Basically how do I get here? From say the blue lagoon (wards res) and the black dog pub [video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV-dOw8yl-4[/video]

Would like to know myself 8)

Think it may be Great Hill towards Withnall ?

Bet it don’t look as good at the moment as it does in the Video

So from the Blue Lagoon, you head up the road as if you were going to rivington. Get to the top, then keep going along the flat. Past the car park on the right, past the end of belmont road on the left. Shortly after belmont road you see a Gate in the wall on your right, that’s the start of this run.

That is really dry though, 99% of the time it’s a bog for the first half mile or so.

Here
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=53.636369,-2.537069&ll=53.636344,-2.537026&spn=0.019567,0.038581&num=1&t=h&z=15

Cheers for the info. Also how do I get to the Belmont old road from say the mast? I really Am a Rivington newbie and want to get to know the trails up there once my knees better and it isn’t so bloody cold.

It’s here:
streetmap linky
Footpath leading off the shoulder of the hill at Horden Stoops and descending to Leadmines Clough.
Ridden it a couple of times in the last month or so. THe short climb from Horden Stoops is the only boggy bit at the moment.

BE WARNED though, this footpath seems to attract militant walkers who insist on laying bike traps. Mostly it’s just big stones hidden in clumps of grass or building little walls over the path but they have been known to include carpet grippers and nails facing upwards through planks.

Also how do I get to the Belmont old road from say the mast?

Go past the mast station, take the road to the left. Carry on past the trig point on your right then take the singletrack path straight ahead. This brings you out on the old road. It gets a bit steep so watch out. once at the bottom, take a left for the pigeon tower, and a right takes you near to the link samuri posted. 🙂

Despite it all being on my own personal land I dont recognise any of it. Mainly because it looks dry in the vid. Its not been dry up there for, oh, decades.

Ecky has the start right. Also right about the loon up there. Found Caltrops before now up there. To be honest its a rubbish run anyway. Better as a climb.

how do I get to the Belmont old road from say the mast

Most direct route is down the gulley from the very end of the road past the masts to Belmont Rd
here [Edit] this is what wors is describing [/Edit]

Better way is to do San Marino descent here then back up from Belmont on either road or the off-road option here [Edit] but this is a boggy climb at the moment [/Edit]

Apart from San Marino then which are some better runs?

Despite it all being on my own personal land I dont recognise any of it

what he said. I’ve ridden the one samuri links to a few times and pretty sure it isn’t that one, ecky’s first link sounds about right but I’ve only ever ridden it once, at night when wet. But have to say I’ve also ridden up eckys last link and it was bloody awful (YMMV depending on weather)

May 2012? Was it only 10 months ago that rivi was that dry? Seems like a lot longer.

for me I would rather go down San Marino & then back up again than do the road climb, then do the drop off the summit at the northern end that Ecky has just mentioned – great fun.

Apart from San Marino then which are some better runs?

You need someone to show you around really.

I ride that area most Wednesday nights with some of Boggies. Look on the Bogtrotters rideslist. for starters. First daylight outing planned around there is 31st March.

for me I would rather go down San Marino & then back up again

me too but I know a lot of people can’t stand riding up a trail they’ve just descended.

Agree 100% with MadBillMcMad & DONK

for me I would rather go down San Marino & then back up again

Turning back and going back up the San Marino is the work of a truly sick and depraved mind.

Don’t forget to submit your ‘permission to ride’ forms, in triplicate, to Lowey, at least a week before you ride. He’s very territorial about his land. And he’s always been a bit trigger happy, but rumour has it that he’s used the chaos in Syria to procure a Toyoto Land Cruiser with an Anti Aircraft gun mounted on the back of it 😯

Turning back and going back up the San Marino is the work of a truly sick and depraved mind

yes, some degree of reluctance was certainly evident on your part Binners, last time we had a STW nightride up there. I believe you were in fact the ringleader of the splitters, leaving just Molgrips & me to do the correct route.

Going back up the San Marino is the work of a truly sick and depraved mind.

😳

Ah yes…. guilty as charged, your honour. 😳

I’m liking my new title though. Do you reckon if I asked really, really nicely the mods would change my ‘member’ status to ‘Ringleader of the Splitters’? 😀

Ecky… passed you guys blasting down Stepback Clough on Saturday. Sorry I didnt stop to say hello, but only realised when I saw Danny and Michael’s flowing locks.

the only way to do san marino is rigid with canti’s 😯 (find out what arm pump is)!

the only way to do san marino is rigid with canti’s (find out what arm pump is)!

As an antidote to that kind of crazy-talk from you Craig, I took my Patriot down there last Wednesday night for a laugh.
180mm of coil suspension at both ends is the way to do it 🙂 No arm pump here, just third degree wind-burn and a stupid grin now permenantly frozen into my face.

Last time I saw someone attempt that it ended with a snapped frame 😯

I forgot what it feels like to descend (practically a roadie these days) 😳 (built my HT back up with rigid forks too…gives me an excuse to take it easy on the rough stuff)

ecky’s first link sounds about right

Nah, that one is seriously heavily rutted, it’s like a gully most of the way. If the original video doesn’t start where I said it did, then the only other option is turning right at the car park right on the tops, pushing up the grass hill a bit as if you were heading over to winter hill and then turning left and dropping all the way down to lead mines.

It could be that one.

sefton – Member

the only way to do san marino is rigid with canti’s (find out what arm pump is)!
Aye. Cross bike

binners – Member

Last time I saw someone attempt that it ended with a snapped frame

I think it was the subsequent exuberant Ice Cream Run that did it, actually.

I went down said Ice Cream Run on my hardtail at the weekend. I’m sure it has become easier/faster in recent years.

San marino you say?

Belmont by Jon Wyatt, on Flickr

Rigid, fixed wheel, cross bike. If you’re not doing it like that then stop calling yourself men!

Ice cream run?

pompino-icr by Jon Wyatt, on Flickr

likewise. 😉

As an antidote to that kind of crazy-talk from you Craig, I took my Patriot down there last Wednesday night for a laugh.
180mm of coil suspension at both ends is the way to do it No arm pump here, just third degree wind-burn and a stupid grin now permenantly frozen into my face.

I’ve done it on both an old rigid high-tensile steel thing with cantis from ASDA (My first MTB more than 15 years ago), and also my Patriot. I can confirm that something somewhere in the middle (Cotic Soul, in my case) is a much happier medium between “ARRRGGGHHHH MAKE MY ARMS STOP HURTING” and “OOOOOOHHHHHH CCCCRRRRAAAAPPPPP I’M GOING THAT FAST!!!!”

It’s a long time since I’ve done the route in question in the OP, but I think it’s where Ecky states, rather than Samuri. IMO I wouldn’t bother, and just carry on from Horden up to Great Hill and down to White Coppice – much better 🙂

Yeah, that’s what I said the second time. 😉

[stalker] Jon.. wheres your blog and FB gone ? [/stalker]

I was also going to ask about the blog – I liked the drawings, but miss the commute rantyness. The Adelaide drivers are getting worse, so reading your old old blog was quite cathartic!

Ah, so I was riding with Ecky-Thump last Saturday………I never knew 😯

I’d be interested to know where this vid was done – i was riding from the lead mines up towards Horden Stoops 2 weeks ago, I didn’t see anything that looked like it – although I had a gale blowing in my face all the way so it I mainly had my head down chunnering to myself

and I hadn’t realised I was riding with yoshimi until Michael said something about your & his almost identical Strava times on ICR, at which point I made the connection.

then the only other option is turning right at the car park right on the tops, pushing up the grass hill a bit as if you were heading over to winter hill and then turning left and dropping all the way down to lead mines.

It could be that one.

I think we’re describing exactly the same thing Samuri 😆
That’s the one I mean. The map only shows the path heading down from higher up the hill, when in reality the majority of folk have traversed left over the shoulder of the hill and this has become the established path on the ground.