..on the bike you rode then, if you get what i mean.

xmas 1989 i was bought a book, Jeremy Ashcroft. Lake District, Howgills and Yorkshire Dales.
me and a couple of mates worked our way through the book. did pretty much all of the routes.
one route sticks in my mind, not done it since.
Red Pike, High Stile and Grey cragg. The feasable limit of mountain biking today read the route description.
and for some idiotic reason we added Haystack on at the end too.

i did this route on a fully rigid diamond back apex, my pals rode a diamond back ascent and a diamond back axis.

anyone with any lakes knowledge knows what this route entails. and the description probably still hits the nail on the head nowadays.

question is, could you ride such a route now, using the type of bike ridden then? 1990 for the record.

question is, could you ride such a route now, using the type of bike ridden then?

The question should be “would you want to”? No!

Most likely not. My wrists would likely not be happy

Where is grey cragg though? is it high stile?

Yes, because I’m much more skilled now than I was back in 1989 when I got my first MTB.

james, yes it is.

I was a lot younger in 1990 when 1st started riding & it all seemed ‘normal’ (which it was at the time)
Wouldn’t want to do the same now on the same bike at 58 though!

Ah, Diamond Back Ascent. My first ‘proper’ MTB. I’d happily ride what I rode then on it. But it was mostly fireroad tours and some muddy flat singletrack.

Loved those smokey paint jobs back in ’89/90 !
Great topic this. I certainly get the urge to go back to where it all started for me in the 80s (Braemar, Hathersage, North Downs etc..) but it’s purely nostalgia.
The Retrobike regional crews head out on bikes from that era, usually once a month on a Sunday.

You should get all the same equipment, same mates, and do it all again ! It would make a great magazine article.

California may have been where MTBing got going, but for me, the British character of cycling/adventure is more special; Scotland, Lakes, Wales, Peaks etc..

Yes. definitely

Have never ridden in the lakes but have ridden the yorkshire dales and did Have a rigid DB Apex in ’93/94? it was the champagne coloured steel frame with the snake stays (same frame as the Axis I think). loved it! rode it happily on big epic rides in the north of Scotland and I’m guessing that would be comparable? in 1990 I had a rigid cannondale that was far too big for me. but apart from the size of it. the answer would still be yes on one of those too.

When you say ride…. I am sure I could carry my modern bike less than my rigid Saracen Killi Flyer Elite 🙂

I can remember how much less my wrists and fingers ached when I added a set of Manitou 2s to my M2 Stumpjumper and I can’t see my body improving in the last 25 years to be able to with stand long jarring descents on a rigid bike.

how much of it did you actually ride?

I didn’t really do anything epic til I got a very capable bike, FS and access to a car kinda coincided.

Reckon I could ride anything I rode way back when, better today on the same kinda bike but I’d be disappointed that I wasn’t having as much fun/cleaning as much as I can on a better bike.

There are some silly rides in the Ashcroft books. Some are wonderful but others are just a walk ruined by dragging a bike around them!

Used to traipse to many relatively remote (it seemed at the time) MTB areas with my rigid Stumpjumper and mates. M2 Stumpjumper followed with Judy T2s (?). Comfort increased with Bombers fitted (and some disc brakes).

But still do quite a bit of biking locally on rigid bike, so I’m sure I could manage. That rough though, and for that distance, not sure I’d /want/ to…

I used to ride around the woods on a BMX with park tyres.
There is no way in hell even Ratboy could ride what I’m riding now on that.

There are some silly rides in the Ashcroft books. Some are wonderful but others are just a walk ruined by dragging carrying? a bike around them!

there was a good reason while most of the photos showed bikes wrapped in pipe lagging…..think we always referred to the author as Jeremy F….. Ashcroft

was riding single track on the CX yesterday – reckon most of the skills (well sort of skills) come from riding a rigid MTB