I’d recommend this one http://www.northerneyebooks.co.uk/neb/books/lake_district_mountain_bike_routes.php
But then I would 🙂

Happy to advise on any of the routes if needed?

Ditched my winter bike this year. Last year I persevered with it only to get back on my better bike and get knee pain and hip pain for a few weeks while I adjusted back. Just can’t see the point of riding something that’s not as enjoyable just to save a bit of wear and tear. Have put winter tyres on cheaper wheels and am prepared to change BB and headset in the spring and give it a new set of allen screws if needed. At the mo have decided against mudguards but may be tempted later on.

Like richardthirds said – turbo when there’s ice around (esp of the black variety!)

Intensive are £14.99 on Planet X at the min. Interesting….

As I said, both me and the missus have used them and both have probably ridden 2000km plus – mainly on mountain roads (live in Snowdonia).

We were feeling it a bit when we bought them – hence deciding on cheaper ones. But we weren’t disappointed and have put them back on this year.

Was loving that until you mentioned riding the Pyg Track. Worst still that you are encouraging others to.

Riding a bike on Snowdon was almost banned completely a few years back and there are a few people up here who have put an awful lot of time and effort into making sure that that never happens. But mountain biking on the mountain is constantly monitored and so are forums and youtube.

Everyone rides illegally now and then – no big deal. But on Snowdon it’s a bigger deal, and going public and encouraging other is even bigger.

Sorry to be grumpy as I really enjoyed your words and pictures but I would appeal to everybody on here not to encourage others to ride outside the agreement on Snowdon.

Thanks…

Been using Hutchinson Intensives for 2 winters. No punctures, work well enough and are cheap.

No-one mentioned gear hanger? Wouldn’t leave the home without one personally… weigh nothing, easy to swap. And the most likely ride-stopping thing to break.

Just enter the Etape Eryri – 100 miles, amazing scenery and it’s all organised for you

Polaris Summit works for me – and looks good!

Well we both made it down with nothing more than a cable ripped from my mates rear mech and I have a battle scar on my carbon cranks. It was a fantastic day and the weather was perfect. Felt like you could of got sunburnt.

Glad you enjoyed it…

There’s a lot of newly laid stone sections that have sharp edges. And there’s a few pretty vicious water bars. But I’m inclined to agree with you – there’s worse…

Tubeless, tyre boots, couple of heavy duty tubes just in case… ride smooth… It’ll be busy on a sunny weekend

As everyone has said, the Syfydrin is basically the Summit and the Pendam linked to some seriously out there but not at all technical jeep tracks. It’s an odd one. For really great riding, combine the Pendam and the Summit and perhaps even ride twice to get a decent half-day’s worth.

Paul Milnes was good enough to help me out last year when I broke a gear hanger. He had a frame in stock the same as mine. And was happy to take the hanger off it and send it to me. Then order himself another one. The manufacturer and Moore & Large didn’t want to help at all.

What was it that prompted you to try flats Neil? I did more out of curiousity than anything and an optimistic idea that it might somehow force me to improve my technique on the sort of stuff I was going to be riding.
Actually, I think it did – I found that I was thinking far more about body and foot positioning and keeping my feet “heavy” , certainly I was cleaning stuff that last year I didn’t think was possible with my meagre skill set. So old dog/ new tricks maybe can work…..although some credit must go to what I was riding I suppose.

Exactly the same for me…

Check out MudTrek http://www.mudtrek.com Not sure how many nights you are looking for or when but they have loads of very bike-friendly accommodation and the food’s great if you want cooking for? And they’re great people…

@Scottrider – have emailed you

As a cheap way of ‘trying’ flats, I’d still say you don’t have to go to the expense of new shoes. It’s not ideal, but it might provide enough initial information for the OP to make his mind up.

Think this absolutely wrong. If you try it with crap kit, you’ll hate it and never really give it a chance. I really think you do need to invest a little. But upon saying that, agree that going for Hope pedals and Five Tens may be a little too much. AM41s and a good pair of Superstar/Nukeproof/Shimano will be enough to get a feel for it and if you want to upgrade later on, there’s always the odd auction site.

I’d ride the Grwyne Fawr Reservoir one out of all those to be honest. But rather than starting in Talgarth, start at say Pengenfford (parking in tiny lane at 177303). But don’t ride it anti-clockwise as suggested, it would be a crime. Give me a yell if you want a GPX.

My tuppence’

Been riding clipless for 25 years… ouch…

But decided to try flats properly for the first time this autumn after a couple of really nasty falls on technical climbs where I just couldn’t unclip and ended up ribs/hips/thighs first into jagged bed rock.

I bought Nukeproof Neutrons and Shimano AM41 which looked like the cheapest way I was going to get some useful kit that would give me a fair chance.

I also promised myself 10 rides before I made a decision.

Well 8 in and I had already decided. And I don’t think I will ever go back. Am faster everywhere than I was, am more confident in super nadgery techie stuff, and am still happy in the air.

It’s been an absolute revelation and the only downside I can see is that I am still wearing shin pads everywhere and will want to stop that eventually.

And I don’t think I’m losing on the climbing either. And I’m also a member of the dark side so still do a lot of climbing clipped in and am finding it easy enough to swap from one to the other (there are many much bigger differences)

There’s been a bit of research done in the last few years that suggests that clipping in doesn’t in fact improve pedalling efficiency at all. And that pulling up any more than just relieving the negative force on the pedal is actually very inefficient.

I discussed this with a top bike fitter a few weeks ago and he was of the same opinion.

For further info see

The Flat Pedal Revolution Manifesto: How to Improve Your Riding With Flat Pedals

and also

http://www.globalcyclingnetwork.com/videos/sec-features/what-is-the-most-efficient-pedalling-style-we-test-flat-vs-clipless-pedals-gcn-does-science/

But do a bit more googling and you’ll find other stuff too.

Give it a go – or in fact give it 10 goes – reckon you’ll be hooked…

http://www.penmachnobiketrails.org.uk/newsandevents.html

A positive spin-off would be that those looking for a gravity adrenaline rush would probably go here and not the fells. 🙂

TCL or MBL would be prerequisite to BC L3.

And yes, BC have guiding and coaching awards running parallel to each other. The L3 I refer to is the leading award and there is no instructing or coaching involved. With MBL there is a certain amount of instructing/coaching.

It’s hard to actually compare the 2 things as they are different but as I said from a professional point of view I’d like to be as qualified (and competent) as I can.

@Stevomcd It sort of is but as I see it, BC L3 is marginally a higher qualification as its longer training and longer assessment and its all about leading – no instructing. As my business really is all about takng people into wild and remote environments, I can’t help feeling I would be in my interest to be as qualified as possible in case anything ever goes wrong.

As an aside from covering my behind, getting as much training as I possibly can can only be a good thing and as a professional I kinds feel it’s my duty to take advantage of any opportunity going.

Not sure I really need the stress though 🙂

Is that BC?

You don’t actually need Child Protection in Sport.

But on the other hand, one Training Day and one Assessment Day – what scheme are you following?

I’ve so far done TCL 2 Days training and 1 assessment, MBL 2 days training and 1 assessment, BC Level 3 training 3 days training already and 2 days assessment booked for the spring…

Plus of course first aid every 3 years.

In comparison my ML was 5 days training and 5 days assessment – same first aid.

AS above…

Good to know… thanks

@sproker, no, mine must be the older style one… not sure which the OP has but bet it’s the same as mine?

Interesting to hear this – been running one of these all year and have had a few issues myself – all sorted in the end with cable adjustment. Can I just check that it’s the one with the cable that’s attached to the seatpost lever just beneath the seat via a tiny little black collar/nipple thing with a grub screw? If so then I agree with the previous poster re cable tension not being an issue but it seems cable length and cable condition seem to make a massive difference.

Firstly the length. If it’s the same as mine then the actual cable attachment moves up and down with the seat? So if you look at it with the seat up, the cable pulls on the lever at a completely different angle than when the seat is down?

I messed about with this for ages but have finally settled on cutting the outer just about as short as I can get away with! Obv adjust the tension from there. You may find different as your bike may have a different cable run than me but it seems to be about making sure the activation lever is actually pulled and released ok wherever the seat is in its travel.

Other things that seemed to affect mine were any tightness in the retaining clamps, run of the cable from the lever, any kinks in the cable which seem to happen quite quickly because of the aforementioned different pull angles, and general lubrication/wear.

As a result I have fitted 5 new cables in around 1500km although the rate of change has slowed down as I have shortened the cable length. I’ve also taken it apart and cleaned and lubed it a few times too. And regularly sprayed the activation lever with lub so it slides back and forth as easily as possible.

Re actual tension adjustment, whilst it doesn’t seem critical in proper operation, I have found that when it has started playing up, a little tweak on the trail may temporarily solve the problem until I can get home and give it all a clean etc.

All-in they are a bit of a faff really and I will replace it with an LEV in the future.

Hope that helps?

We used Hutchinson Intensives last winter 2 bikes and a lot of miles and not a single flat – didn’t feel bad either though perhaps took a couple of rides to really bed in…

@edlong. Yup… right now it is a legal right.

But Snowdon is an incredibly complex mountain to manage and as i understand it,it would be incredibly easy for that to change and a bylaw put in place to ban bikes. And this would make it a criminal not civil offence to ignore the ban.

The good news is that thanks to people like the aforementioned Adrian Walls (and others) this isn’t what anybody wants and as a result a lot of work is going in to keeping things as they are.

As the OP suggested, we should celebrate – we’ve done well and proved that compromises can work. Even on what is probably the world’s most climbed mountain…

PS Do those asking for the train realise that it takes over an hour Anybody wanting to get the train up, do you realise it takes over an hour? Add that to the waiting time etc and it’s quicker to ride/push

I was at that meeting too. And would like to echo what’s been said above about the excellent results – a real plus for the MTB community in general.

And I’d also like to echo what’s been said about Adrian Walls, who has worked bloody hard to keep mtbers on Snowdon in darker times.

I worked up there as an ML on many weekends over the summer and didn’t see a single mtber flouting the agreement – really good effort by all!

Check out the shed shackle… with a decent chain and lock (all sold by the same site). Reckon you’ll go a long way to better this. http://securityforbikes.com/shed-shackle.php

Sorry, north from Mosedale to Calebeck Farm then L onto track (not sure if it’s marked as a ROW on the map but it’s permissive access).

I’d head up Back o Skiddaw: Threlkeld – Skiddaw House – Cumbria Way to Mosedale – Mining tracks from Calebeck to Fellside – continue to Longlands then south to rejoin w. Way up Dash Beck and Whitewater Dash – Finish via brilliant singletrack around Lonscale Fell and down Latrrigg.

That’s a decent day-size ride on mainly good surfaces (some boggy stuff on drop to Mosedale) and never too exposed.

Borrowdale is just too short for a full day and Ullswater’s too busy on weekends…

Just my opinion of course!

Nigel Lawson is an anagram of We all sign on!

Closed during the week at the mo but they told me they’d open on weekends. Prob best to check in at the shop.

@shedbrewed, thanks and @oldmanmtb,totally agree… 8)