worth trying just to say you’ve done it – come back down via harrter fell though just to make it a bit fun

Oh and for locals pedantry reasons it’s HardKnott

Ride twice a week?

At this stage it doesn’t really matter just buy the one you like the look of – you can get better bits for it later once you’ve decided whether you’re ‘in to’ mtb or not. That said the 32mm stachions on the cube would sway me – all other things being equal.

but ride it first even if it’s just round the carpark

‘A paradigm shift in aggressive all-urban shredability….’

Can I have a marketing job?

Double DOH!

Just had a another look at the map and realised I’ve done the BW from grassgarth so taking the fireroad up would cut 50% of the crap out…So ignore everything I’ve previously said and get it done.

Bits i don’t need bought for no good reason…….ACE!

The bottom one is the DH to eskdale the other two are footpaths to the summit. The middle ones left middle foreground is the boggy bit you’ll be riding across (I think)

A massive tattoo?

Hardknott wouldn’t be too bad from that side as you’re half way up it already – basically 10-15 mins of huffing and puffing (probably pushing with your camping gear on the bike) as opposed to 30 – 40 mins slogging across the top of harter, gettng wet feet into the bargain – the fire road bit’s fine though and the descent is pretty good.

If you REALLY want a divorce start from the stepping stones across the duddon and ride the bridleway up.

@Kerv

in the eye of the beholder, innit

Unconshus incompittence

So sh!t you don’t even know it. Did it on a management course, it is therefore complete and utter b****x, even if it’s true.

Look, it’s perfectly simple

Farm dogs = mental

always have been always will be if you think they should process line astern holding their snouts aloft a la crufts obedience competition you should spend a bit more time in the countryside. THEY ARE NOT PETS.

They can be scary but won’t usually nip unless they think they can get away with it.

Let them know you’re coming (Gives you a chance to assess the length of the chain too!)and don’t be submissive. Normally a loud ‘Git arrd ovit yerbuggah’ will stop them along with a ‘I’m bigger than you’ stance and a good stare. A squirt with the water bottle’s a good one as back up.

never when riding the bike in case someone sees me. Instead i run round the garden holding a set of bars going Vroooom Vrooom Neeeaaaaaawwwwww and jumping over the flower beds. Manualled the length of the lawn this afternoon with no fear of injury or humiliation.

On my third they’re gash but eyetoeye length makes getting an alternative tricky

Oh yeah the carbon ones are gruesome looking and even harsherer…so i hear

Cheap

got a 456 at the mo – geometry’s good but back end is quite long, harsh ride though. was expecting that steel ‘zing’ got booted up the ar5e by a mule instead. You can get some spring out of it when its up to speed on trail centre type surfaces but most of the time it’s pretty dead. On the plus side it’s bright pink and……..cheap.

Don’t mean to worry you but they made me saw mine in half just to ensure it couldn’t be used as a bike whilst on the train.

Then they made me burn it

It’s not as bad as it was – the top is still as good as it ever was.

Top tip when you get to the car park at the bottom follow along the wall to your right and take the BW down to Spoon Hall – better than you think it’s going to be

Elsewhere the BW from broughton mills over stickle pike has one of the best downhills in the area – you’ve got to suffer for it mind but i reckon its worth it. Don’t touch harter fell it’s proper crap but riding up from Birks Bridge through the forest to come down from kepple crag or grass guards is OK

Just an idea – do it from coniston as part of a big day out taking in Jackson ground, broughton moor forest etc – fast, steep and gets techier the further down you go

Fill it with silica gel?

Oooooh

Reggie gasket – cos it’s a convenient excuse for being slow – aero wheels are usually spendy as well – if you know of any in my price bracket I’ll add them to the list

thanks all will check ’em out

Bridleway down easedale – looks ace on the map but is a non stop low speed dab and wobble round boulders/round bogs/carry/push – not diffcult/technical in a gnarr way just heart breaking and demoralising. made me want to melt down the bike and turn it into golf clubs

and I HATE golf

good lad

Xiphon – running? Swimming? hate them both but it’s that masochist thing isn’t it? Satisfying rather than fun – but ithink if iwas a bit fitter it would be more fun

Bent the bearing cups on the rocker of my stumpy by ‘saving time’ and trying to insert two bearings simoultaneously, using a threaded bar and nut ‘bearing insertion tool’. Panicky No no no no no no no moment follwed by crushing sense of inadequacy followed by the shame of asking LBS to order a new rocker – I think they sussed what a bufoon I’d been, doubling the humiliation.

If you showed that to a 12 year old they would disintergrate from sheer embarrassment

This is the work of Noel Edmonds or Mike Reid or Timmy Mallett

Mackem – the forks are likely dead good really – but I’d always know

Did the same as OP a few years back on Garburn Pass, mates thought I was having a heart attack – the kentmere side downhill with cracked ribs = bad

and bikini top tan line

With luddite braking system

Rigid too

The orang utan is riding a SS, just saying, like.

Agreed. Barrow is a must see. Get a tetanus shot though.

Underrated Lakes bits within easy striking distance of coniston(and hence quieter)

Black Coombe
Dunnerdales/duddon valley (see stevestunts post)
Ennerdale (alright frickin miles away but ace)
Eskdale – the foresty bit with the dilapidated japanese garden – and go the ratty cos it’s funny being on a tiny train (steer clear of the train station pub though in ravenglass, it’s cack)

Eateries

Conishead priory (veggy so you’ll have to smuggle a slice of ham in, but pleasant gardens too) soup and baguette £5!
The newish place between high sawrey and the ferry gastropub type gubbins but very good
Blacksmiths Broughton Mills

If you don’t go to the ship inn and chip shop at greenodd I’ll hunt you down and kill you

Ta,

more constructively: being based in coniston you could spend the week hoying bits of scrap cars in to hodge close, most therapeutic.

Use webbing straps for shoulder straps and make the bike the rucksack frame? With your back pack in between you and the frame to keep out the pokey bits but not taking any weight?

SS riders are……

mechanically illiterate….

slow…..

asuaging guilty consciences….

thumbless…

constipated….?

The truth is unless we can teach one to communicate we may never know.

Line up a few of each wheel size, say ~120mm full sus ish and pick the one you like the colour of – if it’s a decent bike it’ll be a decent bike. Whether it’s 29, 27.5 or 26 it’s still all marketing tosh and you’ll have fun riding your new bike no matter what.

‘Chesters’* GRRRRRR please be aware that their dress code is lemon/salmon poloshirt with contrasting lemon/salmon sweater over your shoulders to be accesorised with a gleaming 4×4 and children called sebastian and Ptolomy and be prepared to follow the missus round their overpriced unnecessary acoutriment purveyory nodding while she picks stuff up she has absolutely no intention of buying and demands you have some kind of opinion on it then you can drive to the next simalr location and pay afurther £40 for two coffees and a sandwich before taking a tour of someone elses house who died a hundred years ago who wrote some books you couldn’t give a monkeys about and get charged £15 a head for the privelege of looking a collection of stuff that wasn’t even theirs to begin with but just bought by some bearded clot who thinks its evocative of the kind of ironing board that they actually may or may not have had then you can go out to dinner to some pubmaster owned hovel where the carpet sticks to your feet and condiments are served in sachets and the chef is some scouse adolescent in hiding from the probation service……..IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT? IS IT????!!!!!

Take your bike.

*applies equally to many lake district facilities for

Well done harry hill, always makes me chuckle.

@Warton – RRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! FIX YOUR TUBES!! Means you can hide in the shed and avoid the wife as a bonus.

I’m a professional environmental guilt extorter and that kind of wastage makes me fizz like a clopper

Aye

Got out for an hour

‘working from home’ today – like I am now!

Strava’d it too. So all the evidence needed for instant dismissal available on line. Too bloomin nice not to though!