[Closed] Derbyshire switchbacks

On or off road?

some nice switchbacks above todmorden/hebdon bridge i did a few weekends ago but may be a bit far 🙂

Cannock chase trails, tons of them all through the monkey, 'devils staircase' springs immediately to mind.

Ambergate - go look in the woods there.

one of the things I thought after my first trip abroad (with the aptly named Switchbacks), there's very few switchbacks on our local trails. Nan Bield, dollywaggon, gatesgarth and a bunch of other high lakes trails have them.

Nant-Y-Arian has plenty, as I found out yesterday, much fun to be had there that's for sure.

P.S. Realise it's not the nearest of places to Derb's 😀

I was thinking Ambergate too, that's the obvious place, although I understand one of the more obvious switchbacky trails is a bit sensitive. Or I think there might be one or two somewhere below Black Rocks, but I couldn't for the life of me direct you to them, I don't bother with maps and always just follow my nose + some vague memory of where I went on the last ride round there and don't worry too much about where I'm going.

Malvern has a good few sets of silly tight switchbacks. It's not particularly handy, but I can't think of anywhere with better examples...

OP. Did Ian and Ange take you down the Scorpions Tail trail by any chance?

It's a bugger that one!

What about the switchbacks on the last descent at penmachno. Easy to ride back to it and "session" (hate that word) it but nowhere near as steep as you'll find out there

There's a couple here:

[url= http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=421570&Y=365233&A=Y&Z=115 ]switchbacks near haddon[/url]

...or the ones off the end of Derwent Edge down to the Ladybower inn?

There's one on Stanage, although TBH it's the only corner in the Peaks 😛

Find the steepest bit of hillside you can and make some, preferably with roots on the corners.

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Cheers all, i shall break the maps out.

bregant, we avoided the scorpion after i had them shown my complete inability to ride the switchback we had found.

😀

Perhaps just as well. I lost my bike over the edge of one of the switchbacks on there and had to climb down to retrieve it from a tree!

Nice, the descent to allet (?) was what did for me

Already planning to go back though

Olette?

Yes we did that twice because everyone loved it so much (we included it in a bit of a last day epic iirc)

Some video of it here. Ian had just started building some jumps at the top of the run down shown at the very start of the video when I was there 3 years ago now.

That gave me flashbacks .....
Did you do the slate quarry ?

there is only one proper steep alpine stile switch back in Derbyshire and that is the bottom one on Cut Gate

that said it is technically in Yorkshire

Cool, cheers

Nowt to do with your question but my mum lives next door Angela's folks in Crich. Last time I was there I saw a boxed up Scott bike that Ian had just had shipped there, I had to resist the urge to open the box and take a peek/ride. A bunch of us went snowboarding with Altitude Adventure many years ago just after they'd started up and I've always wanted to go back there in the summer for some riding, it looks epic and I can indeed confirm they are top hosts. One day I'll go back.

Ian used to work for Scott in marketing and all their bikes/glasses/clothing etc seems to come from them

Are you guys taking about Ian pendry?

Aye, we are.

Yup Ian Pendry, used to be sales for Scott UK I think.

Def worth going biking with, they are both superb riders and excellent hosts.

Oh and the riding is fantastic, as hard as they think you can take, being at the back was great as I had free coaching all week from both of them .

What sort of bike would you recommend for the type of riding?

I did it on a Scott spark, 130mm travel, we also had a spec endure, a stumpy fsr in our group

Depends if you take the extra uplift option or you ride up the hills yourself I guess.

Although they have had guys out there on hardtails, so up to you really

Good to know, thanks, looks like I'm covered.