Chapel Gate the best descent in the Peaks? Maybe with V-brakes…

If that is what the Peak has to offer you can keep it!

looked proper gnarrrr

They flock from far and wide to ride the big daddy in the Peak.

Well they did before the bastards spent £50k – Flattening it

carefull now, (for some reason) you’re not allowed to say a bad word about the peak district.

everyone knows that the peak district is the best place to ride a mountain bike in the world…

Loving the technique through the drainage channels there. I was a little surprised that a ‘keen mountain biker’ would opt for bloody big channels made from what looked like slippery bricks running diagonally across the path on a fast descent. Nothing a good bunny hop won’t deal with but strikingly treacherous for the inexperienced, I thought.

you didnt mean Ellie Harrison then ? 😀 Saw an MTB appear didnt think it would get ridden…

On the brightside, it does already look like it’s starting to erode, £50k well spent there 😀

Ellie.. ::ears perk::

She seems to be letting the dark hair grow through.. hope she continues and gets rid of the fake blonde hair.Cant wait for the end result. mmm.

some keen mountain biker that guy who had implemented the changes was! What a twonk!

We rode Chapel Gate today in the hope that it may have deterioated since the makeover.

It is still smooth and boring, may take a year or two more to develop some character.

Don’t know that route myself but getting pretty fed up with trail sanitisation, just wondering what can be done. Suppose I should write a letter to my MP, another to the council and maybe get involved with the local access forum…?

What i’m wondering is in these times of financial hardship where councils are finding this money?

Much like The Gap, possibly the Brecon Beacons equivalent. Is there a theme here?

Remember that these tracks do not exist for mtbers, they are there for vehicles, for horses, If the landowner needs access and the track has gone too far then they won’e be able to gain access.

I should also mention the law demands that these tracks are safe, what may be fun on a mtb may not be fun on horseback.

Accept it happens and just wait for the trail to weather.

What i’m still unclear on is the reasoning behind making Chapel Gate suitable for a 4×4 without trashing it, then banning them from it anyway 😕

Mrmo, I’d agree about the land owner point, but all I’d ask is that repairs are carried out more sympathetically. Instead of creating a 3m wide flat path, spend more just improving the patches that need drainage improvements or are badly eroded. Better still spend the money where it’s needed more such as maintenance of school buildings or keeping libraries open.

Regarding access by horses, like us they are accessing the outdoors environment and need to deal with the terrain that’s there.

Don’t forget Chapel Gate used to be flat tarmac. Did get nicely eroded in time though 🙂

I had sky plussed Country File but shan’t bother watching it now after reading this.
I can’t say as I’m surprised it was rubbish.

I think you might find Ellie’s got one in the oven martynxyz, so might be out of action for a while. Still think she looks cute with a bump though!

I think joat that she’s just had her baby.

If that is what the Peak has to offer you can keep it!

Bit harsh, never been myself but I thought it looked pretty stunning, maybe the Chapel Gate path was just a good location to film, it’s Country File not a Clay Porter film.

Im glad folk are taking more notice of Ellie, she is hot.

The better decent is from just below the mam torr road col to Edale. Fast and seriously good fun. Tis getting a litte eroded though and those pesky walkers can oft get in the way and spoil your fun!

What i’m still unclear on is the reasoning behind making Chapel Gate suitable for a 4×4 without trashing it, then banning them from it anyway

AFAIK, they were only banned while the works were being done and for a short while afterwards to allow it all to settle in.
I’ll be riding over that way next weekend so I’ll see if it’s open to 4×4’s then.

Remember that these tracks do not exist for mtbers, they are there for vehicles, for horses

I know. Which is why it was interesting to hear the work had been specified by a “mountain biker”. Ah well..

AFAIK, they were only banned while the works were being done and for a short while afterwards to allow it all to settle in.
I’ll be riding over that way next weekend so I’ll see if it’s open to 4×4’s then.

There’s a 12-month temporary prohibition that pretty much runs from when the work finished. I think the rationale is, as you say, that the trail can ‘repair itself’ – which sounds a bit irrational, but there you go – for a year, before the internal combustion boys are allowed to destroy it again. There are a couple of massive boulders blocking gate openings at the moment, or at least there were a few weeks back.

I can’t imagine any repairs surviving long up there – the Roych is starting to revert nicely to type for example, and the Broken Road pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the general stability and sustainability of surfaced tracks in the area.

The whole track restoration thing really used to wind me up, now I just look at it as a temporary blip, though I reckon the exception to the sanitisation rule is Cut Gate, where they did a reasonable job of retaining the character of the trail.

“..the work had been specified by a “mountain biker” “

For all users to…well, use really. I bet he would have liked to have narrowed it in to 4″ wide singletrack, chuck large amounts of rocks and roots around, a couple of drop offs etc. but I bet he also likes keeping his position of employment and all the benefits that go with it.

On iPlayer if anyone’s interested. Matt Baker is seriously hot eh? Phew, cor, wow… 😉

The Chapel Gate bit is around 48 minutes onwards.

spend more just improving the patches that need drainage improvements or are badly eroded

Had you ever seen Chappel Gate?

Imagine a moderately steep road, in the bottom of a dich, where most of the tarmack had broken up and washwed away leaving a 8″ wide ribbon down the middle elevated 2ft above the surrounding rubble that originaly made up the foundations of the road.

It was a fun decent, but it was a lot more than erroded in patches, to the extent that I’d say patches were still recogniseable as once being a road!

More to the point, without wanting to be snobbish, surely a “keen mountain biker” who works in the Peak District ensuring trails are maintained riding a very low-level bike?

I know its a family show and kudos to the beeb for showing the less glamorous side of mtbing, in such a way it might encourage viewers that “normal” people can get out and ride. But it does make me question the authenticity of the guy in charge if he’s not riding a moderatly good bike. I wouldn’t expect to see a £4000 carbon all-mountain full-sus affair, but disc-brakes would have given me some confidence in his n’t go amiss for someone who rides regularly I’d have thought.

But it does make me question the authenticity of the guy in charge if he’s not riding a moderatly (sic) good bike.

I’m more concerned about those drainage channels which are pretty bike unfriendly. You can hop them, but they’re wide enough and steep sided enough that if you get it wrong at speed you’re going to crater big time. Not a concern for the majority of gifted riders on here, but certainly something that gives the less talented mountain biker like myself, pause for thought.

I wouldn’t expect to see a £4000 carbon all-mountain full-sus affair, but disc-brakes would have given me some confidence in his n’t go amiss for someone who rides regularly I’d have thought.

I ride regularly in the Peaks on a CX bike, does that mean
a) I’m considerably more niche-core than you
b) I’m well’ard
c) my opinion and authenticity should be called into question…

😉

UNfortunatley it seems bike unfreindly wide cobbled drainage ditches at an awkward angle are the best tool for the job (if they aren’t I wanna know why the hell they are springing up everywhere)
I noticed the cheap Bike + enthusiastic mountain bike disparity but assumed I was just being a bike snob. Are we being cynical or did the beeb really want an mtb perspective clip and told him to say he was a mtber?

crazy-legs – Member

I ride regularly in the Peaks on a CX bike, does that mean
a) I’m considerably more niche-core than you
b) I’m well’ard
c) my opinion and authenticity should be called into question…

the answer is D) you have a bike that’s quite well suited to the peak district’s mix of trails.

(mostly easy, lot’s of tarmac between the easy bits)

best descent?!?!!? to be fair i actually still enjoy it even though its been tamed, i dont however like the gulley/reservoirs/death traps they have put in!

im guessing they are that perfectly wide so that 4×4’s cant get over them any more?

the first few you can sort of bunny hop/jump, then the steeper it gets the more ridiculously spaced they become….since they have flattened it out i had totally forgotton just how steep it is, my brakes were baking after descending it at speed…..its a hell of a tough climb too!

There is another TRO on it at present.Note Matt Baker didnt mention Motorbikes or 4x4s.Its a good tuff climb now.But as said above boring descent now.Seems odd they spend all that money on it and then banned vehicles.Mother nature will soon turn it around.

im often amazed at the narrow minded view of mountainbiking on here

but then i guess thats why its called singletrackworld and not

“ride offroad, get some fresh air, see some different views of the world”

replace “moutainbiking” with “the whole of creation” and you’d be spot on