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chapplegate by Dean-B1, on Flickr[/img]End up going down it yesterday, not looking good.

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chapplegate by Dean-B1, on Flickr[/img]

It’s that smooth you get speed up very quickly to find the new drainage gulleys have been made very deep and steep sided (no the one in the picture). Someone is going to have an over the bars at some point.

It’s a good thing. At this rate, by the end of the year, I can rationalise my collection of bikes down to one and ride everything in the peaks.

Shame it will be a light weight road bike.

Those drainage channels have always been deep but that surface is going to encourage speed – off to check that out tomorrow night.

That surface is the same as had been laid on Brough Lane only up there they have laid curbstones across the trail at an angle every so often.

If they keep this up my ability to bunny hop at speed will be brilliant! It also means I may even get the SS up there clean!

Guess we will see more of this on the heavily used areas – makes me wonder what they may have in store for areas around Ladybower.

It wasn’t trashed before was it? Considering what a state it was in for years at a time in the past it seems to get a facelift every 5 minutes. It’s becoming the Joan Rivers of bridleways.

It wasn’t trashed before was it?

Yes, though maybe not in relative terms, but it got properly morassed over winter.

Problem with Chapel Gate is it’s a BOAT (or whatever the term is now) so it needs to be able to withstand 4×4 traffic.

They’ve tried to close it several times and succeeded on several occasions but each time it’s either been intentionally temporary or the closure order has been overturned in court. Last time it was overturned was because they hadn’t followed correct legal procedure to close it. 🙄

So each time, the 4×4 brigade get onto it before it’s properly settled in and the surface gets trashed again.

They closed Stanage Pole to 4×4 but still allow trail bikes up there and, if they gun it whilst climbing, they will be the ones who will rip up the surface fastest.

SSSI + road plainings =

To be fair it hasn’t exactly been exciting for years, has it? It was a nicer way up out of Edale than the road, that was about the most that could be said for it before they did this. Certainly wasn’t worth riding down in comparison to any of the other descents in the valley.

Perhaps they’re hoping that the 4×4 grumpies will take one look at it, decide it’s boring, and go somewhere else.

Rode up there last weekend. It was so warm you could smell the old tar on the gravel – and we just sunk into it. Awful.

One of the lads pointed out that when the oil and tar washes off it’ll go straight into the River Noe.

Also – how far will they go with it? Sunken road next?

the surface laid a year or so ago was a horrible clayey hardcore and did not handle wet weather well, so I think that is a (very) slight improvement. At least there’s no clay fraction in the road planings so it should be better in wet weather unless it’s only a thin layer and ruts straight through.

To deal with the rain bars you just need to loft the front over them and soak up the hit with your legs. Will be very fast DH now

Sunken road next?

Oh ****, hadn’t thought of that. 🙁

To be fair it hasn’t exactly been exciting for years, has it?

It was a mental descent up until a couple of years back when they sanitised it, proper alpine boulder field. Or maybe you found that dull? 😉

Anyway, I’m sure this’ll last about as long as the rest of the attempts at repairing it.

So long as the repair attempts don’t include taking this all the way over to Rushup Edge.

It was a mental descent up until a couple of years back when they sanitised it, proper alpine boulder field. Or maybe you found that dull?

It really focused the mind on a hard tail with 3″ travel forks. quite scary!

It was a mental descent up until a couple of years back when they sanitised it, proper alpine boulder field. Or maybe you found that dull?

No, I meant the stuff that was put down in the years immediately before the latest resurfacing, obviously, jeez…

No, I meant the stuff that was put down in the years immediately before the latest resurfacing, obviously, jeez…

What you said was:

To be fair it hasn’t exactly been exciting for years, has it?

It was only resurfaced, what, 18 months or so back… not exatctly ‘years’ unless you’re a cat maybe. Or a dog and adhere to a different time scale from the rest of us. ‘Jeez’ to you too 🙂

Did Bough Lane last night (same surfaceing material) which has been down months and it’s holding up well, make for a very fast descent. Also a bit odd to see saloon cars up behind Abney now as they can get up onto the ridge much more easily. They are, however, now making a real mess of the track at the top as they have to drive on either side of the potholes. I will be interesting to see how Chapel Gate holds up once they reopen it to traffic and what sort of vehicles have a crack at getting up.

Which one’s sunken road?

Castleton up mam tor

It was only resurfaced, what, 18 months or so back… not exatctly ‘years’ unless you’re a cat maybe. Or a dog and adhere to a different time scale from the rest of us. ‘Jeez’ to you too

Is that all? I was sure it was longer. But if we’re playing at being pedantic buggers, 1.5 years is still years… 😉

Castleton up mam tor

Isn’t that usually called the Broken Road?

This was the bit I was thinking of when Pook said Sunken Road, up the top of Chapel Gate. It’s a fun bit and it’d be a real shame if they ‘fixed’ it.

Wish I saw the OP’s photo’s before riding last Thursday. Thought that I’d check it out since it’s been a while since the last resurfacning. Unfortunately dragged 6 of my mates down there too (plus the road ride back to the top of Mam Tor), so they all hate me now!

It used to be such a good descent …

Looks a nicer climb than the road, I wouldn’t use slicks though.

thats the sunken road i meant