Dark Arches I think bit worn

We have started using a new porous rubber/aggregate surface in Lancashire on some of our cycleways seems to keep everyone happy https://vimeo.com/301281499

I got a Ritchey Timberwolf from Merlin earlier this year, steel frame, very light with 120-150 forks, excellent spec and fun to ride, it was £1339 reduced down from about £3K, but I paid £349 cash and the rest on the bike to work scheme so overall it will cost me closer to £1000. https://www.merlincycles.com/ritchey-timberwolf-mountain-bike-2017-110816.html Great bike mostly used for longish rides in the Lakes where a bit of carrying is required.

It isn’t the assend I think that is brand x rather than tranzx.

Thanks looks like a good price think I need to measure up though I’ll need a 27.2 which is the shorter of the options.

worth having a look at the Greenman my kids really enjoy it as do my wife and I. Not too big but still lots going on.

oh yeah really no need for a gun too if you use a bit of common sense

I would recommend Botswana as well. I used to manage a camp out there called Oddballs
run by Okavango safaris. I’ve traveled to quite a few places in Africa and Botswana is hard to beat for wildlife. Also relatively safe place to travel as well.

Beetle lava of some sort looks like one of the lady birds.

Excellent bike I’ve had one for a couple of years now. Mine came with a revelation on which is adjustable from 120 to 150 no complaints with out at all. I do wind the forks down for long climbs when up in the lakes etc some times I forget though and the difference isn’t massive really. Bike is really good uphill I can get up stuff on it I fail on with my full suspension bike. Its even better downhill just feels right pretty much the prefect all round bike I reckon.

Got to be Tank Girl or Natural Born Killers.

It has stalled a bit due to one of the land owners not being keen. Land agents are still working on it hopefully we well get there in the next year our so.

Another vote for islabikes here great quality and easy to sell once kid has grown out of it. Last one I sold only cost us about £15 a year. Which for a quality bike is pretty good value I reckon.

Quite a few places do a two day out door first aid course aimed at people who lead outdoor pursuits i have been on a few of these over the years (working as a ranger etc) generally very good and worth doing.out side specific course from what i can see spends more time dealing with exposure etc good practicable advice on making use of what you have and no time wasted on how to fold a bandage etc as they tend to be run by mountain rescue types who have a very good knowledge of the types of injuries you are likely to get/find and what you can carry in your pack.

Been putting the xc course together this afternoon nearly mud free. A bit hilly in places but only short climbs. Dropper seat post might be an advantage. Bit rocky in places both the course and the camp site good tyres and a good sleeping mat/beer required.

Can be as hard or easy as you want it to be. If you just go at a nice steady pace I think most regular cyclists can manage it ok. There is nothing difficult on it skills wise. We run it as a guided ride a couple of times a year and normally only have one or two people drop out weather conditions can make a big difference to how much you enjoy the day too hot and you will run out of water too wet and it’s just miserable.

No showers I am afraid you could always stay at a local B&B such as Marmalades or the oldboot and shoe both only 10min away and run by mtbrs secure lockup for bikes hot showers etc.

I did yesterday, excellent ride up in the lakes following a route from an issue of Singletrack from a month or two back! Out around the back of Skidaw 53km and I think we saw about 4 people all day. Dry dusty trails all the way. Might have to get the bike out and call it work tomorrow.

The Singletrack Weekender will be much better value! Full weekend of bike fun and the chance to camp in a quarry for much less than that.

14th and 15th July is the date to put in your diary!

bump

Don’t know why the link won’t work but if you go to the dirt school home page http://www.dirtschool.co.uk/ and click on courses and then on cross country you will get there.

You could try the old boot and shoe or marmalades in Rosendale both run by mountain bikers with secure bike storage and workshop etc.

Let me know if you need any local route information

Okavango delta, Botswana, kevlar strips between the tyres and tubes and lots of slime in the tubes as there are so many thorns hidden in the sand.

muddydwarf you did the right thing, motorcycles using the site are a bit of a problem up there. Good chance the end result could be the use of the site for legitimate motorcycle trials events gets withdrawn. There is a perfectly good site for motorbikes to use just a mile or two away at Back cowme quarry, if they don’t support that place there will be even fewer places for them to ride.

I’m not anti-motorbike at all having owned quite a few myself over the years but they can cause quite a lot of damage when used in the wrong place. Having spent quite a bit of time trying to get mountain bike trails built and maintained it’s quite frustrating when people wreck them.
So if you see motor bikes up there please let the police know, get what details you can a photo if it’s not going to put you in harm’s way and pass the information on to me. Apart from anything if I know who they are and they turn up at a later date hoping to take part in an event up there I can tell them where to go.

Just got out of the shower after finishing the site tidy up, little bit more to do tomorrow.

Great weekend from my point of view big thanks to everyone who braved the rain and came along about half two Friday afternoon when I was stood in the quarry in the pissing rain I was convinced no one would be mad enough to come and camp up there in those conditions. You proved me wrong!

Great bunch of people turned up, really good laid back approach to everything.

Hug thanks to the volunteers who marshaled, Mountain Rescue for covering the event and sorting out those that got hurt.

I have some ideas for a realy good xc course for next year!

Poppies do takeaway as well as eat in so you could phone them up order some food roll down the hill on oyur bike and collect and be back up in the quarry within half an hour. But then again they are licenced so a couple of beers might take a bit longer.

Ben and I finalised the xc course today 6.01km 170m altitude gain and loss. Some rocks, some singletrack, some berms, some grass. Took us 1hr 12min to walk one lap! We did stop to look at stuff along the way I reckon a 17min lap?

clockwise is probably the best direction to do the route in and it takes anything from 4hrs to two days for people to do. Average I would have thought is about 7hrs for a group with stops.

CX bike would probably be fine although I must admit to using a full suser when I did it on Wednesday. It is a bit gloopy in places at the moment so you might struggle for grip a bit.

These have been built for the BC xc team to practice on. Tight right hand turn after the drop is the difficult part! I have not ridden the largest one myself as all I can see is disaster! But I have seen quite a few attempt it some msking it look easy and effort less and some, well disaster and time to get the first aid kit out. Advice from those that can ride well (Rowan, Craig etc) seems to be to keep your speed right down, little more than walking speed and focus more on the turn than the drop. Best advice with a feature like this though I think is that if it looks a bit daunting make sure you can do the smaller drops perfectly every time before attempting the bigger one.

I reckon a long/medium travel hard tail should be the bike of choice. I have ridden up there a fair bit over the past couple of years and it is pretty well suited to a good hard tail. I use a Genesis Alpitude which has survived the abuse the quarry can give a bike very well.

It can be tough on tyres and chain rings, highrollers seem to work for me pretty well up there. I see a lot of people with punctures in the quarry and find loads of discarded inner tubes (hate it when people just drop their rubbish like that!). Tyre choice might be as important as choice of bike. Brownbacks race last week Tom Bell had a good 5 min lead and then he got a flat and had to drop out, don’t know what tyre’s he was using.

Also see a lot of people snapping chains during the races, short steep downs followed by short steep ups seem to result in lots of gear mashing for some.

I think the loop we have planned for the xc race would benefit from an fancy up and down seat post type thing. I don’t use one myself but I could see being able to get the seat out of the way quickly for the downs and then back up for the climbs being useful. But would it be worth the extra weight?

End of the day it’s probably much more down to the rider than the bike, I can think of loads of people who could beat me on a lap round the quarry riding a Raleigh chopper with a flat tyre and one hand tied to their crank.

Glad you like it, did you make it over to Cragg Quarry as well?

If you enjoy that style of riding have you thought about coming along to the singletrack weekender?

Please do report it use Non-emergency Police number: 0845 1 25 35 45
they will need as much information about the motor bike as you can give them, reg if they have one on (suprizing number do), make of bike, what the rider was wearing etc. Ask for an incident log number. They are unlikley to come rushing out to catch the motorcyclist but it does help build up a pattern of where and when they are about.If you can get a photo without putting yourself in harms way please do so and send to me. We have an agreement with local trials clubs that riders who persitantly abuse our site will be banned from competitions.It’s suprising how distinctive a riders bike, clothing and style are.

Have a look at http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/sites/details.asp?revid=2680

noongallas in cornwall very laid back, allows camp fires, really nice woodland at the bottom of the campsite, great for kids.

extend your stay by several years! I have been up north now for well over 10 years and still finding new stuff to ride, lakes, peak, dales we are a bit spoilt for choice really. If you want to ride from Lee Quarry and cut down on the driving the Mary Towneley Loop is worth thinking about. Some great rides in the Peak District but you will need to use a map! Gisburn is good lots of fun stuff hidden away in the forest. Calderdale has some excellent routes again bring a map along to the weekender and we can mark up some suggested routes for you.

Another vote for Ed O here!

Lakes would get my vote only an hour and a half or so from Rossendale to get to some really good ridding in the lakes. I can suggest some routes/mark up some maps at the weekender for you if you like.

no travellers at the moment and area they have been using is being ditched and mounded etc to make it less easy to get on to also road has been adopted so easier to move people on. So should not be a problem.

Camping on Sunday night would be ok but toilets and water etc will be gone by then.

Proper live in camper vans(chucking a sleeping bag in the back of your van won’t do it) will be ok taken up at your own risk but space will be limited and once youre van is on site it will not be able to move off site whilst any of the events are on so pretty much stuck there all weekend so make sure you stock up on your beers etc before you come on site.

For those coming by car and getting a the rangers to take your stuff up in the trailer, best off putting stuff in a box there were a few broken bottles as aresult of stuff bouncing around in the trailer hate to see beer wasted!

They are good for spreading out the pack! We could run the race down them to test peoples tyre choice!