thanks for the link seanodav. might get one of those.

It's always worth making the effort! I'll try to remember this little story next time my head is filling with excuses not to go out.

nice one 🙂

For many people it's when they chuck it through the car window. 😉

I'd have thought it's yours until its processed by the waste company. At work if we chuck things in the wrong skips there can still be a comeback from the waste contractors even after the skips have left site.

If you are renting bikes, have a hire car and have already ridden the 7-Stanes I would seriously consider heading a bit further south into the English Lake District for the first part of your trip.

It should be in good condition in early May and there are bike hire options. Again it is another area where the natural riding is better than the trail centres (IMO) but you have the option of both.

Heading North upto Aviemore and the Cairngorms to sample the natural riding for the second part of your trip sounds like a good plan also.

Surely it's just a matter of time before someone comes round a blind corner and gets one of these hanging dog eggs full in the face.

I can only imagine that the people doing this resent being told to pick up their dogs **** and hang it in the trees as some sort of protest at the fact there isn't a bin exactly where their dog decided to empty its guts.

As part of my commute I use one of the multi-user trails created by Sustrans and to be honest (at the time I use the trail at least) 90% of other trail users are dog walkers just letting their dog out for a post-work ****.

The trail is filthy with dirty dog eggs in places. 👿

Some good stuff near the Roaches and Lud's Church also. Unfortunately they have just put a gate half way down one of my favourite moorland singletrack descents from Roach End.

Some rocky trails around Hollinsclough although linking them with other trails can involve a bit of road work.

As others have mentioned Three Shires Head, Goyt Valley and Macclesfield Forest all contain good riding. Try and include Cumberland Brook and Danebower Hollow in any loops you ride around there. There is also some good cheeky stuff too.

Crème Brulee from the Royston Vasey area? Tony Cluedo is the man to contact I believe.

As other posters have already stated the natural riding in Scotland is excellent.

If you like riding at trail centres it sounds like you have already ridden at most of the best ones in Scotland (with the exception of the far NE).

If it is trail centre riding you are after and you want to visit new places maybe you would fair better heading for Wales this time.

In winter i rode in in the snow and loved doing so. When at work people who found out I'd come in on the bike in the snow were offering to give me lifts home and in one case commented that it was dangerous to ride in such temperatures (-7°C).

It just wasn't on their radar that I could have chosen to ride in, enjoyed doing so and been toasty warm during the ride.

sound – the crisp crackle of snow / frost under the wheels

smell – the slow cooker cooking up a casserole on returning home from a long ride

The Peaks isn't the Queens Garden. Its WILD

IMO its the wild places that need protecting not the man-made landscapes like the queens garden.

Of course the peak is not wild and is very much a landscape shaped by man. The lush forests long since chopped down and used for farming pasture. The heather moorland encouraged by gamekeepers for shooting parties.

The rare peatland habitats now used by 4×4's as skid patches and we still try and tell other "3rd world" countries how to manage their environments and that they should preserve their rainforests. Hardly leading by example are we.

nice pics! the trails look great 🙂

Look at the bigger picture- who cares? I saw ALOT of MX'ers in Pindale quarry on Saturday (alot with number plates as well)- let them play ffs.

Sadly for the Peak District not so many people these days.

Was out riding in the Peak today and as i climbed away from Chatsworth half-choking on the car fumes, splashed with water by MX'ers and a quad-bike, past the fly-tipping and endless roadside litter i was glad to get out of the place and back to the more tranquil lanes near where i live.

please feel free to delete this post. it was made in error.

High Peak Junction and it's pump house, also Middleton Top on the High Peak Trail – make a nice little bike ride between the two.

And a pair of aqueducts over both a river and a railway, which is somehow rather satisfying. Oh and a nice enough tunnel too.

Some facts from wikipedia on the line The Cromford & High Peak railway…

The steepest adhesion worked incline of any line in the country (1 in 14 at Hopton)

The sharpest curve, 55 yards (50 m) radius through eighty degrees at Gotham

The highest line in England at Ladmanlow, a height of 1,266 feet (386 m).

Also 3 inclines less than 1 in 10

Here's a few pics taken from a ride up there this winter.

Sheep pastures incline

The tunnel

Bunsall incline

Nice pics!

Heard they can be a bit aggessive when they have young to protect.

I really like getting out at around 6am in the summer when there are very few people about and the temperature is just right for riding without sweating like a power shower. Get to work for 8.30am, shower and breakfast then sit feeling smug when everyone else turns up

+1 (except I also like being out on the bike at that time in spring, autumn and (especially) winter* too).

* = sub-zero frosty & snowy mornings only

What about the dotted black paths on the OS maps. Can we ride these legally?

Some of them are up there with the best trails in the dark peak IMO.

I guess here

edit – sorry just read the post above.

So in that case the heat from the Earth's core is crucial to sustaining life as we know it on our lovely planet.

It certainly is in Iceland. After their banks going bankrupt the last thing they need is someone turning off their geothermal energy supply.

I've seen MXers on the Hope Cross tracks many times but I doubt they'd be daft enough to try Jacobs (which definitely isn't byway).

I've seen MX'ers at Edale Cross as well as Hope Cross.

How has it become stuck?

I thought seatpost corrosion was caused by using two dissimilar metals?

I always had the opposite problem with carbon posts in that they wore away with the number of saddle adjustments and eventually became too loose.

Carbon has a low CTE so heating may help.

…

…

Wouldn't go as far as to say I am proud of these (especially after seeing some of the excellent pictures in this thread) but these are the ones i wasn't dissapointed with (rightly or wrongly). Some of these are just over 1 month ago i admit.

Constructive criticism and ways for improving shots welcomed bearing in mind i only have a compact digital camera.

Nice pics thanks for posting. Particularly like the first one 🙂

24 miles is a fair distance in such conditions, wish i could have made it out myself.

😀

Latest issue of the mag has a review of some Fox gloves that are recommended I think.

Can't comment personally as i am in the same position as yourself with cold fingers!

Some of the best trails in the dark peak IMO are 'shooting tracks' 8)

Here is a typical scene from my commute:-

This one ****** me off the most though. It is at Sandwood Bay in North-West Sutherland. A 4-mile walk from the nearest road and this is what is some campers have left waiting for you on your arrival.

I often ride and walk in these woods. The mountain bikers don't do themselves any favours at all leaving a lot of litter around the trail network. In reality it is probably just a few people out of the large numbers that visit this area now.

I often pick it up and carry out what I can but on my last visit there was too much to carry.

Also some of the 'off-piste' trails that have been built in the conifer area run through a badger set at one point and there was even litter stuffed into one of the badger holes!

I find it therapeutic in some way. My mind clears of stress and worries and you just focus on the repetitive chopping. It has a similar effect on me to riding a bike 🙂

I'd have more time for Claire Short if she'd resigned at the same time as Robin Cook instead of voting for the war and then resigning after the event.

+1

It seems that her personal career ambitions were more important than her principles. Easy for me to say and a tough call for her I suppose but it was another reason to admire what Robin Cook did.

there isn't too much of a problem with you riding there

Not everyone sees it that way.

link

Number of bikes i currently own… +1

Included it as part of a natural route i was doing in the area last summer. The trails at Trallwm weren't upto much to be honest but the cafe and tea shop was great although it opens a bit late.

As others have said some great natural riding in the area. The bridleway down to Capel Soar y Mynydd was one of the highlights for me.

I was in Montafon, Voralberg last May. A beuatiful area but there can still be a lot of melting snow around in May and you will probably find many of the lifts to the higher summits closed.

Carsington pricier I presume? Is traffic a bit less mad around there then?

Carsington / Hopton are (obviously) not as tranquil as they used to be what with the tourists / day trippers that have arrived with the reservoir.

A lot of the traffic by-passes the villages by staying on the B5035 but there is still a fair amount including the hordes of walkers / leisure cyclists at the weekend. Great riding from the doorstep there also.

Personally if i was buying a house in the area you mention and it was just my choice i would choose Fritchley (near Crich).

8 miles by car = 25 minutes

12 miles by bike = 1hr 30 minutes