yes, but park in Staveley and ride from there… for two reasons.
1. You won’t find any parking in Kentmere on a weekend
2. The brewery in Staveley makes good beer.

Climb the Dubbs side via High Borrans, rather than going up Garburn side

How do I find Midgets Pit from the WMC?

The best way from the WMC at the foot of Blue Pig would be to go back up the bottom section of Pig to the first road crossing, go left there, then follow road up to Heptonstall. Or ride/push back up all of Pig. Sorry.
Midget’s Pit starts at the sports ground at the bottom end of Heptonstall, down the path next to the phone mast.
here

yep, if you do a Nan Bield route then…
either go off-piste from the top of Gatescarth over Harter Fell and drop into Nan Bield from there, or do a clockwise route from top of Dubbs over Buck Crag, Yoke, Ill Bell, Mardale Ill Bell and drop into Nan Bield from the opposite way.

DBW has it.

and finishing on Midget’s Pit followed by a pint in the stubborn dwarf is mandatory on all rides.

Tubeless on all bikes.

Will be procore on the big bike as soon as it’s available.

Rest of the day comprises Gorple/Widdop/Hurstwood then back via Whirlaw

A reasonable all weather XC route.

You’ll find the Pike bits that DBW and I have described are a bit more technically demanding than the rest of that loop though.

I think DBW is describing the same descent as my streetmap link. It’s on Strava as Birthday X or crowsnest-boulder-fest I think.

I don’t know Cowman’s whole route but I’d caution against London Road itself. It’s part of the Mary Townley Loop. It’s a doubletrack bridleway that has nothing “interesting” on it, so I wouldn’t bother with it personally, except as an efficient connection to link up the good bits (eg front of the Pike to Birthday X)

Yes, either straight up the flagged path (West) from Mankinholes then along the top to the Pike, which has some rockgardens to make it an interesting traverse.
Or, extend it a bit at the start by going up via Gaddings Dam and Warland Drain (just more flagged stuff on the tops), then pick up the same route as above through the rockgardens to the Pike.

Either way, the best descent off the Pike is straight down the front to London Road.
Then traverse London Road/Kilnshaw Lane to here streetmap link
and descend through Crownest wood to emerge near Hebden station.

looks exactly the same to me :)

how did it ride with the 27.5 front? It’s something I’ve got it mind when funds allow, keeping the 26″ rear..

Absolutely brilliantly :D
No surprise though as that’s the same setup I’ve ridden on 601s in Garda and Finale.
40mm Syntace rim on the front with a 2.5″ “Liteville special” vertstar Magic Mary.
Had Saturday on the uplift at Innerleithen as a suspension set-up/tuning day and it rode very well on the steep stuff (Goldrun and Cresta).
Then had a full day Sunday on the Golfie trails and found that I had more controlled grip than my mates on the silly steep stuff. I could brake and turn where they were sliding out, on trails like “No Social” and “Wolf of Wall St” if you’re familiar.

650B front and 26″ rear is definitely the way to go on the 601.

I’m doing a ride tonight (Wed night) at 7pm, meeting at Brinscall baths.
At least 3 of us out, maybe more.
Will include plenty of cheeky off-piste and probably a lap of Healy Nab thrown in for good measure.
We (Bogtrotters) do a Wednesday nightride every week at 7pm somewhere like Rivi/Abbey Village/Pendle/Longridge/Calderdale/Worsthorne/Farleton/etc.

I can’t disagree with any of what you’ve said amedias.

Yes, the bigger picture and context is always more important.

Is it just me then….?
There’s no doubt it’s illegal but would it bother me in that scenario that the OP describes?….
No.
I can’t see that it’s any more dangerous than changing stations on your radio or finding a track from a memory stick, whilst sat at the lights.

… or picking your favorite colour of jellybaby out of the bag
… or resetting your trip meter … or just wiping the dust from your eyes … whilst stationary at the lights.

They all take your attention but the risks are marginal.

[Edit] I’ve just read a thread about wearing kneepads for riding.
I consider the risk (probability x impact) of riding without pads to be a million times higher than that from looking at the phone whilst stationary at lights, but I wouldn’t take a sanctimonious line with anyone who chose not to wear pads, so it surprises me that folk get so upset about something just because it’s not permitted.
[/Edit]

Liteville (although 26″ is recommended on the smaller frames). I’m running a large 601 on 26″ and it’s brilliant

They actually recommend 24″ rear on the extra small models.

I’ve just bought and built an XL 601. I chose 26″ rear and 650B front.
Shakedown was last weekend at Inners/Golfie. Happy :D

Knees are delicate and vulnerable and if damaged may stop you enjoying the simple pleasure of riding your bike.
For these reasons, I tend to wear them for 90% of rides.
No, I don’t find them comfortable but more a necessary evil.

I’ve had two with that failure mode so far.
A riding buddy has had three.
All replaced under the two year warranty. No quibble with any of them.

It’s enough reason to send it back if it’s still under warranty.
Commonly caused by air finding it’s way past a seal as a result of the bike being lifted by the saddle whilst the post was “down”.

A service will fix it, but why spend money on a service if you have warranty remaining?

Most folk don’t notice it until it gets to about an inch of unwanted drop.
RS appear to favor just swapping it out for a new one, rather than bothering fixing it.

yep, either up to Spittlers Edge and over Great Hill or down to Leadmines Clough.

Personally though, I’d go out towards Darwen Tower then Roddlesworth, Abbey Village, Withnell Woods, Goyt, White Coppice, Healey Nab, and back via Rivi along the cheeky East side of the reservoirs.

down Birkside … hike up to Grizedale Tarn, descend to Patterdale.

Done that, as a correction after descending the Birkside track by mistake in bad weather. It’s not a bad option as you get two good descents.

Dollywagon isn’t good in a ‘super-gnar-nadge-core’ way, it’s repetitive step/drain bashing.

Agreed. It’s not that technical, just a challenge to get over some of the water-bars. It’s not a great use of hard-earned altitude, just a few challenging water-bars interspersed with stone pitched sections.

If you want nadge-core, descend Nan-Beild Northward.

…whereas this is. :D

Another thought – did I read that an 11 speed SRAM mech will work with an 11 speed Shimano shifter (or Shimano mech/SRAM shifter)? If so, 11 speed Shimano mech may work with SRAM shifter, if you’re are sufficiently deviant enough to use SRAM.

Some info on pull ratios etc here[/url]

From what I can glean from that about 11 speed cable pull(shifter) and pull ratios (mech) and a bit of calculation…
—————————————— Pull x Ratio = cog pitch
All Shimano: ———————– 3.6mm x 1.10 = 3.96mm
All SRAM: ————————– 3.5mm x 1.12 = 3.92mm
SRAM shifter/Shim mech —- 3.5mm x 1.10 = 3.85mm
Shim shifter/SRAM mech —- 3.6mm x 1.12 = 4.03mm

For me, that’s too little variance to rely purely on the theory and suggests that all the combinations would be worth trying out.

Interestingly, the cog pitch on both Shimano & SRAM 11 spd cassettes is allegedly 3.9mm

Flow EX every time.
Run them tubeless on both my 456Ti and my Patriot.

I’d interested to hear about interoperability of sram & shimano 11spd.
New bike comes with X01 kit but if there’s an option to fit an XT mech when the inevitable mech-mangling event happens, then that would be good.

I’m coming to the end of my stockpile of Rock’n’Roll Extreme.
This looks likely to be the next one I’ll try but new bike is 1×11, so I’ll need to find a re-usable quicklink for 11 speed.
Any recommendations?

It’s a “yes” from me.
But I can’t help with the “where?” or the “when?”

Finale Ligure.
Perfect time of year for there.

Another vote for Procore.

Ran the early development dual-valve version for a week in Finale last year and was the only one in our party not to pinchflat all week.
Will hopefully get my hands on some production ones soon.

Until then, the only things that have come close are the biggest volume Maxxis dual-ply or Schwalbe supergravity I can get my hands on, run tubeless with Stans.
EXO are useless. They are made of tissue paper and won’t last a day.

Rusty Shackleford – Member
Just buy from the auction and cut out the middle-man. It’s not rocket surgery.

I would have agreed with that a few years ago but…
I spent a morning at BCA last year looking for a new diesel estate (Mondeo/Passat/etc, 1-2 years old) and found the hammer prices were about the same as Autotrader.
I’ve had 3 or 4 cars from auction previously and it never used to be like that!
Bought from a small independent dealer in the end.

New forks at shop

, wow, I’d have laid good money on it being merely vacuum in the lowers (resolved by either mboy’s or dirtydog’s solutions)

I went for stealth reverb on my 301 with hose emerging above bottom bracket and up along the top side of the downtube.

WW’s routing is as designed/recommended only for fixed cable point (as WW said earlier).

My 601 is stealth reverb too. Sorry, haven’t tried external reverb on either.

I don’t buy the heavy=fast logic.
Yes it would be true if both were rolling down a smooth incline, but who rides down smooth inclines?

The lighter guy can hit rocks at more speed without pinching or buckling a rim. He’s better equipped to float over stuff so will carry the speed better.

I did a 51 plate passat estate some time ago.
No fancy wiring on that one though, just spliced straight into the rear light cluster looms.

Don’t buy the 601 if you really want a full-on downhill bike that will only ever go on uplifts. It’s not one. It’s a massively capable machine and would cope with any downhill track but it’s not designed to be a DH rig. You’d be spending a lot of money and getting something sub-optimal for that discipline.
That from a 601 devotee!

Buy the 601 if you need to get to the top under your own steam and then want to descend as though it’s almost a downhill rig.

Binners, If I were you I’d still ask the NT if this was done with their approval.

Does it need to be chairlifts or will a vehicle uplift fit the bill?
If so…
1. Garda
2. Finale

NB, I have never been to Morzine so can’t offer a direct comparison.

I’m another serial mech mangler.
Usual failure mode is a big rock either flying up and impacting mech or occasionally just me riding through a tight line too close to a fixed rock.

I’m going through about 2 XT medium cages a year.
I’d agree that those that said Zee is NOT the answer. I’ve found them to be far less resilient than XT.

The new bike has X01 on it and I’m frankly terrified at the prospect of replacing mechs. :cry:

I’m very happy with MM as a front tyre. (it’s a 2.5″ vertstar “special” for Liteville, built on a Fat Albert carcass).

The rear NEEDS to be a Supergravity one though, anything less just gets punctured/slashed/pinched far too easily on the rougher stuff.

The question is what focuses the mind more on not speeding, going on a course or having 3 points on your licence?

Maybe so, at a “the greater good of road safety” level, but at an individual level the question is purely about retaining the extra buffer to protect against getting caught again.

Why would you not do the course?
The real cost to you is half a day of your time but you still have three points less on your licence and therefore a more comfortable margin in case you incur some more later.

Trailseeker,
I might yet part with my 301 XL.
Plan is to run the 601 that I’m building and 301 back-to-back for a while and if the 601 doesn’t prove to be a hindrance for all-day Lakeland epics etc, then I’ll let the 301 go.

email in profile if that’s something you’d be interested in.
(Mine’s the XL at the back in this pic)

deviant,
If you want to fit dual crowns, make sure you go for the Mk3.
The change since Mk2 is the incorporation of a strengthening brace internal to the downtube where the stanchions of a dual crown would bump.