Went last week and did the Belmont descent and the Ice cream run.
Did I miss the ice cream van/stall?
often one in the car park at the bottom 🙂
Correct name is George's Lane. Still classed as a road (or BOAT or whatever) and that's why 4x4 drivers keep ruining it.
The ice cream van is not normally there at night 😉
Steve Peat once won a DH race down there
I understand that 50 years ago it was a proper tarmac road!
there is still 1 chunk of tarmac left, makes anice drop off onto 'babies head' size rocks 🙂
Theres been a few cars that Ive tried getting up there. I once saw a X5 stuck halfway up with the owner trying to reverse back down with ALL 4 passengers still in the car. It was possibly the most painful thing to watch as it passed funny into pain 🙁
adt - Member
Steve Peat once won a DH race down there
was that the 4x event - circa '96??? i think i entered that too but didn't win or go on to be DH world champ...
It is an actual road not a BOAT but a road...hard to believe but true. I have been up it in a 4x4 and I am not sure how on earth they could ruin it.
MTB ers in the grden and Motor cross bikes are doing far more damage.
4x4's just move the surface around a bit so boring samey old lines don't develop too much 🙂
yes that was it ,I didnt enter it but remember sombody saying he was on a rigid Kona
I have took the same line down there for years
Yes, saw Mr Peat on a rigid Kona there back in the day. I also once saw a Landrover Disco stuck 3/4 of the way up. Driver ramming rocks under back wheel for traction whilst trying to look as if he knew what he was doing as the chuckling mountain biker went by. Little lad sat in passenger seat looking worried.
I've 4x4d up it in a hilux surf, it's great fun. And IMO 4x4ers only make that route more fun and varying, it was never a natural nice singletrack to wreck. re getting stuck - thats part of the fun of 4x4ing, getting stuck and finding a way out of it, even if it means reversing the whole way down again lol.
Also ridden it since I was a kid, back then on a fully rigid al-carter timbertrail. I swear I'm no faster now!
damn it - i was on a rigid marin. i so nearly could have been world champ...
re 4x4's on that descent - let them go for it. 4x4ing is great fun and there aint many places you can do it legally.
re 4x4's on that descent - let them go for it. 4x4ing is great fun and there aint many places you can do it legally.
Two things I'd like to retry again; horse riding and mx'ing. Bet that doesnt sit well with the nerd-live-with-your-parents-on in a student house at 30 mtb'ers on there though.
I rode all the way up it last week without "dabbing":D
Also saw the downhill race's down it in the 1990's, saw some superbly painful crashes on the events.
They started at the top of the pike, right at the bottom along Georges Lane and then down the "icecream run/Elimantor".
It was so radical dude back in the day,everyone was well stoked with their DCD's on, an awesome event, I almost did a 540 Wilton as I was bodacious with my coaster brake on full lock. 😳 😳
Theres a 'line' down the ice cream run? Well I never
Best thing I've seen down there was a mate hitting the one remaining piece of tarmac, pumping the suspension ready for the drop-off. It was covered in sheet ice. He went down hard and went off the edge on his arse with his bike on top of him
I fell off I was laughing so hard
I remember the marshals shouting at the walkers to get out of the way when a round of the race set off. I also remember a few dosey walkers not really realising what was going on and nearly causing a few crashes. You wouldn't get away with running a race like that nowadays... 🙂
I remember doing a car rally with a stage that started at the top of the Belmont Road, and went along the rough stretch, past the Pigeon Tower, under the Pike, past the kennels and finished somewhere near where the cheeky track across the moor goes. Can't imagine that getting permission nowadays. Tony Pond came in his souped up Metro. Put the fear of God into everyone.
I was in that race, was only 16. I got right through in to the final with peaty. Managed to keep up with him for about 150 meters, by the end he'd finished almost a minute in front of me!
He was on a single pivot kona, gold swingarm and green frame I think. I came 4th in the final, out of 4 lol. I was on a proflex 856 with manitou 4 forks. Got a great bag of goodies and my name published in cycling plus too.
Few of my mates were in too, one came off hard, still got back on and finished tho. Found out later that day he'd fractured his collar bone and arm in 2 places!
Those were the days....