If by Skiddaw we mean Ullock Pike, then it needs to be removed as it’s a FP. Soz

I took this to mean the bridleway to the summit (more often used as the climb to do Ullock pike…)

Can we add numbers? Might make it a bit easier to talk about.

Looking at the list, I’d say Wharnscales could potentially go above scarth gap – the hardest bits of scarth gap are (debatably) harder than the hardest bits or Wharnscales. On the other hard, Wharnscales is on average harder – there’s more nails sections and the whole thing is pretty relentless, whereas with scarth gap the hard bits are very hard but short lived and interspersed with easy single-track.

I’d also say birk side is too far up the list. Personally I’d put it between sticks and scarth gap.

I suspect were likely to find a lot of differences of opinion due to riding style etc. Also for the harder stuff on the list, if you’ve only tried once or twice it may seem harder than if you’ve had a few goes and worked out the best line

New stuff:
Watendlath – between Scarth gap and blacksail pass? The steep rocky bit is fairly hard (though short)
Allerdale ramble – not sure what you’re referring to. Looked this up but wasn’t obvious which descent is on it
Dollywaggon – maybe just above Greenup edge to grasmere. The fix the fells section is steep with some wheel swallowing water bars
Iron keld – there’s like 4 descents here. The bridleway north is maybe between walna scar and gatesgarth
Skiddaw – maybe after Garburn pass to troutbeck?
Skiddaw house to Bassenthwaite – never done it in descent but somewhere round the top of the list
High street to hartsop – never done it in descent. The grassy section from the knott is crazy steep but there’s nothing that technically challenging iirc
Materdale common – not done it
Blacksail to ennerdale – never ridden and unlikely to do so – its a waste of your altitude

Is it worth having a star system like with rock climbing? Zero to three stars depending on the quality of the route.

Maybe have some indication of sections that are normally unrideable? So e.g. styhead pass to wasdale could be graded like 2(U) – its 2 overall but there’s a bit you can’t really ride.

Also some climbing grading systems use multiple grades to give the overall difficulty and the difficulty of individual bits. This is useful as it lets you know if it’s hard all the way, or easy with one hard bit. My suggestions is stick with the 1 to 5 we have, but maybe an overall grade, and a grade for bits that are significantly different from the rest? Or is this too complicated?

Depends how you define the most difficult…
It’s certainly one of the harder ones, and one of the hardest that mere mortals have a chance in hell of riding cleanly. But even by that definition I’m not sure whether it takes top spot or not

Is that the Harter fell in Duddon? You could argue that is a pass, goes from Duddon to Eskdale.
Some mentioned Birk side as well, which I’d rate as one of the best descents in the lakes… Maybe open this up to all significant descents?

@thekettle

I love some of these ones getting slagged off!

I love them all! Each in their own different ways..

Some good suggestions there.
Not ridden sticks west, though walked up it quite a few times. Didn’t feel qualified to rank it.

The name Hammer pass is new to me, always just called it Mitredale. I’d put the South side just before Walna scar to coniston and the North side just after (not descended the north side in ages so might be misremembering).

Ommited Burnmoor tarn originally cos the top of it is a bit of a bog slog and doesn’t feel quite as pass like to me (but does actually fit with the arbitrary definition I gave). I’d say the north side would go between Garburn pass to troutbeck and Walna scar to seathwaite. South side between Gatesgarth pass to mardale and Garburn pass to kentmere maybe.

Not sure if I’ve ridden Boredale Hause, care to place it?

Hope it doesn’t seem like I’ve appointed myself keeper of the list here, just enjoying discussing it 🤣

Edit: forgot to add Wharnscales to my original list, though did think about it. Its sort of a pass… Maybe just above Scarth gap to buttermere?

Tried descending Rosset before. Took my dh bike, complete with armour jacket and full face helmet. This did not feel like overkill…
There’s a couple of nice sections. There’s a giant boulder jammed across the path near the top that would likely give even Danny McCaskill some trouble to get over. The sections of big steps ruin it for me though, crazy steep and not particularly fun to ride.
My current dh bike is 15 years old, so might give it another go at some point on something more capable. Should be taking it easy at the moment though, still recovering from mangling a knee in a skiing accident a couple of years ago.

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

If you haven’t done it, a potentially better loop would be up Rosset gill, over to sprinkling tarn and down styhead pass to seathwaite, then back over stake pass. The climb up Rosset is long and arduous and you’ll be carrying the bike most of the way. For stuff like that I tend to use the shoulder straps off some army ammunition belt so I can carry the bike like a rucksack. If you’re happy with hike a bike then it’s definitely a good loop.

Ummed and ahhed about Greenup. The descent to stonethwaite is excellent and very amenable if you’re comfortable with the rest of the list, but it has a section near the top where you’re almost scrambling down the side of lining crag. I guess I could have just noted that as I did for styhead pass,in which case it’d be in the middle somewhere.

Going into grasmere the trail surface is really crap in a lot of places, especially as the gradient eases and you don’t have gravity on your side quite so much. Last time I was there was a few years back but there were repairs in progress higher up. Unfortunately it looked to be the classic giant boulder steps built with no regard for mtbers

Initial stab at this, may need more thought. I’ve ommited stuff that doesn’t clearly cross a col of reasonable altitude, though probably being a bit pointlessly strict on what counts as a pass. Listed in order of difficulty of descent. Stuff with an asterisk is something I haven’t gotten round to actually riding. I’ve missed out a couple of options where you just wouldn’t bother doing it in that direction too.

Garburn pass to troutbeck
Walna scar to seathwaite
Gatesgarth pass to sadgill*
Gatesgarth pass to mardale
Garburn pass to kentmere
Walna scar to coniston
Stake pass to Langstrath*
Styhead pass to wasdale (ignoring short unrideable section near the top)
Scarth gap to ennerdale
Blacksail pass to wasdale
Nan bield to kentmere
Styhead pass to seathwaite
Sticks pass to Glenridding
Grizedale hause to Glenridding
Stake pass to langdale
Scarth gap to buttermere
Greenup edge to stonethwaite
Greenup edge to grasmere
Nan bield to mardale*

Well there goes the rest of my working day thinking about this…

Does it have to be named as a pass? E.g walna scar road is a pass but not named as such

Not obvious to me! https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/forestry-commission

I stand corrected! Thought it had been completed replaced by the regional bodies.

With the example you mention, the sections of the Dales High Way in the Howgills that aren’t on a PRoW are on access land, which means there is a right of access on foot (though landowners can close access land to public access for a certain amount of time each year).

This means that there is no right of access by bike. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t automatically mean that bikes aren’t allowed. This has been done to death before, but basically if the landowner doesn’t allow bikes, then you’re possibly trespassing (or possibly not, but I’m not out to start another endless debate/argument on this). For example the forestry commission* used to allow bikes anywhere on their land (subject to logging activities etc), so even if you’re not riding on a bridleway, you’re not committing any kind of civil or criminal offence.

No idea who owns the land in your example. NT and Forestry land are marked on OS 1:50k maps, this bit isn’t so it’s presumably privately owned.

In the OP you ask if it’s legal to cycle on these. The short answer is ‘probably’, but it’s complicated. Basically there is no specific law against it**, so it’s not illegal. In some circumstances you could commit aggrevated trespass, with is a criminal offence (though just riding your bike doesn’t constitute this).

If you want peace of mind, just find a diversion on roads or bridleways etc. If you do ride on footpaths/access land, in my experience (in the Cumbria at least) is that if it’s somewhere busy, the odd walker might make a passive aggressive comment. Whether that’s likely to bother you is up to yourself.

* Obviously FC doesn’t exist anymore. Presumably the policy is the same for forestry England/Scotland/wales etc but I haven’t checked

**Unless you’re in the peak District national park, where there is a bylaw against cycling on footpaths

Chris King did salt and pepper shakers from hub shells that didn’t pass QC at one point

Not what the OP asked for, but possibly more in the spirit of the question, the climbing company DMM make things for other companies due to their expertise in forging small aluminium parts. E.g. they make bits for ski bindings for one particular brand (can’t remember who). Probably lots of occurrences of things like this but I’m struggling with bike industry examples.

So, nice and easy, for every 10mm I pack it out, the other end will rise 30mm, yeah?

Yep that’s exactly right

Lets call the length of the gate L, the distance between the hinges H, the drop at the end D and the width of timber to pack the lower hinge P

Using small angle equivance, we can say the angle of the dropped gate in radians is D/L

We want a value of P that results in a change of the same angle. We can also say this angle = H/P

Therefore using these two equations, D/L = H/P

Rearranging gives P = (H*L)/D

So for your 8ft gate (approx 2440mm) with a 50-60mm drop (lets call it 55mm)
P = (H * 2440)/55, or simplifying, P = H/44

I’ve done a lot of rounding here, plus your measurements are approximate and I don’t have a value for H so I’d check the dimensions and use the equation for P above.

The equation is based on small angle equivance – basically for small angles, the cosine of the angle is approximately 1. On the off chance any mathematicians take issue with this, yes it will give a slight innacuracy in the results, but for the dimensions involved it’ll be in the order of hundredths of a mm compared to using calculating “properly”, plus this method is very simple to apply.

Edit: typed this before I saw nickjb’s post, which explains it a lot more simply

v1 = AC * cos(angle)
h1 = AC * sin(angle)

v2 = AB * sin(angle)
h2 = AB * cos(angle)

This might not be exactly the measurements you’re after as your definition of h1, v1 etc isn’t completely clear and it’s not entirely obvious (to me) what calculation you actually need to perform. This will give you the horizontal and vertical distances from corner A to the new positions of corners C and B respectively (a diagram would probably help here)

v1 and h2 will be almost the same as the lengths of AC and AB if it’s only tilted a little bit

Randomly I may have the feet off some old sofas in the loft. Took the sofas to the tip ages ago but forgot to take the feet at the time. I’ll have a rummage tomorrow, if they’re any good they’re yours.

I saw that the other day. Was aware that gyroscopic forces had been debunked but not the stuff about trail.

It got me wondering though – been riding a fat bike a lot recently and you get a lot of self-steering, which is more or less noticeable depending on tyre pressure. Basically as you lean the bike one way, the circumference of the tyre at the inside edge of the contact patch is smaller than at the outside. This causes the bike to try to steer towards the direction you’re leaning. In the case of pushing a riderless bike, could this be enough to keep it stable? So as the bike starts tipping one way, it turns that way to correct itself. I guess you’d have to do some experiments with different tyre profiles to see. Not sure if I’m explaining this very well…

hence correct torque which would result in the correct amount of friction between both surfaces. That how it works?

Yep that’s pretty much it. In general, if correctly designed and torqued properly a bolt should only be in tension and not exposed to shear forces (as with anything there are always exceptions to this, generally in applications with small loads where simplicity/low cost is the main design concern)

TJ please, stop making things up.

I remember learning about this in my engineering degree. It wasn’t specifically about rotor bolts, just bolts in general and how to calculate correct torque values.
Guess I should try to get in touch with the lecturer and tell him he was making it up.

If you really really want 6 passes you could start by heading over greenup edge into borrowdale, do the 4 passes and come back over sticks pass. I suspect you would run out of daylight though. I’ve “ridden” greenup edge a few times, its only really worthwhile for the truly masochistic. Just that and stake pass would make for a longish day out. Wouldn’t recommend this.

If it’s feasible, you could potentially drop a car off the day before in Eskdale valley and ride back over Hardknott and Wrynose (no mean feat and many people wouldn’t want to ride the next day after doing that). Ride your proposed route as far as Wasdale then head south to Eskdale via Burnmoor tarn.

Personally I’d just drive to Borrowdale/Wasdale if you’re set on doing that route, it’s way less effort than any of the other options.

I recently got a Big Agnes insulated AXL. Not tested it a lot yet but found it very comfortable. It’s fairly lightweight construction, seen some reports of poor durability. Very thick though and the outer edges are raised a bit to help stop you rolling off. It’s moderately rustley, not as bad as other lightweight mats though

Not got any experience of inserts but sounds like we do similar riding and I’ve been managing with DH tyres for years. Probably does make it slightly harder going uphill but I can’t say I particularly notice anymore. Being somewhat behind the times I still mostly use tubes and run like 35-40psi in the rear. This mostly stops pinch flats (when I do get them there’s usually a dent in the rim too, I guess inserts might help) and keeps the drag down, but then on the other hand I could get a lot more grip at a lower pressure. I’d say it’s worth it, but for me climbing is usually just the tedious bit before the descent, so I don’t mind putting up with them uphill to get a better ride going down.

Fitted a mudhugger to a manitou fork the other day and just drilled some extra holes. Seems to be fine

Ridden some of them to also get from wasdale to ennerdale, but not for a while. The bit through blengdale forest is fire road so will be fine. Iirc there isn’t an easy obvious way across the river bleng where the bridleway is marked, but you can follow the fire roads to scalderskew woods.

The section from worm gill up to tongue how gets pretty boggy I think. Don’t know how doable that but would be on a gravel bike as I don’t have one. It’s not crazy long though so I guess you could walk if you don’t mind such things.

Pacific North West Cascade.

Been running one for a little while on a frame that pre dates internal routing. Seems ok so far but too early to tell what the longevity will be like

No reason why it shouldn’t, all the parts are subjected to the same pressure etc.

Looks like you could potentially get some interference between the hose on rotor, but if you’re frame’s set up for this routing then it’ll probably be fine.

Might need to unbolt the caliper and orient it with the new bleed nipple as the highest point of the caliper (or highest point of the whole system for best results), otherwise there’s a risk of trapping an air bubble around the old bleed nipple/new banjo location. This is assuming you’re bleeding from master cylinder to caliper. If you pump fluid from caliper to master cylinder then it shouldn’t make any difference.

I accept that Shimano make excellent brakes. However my shifters and mechs are SRAM. Mixing Shimano and SRAM just ain’t right! (yes, I realise that I’m being stupid)

To kayak23: yes, I am fussy! 🙂

A big downside with Hope is the reduced power, but I haven’t tried the newest versions. I guess I’ll have to try and test some out.

The R0s look nice, I might reconsider my stance on Formula.

Unlike buses or trams, trolleybuses are almost silent…with some pedestrians falling victim to what was also known as the “Silent Death…”

Natural selection at work…

On riding past a couple walking along a cycle path, a friend of mine was asked “where’s your bell?”
His reply was “up your wife’s arse”
Of course I do not condone this kind of thing.

As a young lad, when I first bowed to fashion and removed the bell from my bike, my mother asked me how I would let walkers know if I was behind them. My answer was that I would politely inform them with my voice. She then said something along the lines of “but what if they’re deaf?”

Anyone seen (or heard about) that film “The Human Centipede”…

I’ve had problems with the outer races being seized before. The proper Specialized toolkit doesn’t have anything to remove them. As I recall Goldtech used to make a tool to do the job but it is horrendously expensive.
It’s almost impossible to get any kind of drift onto the back of the race as the linkages have a small ridge against which the bearings sit. I’ve generally just used a dremel and a very steady hand and a lot of patience. The problem with this is that you are grinding very hard steel surrounded by soft aluminium.
Another method I’ve heard of (though never tried) is to cut a couple of small notches into the ridge around the inside of the linkage, this would let you get a small screwdriver onto the back of the race and tap it out.

I’ve got a set of ’05 Marzocchi All Mountain 1 forks that I will be selling very soon (just waiting for a new rebound knob to arrive in the post).
Insides are all good, the paintwork on the lowers is a little bit scuffed though. Also they are a weird sandy colour that may not be to everyone’s taste…

Thanks for all the advice. Looks like Southern Spain I think.