Ballyhoura trails?

Only the "unofficial" trails are closed up, all the Coillte stuff is still open as usual....

Still a great place for people living in the Munster area of course. Just nothing really that good to make people drive down from Dublin... or even come down from the North/UK etc...

So MTB equals Enduro??? That's funny.

No, just the good ones! :pac:

Apparently the rock gardens are now puncture pits, and they have rocks at pedal height, so possibility of catching your pedal and falling off..

Better off to head up to Norn Iron, or over to Wales or Scotland if you're looking for a decent MTB experience and holiday...

Biopace wrote: »

Yep, all steps/jumps have been made rollable, by doing this they have made them much faster, which means some of the berms and rock gardens - which they didn't 'fix' - are now hit faster and are not up to the job. An accident waiting to happen for inexperienced riders on those trails.

Did they put chicken runs around them or did they just get wiped out completely?I once mullered a chainring on the set of 4 drop offs, by jumping off the first, clearing the second, and landing straddling the 3rd, straightened the thing with a rock and carried on down it.

The berms on it aren't great,one of them in particular if you hit at a bit of speed will try eject you over the outside as you exit the corner, there is also a tree with a bit of white paint in the enclosed section, that nails nearly everyone too :pac:

I like that once you're off the green and brown trails the large boulders at the edge of the trails go away, those do more harm than good,over the years i've seen a few people on rental bikes that have clipped a front wheel on them and got fired over the bars, which in my view has much more potential for injury than the drop offs, especially when you consider that most families or tourists might not go down the tech loops, but will be doing the trails

muckwarrior wrote: »

Wow. This is such a load of bollox.

Not only was Ireland moving at a snail's pace compared to the UK with regard to harnessing our natural resources for sport & tourism, but they're now moving backwards! Why not just build massive fences around all forests and mountains in case someone trips and bangs their knee :rolleyes:

I don't think this matches with the rest of the above posts but thought I'd address it anyways. I think you're wrong to say Coillte are doing this because they are worried about people hurting themselves (which is the impression I get from your post). Trouble is that in Ireland you have to be careful you can't be held accountable for people's misfortunes, knowing the risks in advance doesn't stop people from taking people/organisations to court and saying 'you should have made it so I couldn't hurt myself'

Also, if this (http://www.facebook.com/1541297972788179/photos/a.1559540510963925.1073741829.1541297972788179/1563541817230461/?type=1&theater) is anything to go by, I would say Coillte are looking to expand like NI and the UK, but at the same time, they have to make sure the land is not adversely affected by the trails being built, people building and using the trails have to work with Coillte to make sure they are both safe (to a point, remember, they are open to everyone) and don't affect the forest, first and foremost, they are there to manage the forests.

Ireland as a whole needs to band together and make centres/areas to ride, once complete then the steps can be taken to make areas for the more extreme side of the sport.

rizzodun wrote: »

I think you're wrong to say Coillte are doing this because they are worried about people hurting themselves (which is the impression I get from your post). Trouble is that in Ireland you have to be careful you can't be held accountable for people's misfortunes, knowing the risks in advance doesn't stop people from taking people/organisations to court and saying 'you should have made it so I couldn't hurt myself'

I didn't mean to imply that coilte would actually be concerned for someone's wellbeing, I meant they would be worried about being blamed for someone hurting themselves. Although, to me it makes less sense to bulldoze the unofficial trails on safety grounds as they would have a lesser degree of accountability if someone hurt themselves on those as opposed to the trails built by coilte (which are higher speed and lined with massive rocks to smash your face on :rolleyes:).

rizzodun wrote: »

Also, if this (http://www.facebook.com/1541297972788179/photos/a.1559540510963925.1073741829.1541297972788179/1563541817230461/?type=1&theater) is anything to go by, I would say Coillte are looking to expand like NI and the UK,

Yes, there are plans for more trails, but compare what's been built in Ireland over the past 5 years to NI and you'll see there's huge difference in the rate of progress.

As for putting a national mountainbike centre in Sligo, 2.5+ hours from Dublin, in a county with the population of Blanchardstown, doesn't make sense. Why not build it in Carrick where the EWS was, and close to 70% of the mountain bikers in Southern Ireland?

That's not really an argument not to build it, but yes it would make sense to have something close to Dublin as well. We're already lucky in that we have lots of great trails nearby, but some facilities would be nice!

Tenzor07 wrote: »

Sure yes, build it, as a regional trail centre, but don't create it as "the National" trail centre, so it can be checked off Coillte's list, leaving Dublin with only Ticknock.
Not to mention Ballinastoe, which was built in 2008 and is very poorly maintained, if at all. And is quite dangerous in places. And no facilities in B'Stoe/Ticknock either.

It's proposed as one of four or five national centres I believe. The big cycle centres in Wales tend to be hours from big towns, hasn't stopped them being popular.

It's also on the route of the Wild Atlantic Way, that's hours from Dublin, and will tie in to other activities on the west coast.

Anyways, just pointing out that while the progress is slow, there is progress.

JUst out of interest, why don't other Coilte lands get this kind of hassle ?

It's rare that The Cooleys every come up in topic like this.

Tenzor07 wrote: »

As for putting a national mountainbike centre in Sligo, 2.5+ hours from Dublin, in a county with the population of Blanchardstown, doesn't make sense. Why not build it in Carrick where the EWS was, and close to 70% of the mountain bikers in Southern Ireland?

Makes perfect sense, relatively speaking Dublin is spoiled with 3rock, ballinastoe, djouce so near and then all that Wicklow has. you also then have Rostrevor less than an hour away etc..

A national trail center is designed as a local revenue producing short break destination to give back to a community. attracting domestic and foreign visitors.
Coolaney is on the wild atlantic way and not far from some of the best surf breaks in the world. So saying it doesn't make sense because you would have to drive 2 hours from Dublin is a bit of an ignorant and flippant remark.

I'd be supporting a trail center no matter where it's built in Ireland as long as it's built, not moaning about its location! I've spent the last 5 years travelling the length and breath of Ireland to races and events from Sligo, so always 2hours+ and never complained, but sure some people are never happy! :cool:

booooonzo wrote: »

A national trail center is designed as a local revenue producing short break destination to give back to a community. attracting domestic and foreign visitors.Coolaney is on the wild atlantic way and not far from some of the best surf breaks in the world.

Building the National trail centre to attract tourism to the regions and bringing revenue to local regional communities is great of course...

What's also great would be to see Coillte putting some money into maintenance of Ticknock and Ballinastoe near where the vast majority of mountain bikers live.

Put "the service" where the majority of users live. Or make it so very good that people are willing to travel.

Take Ballyhoura, it's the south's best Coillte trail centre, I don't know of many(any) who travel down there from the Dublin area unless there is a big event on there..

booooonzo wrote: »

Afaik there are plans to link 3rock to djouce or ballinastoe and to become a national centre.
Coolaney Is some of the largest Coillte owned single land area with no restrictions or objections. That counts for a lot.
Ballyhoura was the first of it's kinda. We've learned a lot from that and this won't just be another trail centre not worth travelling for. 80km of fun flowy single track! Anyway if you want a service where you live...do something about it.

I hope you(Coillte?) have learned a lot from Ballinastoe.

Linking B'stoe to Djouce should be quite interesting, first i've heard of it.

Anyways, as i've said I hope they get the funding for Coolaney, will be great for tourism in the region

rizzodun wrote: »

I don't think the Forestry commission in the UK put too much money into maintenance of trails, are the funds not raised and trail maintenance completed by the local MTB users and clubs, with only some funding coming from government schemes?

Why don't the local clubs approach Coillte about fund raising for maintenance?

My hunch is that Coillte is so hostile to building trails for anyone but the lowest common denominator that clubs avoid dealing with them to avoid giving anyone the impression that Coillte's trails are a satisfactory solution for their members. That and the fact that most members of MTB clubs would use the Coillte trails for little else than as a link to the technically challenging trails that they actually enjoy using, so they have little interest in seeing them maintained to a high standard.