ve decided to give it some thorough coverage by reviewing it in stages over the next little while. It’s worth giving the detail because of the way that the runs are all so interweaving. It’s easily possible to start on the black, do a couple of sections of natural trail before switching to the red for some jumps and drop offs, followed by a veer off to the blue with it’s smooth, fast berms. So, basically, I’m planning to cover the main sections of them all so that if you’re pushed for time you can still find a combination ideally suited to your taste.

One thing I guess I can cover in the intro tho is the centre facilities, which are pretty extensive. The Hub-in-the-Forest is at the bottom car park and consists of a cafe and a pretty good little bike shop. The cafe’s always rammed at the weekends and serves up the standard fare at a pretty decent quality. The bike shop has plenty of kit for anyone that’s lacking and they hire bikes out, from bog-standard hardtails up to full-on downhill or freeride full suspensions. The guys in the shop are also really helpful when it comes to technicals on your own bike and have saved me a couple of times.

Alongside the retail they’ve got full changing facilities with showers to thaw you out after a January ride. There’s also a decent wee bike wash which will sting you 50p for enough time to wash a pretty dirty machine.

Anyway, that’s it for the intro. I’ll start on the actual trail section guides soon, beginning with the red as it’s pretty much the busiest of the lot. I hope you enjoy, and make sure to leave plenty of comments letting me know what you think of the place!