looks pretty good from the pics on the website, i’d be interested to know how long it takes to do the whole thing and if it flows nice and what the trail features are. Entering the brownbacks race there on the 17 may so think i’ll check it out

I was there at the weekend. After a tiring day at Stainburn, we decided to drive over to Lee Quarry and check it out, seeing as we were in the vicinity.

I wasn’t overly impressed with it, although being hungry and tired probably didn’t help. The red seemed to flow OK, and you can whack your saddle up fairly high for climbing efficiency without worrying about ‘hanging it out’ on the trickier stuff.
When we veered off onto the black loop though, we lowered the saddle right down and found that some of the short, sharp climbs were a real challenge – lost traction out of the saddle, but didn’t have the power in the saddle!
Some of the more techy bits on the black were also quite exposed with long drops to one side and with the wind that was blowing, it made it quite scary.

Overall, the red flowed pretty well and has some nice berms in it. There’s a section towards the end on the more grassy bit that is really nice and great fun.

It is somewhere I would definitely want to try out before racing there, if just to get a feel for it. I imagine in the wet it would be quite treachorous as there are slabby rocks galore.

Some of the more techy bits on the black were also quite exposed with long drops to one side and with the wind that was blowing, it made it quite scary

sounds ace! i’m not a kind of guy who rides with my seatpost high on climbs, i’ve got a sweet spot that’ll do for both but i do like it to be down and out the way when it gets really steep. is it worth going for an afternoon? how long did the red and black take you?

Where does it start from?

you could do a couple of loops of the whole thing plus have a play about on the ‘skills area’ thing in an afternoon, easily.
it’s quite fun though.
park at the kingfisher centre in bacup and ride up the hill, it starts from there basically.

I’ve also heard that the rock slabs are scarey when wet, a dry day visit for me then.

I like it.

The two times I’ve done it I’ve ridden over from Edenfield to make a ride of it.

I’m looking forward to going back in a few weeks to see the new stuff.

We went fairly late on in the day ane were only there for about an hour and a half. You could easily make a few out of though if you wanted to practice for the race.

We got there by following the road into Stacksteads from the west (off the A56, onto the A681. You kinda start to come out of the place and it looks like you might have missed it, then there’s a great big building called the Kingfisher centre, with a road next to it (the right hand side of the building, as you look at it). Just park up down that road, then take the gravelly hill up to the quarry. About halfway up there’s a red arrow showing you the way. Opposite the road is a chinese takeaway and a pub called The Royal Oak.

Bomberman, I don’t think that the red contains anything ‘really steep’ in terms of downs. Some nice swoopy bits and big deep berms though. When we got there, there was a thick mist in the quarry and the wind was blowing it up out of the sides. It was quite spooky and a very ‘different’ place to ride.

Lee Quarry in its current guise is more of a skills development area rather than a “trail centre”. Loads of stuff to ride in a fairly compact area, fastest lap recorded so far is about 12min (although we have added a bit since then) Idea behind it is to do a few laps take a bit of time and play rather than head down get round a trail as fast as possible. Long term we are hoping to do similar things to several other quarries in the area (subject to funding and planning permission) We shall link all these quarries with new and existing routes over the moors giving a stacked loop system that lets you tailor your ride to what ever suits you best, 50+ miles on the marytownley loop to an evenings bimble round one of the quarries and hopefully pretty much everthing else in between.

Good write up from a locals point of view on http://www.industrialfellbiking.co.uk/wp/2009/03/16/lee-quarry/

quite a few videos on youtube now as well.

Come along and see for yourself, bring a map and explore the surrounding area as well there are some excellent trails hidden away aroound the quarry.

http://www.brownbacksracing.co.uk

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TonyL….I am completely with you on that one. I think it is a great facility.

As it was……driving almost 3hrs to Stainburn…..then driving from there to Lee Quarry with the Shat Nav taking us through Skipton centre in market day (or something)….it was good, but not something I would probably return to unless i was in the area for the weekend.

However………stick something like that anywhere up to an hour from here (or even better…an hour cycling) and I would be there regularly.

I read about the linking route between quarries in MBR with great interest. When that’s done it looks like a definite ‘must do’ ride.

It’s a very original place with good riding. There’s enough technical sections for you to session and progress your skills on too. Here’s my take on the place in my blog.

Went back for my third proper visit this afternoon, very, very busy today, despite the wind, rain and hail!

All sorts of bikes and riders represented; DH’ers, a few trials bikes and a good couple of dozen just doing what we did and having fun on the Red Route.

I think I’m becoming addicted to this place – each successive lap seems to flow better than the last.
Was Ms Spanners’ first ride here and she really enjoyed it too, despite not having ridden much recently.

B.A.Nana Despite being wet, there was plenty of grip on the rockier bits (we’re both pretty cautious, both on Cinders), though a couple of faster people on racier rubber were having a few slips and slides.

Seems to suit all abilities – some of the “full face helmet” long travel lads were flying though the rock garden at a hell of a pace, whilst we managed to bimble around quite happily.

Look forward to riding the new bits soon and well done to Tony and the chaps from Brownbacks. Looks like you’ve got a success on your hands.