More appreciation here for Rich and Tom’s talk through their Tour Divide ride.

Felt a bit sorry for some of the raffle prize winners who missed out because the draw was taking place whilst Warner was creating carnage with the freebies 😂

Have recently bought a pair of Fox Flexairs which are nice and light so could be paired up with normal bibs underneath or thermal bibs.

Also last winter rode in Fox Attack Fire but these are seriously warm.

Both seem a bit odd when stood in them normally – the cut on the front is very low, but both fit well on the bike. I seized down one size in the Flexairs as they have a lot of elastic on the waistband and gives a slightly tighter cut on the leg.

I think it really depends on what your definition of gravel is.

I have what I call a gravel bike – Genesis Fugio 650b road plus. It goes through phases of having a dropper post hooked up to the redundant LH shifter and phases of not having it fitted. Dirty Reiver the dropper came off and wouldn’t be needed. Dukes Weekender it went on and 50/50 as to whether it was needed or not but I felt it was a benefit to me (other more skilled riders may think otherwise). Local riding it goes on because we dont really have ‘true’ gravel round here and it’s likely I’ll be trying to ride it down stuff I’d ride the mtb on, and again I feel I benefit from having the dropper.

But, the bike does run 47mm WTB Senderos so my gravel bike is probably just another mans off road dropped bar bike without a fancy name 😂

Does anybody have any experience of the Dark and White Events trail runs in the Peak District please?

After last weeks half marathon, which I’m going to call a success, I thought today I’d try a run in the Peak District.

I headed up to Kinder Downfall from Edale. Some walking involved and some scrambling when I missed a turning and ended up following the course of a stream, until I was actually pretty much in the stream. I need to brush up on my navigation as I’m so used to the main areas of the Peak by bike – found it easy to follow what looked like a defined path heading in the right direction which soon turned vague. Think I may invest in something with a better display than my Edge and revisit my map and compass skills as well.

Also bought a Salomon ADV pack in Hathersage. Really nice to run with – cant really tell it’s there. Looked at the Alpkit bag but even though I’m not the slimmest of people the straps were pretty much cinched tight and it still moved around a bit.

Just over 12 miles in total – not fast because of the walking and scrambling bits but a really nice day out, and something I’ve wanted to do for a while.

Ta.

Strava/Garmins saying just under 1200ft but not sure how accurate that is. Looking forward to trying to keep this running up.

Not a regular poster on here but did the Wyre Forest Half Marathon today – a mixture of fire roads and trails. Have started to do a little bit of running recently but my longest run to date was a flat 9 miles on tarmac. Managed today’s half marathon in just under 1 hour 58 minutes and only stopped in total for a few minutes at the water stops. Happy with that for my first attempt at a trail half.

Alpkit in Hathersage have kindly refilled bottles for me in the past whilst having a quick browse.

Seems a good thread to ask about getting from East Horsley too Peaslake.

A quick look on the OS map shows quite a few bridleway to the south through The Sheepleas, Effingham Forest and Netley Heath. Anything of interest in these areas on the way through or just the marked bridleways. Thanks.

I’ve got a couple of friends who are currently riding it (incidentally friends I made riding it this same weekend last year). They decided to do it again, and I think the weather is treating them exactly the same as it treated us last year – badly.

Bullroar – yeah, can see the Fuar Tholl path – do you mean tag it on as an out and back?

The other addition you mentioned is a good shout. Puts me by the little bothy as you say by waterfall/footbridge which we’d ride past if starting from Annat and going down the road to Coulin. Then a second bite at the train station descent.

Thanks for the responses – all very helpful.

Sounds like Ben Damph may be an option as an out and back rather than the loop.

Bullroar, cant quite picture where you mean but I’ll get the map out later and am sure it will make sense.

Whitestone – thank you, some good resources there.

I’d hoped it wouldn’t have been too much effort to link the paths – there’s certainly nothing on the map that suggests any crags or cliffs or anything and no real deviation in contour lines.

They do a bracket that fits the elastic headband of the running head torch.

I’ve zip tied that to my helmet before, could possibly work zip tied to frame just behind head tube.

Stwlan Dam is fine to ride and no worries about trespass. There’s a pedestrian gate adjacent to the vehicle gate, and it’s well used by both walkers and cyclists with no issues as far as I am aware.

We rode it maybe six weeks back and whilst there were some works going on (looked like there had been some trenches for a cable or something) it was passable on that day and for the most part it just looked like half the width of the road where there had been works needed the final wearing course of tarmac reinstated.

The climb out the back of Penmachno over to Blaneau was good and also the climb to Rhydd. But either side of those you’ll have busy roads.

Clent climbs as suggested – Hagley Wood Lane, Uffmoor Lane, St Kenelms, Winwood Heath, Farley Lane, Romsley Hill

Around Old Hill area up to Dudley there’s a group of climbs that can be repeated – Powke Lane, Doulton Road, Moor Lane, Perry Park etc

Slightly further afield you’ve got the climbs around Kiddy/Bewdley. Jacob’s Ladder from Franche to Trimpley, the dead end road down to and back from Trimpley Reservoir. Then head to the back of Stourport around the Ribbesford/Abberley/Rock/Clows Top area.

FOD Blue is probably worth a look.

As is Llandegla blue and coedy blue, but I find llandegla on a par with cannock for being busy.

How about a bit of a curve ball – the shortest Nant yr Arian trail. Yes, it’s probably hillier but the shortest route misses most of the leg burner climb and its fun singletrack. You may need the tow at a couple of points. But you could do a lap see how it goes, watch the Kites and have a go round the pump track, then it’s fairly easy to loop back to favourite pieces of singletrack.

Not sure if this counts as epic enough, and it involves some road and the gravel is a bit chunky in places, but at the weekend we did the following in the Peak:

Hope to Hathersage via Brough and Offerton. Hathersage up to Burbage via road, permissive paths underneath Burbage and through longshaw. Bit of road to get to the Moor over Totley Tunnel. The Eastern Moors permissive paths and back to Owlde Bar via Curbar/Froggatt Edges. Houndkirk Moor, back lanes to Redmire then Stanage Pole to Stanage Causeway descent. Lane across to Ladybower reservoirs and a full loop of the reservoirs. Thornhill trail back to Hope. That was just under 60 miles and 5000ft of climbing.

When back at Hope you could extend up to Castleton broken road then take one of the bridleways off the sparrowpit road to head across the top of where you would turn off for cavedale, but carry straight on and link into bridleways back to Hope.

It’s not gravel in its strictest sense but we found it all rideable and a dropped bar bike and it was a great day out.

Dawson – no barriers or any blockages on the Rushup descent down to the road. The loose stone also seems to have thinned out a lot since the early days of DCC carrying out trail “improvements”.

OK great thanks, just checked and sickleholme garage is the “Bamford” garage I was thinking of. Thanks for confirming.

How about something over Houndkirk Moor where you could also take in Burbage Edge and the two man made trails in Lady Cannings.

Book the upstairs apartment at Cleikum Mill in Innerleithen. Really nice accommodation and owners are really nice and helpful. Good bike storage area as well.

I use an OMM Kamleika which is a thin softshell smock which would pack down nicely. When it gets nasty outside I’ll just use my Alpkit Balance which is a heavier hardshell waterproof.

Last year due to a lack of planning on my part and a shortage of suitable tyres I ended up on 650b 47mm WTB Horizons, and got lucky with weather and course conditions.

This year it will be Panaracer Gravel Kings 48mm, with 1x 36 – 11-36. Could possibly take the advantage of a bigger chainring with the extended range 10 speed cassettes now available but to be honest after a certain speed on the fire roads it was a case of getting on the drops and getting comfortable – nice long descents.

FlareMAX ran with about 30% sag in the fully open compression setting then toggled the compression switch to suit when climbing, but I did find I rarely used the two firmest settings – I think the two lesser settings still worked well with the flares suspension for techy climbs.

My rebound seemed odd – at times it felt like very little adjustment, but at other times you could tell there was a difference, almost like a port or shim stack was getting blocked. I just set it up to feel similar speed to my forks, maybe a tiny bit slower.

Just changed yesterday to the cane creek as the xfusion seems to be leaking air, so interested to see the difference.

Top of the broken road castleton was fine on the couple of occasions I did it in October. Generally always see a few vans there. Also there tends to be a few people at the bottom of the broken road also most times I ride past there.

30kg limit which includes the bike, which happens to be a fairly chunky steel full suss so I’m right on the limit.

Regarding the energy bars I suffer with IBD so it’s a case of knowing what I can trust and knowing what works for fuelling any rides, as fuelling rides via normal dietary means doesn’t work as well for me personally with some of the issues stemming from having IBD.

You could add some bits around Hayfield after Roych but before going up Jacob’s – Middle Moor and Lantern Pike maybe.

New line at Ribbesford is very nice. Left very natural as opposed to feature packed. A nice addition. But I’m not really sure how you would link it in nicely with the main forest.

Forest is great but for me I definitely need to follow a mate as it all looks the same too me and I never know where I am in there.

650b with Panaracer Gravel king Sk 48mm. Find this as quick both on road and off road as a 35mm WTB Cross Boss and 40mm Nano combination I was running. In fact I’ve just sold the 700c wheels as couldn’t see the point for this particular bike now – I’d rather have another pair of 650b with the WTB 47mm Horizons on that are currently in the shed – for road touring and when the gravel is as dry as this year’s Dirty Reiver 😂. Different bikes that I was running these combinations on so that’s obviously a big factor.

Do you mean Rat Race The Crossing? As in the English coast to coast one. I saw some people the year I did it (think it was maybe 2014) on Cross Bikes. I think it would be do-able and certainly if day two through the dales is the same it would help with what felt like endless road miles. If you’re after a proper technical 3 days on the bike I’d look elsewhere to be honest – it’s very tame and personally I think you could have a better three days for the same money going with a proper guiding company, with the added bonus of proper accommodation.

Yes, got one very early after release and did a parts swap from a Cotic Escapade – wanted more tyre clearance.

Has quickly become my most used bike – road commutes, canal commutes, filthy weather road rudes, road rides out to investigate bridleways that I’ve noticed when on the posh bike, local trail rides, Peak District Gravel, Dirty Reiver – it’s been used for a wide range of variety. Just set up the spare 700c wheels to use on the hill climb of the Dukes Weekender.

Set up primarily 650b with Panaracer Gravel King’s. 1 x 10 36 with 11-36 so top ends a bit limited on road but it good for my local off road stuff. Very comfortable bike obviously within limits – some of my local trails it gets taken on are a bit rooty. But on the gravel type stuff very smooth – really happy with it at the Dirty Reiver which was one of its first long off road rides. Have a 100mm KS dropper hooked up to modified LH sram lever – spring taken out of lever. Dropper just because it does go on some local trails. TRP cable to hydro brakes – it is a fast bike off road so I’d be even more comfortable with full hydraulics.

Do you get any editing software with any of these alternatives. If not what software could you use – sorry, complete technophobe here, but looking for a camera for an upcoming trip.

Thanks for the suggestions guys, will try and plot something heading via those areas.

The voluntary agreement doesn’t apply to Telegraph (by telegraph I mean the whole length of it from where it joins the rangers path, up and over the col, and down the descent), neither does it apply to the bottom of the rangers path up to the point where it meets Telegraph bridleway.

Unless things have changed in the last month the newly surfaced path is the footpath off the rangers path that joins up with the telegraph bridleway just below the col. The section of the rangers path, between the actual bridleway to telegraph and the newly surfaced footpath, is covered by the voluntary agreement. And the newly surfaced path is a footpath so obviously covered in terms of of riding by virtue of being a footpath.

Good to hear Golfchick that Worcestershire also have a good IBD team.

For anyone new to this I’d highly recommend finding out if your local NHS has specialist IBD nurses. Hopefully they’re supportive and understanding of the issues – it can be very difficult to initially get on top of and also at times of flares.

Just as a side note check out IBD Runners and Riders on Facebook – very supportive group.

Golfchick – I seem to recall previous posts that suggest you may be same sort of area as myself, Wyre Forest etc. You’re not with Dudley NHS are you – I’ve been referred to the IBD team there for over ten years now and if that’s the case you’ll be in good hands I hope, always been great with me.

Diagnosed about ten years ago with UC. Have been through various medications and currently on combination of melsalazine, Azathioprine, and a biological drug called humira. Previously had some infliximab infusions and at several times have had 12 week courses of steroids.

Are the steroids a short term solution – my experience has been that steroids are used to try and put you in to remission, not a long term fix – my IBD team don’t like people becoming steroid dependent because of possible side effects.

Remember it’s a disease which has periods of flaring and periods of remission. Without knowing all details the steroids sound like an attempt to control a flare that’s getting worse and needs something to try and stop it and put you back in to remission.

The good news is that there seems to be a fair bit of research and regular updates of drugs coming on to the market. It can however take a while to find the right combination.

Do you have dedicated IBD nurses you can talk too and get some clarity on the steroids? Is it short term or long term? What are the options for Azathioprine or are they considering biological drugs (these have been the best for me).

Hope you can get some answers from them and fix up soon.

Cleikum Mill in Innerleithen.

Local shops and pubs. Easy to get to Inners or Glentress down the railway line.

Really nicely set up for bikers with large bike storage room. If there were fewer of you then the self contained flat upstairs would be great, or you could have rooms downstairs or exclusive use of downstairs (either way there are kitchen facilities available).

Rode it Saturday evening with BullandBladder off here who may also be along to comment.

Reckon both of us would recommend parking at rangers, ride up rangers to the telegraph turning. The lower zig zags of rangers have been resurfaced recently – makes the climb easier but probably would make the descent a bit less entertaining but the main attraction of the rangers path is above the telegraph turn off anyway.

Down Telegraph into Llanberis, then up Llanberis path either to summit or Rangers turn off. Down rangers all the way back to car.

Llanberis climb – anywhere between two to three hours I reckon. Most of its rideable up to and shortly past halfway house to the lake, then its a push or carry up steep stone staircases and then just a steep track after the railway bridge. Then rideable across the top until the last bit to the summit. Rangers 30 to 45 minutes for most with stops and photos.

Rhydd Ddu – this is the descent we did Saturday. Some nice sections but quite a lot where I was off the bike – certainly another step up from the Rangers. Worth doing it at least once, but Rangers would be my preference.

The footpath alternative to the bridleway linking rangers to telegraph has now been surfaced with aggregate – makes the push up easier, would be nice to know if there’s any plans to make this permissive path as it would be a nice rideable climb to pushing the grassy btidleway.