damn! If I could be back to start work at 9 I'd be there

Alpin, sorry, but posting those vids has not helped your case. All I see is a capable rider, but one who doesn't/won't ride as fast as those guys on the first vid. Maybe you would with a bigger bike and body armour 😆 Fair play you do get around the hairpins better.

(It was you in the full face wasn't it??!! 😉 )

ps the one by the canal is the Moorhen and the other is the Plume of Feathers. This second one is – as I recall from my working down there – a cycle or taxi or car trip from town

On the opposite side of the railway station there is a big pub by the canal that I've eaten in a couple of times. It's s bit of a chain pub, but if it's a nice evening and you can sit by the canal it's worth a blast. The only other place I've eaten is very close by on one of the minor roads out of Harlow. It sits on the corner of the road and its "thing" was serving up a lump of raw meat/fish and a super hot slab of polished rock on which you can then cook bits of the meat. I wish I could remember the name, but I enjoyed that place.

If you're into road riding there's some lovely quiet country lanes around there with pubs galore. The town centre is naff tho'

You could be right. I did start off trying to be very positive about Glentress, it just descended into a glass-half-empty outlook on UK riding. Very poor form, I apologise. Must be the rain getting me down 😥

…or emigrate to Spain 😆

Well yes but that's not the UK so don't count.

Which brings us full circle back to my first point about there being nothing in this country yada yada yada.

Blimey, I sound like a grumpy so and so 😆

To be honest UK (Peak District) riding was spoilt for me a little when I came back from Sierra Nevada. Nothing quite measured up or gave me as much "fun" and "out there" sensation

I guess it comes down to what you think fun is

Take the Lowther hills route I did. A brilliant day out, but replace the muddy churned up fields with some flowy singletrack, or the road sections with some swoopy stuff and it would have been even more "fun".

Same in the Peaks where I do most of my riding. There are some ACE sections of riding – many of which I have discovered just by going out and exploring – but invariably there's some road work to do as well. Replace the road sections with more off-road and the ride becomes more "fun".

I hear you cynic-al, but wouldn't it be great to have the "out there" feeling of "natural" riding with every cm of the ride great, great fun. That is a rare rare thing indeed and was what I was getting at in my first comment…

…rare in this country at least 😉

…oh, and to add, I have discovered "natural" trails that are as good as better than the best trail centres. They're all abroad

stilltortoise, sounds like you just aren't interested in the game of discovery if you can't find any…

Couldn't be further from the truth, which was why I asked the question. I've ridden Walna Scar for example. It was great fun, yes, but there wasn't another great fun section straight after it, and then another straight after that. I'm not even saying all trail centres are better than natural stuff, but the Glentress red does seem to be one great section after another without any "filler". How many natural rides can claim that?

Last time I was up in Scotland I rode Mabie one day and then something up in the Lowther hills on the other day. The Lowther hills ride was fantastic, particularly the singletrack down Enterkin burn – and on balance was the better of the two rides – but whipping round Mabie without having to stop and check maps, keeping my heart rate up and having fun on every pedal stroke was just a different kind of fun entirely.

Now give me a big wilderness ride with as much quality and fun singletrack as you get at a good trail centre, and I'll be a very happy chappy…I don't even mind looking at the map!

You just carry on pressing the button when you're literally 20-30 feet from a tiger

…I had a similar experience with some elephants in Zimbabwe. I have a ridiculous number of close up nellie pics. This was even before digital cameras

to all the trail centre nay-sayers, tell me where in this country there is natural riding that crams as much quality fun riding in as the red at Glentress? I love a "real" ride with a map and an adventurous spirit blah blah blah (I don't even mind climbing), but seriously I have found nothing that is as continuously as much fun in all my riding in the Lakes, the Peaks, Wales and Yorkshire. Where is it all? 😆

got to agree with Grum here. Whilst I am jealous you got that close to a tiger to take that picture – and fair play there – it is just a close up picture of a tiger rather than a "good pic".

I just hope you never see my naff pictures 😆

Met Parachute.

Next 😀

I got on quite well with low normal. I liked being able to dump gears at the bottom of a climb with a few quick clicks. In some ways it is more intuitive that top normal. I soon ditched it when I got a second bike that was top normal. Whatever the pros and cons of both systems, it is a nightmare moving from one to another.

If this is your first attempt, well done. There are some nicely framed shots there. On the negative it was a bit too long with not enough variation of shots. I've only ever done ski vids but my first attempt wasn't as slick as this.

I hope this is a troll, 'cos it's one of the better ones of recent. Either way, I'd be well chuffed if I could ride downhill as fast as some of those guys. My money is on one of them being Alpin 😆

As a kid – before I was aware of "Mountain Bikes", I rode whatever I had wherever it would go without breaking (my Allegro Gnasher BMX was a particular highlight). I got my first Mountain Bike (Specialized Hard Rock) at about the age I was happy to venture further afield, but then still had most fun just "messin' around". Sadly that was when I started money on bike bits as well 😐

Tebay is just another motorway service station that so happens to be surrounded by beautiful hills – don't let anyone convince you otherwise. It is a convenient stopping point for on the way to Scotland tho'

oh and Pedalling to Hawaii was good too

I even fell for the plug and clicked the linky…shame it took me nowhere useful 🙁

Mugging happened but doesn't seem that important today.

true story? fair play to you then

'tis one of his apparently

As much as possible for the next week and a half whilst the missus is away with the kiddies and the Grand parents, then 3 more 1 hour rides between then and winter 😐

forgetting my facetious comment for a moment, good on you. If this makes your attacker think twice about attacking again, you have done a huge favour to everyone else who visits that town. Good citizen badge on its way…

…but if this is a load of cobblers I will be VERY DISAPPOINTED 😆

The trachea (windpipe) is quite flexible to allow you to swallow large pieces of food etc

…and the oesophagus is just a spare bit of pipe that serves no purpose 🙄

Where do you find a tortoise with no legs?

Where you left it.

Wife's "favourite" joke

I really enjoyed this one, but I heartily recommend Into The Wild as well. Great book, excellent film. Never get bored of Touching the Void

Avoid "Between a rock and a hard place" by Aron Ralston, unless you enjoy being irritated by precocious idiots

I want to ride my FS most, 'cos I generally use it for more "interesting" terrain than I can ride from my doorstep. The fact most of my riding is – by necessity – from my doorstep means I end up riding my HT most, on the easier local terrain…if that all makes sense!

Makes me wonder, if it improved fuel economy AND gave you more power, why aren't the engines mapped that way in the first place. I thought engine mapping could give you more power at the expense of economy or vice versa. I'm no expert, but there's no such thing as a free lunch…is there? 😕

JE James is hardly a chain store. Sadly I have had too many bad experiences from them, generally from one rather surly member of staff whose face I can see right now but whose name I don't know. Some of them are great though, and it's conveniently on my way home from work so it will still get my custom. I just don't go there if I need to talk to someone 😆

not much to moan about there compared to some of the rants you get on STW

ITs fooking great!

+1

yes, use it loads, but always managed to fit stuff in a post box. I would have been mighty miffed in your shoes.

I know, I was just being facetious

ah, sorry, just thought it was a dig at me 😀

al_f, the point was that they had pre-printed chess and drafts boards onto fold-out bits of card that were attached to their "storage games cabinet". I think Snakes and Ladders was the other one

still thought the trolley thing was a shite idea

Having lugged camping stuff from car park to pitch at the odd festival or two, I thought it was a good idea, just not as well realised as it could have been

…not to mention the "games bring family together" pitch. Even if that were true of board games in the 21st century, last time I checked chess and drafts were 2 player games.