Was out yesterday doing a recce of next week’s Calderdale MTB Marathon and was absolutely gutted when I found what they’ve (presumably Calderdale Council?) done to Stake Lane – the tricky descent into Mytholmroyd. What was once a real test of nerve and ability is now a pancake flat motorway 😥

As another point of interest for anyone else entering next week – the long grass drag in the field heading for the House of Shit was a virtually unrideable gloop-fest unless you kept way off to the right, Midgely Moor was a complete bog from one end to the other (including several over-the-hub deep puddles of mud), and the descent off the end will have the vast majority walking down as it’s almost impossible to pick a riding line without keep stopping or picking yourself up after the inevitable tumble. Be careful, there’s hospital holes now.

Having said all that, it should be a good do and plenty of fun as usual 😀

Happens a lot round my way… Tech gets gravelled. Generally on the nazional trust land.

So we all do skids, ride it in crap weather, some ice, lots of rain, snow…and by spring it’s entertaining again.

They did Stake Lane last year sometime. Surprised its not back to its absolutely knackered best after this ‘summer’ unless they’ve done it again recently to replace all the hardcore that’ll have been washed into Mytholmroyd… The council don’t seem to realise that throwing a load of loose gravel down a steep hillside that has torrents flowing down it at the slightest hint of rain doesn’t work. Same keeps happening with CC and Wireworks in Copley…

Yep, redone again a couple of weeks back DBW. The guys doing it were adamant that due to the ‘much bigger pipe’ that this time it’ll last.

Right!

Not changing my setup at all for this personally… but even with the mud to consider there’s too much tarmac for draggy tyres.

You’d think they’d have better things to spend their (our) money on. Sure there are much more sustainable ways of making it a smoother surface (which to be fair, it would have been pretty hairy taking a horse down there in the state it used to be in!) than just chucking loose gravel on it with some plastic pipes with holes in underneath. It just doesn’t work. Exactly the same stupid method they’ve used on Wireworks in Copley. So you now have the higher part of the trail an off camber death trap leading into a gulley with a slippy crushed and mangled plastic pipe in the bottom. Think a letter to the RoW people at the council is in order.

I’m all for making RoWs accessible and understand the cycle of motorway degrading to tech fest then the repair back to motorway status (!) but you’re right that the approach or the decision to attempt to fix the un fixable is a massive waste of money. someone should have a word! Or should we start a people power petition?

(and please excuse the seemingly random comment on bike setup, got confused with the CMBM thread.)

The council don’t seem to realise that throwing a load of loose gravel down a steep hillside that has torrents flowing down it at the slightest hint of rain doesn’t work. Same keeps happening with CC and Wireworks in Copley…

Yes quite. The council did the same near me to a nice techy bit and now it’s getting all washed out. I suggested that in the future they get some upland path specialists to do a proper job with drainage and shit instead of getting some local cowboy builder in with a f***ing big digger trashing the place.