you’d be in 30′ plus double territory which would be pretty mad

So this is where opinions about what is expert come into play. I’m a loooonnnngggg way from expert, but I’ve done 20′ tabletops (granted after much practising and coming up short…and I’m not sure I’d just launch myself at one regularly) and I’m no expert: I’m a middle aged Dad with self-preservation instincts. Plenty of people stronger, braver and more skilful than me.

My local woods have doubles that are easily 30′.

I think there is a video of a top rider at ‘Degla if you do a bit of searching.

I’m asking for trail centres to deliver exactly what I’m after which is a good xc loop with DH style features on the black sections all in one ride.

I think this exists though. Perhaps not at all trail centres, but certainly some of them. You just have to be more creative and have your eyes open to the lines. As someone said above, Llandegla is a great example of this: you can roll pretty much all of the black in relative safety, but if you want to ride it like it’s meant to be ridden, those back to back table tops are actually big doubles.

Last time I was at ‘Degla I was playing on the little rhythm section, when I young lad came hooning off the boardwalk into the first set of doubles, hit the first lip and transitioned to the other set of doubles. Proper impressive skills, but all he was doing was seeing an “expert” line where 95% of the people who ride there probably see nothing but two very separate lines.

I don’t train. I’m lucky if I ride once a week

…was a response to this…

Pacings fine once you’ve done the base miles, but without training you’d end up pacing at a very low level and at an extended length of time.

I see training as a more organised and structured form of riding and hence something I don’t really do. I ride – infrequently – and it keeps me moderately fit in mind and body. If I rode more I’d then investigate “proper” training to help me improve further e.g time on the turbo trainer that is going rusty in the shed.

It’s much like when I rock-climbed in that the best training was simply finding time to get out climbing more. I didn’t want to waste time on fingerboards when I could be out actually climbing.

Semantics perhaps, but it helps differentiate in my mind when I’m just enjoying riding for the sake of riding and when I’m actively (no pun intended) trying to improve myself.

I have family with a holiday cottage in Askrigg, near Hawes. I can dig out details if you want. Some fab riding up there. I got my fastest ever time on a road bike coming down Fleet Moss but have not yet ventured up it, but there’s a load of genuinely quiet lanes to keep you busy. Even the famous climbs like Buttertubs are pretty devoid of traffic. I bloody love the Yorkshire Dales, although you’d have to be going some to get there in 2 hours.

^ 😆

That explains it all 🙂

Some 15 years ago or so I was doing some software training. It was a mixed bunch but all were supposedly “IT literate” since they were being upgraded from our DOS-based software to our Windows version.

The thing is, one or two of the more “senior” ones present were quite happy working in DOS on their dumb terminals, but had never seen a mouse. One of them picked the mouse up – PS/2 lead attached to the back of the PC – and started talking into it thinking it was…well, I’m not sure what she was thinking, but she was probably ahead of her time 😆

SLEEP!

😆

With my boy waking me up at 4:50am I can guarantee you that sleep wasn’t a positive factor 🙂

I don’t train. I’m lucky if I ride once a week. Some of the lads who finished way before me were done in, yet my legs felt relatively good. I wondered whether I’d done something good in my preparation or did I just take it at a comfortable pace that just happened to match those who convincingly dropped me a fortnight previous.

I do wonder if I could go harder, but if I push too hard I tend to get outer knee pain, so for rides much more than 50/60 miles I tend to go steadier than usual.

Summary? Pleased that perhaps my fitness has not tailed off quite as much as I feared

Do you mean the little bit with the raised boardwalk bit with the tight turn?

Is that the rock garden that was part of the national XC race (the one with the small bit of Northshore at the top)?

no

I know this bit but that’s not the bit I’m thinking of. It’s a bit of black somewhere near Snap, Crackle and Pop IIRC. It’s basically a switchback with a 3 or 4 foot wooden wall on the outside edge, then a rock garden. I find it very hard (impossible!) getting round the switchback to line myself up for the otherwise easy “point and shoot” rock garden.

What was refreshing (pun intended) was that my pace wasn’t a million miles off quite a few others I expected to be dropped by. I had a nice second-wind in the final few miles too.

The very fact this thread keeps rolling is testament to how hard it is to grade man-made trails to satisfy everyone.

Someone up there ^ referenced rock climbing grades. That is a proper system established well over a 100 years ago, yet still people have endless debates about how effective and consistent it is. Ask an experienced rock climber what a “Scottish VS” is 🙂

The thing is, I’m an “average ability MTBer” too yet the grading works quite well for me. I know that I can ride the black at Llandegla quite safely, but to ride it as the pros do I have to step up my confidence and ability several notches. That’s the genius behind these trails. You can make them “expert” simply by riding them faster/higher/longer.

I’ve had some reality checks recently. I’m confident to have a go on pretty much any trail centre blacks, but there’s a feature at Cannock that I just can’t get right. It’s a rock garden that’s a straightforward “point and shoot” in isolation, but is preceded by a tight hairpin that I simply can’t get round to line me up for the rocky bit. I’ve tried it several times and fail miserably each time 😆

Not sure what my point is, other than sometimes black techniques are more than just jumps, rocks and drops.

I think the parallel with ski grading is appropriate, since we’re referring to man-made and well-groomed runs designed to be skied/ridden. Don’t we already have “double diamond” and “orange” grades for the stuff you can properly hurt yourself on?

Normally love Santa Cruz videos and especially Ratboy ones. Despite early promise (not just bikes but cars too!) I actually lost interest in it, mainly due to too much POV footage (a pet and possibly irrational hate of mine 🙂 ). This, in my opinion, is a better one of his

Glad you enjoyed it. A few years ago I had an over-the-bars on one of the waterbars coming down the rocky descent to Rosthwaite. I could barely get out of bed for the next day’s Skiddaw route 😆

Breakfast – muesli and a slice of Marmite and Peanut Butter on granary toast, with a cup of tea
Lunch – ???
Dinner – spaghetti and meatballs with a glass of red

Lunch is a tricky one. I’ll come back to you on that, but it would probably be something carb-related like pizza or my fave sandwich: salami, red pesto, advocado and sun-dried tomato on fresh baguette with butter, natch.

Does ale fall outside of these rules? 🙂

Forgetting the hyperbole surrounding this event, it’s clear having watched some more of it that Apple were putting much more focus on the Pro/”Prosumer” end of the market. They’ve been criticised in recent years for abandoning that market and the launch of the new Mac Pro a couple of years back did little to change the perception Apple are only interested in consumers who just want the newest thing.

Obviously the new Apple TV is nowt but a new gadget for people with money to burn…

…but I want one 😆

No one ever complains when the new Ford Feista still has 4 wheels and can’t fly.

Ford don’t claim to have reinvented said wheel. I give you – once more – exhibit A from Apple’s iPhone 6S launch:

The only thing that’s changed is everything

They’ve made some good – evolutionary – improvements, but this kind of marketing just comes across as self-parody to me.

JHJ

Who?

I must admit I’m with Mike here. Either AirStrip have dropped the ball by not updating their website or there’s something they/Apple aren’t telling us.

If I was working with them I’d have had it all over the site 15s after the announcement.

Me too

^probably because they were only allowed to announce it yesterday and haven’t got a huge team of web developers ready to roll out a new site like Apple do after these events 😆

I haven’t looked in detail at Apple TV, but what does it allow me to do my Smart TV or Xbox360 can’t?

It’s a much more compelling sell if you already use Apple Music, iCloud Photo Library etc. As usual with Apple, the more you’re in their ecosystem, the more their solutions appeal.

there isn’t much out there that apple really excel at, unless you count being expensive

I think the stuff they’re doing with Health Kit, AirStrip and all the other health related stuff has potential to be really game-changing. The most innovative stuff they’re doing is actually not for the consumer, for whom the fact something is “new” is enough for them to part with their cash.

Just learning a bit about AirStrip on the Apple Watch. I will concede that it is quite impressive and very innovative. If that’s a sign of where wearable technology is going the next few years could be very interesting. I can’t see NHS Trusts buying them for all their Doctors just yet tho’ 🙂

I wouldn’t say MS got it right first time

^This

In my experience, MS are playing catch-up not on bells and whistles of their office suite, but on cross-platform cloud/sharing. Google Drive is a superb implementation of a truly productive suite of business tools that offers easy collaboration and sharing which is so critical for business/enterprise and even personal users. Of course Excel offers much more power in a spreadsheet and Word has loads more that some people need for word processing, but the adoption of Google Drive instead of Office by so many colleagues and businesses in my line of work tells an interesting story for Microsoft that they’ve no doubt had to listen to.

Apple are neither as good as MS in terms of office productivity suite functions nor as slick and easy to use for collaboration/cloud as Google. After the fanfare of the new Pages, Numbers and Keynote a year or two back, they’ve gone quite quiet on it all in my opinion, and it comes as no surprise they’ve put their eggs in the MS basket.

It’s not like there was no good stuff announced – I’m sure I’ll buy the new Apple TV – it’s just that there was little to surprise me. Basically, all the rumours that have been circulating for months have been proved to be true.

The only thing that’s changed is everything

Really?! The Apple marketing machine is losing a lot of credibility for me 😕

^a return to previous levels of quality will be welcome.

😆 at mikewsmith

On the subject of wireless charging, we’re not at the stage where this can be done without having a charging “pad/cradle” of some sort. Is that correct? What Apple do well is launch a new tech with the necessary infrastructure to ensure success and adoption. Maybe they will be the ones who release “proper” wireless charging where the phone is charged using the Force or some other magic. Are we nearly there yet? 🙂

In my experience the most important question is “will it fit?” Most of the rear-mounted seats clamp onto the seat-tube. It’s not uncommon for cables, cable stops, bottle cage braze-ons etc to get in the way. Even the geomerty of the bike can affect whether the seat fits or not. I have a fairly normal looking bike – a rigid single speed 29er – and I can’t fit my existing child seat onto the seat-tube because I can’t get it high enough to clear the rear tyre.

As for front-mounted, we found that our 14 month old was simply too big. He is a big lad, but no way he nor my wife would have been comfortable.

Summary: Try before you buy.

just seems like price is the only judge of VFM these days

Nope, not in my World. I’m up for a bargain but I’m more than happy to pay extra for convenience or time-saving, especially if it means supporting local business.

I did the Skiddaw circuit and the Borrowdale Bash last time I was up in Keswick. I found the northern half of the Skiddaw route a bit dull to be honest, but I wasn’t there in the best of weathers, so that may have tarnished the experience a little. Good, but not great. I’d also echo the comments about Lonscale Fell; there’s no shame in walking bits of it if you are in any doubt.

Borrowdale Bash is a good one that to me feels a bit more classic Lakeland than Skiddaw, but there is a little too much (main) road work to give it top marks.

To be honest neither will disappoint. If the weather is good head up Skiddaw. If the weather is bad do the Bash. If you’re fit do both 😉

Digby you touch on a key point with regard to the open access discussion. There will inevitably need to be exceptions and the voluntary agreement on Snowdon is a great example of this. There will be countless other required exceptions such as relate to nesting birds, for example.

Whether open access happens or not, the education you suggest should be happening now. It is up to all of us to educate our peers on responsible and respectful riding, regardless of the status of our access rights.

Got the Leek CC “Legbreaker” coming up in a couple of weeks, so need to get some hilly road miles in. Might wash my (filthy) mountain bike after last weekend’s mucky Llandegla trip and then look at it longingly.

In answer to the OP, absolutely. My rigid single speed 29er is not something I’d take on a downhill track nor would I attempt tabletops/doubles on it. Equally I wouldn’t take my full susser to the pub or on family rides.

Anything in between, however, is pretty fair game. That said, I don’t tend to make a choice mid-ride as to what to ride based on the bike I’m on. I will have already made the decision on which bike to take based on the ride I’m doing.

Would it really be so difficult to write SHIFT on the shift button?

iPad keyboards don’t have “Shift” written on the shift button, yet…

No one taught me how to use an Ipad I just figured it out.

🙂

Back to the OP, if you are already absorbed in Apple infrastructure with iPads and iPhones there is a definite advantage in getting a Macbook too. A lot of what Apple do now is based around the user experience of having multiple devices with shared content.

That said, Apple make fabulous hardware but they are far from leaders when it comes to software. Their very intentional move to the consumer rather than pro market over the years has resulted in dumbed down software. It obviously suits people since they’re hugely successful, but anyone who claims it all works perfectly 100% of the time and without frustration is either very lucky, not using it beyond the very very basics or deluded 🙂

Nothing wrong with wanting something because it looks nice, even at a significant premium. Just be sure it does what you want by giving it a trial run.

I think there are nicer places to base yourself than Glossop if you’re looking for road riding, walking and easy access to Manchester. Although it has many strengths – and location is one of them – it’s not a quaint or pretty tourist town.

One thing I will point out is that Glossop is surrounded by some pretty big hills that aren’t all traversed by roads. You can get a great road ride in with some big climbs and stunning views, but much of it is likely to be on A roads.

There’s potential to have a great weekend if what if offers fits what you’re after, but your requirements are a bit vague to give you the full seal of approval.

in answer to your OP, possibly 🙂

For a long time I never used and was never interested in it, until I used it. Now I love it. To be honest I’ve not got into handing out Kudos left, right and centre, but I do love seeing how I’m riding on familiar segments. I’ve carried my phone on most rides for years as well as recorded the ride using GPS trackers, so I ran out of excuses not to at least try Strava,

^I spent quite a bit of time last Autumn practising tabletops and got to the stage where I felt comfortable on a 20 foot one. Having done very little since, I discovered at Llandegla this week – to my disappointment – that my table top skills have all but abandoned me. Too little practice.

In the interests of adding something constructive, I’ve done a day with Great Rock at Delamere (actually with Nigel Page) and a 1/2 day with another Cannock team, but not Chase Skills. Both were OK but not mind-blowing and I mainly put that down to being in too big a group. In my experience there is only so much you can learn when you’re one of half a dozen or more people all at different levels. I’ve also found that you need to practice the skills you’ve been taught, otherwise it’s arguably a waste of money. Stating the obvious perhaps, but important nonetheless.

When I invest in skills coaching it will be on a one-on-one basis or at least with 1 or 2 friends at a similar level.

Jedi must be within 90 mins or so of Manchester

In a time machine maybe 🙂

{EDIT} beaten to it 😆

The fortunate thing with MTB’ing is taht you have to go up to come down

I guarantee that more and more people will become holiday mountain bikers, spending the odd weekend at uplift centres then hitting the Alps once a year. MTB is not the new golf, it’s the new skiing.

No climbing for them