Subscribe now and choose from over 30 free gifts worth up to £49 - Plus get £25 to spend in our shop
Alternatively, someone might give a lift from Sheffield or Manchester way if you can get there
I'm already in Manchester (Sale) went carless about a month ago and not been on the MTB since*!
*fitness is at an all time high after losing use of said car
I can probably pick up from Sheffield on the way, but I've yet to experiment with fitting two bikes in the Yaris...
Yay! I have booked this day off for riding. Boo! I've already made riding plans. Might see you lot out on the hills though.
@TINAS - 25th of Feb IS nearly the end of Feb?
Well my next checkup is on the 24th in Reading, which puts me at the wrong end of the country that weekend too 🙁
I might keep it penciled in the Diary then I can cancel at the last minute when the missus throws a strop and I can claim some brownie points!
Hmmmmmmmmmm. Just may have a slice of this.
wonder who else will join in?
Well its to soon for me after my surgery. But you can get there by train from Manchester. Check to see if a wayfare ticket is cheaper than a return. A wayfare ticket is £10.00
How do lads n lasses, room for a n00b? I'm rubbish going up but can get down pretty good, IMO. I'll be coming from hudds way if anyone requires a lift in my sporty little two seater
van.
What's a sporty two seater van?!
Its a van, it has a rugby ball in the back, and has two seats. Thats as far as it goes. Berlingo, in case you were wondering what make.
Sounds rad.
It does the job.
I'd like a van. Soon I might not need a car any more so I might trade in
They come in very handy. Even if i didnt need it for work id propbably have one anyway, so easy to chuck the bike in the back n get going, no messing with bike racks and all that malarky. We managed to get 5 bikes in the back of it with the front wheels taken off and stacked down the sides so for a little van its taken some good loads, ahem.
Only problem is the lack of seating up front but you can get three seater berlingos, although it would be very cosy and i dunno where they put the gear lever 😮
Right, buggrit.... have just approached 2 very good, not seen in tooo long a time, friends to see if we can defer our 'prior' of the 25th..... at £106 for a service my forks need a bloody good using 🙂
Will see what the friends come back with....
ooh the pressure!
Job sorted 🙂
All things being equal I shall grace you with my presence - as usual, last up the hills, last down 🙂
You might have to fight me for the honour of being last up the hill, not so slow going downhill though gravity is on my side 😀
@ 16 stone'ish in full kit, it's on mine, too.gravity is on my side
It's just that I have to be sure to do my job - unofficial brake tester 🙂
I'm pretty sure I will be up there for the steadiness award going up the hills. And down. And on the flat bits, too.
I might run this pootle in lincolnshire. Then there'll be no hills for you to fight over anyway. 😉
Not Lincolnshire, my mum will walk along side me and nag all the way around. If i promise to let someone else be at the back can we move it back to the peaks?
Go on then. I'll see if i can find some hills out that way.
I might go on this.
I'd recommend it iDave, you'll probably find some new customers. ;D
Sam's destined to be a fat knacker. It's his love of jelly babies.
Unless i continue my disgraceful habit of throwing them on the floor.
last up the hills, last down
I might be joining you on the ups. Good for mid-table on the downs, I hope.
Before I book the day off is this still on? Saturday 25th of this month?
Yeah course it is!
😀
Can we start wishing for nice weather now? I feel it's deserved.
Hi Chris - I'm thinking about joining you again for a bit of pootling, I think I need to brush up on my bicycle-scuba skills...
Will keep an eye on here for meeting-up details 🙂
Excellent - Simon, it will be good to have you along again - it's been a while.
I'm still deciding on a route.
could be up for my first ever 'pootle'
I can never remember- does pootling trump bimbling or is bimbling a better hand, I do know that a dawdle is the worst of the lot but I never seem to get above that at least in public! On the odd occasion that I've been lucky enough to have a blast there are never any witnesses a bit like my hole in one and my 147 break !
if we're going on that analogy, while a dawdle would be a high card....a jack say, a pootle is a pair of fours. A bimble is a pair of threes.
I'd be quite happy to get my hands on a nice pair on a cold morning like this at work.Card playing is frowned upon here at the ministry of funny walks though .
could be up for this (I'll start the approval process straight away) 😆
I'm still playing with routes
Anything we've not done before?
Dunno yet. I keep hearing Cavedale.
Was Cavedale the one where we chucked Hora's bike behind the wall?
We rode down Pindale on that one, but the Cavedale turning was just before where I hid his bike. Cavedale is steeper and the rocks don't move as much. Slippy too.
re: route, can I suggest stanage/blackamoor/totley moor areas?
AFAIK you've not covered that area on a pootle before?
Not thaaat terrible for mud and generally not loads of height to pedal up for amount of trail/distance that can be covered? is a bit early/low 'season' for me atm ..
Guessing Lady Cannings developments aren't due to be finished for a while yet?
EDIT: though train access would of course be a 'mare/impossible, unless dropped down (nearly) into totley itself?
Or is that a bit too much of a sheffield local ride than a peak pootle?
technically still peaks in my book. Blacka is currently a bog though, and linking from that end over to stanage pole way includes an epic amount of roads unless you go rogue cheeky. cheers for the suggestion though.
it may be a summer one though...
Cut Gate out and back would be ace if it's frozen... how about that plus a contingency route if it happens to be mild and pleasant. Or mild and unpleasant. Or just do it anyway and enjoy the carnage. About time there was an Epic Pootle... 😉
Cutgate is an ACE out and back when it's frozen. Just don't forget that it's frozen on the descent back down and nearly crash into a wall.
Might be interesting if it's a bogfest too. Nearly bald High Rollers are the right tyres for those conditions right?
Might be interesting if it's a bogfest too. Nearly bald High Rollers are the right tyres for [s]those[/s] [b]all[/b] conditions!
ftfy
Never ridden Cut Gate, so that'd be good for me if it's frozen.
that was actually #1 on the list, from langsett end.....
Fingers crossed for a clear, cold, blue sky week next week then.
we've never had had weather on a pootle....
Ooh cavedale, kinda love/hate it, I like it and it hasn't killed me yet but it does scare the hell out of me, don't like slippy wet rock.
Not done cut gate in a while and never done stanage. Looking forward to it whatever the route. Also hoping for (dry) frozen ground.
BadlyWiredDog - Member
Might be interesting if it's a bogfest too. Nearly bald High Rollers are the right tyres for those all conditions!
ftfy
I think I might have a bald Minion on the front... Will I die?
I have many bald minions. Pootles are like right said Fred tributes.
Long range forecast from Met Office - I'm sure it will be accurate 😉
UK Outlook for Sunday 19 Feb 2012 to Tuesday 28 Feb 2012:Much of the UK will be dry and cold at the start of the period, with some sunny intervals. Scattered snow showers are expected across Scotland though, with gales in exposure. Rain is expected to spread form the west later on Monday (20th) turning to snow as it hits the cold air over the UK, giving some temporary accumulations. The rest of the period then shows signs of turning generally more unsettled and windy, especially in the northwest of the country, with bands of rain interspersed with cooler, more showery weather. The south and southeast look to be driest but there will be some rain here at times. Temperatures should recover to nearer normal but overnight frosts cannot be ruled out during clearer periods of weather.
Updated: 1200 on Tue 14 Feb 2012
Can we add 'my tyres are balder than yours' to 'I'm incredibly slow and will be bringing up the rear at all times' to the banned list, please 😉
I'm going all anti-pootle. I'm bring tyres that have loads of tread, will be giving all the technical climbs a good try and battering the downhills.
We might need a 'What snow shoes for Cutgate in February' thread
A fat bike might be most suitable for Cut Gate, BWD will be infuriated!
A fat bike might be most suitable for Cut Gate, BWD will be infuriated!
Oh, good call! I might speak to my mate Rich who runs [url= http://keeppedalling.co.uk/ ]Keep Pedalling in That Manchester[/url] and see if I can borrow his FatBike, since he so kindly said I could
[url= https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-VTMX3zbjjNQ/TzEzlSaQS-I/AAAAAAAABNM/aZ4F0ZXIyE8/s600/IMG_8441.jp g" target="_blank">
He won the FatCat at Hit The North on it, so it must be an ace bike. BWD knows Rich too so I might get away with it 😀
A fat bike might be most suitable for Cut Gate, BWD will be infuriated!
Why? I'm quite happy for people to ride whatever they like. Fwiw, I've ridden Cut Gate in snow a few times, once on the day of an Edale Pootle a couple of years back when the snow was in such perfect rolling order that I sacked off the pootle after riding over the Roych and carried on round and home via Cut Gate.
If we do start at Langsett, Sam, you're very welcome to ride over from Glossop with me. It's quite a pleasant roll and about 90% off road. You just cross the Woodhead at one point, the rest is bridleway and disused rail track. Good training for the Alps as it's mostly quite flat 😐
Your previous fat bike rants have made me laugh, that's all. It's a possibility, but I think my dad might be riding so I might be able to get a lift over. Otherwise that might be the only option. 😯
It's genuinely a really pleasant roll over. Good views, nice cows and sheep, distant vistas of thundering artics, hillsides made of brown suede. You can use the pootle itself as a recovery, then pin it on the way back with fresh bread and fishfinger sandwiches at the other end. What could possibly go wrong?
Otherwise that might be the only option.
We should be heading over from Marple. As BWD says, though, it's not a particularly hard ride from Glossop to Langsett, at least at the start of a ride. Not as nice in the other direction, admittedly, grinding up that hill is not the best of fun from what I recall
Can we add 'my tyres are balder than yours' to 'I'm incredibly slow and will be bringing up the rear at all times' to the banned list, please
Dammit! Er... Er... How about "I lost my multitool so bits might fall off my bike so I have to go slowly"?
cant make it as another kids week for me
I will make one northern stw ride this year if it kills me [ or more likley I organise it
Enjoy
Looking to book train tickets, what station are we looking at then? 😀
Seems you have to book bike spots on trains these days?
Anything i should know? never taken a bike on a train before
not ridden anything other than dirt jumps and shore since our xmas ride, could you include some in the route for motivational purposes please?
Not as nice in the other direction, admittedly, grinding up that hill is not the best of fun from what I recall
It's about ten minutes up the hilll from Dunford Bridge to the Woodhead then back on the Longdendale Trail all the way into Royston Vasey. I've done Cut Gate from the front door as a night ride before now. It'd be ideal terrain for a fat bike - the spin across from Marple would warm up your legs nicely.
It's about ten minutes up the hilll from Dunford Bridge to the Woodhead
I seem to recall being on death's door grinding up that hill when we did stoopid loop that way round. Mind, that was a few years back now.
Thinking of hopefully joining you on this one...be nice to meet you all 😀
[b]Right then everyone, it's been decided.[/b]
We'll meet at [b]10.30am[/b] at [url= http://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=417249&y=389364&z=120&sv=417249,389364&st=4&ar=y&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf&dn=862&ax=417249&ay=389364&lm=0 ]Fairholmes car park[/url], at the top of Ladybower for the pootle on the 25th February.
We're going to take in one of the UK's most popular, and well regarded trails; Cut Gate. Our ride will take us along Derwent and Howden Resevoirs on typical lake side trails before we head up over the tops to Langsett - as such, the ride's a bit longer than normal at 17 miles; but the first (and last) stretches of that are on easy trails. Still - it's worth it for the loop over Midhope Moors.
The route's an out and back - and described as 'an easyish route'. Imagine a red. As always though it's a social ride, steady pace - focus on the chat and the folks rather than the pace. Basically, if you're a race snake, we hope you don't mind holding the gates (not that there are any on this ride!)
There's ample parking along Ladybower, and the A57 (a short ride away). Trains: Bamford is likely to be your easiest nearby station, unless you fancy a ride over from Edale/Hope.
Of course, there'll be the pint and pie after in the Ladybower Inn too.
See you then.
Sounds like a plan 8)
I'll actually know where I'm going on this one 😳
Woo! I love Cut Gate. Hopefully it'll be frozen on the top, though...
Is this the Cutgate special route in the dark peak guide?
It was holding up very well last time I was up there - after a prolonged period of rain too. I was debating whether to take a group up or not but fingers crossed it will be frozen - we're normally a responsible bunch though sticking to the trails!