Long story short: I’m student in Buxton who likes spending his time mountain biking. Last week got my bike and immediately after that bought White Peak Mountain Biking book in order to get acquanted with what Peak District can offer. The first route I chose was no.14 Buxton & the Goyt Valley. Well it was astonishing ride, because I have never had such an experience before. Why I am writing this post is to get some advice on picking another route. The best would be a route which doesn’t have much roads and not much far from Buxton although I can use train if its really worth it. 🙂 Thank you in advance! P.S. At the moment I am interested in 23 Hope Valley Circuit, does anyone have tried this route or been in that area, any info? Sorry for my bad grammar. Link of Peak District Map and routes locations, if that helps

Ride out and join No 11 where it crosses the Monsal Trail at the west end.

What kind of experience did you find it?
What sort of riding do you want, climbs, descents, technical, length?
Peak has bits of everything really but you won’t go wrong around Hope Valley
Or try Macclesfield Forest

get yourself the ordnance survey map for the area then you can find the bridleways etc that aren’t used for the routes in the book. That will help you to get from where you are to the routes with a minimum of road. You might have to accept a bit of tarmac but so long as you stick to minor roads it’s rarely that bad (I ride out from Sheffield to pick up the eastern routes from that book).

I did the chee dale and wye vale route out of that book, or the previous edition anyway, a while ago.

Very trad XC route and some it arguably the wrong way round, but definitely worth doing if you’re based in Buxton as it’d give you a good feel for that area and ideas for future riding and linking stuff up yourself.

Cheers for buying the book!

It’s a bit of a schlep up the hill to the Cat & Fiddle, but the Macc Forest route over that way is one of my favourites.

You can get to the Gradbach route that way too, which has some nice little descents on it.

Pretty much anything around the Hope Valley is good.

If you can get down to the Bakewell/Matlock area then something like the 5-Dales loop would be a good day out. Even further over, towards Chesterfield, (probably not doable without a car) it gets a lot less rocky and more singletracky.

A bit of road tends to be unavoidable when you’re writing guidebooks – once you’ve done a few of the routes and had a map out you’ll probably start to work out what’s what and spot things

Hope that helps.

vertebratetom – Where does the Goyt trail go? Before doing cheekies, I can’t remember many of the trails being legal.

AlexSimon – That’s because most of them aren’t…

It’s a pretty easy route, heads north out of Buxton on the Midshires Way and then wiggles round to come back down the west side of the reservoirs. It’s not one of my favourites, if I’m honest, but not bad if you’re just starting out.

5-Dales loop

Highly recommended. Get in there now before the Autumn/Winter rains arrives and turns the trails to mud-fests. There are no bad routes in that guide book but some of them can get a bit sloppy after lots of rain, especially those around Bakewell/Rowsley.

The Great Longstone route used to be one of my favourites near Buxton but there’s been a lot of trail maintenance over that way that has arguably spoilt the route. If you want a BIG day out you can connect up the Buxton route with the Wildboarclough route. Still a bit too much road for my liking but you will cover some brilliant terrain.

Get in there now before the Autumn/Winter rains arrives and turns the trails to mud-fests.

Ah, the White Peak sweet spot – in between the mud and the man-eating brambles and nettles.

The Great Longstone route used to be one of my favourites near Buxton but there’s been a lot of trail maintenance over that way that has arguably spoilt the route.

Jon nearly dropped that from the book as it’s been ruined. Good work Derbyshire CC… We tweaked it slightly and left it as it’s still ok for an easier ride and might one day get good again.

The dark peak book is worth a look too,loads of classic 2hr to 4hr routes all around edale and hope valley.

Some good stuff on here if you can find it (it isn’t hard with a map and some local knowledge). All in the Goyt Valley area.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV6NisQuaAY[/video]

ooh – that’s me! (except the bit with the fancy handlebars).
Don’t my 680mm bars look narrow these days!

the White Peak sweet spot

Had a mint ride on the 5 Dales circuit 3 or 4 weeks ago. There were still one or two slippy spots but mostly it was ace with some cracking swoopy bits. Here’s one of the gentler sections…

[url=https://flic.kr/p/oJ9VqS]Big skies near Youlgreave[/url] by stilltortoise, on Flickr

Just came back from university and saw a lot of comments and advices here, wow, thank you guys, didn’t expect such good community. 🙂

What sort of riding do you want, climbs, descents, technical, length?

After experiencing route no14 I can tell that I am not keen to climb hills. After passing 30km distance I started getting cramps when climbing hills that made me regret climbing. This is because in my entire life I haven’t had such physical activity and it’s seems like I need vitamin B6. So Im more into descending. I don’t know that technical means here and the length would be ok till 55km maximum.

Peak has bits of everything really but you won’t go wrong around Hope Valley
Or try Macclesfield Forest

If Macclesfield hasn’t much tough climbs to offer then I would really like to try it before going to Hope Valley.:)

Some good stuff on here if you can find it (it isn’t hard with a map and some local knowledge). All in the Goyt Valley area.

Big thanks for linking that youtube channel. Descent no3 Cumberland Clough this is that MTB stands for. This is part of route gave me goose bumps while descending. I hope that Hope Valley Circuit has to offer similar tense mountain biking.
P.S. Is Scott Scale 70 2011′ is good for Peak District area conditions?

I did an extended ‘This is Ladybower’ with some Mam Torr and other bits thrown in at the weekend on my Scandal 29er with horrendously heavy bits (good for training). Nearly threw up on a couple of climbs thanks to a hearty full english in my stomach. I used the Dark Peak book along with some help off here to put together an all day ride.

First time up in the Peaks so am now starting to get a good feel for it and where I want to ride next time.

I did get pretty beat up on the ‘techy’ trails on an aluminium hard tail and the big heavy wheels were hard work up the hills (got some nice carbon rims to go on). Just about everyone I saw was on a full susser so I was getting a bit envious but on the lovely stretch along the north side of ladybower I was glad I was on a hardtail. I had been warned about the climb up from the Derwent damn by some of the locals I met and sue enough it was hard work.

A heavy hard tail definitely was not a good choice. A light one would have left me much fresher for the decents and made it easier to pop over stuff.

There is some fantastic riding around Buxton/Gradbach/3 Shires head area.

I haven’t done the Gradbach route for some time, looking forward to doing it again tomorrow 🙂

I can recommend the following maps, both on there own and combined with an OS map for extentions.

Bought either as indivdual maps or as the peak bundle pack you will get hours of routes to go at.

http://www.bikemaps.co.uk/peak-district-mtb/peak-district-mountain-bike-maps.htm

I have the old version of the white peaks book. Is it worthwhile getting the newer version? Got the dark peaks book as well. Both great books.

Andyl, did the BHF peak ride on my ridgid scandal as it my light bike stick with it as you get used to the terrain (maybe). To be honest this year i’m finding less suspension more fun but you do get beat up on some of the decents.
We’ve just spent a summer booking caravan sites in the white peak so i could ride and have used the book along with the OS map to plan some rides.
Worst was around leak with poorly defined bridleways and too many gates deep with mud/ cattle puddles.