I’d be interested in the programs please excitable1.

Ivan, sent some scanned copies to your e-mail listed on your profile.

Even if you swim slowly up and down for half an hour with your head out (so as not to ruin your hairdo), yet do 5000m rowing, 5km running and a variety of weights during your hour in the gym?

FFS :roll: There’s always one !

Another tip… rather than swimming a length or two and then stopping for a rest or chat, swim continuously but change from sprints, to relaxed to legs only to arms only.

You cover a bigger distance and the changes in pace really pushing your heart rate up and down is the best for of exercise for your heart and is exactly what happens on the bike.

Brucy bonus… sporty ladies in swim wear… need I say more :lol: !

Swimming is one of the best forms of exercise you can do and IMO is the perfect form of exercise to compliment MTB’ing. You exercise almost all your body muscles when you do the different strokes and you build up your stamina and staying power.

Every 30mins swimming is the equivalent of doing an hours work out in a gym.

I have swam for an hour every week for about 5 years and swim on average 2500m. But it’s not just about swimming up and down. I have some routines written out by a trainer (who gave me copies before they made her redundant-barstewards) and they include sprints and float work so you are doing legs only and arms only etc as well as the four traditional strokes. It’s hard work to get 2500m in but well worth it.

The difference on the bike is remarkable. The increased stamina and strength in arms and legs means you can go twice as far, the climbs become easier, and you recover quicker. I found I can pace myself better and my times have drastically reduced. I also find a very rarely have to stop for a rest, even on the 60k killers.

Swimming really paid off this year when I managed Snowdon twice (up-Llanberis down-up-Rangers down-Maesgwyn down) in just under 5hrs !!!

If anyone wants a copy of the routines let me know and I’ll scan copies in and e-mail them.

To my amazement they quoted: for unspecified bikes up to £6000 in value….. £45 a year! Swinton, in case you’re interested.

Check the small print, then check it again then speak to them and ask them to confirm….

Most of the household insurance companies specify that the bikes need to be chained to an immoveable object with a Sold Secure Gold lock (Some don’t specify the lock) if they are being stored in a garage over night. They are also only covered for theft if there is proof of forced and violent entry, so if you forget to lock up one night you’re not covered, or if someone takes your bike while you’re round the back during the day, again you’re not covered.

I used Morethan this year. Specified the exact bikes, bikes are covered almost everywhere and didn’t cost too much extra on the contents. I’m even covered if I fall off and break the bike !

They now know you have things of value in there, the genie is out of the bottle.

Hopefully not quite.. as soon as they lifted the door beyond it’s catch the alarm went off and my bikes are hanging from the ceiling at the back so they would have needed a torch.

If they peered underneath then all they would have seen as Lightning McQueen’ face smiling back at them (sons go kart !).

Nope, they’ll just cut through the frame, leave the lock and chain behind hanging in the breeze and flog the components on ebay at their leisure

8O WTF… never heard of that !

Friend of mine has a security firm that fits systems in embassys. F in camera going up tomorrow ! :twisted:

Thanks for for the advice.

TBH I’d already taken the claim that ‘no one does the climb from Lee to Cragg’ as BS and having looked at where you need to park on Cowpe Road and the route up from there as well as having to do the main road tedium at the end = no brainer, I’ll be starting at Lee.

Thanks for that Clover. Have you done the link between Cragg and Lee quarry in the up direction or just parked at Cragg and gone down ?

It’s been suggested that it’s better to park at the Stag car park on Cowpe Road at the Cragg Quarry end then do Cragg Quarry first, then the link down to Lee quarry and then take the main road back to the Cowpe Road car park, apparently nobody claims from Lee Quarry to Cragg Quarry!?

It’s so she can have my tea on the table, some coffee brewed, a cake baked, a hot bath run, and be stood next to the washing machine ready to wash my dirty kit :wink: !

The fact is the police won’t do enough about the stolen bike market, they consider them ‘just bikes’ and can’t see the bigger picture.

Do a weekly search on eBay for Lapierre and every week you will find someone selling a brand new Lapierre for cash on collection, usually from Manchester (that’s not a slur on my home town of Manchester, it’s just fact).
Apparently these eBayers been faking orders to Hotlines from the local bike stores and then having the bikes delivered to either a fake stock house or an alternative address because the ‘shop is closed’. The other way is that they buy the bikes from LBS with a stolen credit cards for which the LBS is covered by their insurance. Either way the bikes don’t get reported as stolen so they are officially not stolen bikes.

I highlighted a few of these to Hotlines and they know all about them. They’ve tried reporting them to the police but they literally have been told ‘they’re just bikes’.

What the police fail to see is that 3 bikes a month at £2k each is £6k. How much drugs can that amount of cash buy in a month and put on the street !!!

I did the ‘classic ride’ from issue 69 two weeks ago, this was what I ‘d said in another post (result is a no brainer for me, get to the Mynd but it looks nothing like James’ loveley photo’s at the moment…)

Got there for 10am and couldn’t see my hand in front of my face at the top because the cloud was so low, but as I was getting the bike out the cloud lifted (a bit) so I just had the cold and wind to deal with (the met office are a bunch of lying b******s !).

I got lost twice (once at the start over the first hill and once at the end in the ‘forest’) but other than that really easy to navigate.

The trails are like nothing else I’ve done before. Despite the damp conditions the ground is really hard almost all along the route. Those same weather conditions in the Lakes, NW or the Peaks would undoubtably result in the Somme effect. In fact if anything the short grass, wet and hard ground make the ride a little skitty.

Loved the descent to Little Stretton and the descent down Minton Batch is also good but needs to be tried in the dry.

I had planned on doing some extra drops off the back of the gliders club but as it says in the article there’s something out there that saps you energy and I couldn’t be arsed with another climb to the top… maybe in the summer.

4.5hrs including the two diversions at either end, so I think the 6.5hrs quoted in the article is a mis print.

From what I saw there is loads of extra routes out there. There seemed to be lengths of ST almost everywhere I looked.

d45yth – Thanks for the warnings. I had banked on it being 5-6 hrs too. Also have to admit that every time that I’ve been climbed up from Sadgill to the top of Gatescarth I’ve never seen the BW leading off to Mosedale. Last time I looked for it (August) I thought ‘what, across that bog ?!’ I’ve done a few 60-70k epics in the Lakes but not lasting for 9hrs. 7.5 was the last one. Still you only live once !

High Street Summit…? done it loads of times from Hayswater Reservoir side and turned round at the top before heading back down and over towards Loadpot but never from Ings. Which climb and descent do rate the most, Hayswater or Ings ?

PS Tyres (previous thread) are holding out but had to lower the pressures to 36psi back and 32 psi front… I don’t want to hear any of the words ‘you, so or told’ from you !

http://gpsed.com/track/133256260675561849

http://gpsed.com/track/133256257489846458

Two routes which take in Loadpot Hill but not down into Lowther Valley. It’s not worth doing that way as it’s just a long grassy hill side, where as the anti clockwise route around Loadpot and descent toward Pooley Bridge has some ST, and is very quick and lots of fun. You can always turn right at The Cockpit to get down to the bottom of Lowther Valley but all the best routes are along side Ullswater.

Your key to this is getting up to Loadpot hill, how are you doing that ? It get’s very boggy at the top during the winter and it’s very high so you have some bike hiking to do if you come up from Hayswater Reservoir.

Still, some of my favourite routes round there. Always brings a smile to my face. I’m planning an epic from Ings to the top of Highstreet, across to Loadpot and down into Lowther, Rossgil Moor, Swindale Common, Sadgill, Ings. Need some descent weather and lots of day light though !

I did the Rhyd Ddu descent at the beginning of October. When the rest of the country was enjoying a freak heat wave Snowdon was covered in cloud and the winds were gale force at the top.

The first part of the descent is not really ridable and neither is the first part of the ridge. In gale force winds with a bike in one hand when you really need two to stop you falling down the sheer drop to your death it’s not much fun.

After that it’s a big wide open moon scape of a drop where you simply have to pick a line. It then levels out and passes over what I believe are old mine workings, some of it’s ridable but some of the boulders have to be climbed over. Expect some big hits, I knocked the back wheel out of the frame.

Getting to the bottom the final descent is just a wide firm track to the station.

My plan that day was to go back up to the top and do the Rangers descent too but the combination of the Rhyd Ddu and climbing the first switch backs of the Rangers up to Maesgwyn was exhausting.

A better ride 2 weeks later (to get over the feeling of being defeated) was up the Llanberis to the summit then a very quick descent down the Llanberis to the gate at the top of the tarmac, then back up Llanberis to the top of the Rangers, then down the Rangers and finally up over Maesgwyn and back into Llanberis itself. Just under 5hrs and loads of fun.

Short version: the Rangers and the Lllanberis descents are a lot more ridable and a lot more fun than Rhyd Ddu, and Rhyd Ddu is not advaible in crap weather.

I am a mountain biker, like my father before me

(strictly speaking it was after me not before me seen as I got him into it (at 63 !) rather than the other way round)

I hope the same doesn’t happen to you pal

Never, I will never to turn to the Dark Side. I am a mountain biker, like my father before me !!!

I’m an “old school” mountain bike rider from the canti brakes and Biopace chainring days. Much as I (used to) love trail centres, my riding was for years all about studying maps, planning routes, reading guide books and having an explore. I’ve spent a lot of time hunched over the local OS map looking for inspiration and have come up with a number of local routes that take in bridleways, sneaky paths through woods, towpaths, back lanes etc

That’s it, that’s me… totally get all that (it’s like a bloody wrote that, bit spooky really).

Just don’t get this bit…

They just don’t do much for me any more

… you were my brother. They said you would bring balance to the force, not shroud it in darkness !

I’m loving my road biking more than eve

‘WELL THEN YOU ARE LOST !!!’

This whole thread reads like one long trip to the Dark Side !

For those complaining about distance or having to drive to the trails… we live on a small island FFS, where it should be considered a bonus to be able to drive for just 2 hours to get to a trail. Compare that to most of France, Spain, the US and any other big country where they have to drive for days to see a hill (or mountain). I remember someone on another thread complaining that they live in Cheshire and there’s ‘nothing to ride’. Cheshire is equidistant to the Lakes, the Peaks, North Wales, Shropshire, Lancashire and West Yorkshire. It’s the perfect base for endless trails.

Even if you’re not 2 hours to one of the popular jaunts, just buy an OS for your local area and use Google Earth and you can soon find a route diving in and out of woods, along some canals, round some back country lanes and picking up the odd cheeky footpath. I’ve got a route from my door in the middle of a housing estate (which is also at sea level) which I’ve now stretched out to 55k, 2.5 hrs in the summer 3.5 hrs in the winter. Loads of fun.

Get fitter. Go swimming or something else mid week. You’ll be amazed how much better your riding becomes and how much quicker you can go on the trails and it changes the trail completely if you can clear that climb of jump over that rock garden at hellish speed.

Don’t bother with the trail centres, or at least relegate them to winter or deluge rides, or when you just need a blast. What could be more boring than just riding the same centres over and over again. There are loads of natural trails out there that aren’t necessarily covered in crap or only passable in the summer.

Just some friendly tips but if you’re all beyond the brink and have already turned then so be it… it confirms my theory that actually MTB is in decline and there are less people out on the trails… leaving them all to me :D

Is this the same route that was featured in issue 37?

Sorry, I can ride a bike but find numbers quite hard :oops: !. No it’s not the one from issue 37, it’s the Classic Ride from the last issue 69.

Is this the same route that was featured in issue 37?

Yes. With a few diversions at either end !

there are some techy trails in the woods at the southern end (enduro motorbike trails i think)

Spotted these, I thought they looked like the fair hand of MTB’rs. Would have tried a few out but I was pretty knackered by that point.

1hr 20mins from home too. I need to do some exploring !

The price of Irons 8O

Back to my original idea of Ferreo Rocher !!

If you went to see a private doctor then go and see your GP. With all the cut backs the private clinics are coining it whilst all the national health consultants are saying you’ll be fine !

royles in wilm…..sorry you said reasonable

:D too bloody right, but I think Cyclesurgery fits into the that box too !

One more to add to the fold, Twelve50 Bikes in Frodsham.

+1 for North West Mountain Bike Centre in Cheadle. Very, very helpful and loads of stock. Don’t be put off by the appearance from the outside it’s like an Aladins cave in there. When you drive up off the Cheadle roundabout you have to drive past it on your right and then turn in the entrance to the office park further up to get to it. They work as well for the Santa Cruz team and the Steve Peat Syndicate, so you know your in skilled hands.

They’re actually open 7 days a week and it doesn’t matter who serves you, they’ll help you if they can.

Despite it saying this on the FAQ’s of the MRP web site:

What kind of cranks is the 2x compatible with?
The 2x is compatible with a wide variety of cranks from several different brands. It was originally conceived to work with the new variety of double cranks on market, but it can also be used with traditional triple cranks. To use with triple cranks, you must remove the outer ring (generally a 44t) and swap some washers in the guide’s pulley assembly as outlined in the instructions. You should not change the position of any of the other rings. You will need either short chairing bolts or chainring bolt spacers if converting a triple crank to a double configuration.

This is the official line:

The chainline wont be correct for your chainset.
The lower guide has restricted movement, and it won’t get close enough to your 33T middle ring. It will compromise your chain retention and security.

So to chanage a tripple ring XO set up so it is compatiable with the new MRP 2x chain device you need to change both the remaining chain rings and the spider :x !

Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll have a look into them… Surrey Hills sounds favourite (FFS :roll: !!!)

(I know it was a long winded post, but any suggestions please ?)

Hilton – you might be right. I’ve had differing opinions from different LBS’s and many others. I e-mailed the distributors for MRP who originally said it was ok then when I pointed a few things out to them they think they’ve changed their minds (unconfirmed yet though – they’re speaking to Sram & MRP).

When I first looked at the MRPx2 I thought I might have to change the 2 remaining chain rings which meant changing the spider too, just from what was on the MRP web site, but then one LBS said not if I was using the ISCG mounted version.

From what you’ve said it would be less about the size of the chain rings but more about the spacings dictated by everything else between 2×10 and 3×10 set up. Would changing the 2 chain rings and spider not get over this though ?

Thanks Barbs (that was the name of my recently departed mother in law – I’d pretty spooked if that’s you Barbs and your now giving out MTB advice from the grave 8O !!!)

I was going for one of these or maybe the Gamut P30. Can’t decide. I thought the MRP might be more compatible given they make it for Truativ and Sram and it’s on the XO web site.

I’ve got a 4 bike version of this for an Audi and a 2 bike version for a Mini Countryman:

http://www.roofbox.co.uk/scripts/rbvehsel4_tab.php/car-specific-accessories/atera_strada_dl_2_to_3_bike_carrier_uk_lights_no_ar2602/Qx%40w%2C6M42VAwp3%40Rb%7B~cC4ure5K%7BWW

Atera actually make the VW, Audi, BMW & Mini bike carriers you can buy from the car companies direct but obviously re badged for an infalted price (Not that relevant but the bike carrier for the Mini Countryman fits in the bumper, have a look on the Mini web site it’s exactly the same as the Atera one but with a special frame underneath it).

The nice thing about these is that they tilt down so you don’t have to take the bikes off to get in the boot etc.

Atera also make the roof bars and the bike carriers that slot on to them for the same car companies. I bought some Atera roof bars and bike carriers for the Audi and when we bought the Countryman the bike carriers slot straight onto the Mini roof bars I asked them to throw in.

Make sure you get a Westfalia tow bar (they do a detachable version). They also make the factory fitted tow bars for VW & Audi. Again I had one fitted to the Audi and it’s that compatible that it all fits in the polystyrene cut out with the jack etc !

I read the ST article and their route looks fantastic.

I can’t believe I’ve never been there and it’s only 40 mins from my door (usually rotate the Peaks, North Wales and the Lakes)!

I’ve bought the OS, I’ve marked up the ST route and was planning to follow that on the 18th (taken the day off).

Do you all reckon that ST have got the best route then or would you suggest any additions or diversions ? I noticed they followed the ridge past the riding club rather than dropping to Asterton.
The article also said it holds up to the weather well, agree/disagree ?(not that that would stop me anyway)

WHAT 25m SWIMMING BADGE AS WELL…..!!!!!! :(

Failed mine too.

There’s a common thread here… BMX racism !!!

Our instructor told us at the beginning of the course that he hated BMX and forced us to get lights and reflectors on them. He also told us that if there was no traffic we didn’t have to stop at a Give Way sign. I failed for not stopping at a Give Way sign.

30 years on I was just about over it and someone starts this bloody thread and brings it all back. THANKS A LOT !!!

…. also never have I had so much fun and banter with walkers. Had a right laugh with some of them, especially a ban of scouse women doing a charity walk…. they were very complimentary of my calfs (but not so much of my face) !!!

Times on Snowdon more than any other place depend on the weather, mechanicals and your chosen route.

I did Llanberis up then Rhyd Ddu path down at the beginning of October and did it in just under 4 hrs having been met with gale force winds at the top despite the heat wave at the bottom and a really rough route down.

Two weeks later I went back and did Llanberis up to the summit then Llanberis down to the bottom gate at the top of the tarmac road, then back up the Llanberis to the start of the Rangers just below the summit, then down the Rangers and over Maesgwyn back in to Llanberris itself. All in just under 5hrs but had glorious sunshine all the way, and no mechanicals or puntures (apart from cramp half way down the Rangers and a chunk missing out my jockey wheel that I found when I got home).

As with Slowrider, second try and double climb was one of my favourite routes this year, but the first try on the Rhyd Ddu descent was one of my worse !

You could start at High Cross missing out the Oxen Fell loop but you would also miss out on the drop back into Coniston or,

you could still start in Coniston and climb the final drop at the start and carry on the fire road to Parkamoor again missing out the Oxen Fell loop but keeping in the final drop or,

you could road climb from the youth hostel to High Cross (again missing out Oxen Fell) but use the final drop to Coniston as your route back to the hostel.

The Oxen Fell route is a good warm up but it doesn’t really do that much. It’s fun trying to climb to the slate workings when it’s wet but other than that I would drop that section to make it shorter.

There are other shorter, easier and ‘legal’ (don’t get me started) ways to go over Claife that would cut down the route a bit more.

When you’re on the forest road from High Cross keep an eye out for the wooden sign directing you to Parkamoor, it’s a wooden effort on the left directing you to leave the forest road on the right through the trees. It’s easy to miss but the trail goes straight ahead cutting through the trees as the fire road bends to the left.

The route through the forest from Force Forge is along a BW and is fairly well way marked and there is some good technical ST in there. The start is PAST the forest trail carpark in a smaller layby/entrance to a forest road and the BW is to one (left) side, you’ll see it on Google Earth.

Satterthwaite is a good halfway place to stop being a small Hamlet with a pub and a cafe (you need to take the very small country lane after the church on the right to continue the route)

The route out of Hawkshead is literally between the houses and one to Google Earth so you know where it is. I cycled up and down the back streets for an age trying to find it.

If you’ve got any of those net bags for washing machine washable suits stick it one of them first. Stops all the straps getting tangled up in everything else.

Those net bags also work with my bike shoes and with knee pads. Stops everything clinging to the velcro too.

http://gpsed.com/track/133256258697759486

6 hours 10 mins, 64k. Takes in the Copper mines around Oxen Fell; the excellent Parkamoor descent; the drop into Force Forge (after the bitch of a climb up Nibthawaite); lots of natural single track through Grizedale; a good length of cheekiness at Claife; the Beatrix Pottery Museum in Hawkshead and; finishes with a nice drop into Coniston.

Word of warning though… Google Earth the whole route to get familiar with the land marks etc to change direction along the route (it’s easy to get lost) and take a marked up OS (unless you are using a nav’ machine), and if it’s wet (as it was when I went) then the lower parts of the Parkamoor can get knee deep (on the bike) in water and the cheeky Claife path is a quagmire (you could carry on to the BW along Windermere & avoid it, I would given the rain we’ve had since I went)! It’s definitely one I intend to do again when it’s dry(er). There are plenty of bail outs to cut the route short if you need to.

PS Not sure was going on with Gpsed when I was climbing out of Hawkshead… nobody can ride that erraticly !

Enjoy