Following on from this thread
http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/trail-sanitization-mellor-cross-down-past-the-banks

There is more work going on. no_discerning_taste, lt me know, so I went to investigate this afternoon.
Just be aware that the workmen have dug a ditch across the top descent (the muddy bit by the side of the golf course)filling it with fist sized stones, just before he right hand turn down the zig zags, on the ‘Banks’.

I also had an a near miss with a car at the bottom. The car was travelling along the lane, I didn’t hear it, the loose stones make it very hard to stop before the lane. Had I hit it, I’m sure it would have been my fault – feel a bit shaken up now!

Can i still go over the big mound and down the little chute?

No change in route! Just make sure you aren’t freaked out by the trench full of what looks like human skulls after the muddy chute, you should be able to roll over them fine and continue your journey down to be nearly hit by cars at the bottom.

That could have been my car you nearly hit, Bunnyhop! Or the Morgan…..shudder even to think about it! 🙂

Thanks. I nearly got hit by a car just after the bridge over the railway line near Strines, wrong side of the track and just wasn’t thinking about a car being there. Oops. I think i saw you the other week, big group of us, you were coaching on a Zesty?

That was probably me. Were you in the group with a few sickeningly good kids pedalling the entire climb up to the Fox in their mid rings?

Hey Ndt – it was a little red yaris, only saw it at the last moment.
I know how much the locals dislike us mbters ( except you of course), so this isn’t going to go down well. The person driving it was going a bit fast, it would have been nice if they’d stopped to check I was o.k. as I had to do an emergency swerve. Good job I wasn’t belting down as most do down there.

Waves to sambob

Haha, yes that was Gaby then. She is the hamlet’s teenage driver and yes it is amazing how fast she can make that Yaris go off-road isn’t it? She doesn’t mind mountain bikers as she actually has never gone slow enough to even see one I expect. (She has already written a car off but shows no intention to act more carefully in the future…)

That would be Will and Tom. I was at the back on the Specialized, granny gear, breathing like an asthmatic donkey. Will is only tiny, that’s why he’s so good.

I wish…
Edit: Waves to Bunnyhop. My last exam is on the 13th of june, i think some midweek rides are in order after that 🙂

Next time you see me out sambob stop for a chat. Would be nice to put a face on the name so to speak. Although I have a hopeless memory for faces I’m afraid.

If mid week rides are out does that mean you’re missing another local event? Chapel trailquest is this wed eve – they’ve even moved the start closer to your house.

I’ve got an exam on thursday, so yes that’ll be another one i’ve missed 🙁

That would be Will and Tom. I was at the back on the Specialized, granny gear, breathing like an asthmatic donkey. Will is only tiny, that’s why he’s so good.

Hahaha, I’ll tell him you said that… you know this is a public forum don’t you?

I like the idea of a trench full of human skulls. Recycling…

Go for it. It’s definitely not because he’s “welsh”. 😉 And this isn’t the first time i’ve questioned your sanity….

Are you familiar with the rabbit scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Just saying, like, do you have access to the Holy Hand Grenade or a local equivalent.

I didn’t put those skulls there. I was just making a very reasonable observation. 😐

I’m afraid i’m not cultured enough to have seen the rabbit scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Am i missing out?

It was more an object lesson in the danger presented by small but fierce creatures. There yer go.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcxKIJTb3Hg[/video]

But Will is just as dangerous as a legless rabbit. Or the realistic equivalent. Unless he starts throwing used cassettes at me.

Sam – you should be revising (or riding your bike), not watching Monty Python 😉

I didn’t watch it 🙂 And i still need to get the bearings chaged on my frame and front wheel 🙁

This is what I love about STW – we’ve gone from the council making a hash of our local trails (once again, ‘cos they couldn’t do the job properly in the first place). To, blood thirsty cute cuddly ickle bunnies 😀

They’re strongly linked, do you not remember the councillors we met? She seemed like a blood thirsty ickle bunny. Not very cuddly though.

Ah yes singletrackmind’s axe murderers ride. So, they maybe human skulls after all 👿

I’d forgotten about that. I hope they didn’t kill him because he discovered their secret. We’re next 😯

Ah yes singletrackmind’s axe murderers ride. So, they maybe human skulls after all

It’s that sort of area, have you met the locals? [shudders]

That front wheel shouldn’t nee d new bearing yet, what on earth are you doing to your bikes? Gimme a shout if you need a hand doing it, I have the tools

You know how my bike had that weird rattle from the forks/wheel/headset? Well i think it’s coming from the wheel. But hey, what do i know? 🙂

It could be I suppose, I never changed the bearings, but they did seem ok when you bought it.

They’re not expensive so i might as well get them changed whilst the shop change the pivot bearings.

They’re not expensive

£5 each from the bearing supplier, IIRC. About 15 minutes to change them, tops. Or get the shop to do it and save the hassle 🙂

Yep, i’ll get the shop to do it at the same time as the pivot bearings.

Went up there tonight, a lot soggier than my last ride up there

Had a comedy slide-panic-brake-slide even more-let off brakes moment just before the ditch full of skulls. No idea how I stayed on the bike

It seems like the ‘improvements’ aren’t going to impact riding fun too much

And in case anyone is interested…..

here’s the new “ditch of Skulls”

and looking down..

nice job Stockport council….

Well that’s obviously going to last decades. 🙄

You rode through them (brave). I skidded along the top bit and walked over the skulls.

Let’s hope they don’t ‘improve’ the lower bit.

I give it a maximum of 2 months, the earth will reclaim the skulls and the mx’rs will rag the arse off it and really break it up.

I don’t think they can do much with the lower section, Its all been made 2 metres wide for the horses (remember the campsite descent in Hayfield) But only where they CAN make it wider

looks like the work will go down to the left (down to Emmys) but who knows!!

Priceless.

When we went out a couple of weeks back with Singletrackmind, we met various people from the council out with local residents, looking at the track near SHielan, here

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=397734&Y=387180&A=Y&Z=110

The “bad lads” from the connunity service crew were out that day doing some resurfacing work closer to the railway, and I think this mob of parole folks / council employees / local residents were planning th enext bit. They asked us, as bikers, what we thought of it, obviously expecting us to love the fact that they’d done something. I think they were shocked when I told them that the work done was a disgrace and Stockport Council was wasting money by “repairing” things to a frankly piss poor standard.

That councillor really wasn’t best pleased was she….

Well, it’s the old thing where non-bikers think that mountain bikers want a smooth, wide track because it’ll be easier to ride on, the whole thing with the track down behind the campsite in Hayfield started that way – they actually made the track so fast that people crashed into that wall on the off camber bend at much higher speeds than before thanks partly to a thoughtfully sited drainage hump at just the wrong place.

I was kind of hoping that cuts in public spending would mean the end to this sort of oddness.