cynic-al and I are on a wee road-trip next weekend and will be travelling down to Huddersfield on the Friday. We’re thinking of an interlude on the way down to do some MTBing. I’m thinking that somewhere off the A65 might work if we come down that side.

Got any suggestions for a ride – something around the 2hr mark I guess.

TIA

Gisburn?

Wheet’s top is good.

Gisburn if the weather’s bad.

Dunno which way yo were thinking of drivin but the orton loop off the M6 at tebay was nice – nothing very testing but a nice spin. the eastern part took us a couple of hours and as it starts from the services no faff factor

Howgills?

Keep the ideas coming guys – but I could do with a bit more detail. I’ve found out that Gisburn is a trail centre (and that has a certain simplistic attraction), but what routes would you recommend in these other places?

YOu want details on the orton loop? I can send yo a memory map file

from tebay services cross the motorway to the east side then although there is a path north marked we too road towars orton then left back toward the motorway heading offroad over crosby ravensworth fell down into the village of crosby ravensworth, then cross teh river and back south towards bank head , bank moor then south on the bridal way to beacon hill and orton scar down the more southerly of the possible descents and rejoin the road to orton and return to tebay.

Just a nice scenic ride with a bit of geology in the limestone pavement adn some nice scenery

I thoroughly enjoyed the ride

IMG_2043 by TandemJeremy, on Flickr

If you just want to nip off the A65, Inglelton, climb up Ingleborough, admire the view, ace blast back down, job done.

A65 is a reasonably long road! Any preference whereabouts? There’s a nice ride near Kirkby Lonsdale. There’s decent riding near Settle/Clapham/Austwick – nothing mega exciting that I’ve done but very scenic and quite fun.

Gisburn is alright but I’m not sure it compares that well to some of the Scottish centres tbh. Does have some fun sections but seems to get fairly battered over winter.

Just north of Settle. Clockwise circuit of this hill

Pen-y-Ghent circuit starting Horton-in-Ribblesdale. Ride main PyG trail to Hull Pot and onto Foxup and Litton. Back up Cow Close to Dale Head & BW to Helwith Bridge. 18 miles

Horton, undulating quiet road north to Old Ing farm. Pennine Way to Ling Gill keeping with BW to T jtn at Cam End. Left down hill to Gearstones. Follow road to Ribblehead & turn left to Selside. Right before village until no bikes sign. Left through fields to meet good track from left. Through gate on right & follow your nose uphill to Sulber Nick signpost. Keep ahead until track splits. Go left down hill to farm. Follow track down to left turn. Take & cross stream. Follow narrow ST down to Wharfe. Pick up road for Helwith Bridge & Horton-in-Ribblesdale. A diversion around Feizor brings you to a super cafe.

img]http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2510/3802931391_d4d8417e63.jpg[/img]
Ribblehead, Gearstones, Black Rake to Dent Road. Up Wold Fell & across to top of Arten Gill. Down this to valley. Take minor road to Whernside Manor. Pick up BW to Whernside & follow across Great Wold to Ribblehead

This is the missing pic. Route descends under railway & then crosses the big hill right-to-left

Mastiles Lane? – just to say you’ve done it. The lane itself isn’t that special but the other half of the route either to the north or south is nice. ‘Tis a classic after all.

As every body says Gisburn is good if weather is bad. Try this site there are a thought go off the A65 http://www.mtbthedales.org.uk/mtb-home.htm. 🙂

@ igm:- where’s mastiles lane at off the A65?

park at gargrave. and do a nice loop around Malham

There’s loads to go at. Your limiting factor is the state of a lot of the bridleways if the temperatures are above freezing.

I’d recommend this one. Bang on the A65 – 1.5 – 2 hours ish, not too much climbing, a couple of nice descents. Mostly good weatherproof surfaces. Cakes in Clapham.

http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/PennineBridleway/uploads/Clapham%20MTB%20Route5.pdf

Gisburn’s nice if you want simplicity, though. A circuit of the red is about 2 hours.

+1 for the Clapham ride “Crummock Dale Dabs”
One of my favourite routes, but much better clockwise
Two nice teashops in Clapham, and one in Feizor

+1 for the clapham trail. As Esme says its a good trail. We did it Tuesday night when the ground was frozen brilliant lots of climb. But worth it for the rough fast downhill section.

Looks like Clapham, with Gisburn as a foul weather alternative then.

Thanks all.

We’ll report back and tell you just how rubbish your trails are 🙂

Aye, ye jessies!

I did Gisburn (15 mins off the A65) between Xmas and New Year.
Great all weather riding, not much gloop about and it was windy and wet……………we still enjoyed it!

THere is also a good ride near Addingham if you want to go at that end of the A64, takes in some good bridleways and ends up at Bolton Abbey.

HTH
Al.

Settle Loop (pdf)

Good 10 mile route with an optional drop down to Malham for a break if needed, head east at point 7 and rejoin at point 8.

Did the Crummackdale route last weekend after recommending it to you. It’s in decent condition – just one grassy uphill that’s hard to get traction in places.

Anticlockwise is best for me – Long Lane in descent plus the fast bit down to Austwick at the beginning if you start from Clapham.

A65 Dales = Grassy 4 x 4 tracks in nice scenery. (as a simplistic view)

You could go up and down Helvellyn which is not too far from the M6.

Follow the A65 down to the likes of Bingley and theres some rite nice singletrack riding, all be it you wouldnt struggle to find it, it will be muddy, and the scenery isnt quite as nice as the Dales…

We’re going for CLapham.

Will update.

I didn’t realise cynic-al was real

If you don’t mid a bit of cheeky I have a variation on the Clapham route which has a much more fun downhill on it…………

Would that be to the E of Thieves Moss?

C

The most obvious one is to climb up to Sulber carry on a bit then follow the path around the head of Crummackdale above the crags and then there’s a cracking singletracky descent past the spring (marked on OS). Once you get back to the ford with the clapper bridge, retrace your steps up to Sulber and then take Long Lane down. Shouldn’t add more than about 30 -40 mins to the total.

Nice bit of white stuff up on the Dales, I notice this afternoon.

ChrisE, I couldn’t possibly say on a public forum

Ah sorry – wrong A65 😉

Martin and Jo, we run sheep up that track twice a year. It has some very interesting history and rights are by no means conclusive if you can be bothered to read the 1814 Austwick Inclosure award, held at NYCC archives at Northallerton.

C

FFS is that God’s own country’s best? Can’t you Sassenachs come up with something decent?

We’d barely call that a warm up in Scotland 🙄

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

😉

We liked it. Mud, rocks, snow, gates, sheep. Perfick 😀