Just to throw an opinion out there, I’d have thought that Styhead to Stonethwaite would come in harder than Nan Bield to Kentmere, I’ve only Ridden Nan Bield out of the two though I have walked Styhead.

I’d leave off naming them in the you tube description, could easily over expose a place especially if the trails are fairly cheeky, you just naming them here has prompted me to look on trail forks when I hadn’t spotted them previously. Too many vans and bikes showing up can easily cause the landowner issues where they’ve previously tolerated trails.

Seems logical to me, if a couple of sections are a bit hard it doesn’t ruin the overall experience if you find the whole thing a bit hard it will.

I’d focus more or the order than the number mind it allows people to work their way up the list where as a number becomes arbitrary and you get yourself in the position where the difference between two 3s can be greater than between some 2s and some 3s.

I think it should be a done on what most people will ride when they do a descent. Be worth a note if its a bit that comes up fast or is particularly dodgy. Think that’s what Neilc has done anyhow.

funnily enough, that route you describe (Langstrath, Stake, Rossett, Styhead etc) features in the next edition of the mag. It’s a brilliant loop, one of my favourites

Can’t wait.

Yeah I can see why that’d be a problem, I think sensible trail building could help with that, a pull off area and a sharp turn followed by a qualifier at the start of the harder bit. All of this is much easier to achieve when trails cross fire roads at regular intervals but surely it’s not impossible.
In terms of fast people and newbs interacting, I think this will happen whatever you do do as blasting down a blue is nearly as much fun as working your way down a technical black.

Is Blacksail pass just completely unridable into Ennerdale just not seen it mentioned.

perhaps they could build a red start from that crossing point too, it could even link back into the blue further down, would start to allow more options.

Thinking about this actually if you’re starting from scratch the thing to do is maybe to start with an easy trail and then build harder options linking off it that way you’re not straight into the all or nothing scenario you have at NR at the moment.

I’m probably just being dim but what’s the distinction between Warnscale and honister? I assume the road hasn’t got THAT bad ;)

Sounds like a great idea, you’re settings mean you need to grant access btw.

I have to admit that as well as generating an interesting discussion I was hoping it would help with my planning, as in “I felt that descent was right on my limit maybe I won’t try that one much higher up the list” or the opposite “that was really fun and well within my comfort so the ones lower down shouldn’t pose a problem” nothing worse than getting out of your depth and having to carry the bike down as well as up.

It certainly taught me to ride rock as part of the trail rather than a “feature” I think it’s the sustained nature that makes it harder than a red, I’m meaning to go back and ride it now I have a long travel full suss as i suspect it’ll be a completely different experience.

I Don’t know if this is true but I got the impression that some of the more wheel catching holes in the rock slabs had been filled in between my first and second visits ~ 3 years ago.

Was funny though, watching folks walking their hardcore hardtails down it, realising they weren’t quite as hardcore 😉

Surely a long travel hardtail would be more than up to it, it’s not THAT bad

I’d been considering it was part of a loop with stake pass, worth noting the scrambling aspect hahaha.

All I can say is I got better, fast, that day 🙂 Amazing what happens when you don’t have much choice

That was very much my experience, I’ve only ridden it on a 100mm travel hardtail so id be keen to go back with a full suss, the second time I went I went back armed with a full face and elbow pads mind.

I was surprised to see Greenup edge so far up the list, but I’ve only looked at it on an OS map in a fairly casual way.

I think a grading system for water bars could be the most useful thing to come out of this discussion, could save a lot of “do I need a rim protector” threads.

Edit: it also appears that over on the New Nevis blue thread that the Top Cheif Black/red is rapidly becoming Mountain bikings Three pebble slab.

Entirely up to you, I’d include anything that qualifies as a significant pass, so I’d probably include the Walna scar road but not the bit of the Borrowdale bash from Watendlath to Rosthwate

Lets keep it relatively short by only including the legal off-road ones for now, mainly in descent but we should consider the inevitable climb that riding down them will entail.

Thread not showing, is this still a thing?

I’ve got a Nukeproof Mega and I’m very happy with it but It definitely still leaves room for something like the Spur if I had plenty of cash around, the Mega flies when it’s pointed down hill and peddles well enough when you spin up a fire road (even better on an uplift day) which is 90% of my riding. Where I think a Spur would come in is those long all day rides that which are still rough enough to make a hardtail hard work.

Plus they just look like beautiful bikes.

OP, if you’re happy to pay £6k it sounds like what you want is a Transition Spur X01 – 24.8lbs.

I feel like that goes for pretty much everyone

Sorry I nearly left it as your comment made me laugh

https://www.instagram.com/p/CNx8z0MD6bO/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Excellent ride round the Staveley 3 passes route absolutely broken by the end still can’t get instagram to link through properly not sure if its impossible or I’m doing it wrong.

<No bother, maybe chilled is not quite the right word I should have used, maybe more even effort which helps keep a mixed group together. A better way may be to say the D&G 7 stanes are more like an hour or two of technical riding round a forest compared to the kind of uphill slog/downhill blast/uphill/downhill rhythm which seems more common at other trail centres. Both are fun in their way but a different experience which is why when we have visitors ride with us here can take a couple of goes to get dialled in. Compared to other places the D&G trails have not been really updated since built so other than AE there are not many flowy jump type sections in the trails you see elsewhere, the difficulty is more from just consistently having smaller technical rocky sections all round.>

I’d say this sums it up nicely, Ae is much more like other trail centres I’ve been to, Mabie is very short but a reasonable if fairly easy red loop. Kirroughtree and Dalbeattie might feel like a bit of a slog if youre expecting a “normal” trail centre experience but they are a lot of fun if you see them in the light of tom7044’s comments, I’d say you probably want a dropper post to enjoy them properly too. It’s also worth remembering that the black at Kirroughtree is an extension to the red and not an alternative this can make it feel like a very long way especially if you have already ridden somewhere else earlier in the day.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CNkX8HcDgdC/?igshid=m6jcpno7dms1

Got out in the woods again little bit of snow on the ground but running nicely.

I Don’t understand why the reverb is still hydraulic, I brought one a few years ago as my mates kept telling me they were the best ones around but I wouldn’t buy another one as I feel no benefit over the cable Brand X one that came on my mega, which being an alloy one has very neat external routing.

How does one link an image to instagram?

Got out in Northumberland on Friday for the first proper ride on the big bike since lockdown.

My sister has some primaloft lined flat pedal shoes reckon they’d help.

not really comparable though is it, mountain bikers are driven to ride in the woods for a variety of reasons walkers have access to virtually everywhere in the countryside.

can someone explain to me why walkers are obsessed with wandering around in the woods its not like you can see anything interesting and there’s far more scenic places around that conifer plantations.

That woods section looks Absolutely vile

So when you get grumbled at by walkers when you are on a bridleway doesn’t exactly make you want to stick to the “rules” does it.

Be nice if there was a bit of compromise perhaps with someone who’s serious about mountain biking making decision about what’s appropriate lots of unauthorised trails near me are basically just animal/walkers paths that have been ridden into existence can see why they’re nervous about random jumps gaps and drops popping up all over people will build some daft things if you let but it would be nice if there was more space for kids who want to build stuff having creative control over this. would also be nice if the FC were not merrily taking out all of the interesting features what were on official trails/skills areas.

Having just jumped back on a 100mm hardtail having spent 2 years riding a 165mm enduro bike I’d definitely say the person is most likely to break I feel broken and I’m only bloody 29.