As above,doing it on sunday.It is doable on my uncle john or would i better off on my stumpy?

Any tips and how early start?

Cheers.

Perfectly do-able on a CX bike, in fact, probably ideal. It’s not at all technical riding, and much of the route involves dismounting for gates, so CX heaven 😉

A mate of mine who is an International Vet fell runner did the MTL Challenge one year on his cross bike. He reckoned it was a fair bit harder than the 3 Peaks. Me, I say go for it!

anything is doable on a cx 😉
it’ll just be a different type of ride so depends on your mood.

I’ve done it twice; once on my full rigid Hei Hei and the second time on my Global with SIDs. After the first time I felt absolutely beaten up all over, I ached for two days. After the second I felt less beaten up, the SIDs definitely made a difference. It’s a very tough day out.

i did it on wednesday with a group of lads, took us all about 9 hours from 9am start still about 6pm and that was clockwise, last year i did it anti-clock wise, alot easier this year with more rest stops etc, id reccomend a decent xc bike the lighter the better! ur gona need it 🙂

I used to ride parts of it on my CX when I lived up that way..
Trust me, I’m no rider, but I didn’t find the bits I did that bad..
Quite fun, infact..

Go for it!

Don’t do it!!! I did it once an was the most borin ride ever, but if yer daft enuf to do it then do it on a road bike! 😆

Can’t remember any techie bits – just a nice long day out. CX bike will be perfect.

CX bike would probably be fine although I must admit to using a full suser when I did it on Wednesday. It is a bit gloopy in places at the moment so you might struggle for grip a bit.

clockwise is probably the best direction to do the route in and it takes anything from 4hrs to two days for people to do. Average I would have thought is about 7hrs for a group with stops.

hi tony its the guy with the white cannondale who rode with ya on wed ;p

Ive done bits of it on my old touring bike with cx tyres. Quite fancy doing the whole route sometimes but worried the old bike might just collapse half way round! The old stone packhorse sections will be the hardest on the body I reckon, from Mankinholes to Bottomeley area.
We had a guy on an old rigid Trek with cantilever brakes do the loop a couple of years ago. I seem to remember he had pumped up foremarms and a death grip on the brake levers coming down from Cragg Quarries. He was smiling though…..or maybe it was a grimace of pain?
Let us know how you get on and enjoy!

lol

Cross bike it is then!