Mountain bike skills instructor and Bed and Breakfast owner!
🙂

Haha, I wish you were right Mr Sparkle!

Bump for the evening crowd.

Hi Ruddy,

It’s Lily Bank Farm Cottage and it’s located on the hillside between Mellor and New Mills, shouldn’t take you much more than 20 minutes pedalling to get to and from the PBW.

I make delicious cake!

I have done sections of it and most is not very technical (except south of Hayfield which is a bit rocky) so if you are after more of a touring style ride, looking at beautiful scenery and passing through lovely villages then the Pennine Bridleway will be perfect. You can book in to stay with me at my B&B as I’m nearly halfway on your route!

Picture taken about 2 years ago when she was a puppy but she is still cute today.

Baked this last night in anticipation of B&B guests this weekend – five minutes later they phone to cancel their stay due to tooth ache! There is now only half the cake left…and my bet is it won’t last another night….

Does the Pennine Bridleway ranger open all the 92 gates for you? If so I might sign up!

Don’t choose a dog breed based on the idea that you will take him riding. Choose one that will fit the rest of the family and with the kind of schedule that you have with work etc. Don’t choose a high energy dog thinking that a 3 hour ride with it per week is going to satisfy its needs. A small dog that requires less walking might in the long run give you more time on your bike! It is a bonus if you do manage to train one well enough to be fully reliable on the trail without you having to concentrate really hard the whole time. Riding with a dog is such as small part of a dogs life and your life and personally I find it a lot of hassle although sometimes I take mine with me anyway.

The best thing about having a dog is finding all the cheeky footpaths that you go back riding on at night!

We have loads of sisal in our house. It is extremely hard wearing but spills are a nightmare. Wouldn’t have it anywhere near where it can get wet or muddy. Some shops would tell you not to use it on stairs because it can be slippy but if you lay it so the structure of the weave is 90 degrees to the steps then you are fine. Comes in loads of texture and finishes so that I’m sure you’ll fine one that won’t eat your kids alive.

I tend to change my tyres when the inner tube is poking out in 5 places or my front tyre washes out more than three times in a ride. No temptation to save the tyres then and they go straight in the bin.

Check what type of first aid course is required by the bike qualification guidelines. Some of them require more than just the standard HSE ones. I did a wilderness outdoor first aid course and it is well worth doing (hadn’t done a first aid course before) as it was very realistic and you couldn’t just phone for an ambulance etc. How do you move an injured person, what kit do you need to have with you in your backpack. All relevant to biking I would say.

My son has just read “Diary of a whimpy kid” and loved it. First time he has ever finished a book and wanted to get the second one straight away. He is 10 but the book lends itself well to younger children as it is very easy to read, with lots of fun drawings etc.

Thanks for all the useful information. I think I will do a Mountain Leader course before doing anything else. It will be useful for adding to the knowledge I’ve already got (through doing the SMBLA course for instance) and also checking that things I’ve been taught as a kid growing up in Sweden roaming the forests at an early age, is actually correct! Might see if the local rescue group needs some pretend casualties in the meantime for their training sessions.

I go out in the hills regularly but it is the thought of doing it without bringing the bike that seem weird! Anyone know of a mountaineering group in the Peaks? Oh, probably would be better asking the rescue group as they probably are all members of it!

IanMunro- reading the links I get the feeling that I probably would be ok contacting them. There are so many roles that I’m sure they are not all expert rope climbers to start with. Wouldn’t rule out being part of the support group and do stuff like that. I have Wilderness first aid certificate, lots of outdoor/hill experience and good navigational skills so at least some things are already in place.

That is exactly why I’m posting the question to find out more since if you don’t ask the questions how do you ever get more knowledge? (Also kind of checking if anyone from the Kinder group might even be a singletrack member as I know from reading their rescue reports that some members are keen mountain bikers!)

I saw a whole prawn on the Pennine Bridleway near Glossop. I was fascinated for ages until I realised it was part of a dog turd 🙁

My son likes going TO school on a bike, but it is the 110m of climbing to get back home that puts him off…

His school is starting the cycling proficiency tuition this week so it still exists.

Hehe, no booking required, just make sure I’m in before trekking all the way here! My charges are very reasonable, a pint per wheel!

Matthew- what a brilliant idea! I’ll remember that!

Any other good uses? Anybody?

The compressor is an Airmaster tiger 24L. Wasn’t sure what size to get so opted for the big one (it is huge!) just in case and it seems to be more than able to pop on tyres! (Will paint the shed and blow up the swimming pool with it too in the future!) And if anyone has stuggled with tubeless conversions please feel free to come around to mine with your wheels and tyres and have a go! It feels evolution has just taken a big step forward!

(I am aware of lots of people who can do it with a trackpump but I am defintaly not one of them and happy to admit it!)

The change was from “private dwelling” to “private dwelling with ancillary use of part of the property for bed and breakfast” or something similar with that effect. Nothing too drastic so I guess they just wanted to check out the complaint and make sure we were complying with their bike friendly policy!

The planning application was needed because of the change of use of part of the property rather than any changes to the property itself. And the conditions mentioned above is probably a part of a national drive to encourage people to walk/cycle and use public transport instead of the car. In the letter they say they wish to see suggestions for local walks/rides, local pubs etc and pick up from train stations, nothing we don’t offer already and stuff I would like to see myself when I stay somewhere. So can’t complain about the council (not about this anyway!)

mmb- We are on the hillside between Marple and New Mills which for not so local people means the north west corner of the Peak District.
http://www.lilybankfarmcottage.co.uk

Duggan- that sounds like an awful ride! After we had survived Linnets clough we headed over towards Disley for some nice and not icy singletrack so our ride was quite safe after that, although the canal nearly caused a minor crash.

When I went back to take the picture in the afternoon there were 4 guys on motorbikes about to start on the descent so I warned them about the ice sheets but they kept going anyway. One of them fell off and broke his clutch and was stuck like Bambi on the ice not able to walk up nor down the descent.

Don’t choose a high energy dog just because of the possibility of taking him on rides. A dog that requires less exercise is probably going to suit your family better and be happier rather than you constantly feeling too guilty about not letting it run for hours and hours every day. And don’t worry you’ll be completely in love with your dog even if it sometimes smells, gnaws your stuff and you’ll have to walk it in the rain.

My husband spooked a horse
by riding a recumbent. The horse really didn’t like the look of it, just like a lot of other people we met along the trail that day!

I had a lovely large ding-dong bell on my commuter. However when off road it rings everytime I roll over a pebble, so not much use unless you want to wear earplugs while riding.

My grandmother used to complain about cyclists never using their bells. We went for a walk and promptly a cyclist came up behind and rang their bell and I stood aside while my grandmother kept walking. The cyclist went around her and then she turned to me and said: “See there was another one!”

Getting walkers attention very early on, leads cyclist not to slow down enough when passing them, as you might have got the impression that they have spent a long time waiting for you to catch them up so you better overtake them quickly to let them get on with it…then they get cross because you have gone too fast.

1642 according to the date stone, but that hasn’t stopped progress as we have underfloor heating and centralised hoover system but all very tastefully done so the house still looks like it would have done 300 years ago. Allegedly in the 1740’s John Wesley, the methodist church founder preached, from our doorstep (facing outwards presumably, or maybe the other direction if they had decided not to let him in!). The site has been inhabited since the bronze age as an axe head was found in our garden during renovations proves.

It is a lot better but still it is wool. I don’t mind it, but my husband who hates the wool because of the “itchiness” can’t stand the feel of the merino wool either. Best to go to the shop and actually feel the material before you buy in my opinion.

I am definately a half full type of person and have always been, but sometimes I can get hung up on certain things and worry about them too much. My trick to stop worrying is to ask the question: “Does this matter in a hundred years from now?” and that kind of sorts the rubbish things out from the real things to worry about in just one second!

Winter is the time when I don’t bother wearing cycling specific kit. Switch to flat pedals and wear proper winterboots and get some ski gloves (the warmest and biggest you can find!). Wear anything that is warm and fits and is comfortable and go out and have fun in the snow!

Someone who lives next to my son’s school clears his entire drive meticulously and puts all the snow on to the pavement outside his house on either side of the gateposts making it very difficult for children and parents (particularly the mums who also has a little one in a pushchair) to walk to the school without having to step into the very busy road to walk around the big snow heaps. Very inconsiderate in my opinion. (never ranted before and I know it is a very feable first attempt)

Another girl here, although I never really think about gender while on the bike and probably ride more like a man anyway. Still I’ve got pink smiley stickers on my bike and pink pedals to make up for it!

Went out yesterday and basically as a rule if it is rutty it is a mudfest. Very muddy on the Roman Road from Hope cross and the descents from Hollins cross down to Edale, but all the rocky paths are in perfect condition.

Dr NDT, analytical chemistry. Left that behind me now, but I do miss tinkering with the big noisy mass spectrometers sometimes.