My spin today...

Wrong post! This site is just a mess since update.

I saw that too when I was there a few weeks ago, actually came down stage 3 to finish off in that gully but it was closed off due to building. They only seem to be doing the bottom section from the fireroad down to gully. I wonder will they do the upper section too later on? Lots of potential at Ballinastoe to turn the natural stuff into sanctioned trails and expand the trail network. Only problem is they tend to lose the nice natural features that make them great in the first place.

Ahh, makes sense now when you see where it starts just up from the entrance gate. So we lost a nice natural trail there, one of my favourites to end the day.... :(

Do you know if there has been anything released from the webinar?

My bad, its next Tuesday, the 23rd.

https://coillte.webex.com/ec3300/eventcenter/mobile/eventInfoMobile.do?siteurl=coillte&confID=210805345744747686&meetingKey=27313966505&backUrl=%2Fmw3300%2Fwireless%2Fmeetinglist.do%3Fsiteurl%3Dcoillte&t=a&MTID=e91136d583584e2733f3a06e533def4f6&rnd=0.2361150842401878&isIPADAsMobile=null&fromModernViewMobile=null

https://coillte.webex.com/recordingservice/sites/coillte/recording/750d83172ebe103ab5ff0050568293fb/playback

Its available on playback now, something weird going on with the Facebook link though, I can't seem to share it.

Hopefully thats it now.

Yeah they do reference the planned upgrades in Ballyhoura. You can tell Niall isn't impressed with what's there currently.

It actually doesn't look too bad, up until that last section before it joins Irn Bru. Look forward to giving it a go....I think ill wait until it dries up!

I take it back Gerry, I saw another video of it during the week and it looks very very sketchy! Definitely will give this a go, but in dry conditions. The trail starts at 2:11 in this video.

https://youtu.be/xWQBC-PhJqI

I did Aylings trail a few weeks back, the next trail over from Irn Bru. Most people talk about Irn Bru being a monster trail and one of the hardest in Djouce but I found Aylings much tougher. Steeper with less grip and tighter turns on off camber roots...my nemesis! But what a trail it is, all those trails on that side of the waterfall are great and definitely ones to test your skill level.

Yeah true, its where an e bike shines I guess.

Haha yes, same here!

Was up Ticknock on Saturday and I shouldn't be, but I was surprised at how busy it was. The weather wasn't great, but the car park was absolutely jammed. Had to do a few laps before we got a space. I thought maybe if I got there before lunchtime and seeing as the weather wasn't great that it wouldn't be so packed.

Plenty of mountain bikers around but mainly walkers.

Anyway - was just a quick spin to try out a towhee towing rope thing I bought. It works really well, and means that younger kids can get around the trails that bit more. Great exercise too for the one doing the towing.

Any new trails open at B-Stoe?

Tried to go to Ticknock yesterday (Sunday). Got there at 10.30am, thought that would be beating the worst of the crowds - how wrong I was! Absolutely rammed. Even the road up from Kellystown was packed. Saw some poor guy who had tried to squeeze into a spot but his car fell into a ditch - he was up on three wheels! Hope he got out OK but I think it needed a tow. Did 2 furious laps of Ticknock in the car looking for a spot before leaving and going to Ballinastoe. Does anyone go to Ticknock in the afternoons on the weekend? What time does it even begin to empty?

Ballinastoe was pretty busy but nothing like Ticknock. Just had a quick spin - cycled up on the new trail - and can see they've blocked it off totally for descending with big logs across the old parts of it that head towards the gulley. The new berms at the end of house bound are good as prunudo says. Keen to see the new trails too once they've opened - they seem to be largely built and just "consolidating" now.

Yeah - I think future spins on Ticknock will mean parking somewhere like that and spinning up - it's just not worth driving up these days.

Yeah have been up to bstoe twice in past 3 weeks to get some training in for the blitz. on Saturday saw more clearing for new trail on the climb after the first or second trail.. pity about stage 3 as you say. but they must reckon they've still got 3 full runs as theres a gravity enduro running there this year.

anyway the existing trails are running well, ill add my +1 to those berms on house bound.. honestly think they are best I've seen so far

From the last drawing I saw there will be 3 new black trails and 2 new reds, but not sure if that is still the plan. This was on one of the webchats but not the most recent one.

From memory, there were to be 2 blacks from near start of pump and grind all the way to the bottom of expressway. A red from end of zipper (I think there is a short black link trail to expressway here too) to end of flatliner, which I presume is the one they are working on now.

Also a new climbing trail from middle of zipper to around start of stage 3/5 with a red and a black trail roughly following stage 4 to the end of flatliner.

One thing is for sure, they'll be great additions to Ballinastoe and will help to seperate the ability of riders as having people going for koms and kids barely off stabilisers sharing trails is a receipe for disaster.

Ah no. Is it the whole trails or the top sections?

I got out for first mtb spin post covid, took the hardtail to ticknock to try a fast lap in preparation for the blitz.

Ticknock was crowded as expected on a fantastic day. The trails were still wet in typical ticknock fashion. Did the first lap at a decent pace but what struck me is how some of the older coillte trails are really rubbish on a hardtail. Specifically eurosceptic descent.. and euroservices which is getting really worn. Metro 1 is great though!

Fitness seemed to be good, I flew up Toms and kept going without much in the way of stopping. on the second lap I decided to mix it up and tried shizzle/highline/homegrown which was eh, very wet and hence tricky. So after it I'm not sure if I'll bother with the blitz.

Did a solo GAP run yesterday on the ebike, first time I wasn't with anyone else so no hanging around.

Managed 32km with 1,150m of climbing in just over 2 hours, draining a 750Whr battery. In or around 12 pedals up (not always to the top and not always from the bottom). I could have got a lot more out of the battery if I hadn't used full power going uphill.

For comparison, the last time I had uplift I also did 32km and 1,150 vertifcal with 8 uplifts to the top in the three hours although I punctured twice that day.

Killarney over Torc waterfall.

I was up a couple of days after the work (It wasn't finished at this point). And its just the top sections, Disco Stu entrance is pretty churned up and wasn't possible to get into really. Irn Bru was still accessible but did require 1 minute of lugging the bike over some trees. I saw a ridelog from yesterday that did Irn Bru and they didn't seem to be wasting too much time getting in. They were no where near Aylings when I was last up.

I had the joy of going up todo disco stu and then had todo Irn Bru in its place in the soaking wet, was well sketchy. Theres a tree down on the first turn so watch out.

Am inclined to think Coillte going out of their way to put these trails out of action.

Where have they felled at ballinastoe? Haven't been there in awhile but some of the natural stuff had been closed off due to new coillte trails being built.

Top sections of stage 1,3 and 5 now felled. But as you say, a lot of the lower sections had been closed due to the new trails so nothing really worth doing anymore, or certainly for the next while until the next gravity enduro creates some new options.

No thats still there afaik. Well the lower section is felled but thats more than a year now