Yes I agree

<span style=”display: inline !important; float: none; background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: ‘Open Sans’; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.4px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;”>Also can I add to the rant moaning of all types – especially in regard to your route choice. **** off and ride somewhere else then</span>

I’ve had the moaning type too many times when I’ve been leading a route they’ve never done before:

“That descent was too techy, we were all after a fast flowy one”,

“this route is all uphill with no down”,

“we’ve gone all that way and we’re only here?! was there not a more direct path?”

Worst of all: “this ride is taking too long” said by persons who are causing all the delays!

Is Black Mountain a lot less knackering than Antur Stiniog ? The level of fatigue after a day (or two)  at AS  can be very high (at least it is for me)

The thing is, there’s something quite enjoyable about being out in good company and bad weather.

Not when your standing around waiting for them for ages because they’re walking up climbs, then asking for a breather stop when they finally get to the top, then waiting for them on descents if there is anything even remotely technical on it. Then frequent stops while they take ages reinstalling that saddle bag that has slipped off, or while they re-position their rear mud guard, or spend ages taking a jacket off then putting it back on, then tying their shoe laces. Or stopping to do static leg stretches in the middle of a climb that they’ve walked most of. Then waiting for ages because they’ve got a puncture, or their chain has snapped, or they decide to change their brake pads mid ride, then the pads fall off then spend another half an hour looking for them. Standing there, covered in mud and water, in the miserable rain, cold and fog. Or stopping at every junction for no reason other than to have a long chat about bike components. I’ve had it all.

What sort of ride-ability are Miners and Pyg as a Descent ?

I need one as well, if there are a few people around who have them but aren’t using them ?

Don’t get it why people go Mountain biking in the lashing rain, can’t just wait for a better day ?

Fair enough if the weather forecasts were saying it was going to be dry and it caught everyone out, but they were all predicting heavy rain today, so not a suprise.

It was a mistake I used to make because I wanted to ride with other people as much as I could and was restricted to their times/dates, but now I’ve seen better sense and would much rather ride solo on a decent day than ride with a group in the lashing rain.

My experiences with these posts:

Command Post. 1 year old. The original Post arrived defective, replaced under warranty in September, new Post has been okay since. About 2000 miles and 1 service by local bike technician (not because it started to fail, just because of preventative maintenance).

Reverb: 1 year and 4 months old. No faults at all except once all it required was a bleed by local bike technician. That is the only maintenance job that has been done on it. About 1000-1500 miles.

Yes, would rather be walking than biking if weather is crap. Other way around when weather is good.

Who the hell walks long distances when their bike breaks down ? I always order a taxi, unless the bike has failed very close to the car.

IMO I’ve yet to do a Lakes ride which beats the Howgills. Maybe Nan Bield would if you forget about the climb up Gatesgarth.

Lakes rides I’ve done:

High Street

Ullswater

Borrowdale Bash followed by some bridleway which went round the side of Skiddaw

Grizdale – North Face, Parkamoor, BW’s and Off Piste

Low level lakes stuff all over the South Lakes

Garburn Pass

I think I might have the same problem  with Guide R’s but maybe a smaller scale failure ?

The bike is still ride-able but the front brake doesn’t feel good.

When you pull the front brake it does nothing for the first few mm then when the brake lever gets closer to the bars it only then starts to bite. But the initial pull does next to nothing. They’ve been bled twice recently as well.

Anyone know what this is ?

Just a few notes about that MBR Top 20:

Nan Bield – Definitely a top route but not the way MBR do it. Descending Gatesgarth only to Hike a Bike up the other side is awful, much better to go over Harter Fell.

Rhyd Du – A lot of the Rhyd Du is unrideable, particularly the ridgeline at the top. Don’t know if this should be on the list.

Ullswater – There is an entire thread on it

Just a few personal notes :

Gisburn is normally full of puddles (well at least for half of the year) so good chance to do it in the dry

I always miss “The Long Way Down” – Hully Gully is much better if you are a Black level rider.

I usually avoid Gisburn during the Summer though just because I do it ALL the time in late Autumn/All Winter/Early Spring and I’d just get sick of it if I did it all year round.

As for natural routes: my Favourites in relation to each National Park:

Peaks – Cut Gate. Another guaranteed good ride, has most of the good things about MTB’ing and not much of the bad!

South Pennines – suggest Calderdale esp. over Blackstone Edge and Stoodley Ridgeline and one of the numerous singletrack descents from that side!

South Lakes – Harter Fell/Nan Bield Pass from Staveley. If you can put up with an hours Hike a Bike!

Or the Howgills

Did it with mates with a pub stop, it took ages, but Strava clocked 3 hrs 25 moving time – So thats how long it would have taken if I went Solo and didn’t wait around for mates.

42km loop – doesn’t sound that much on an MTB until you realise what your up against

Navigation out of Sedbergh – wrong turns everywhere

Once you do get off road, yor instantly faced with a Difficult, pain in the arse farm with a complexity of gate work

A super steep climb from 100m to 675m in a very short distance. Granny gear grind most of the way up.

Now the good part – 10km of uninterrupted singletrack!

Depending on which way you go now – Quiet easy lanes or harder sloggy bridleways with lots of gates to Ravenstonehead.

Steep long road climb

The last 15km or so – Bridleways, singletrack, undulations, some good parts but there is about 30-40 Gates a real pain in the arse they are.

Also a fallen down tree that you’ll have to lift the bike over! It’s been there for months.

The scenery is insane, it rivals anything in the UK.

What a great ride this is, its an East Lakes Classic, but there is some serious climbing and gate work to do to get the rewards.

Only ever done it with mates, (3 times now) would like to do it solo for the faster sustained pace but the thought of dealing with all those gates alone puts me off.

The first half doesn’t have too many gates – Its mainly the return leg that gets them in elephantine qualities.

Gisburn is ace, I see it as a guaranteed good day out.

Ive had good and bad rides in the Peaks, Lakes and South Pennines but Gisburn always good, its built for bikes while the others are not.

Apparently one small section is still closed the boardwalk.

Have you tried Worlds End, a great (if cheeky) add-on to Llandegla.

Also have you tried Antur Stiniog, another suggestion

One thing for sure, shouldering up High Street & along Ullswater in one day just put me in the mood to get a couple of days at Antur Stiniog in ASAP

Yes, punctures is the main reason I’m switching, if you ride lots of very rocky stuff then pinch flats happen all the time with tubes, I’m beyond sick of it.

Plus I want to run lower pressures for DH and tubeless will allow that. That will hopefully considerably reduce fatigue when doing 3000-4000m descending a day multiple days in a row.

I’ve already got tubeless ready wheels, do I only need to get the sealant now and not a full tubeless kit ?  Anyone provide a link to best recommended kit to get me set up for tubeless please ?

I’ll also get an airshot ordered

I thought the downhill sections weren’t that bad at all, it was just the uphills. I thought I was good at techy climbs, as I can ride uphill on everything at Gisburn and every section on the red and black ‘the eight’ I have done with no dabs at some point, but the climbs on Ullswater are on another level.

Yes, I’d done it as part of the high st loop and hit this at the end.

Probably being knackered and then getting a pinch flat made the Ullswater bridleway feel a lot worse  than it is.

But that doesn’t change what I said about those uphill sections.

Not many people have high level trails skills and they’re what you need to ride Ullswater. So maybe the MBR top 20 is for the top 1% skill level rather than the majority.

I wasn’t expecting fast and flowly, I enjoy slow techy sections as well, but not when you have to shoulder the bike up at least 4 or 5 climbs. Maybe it would have been 1 less if it wasn’t for those fallen over trees, so maybe again it just seemed worse than usual due to the circumstances on the day.

Moved from a 100mm HT to a 150mm front / 130mm rear FS

Climbing on the smooth feels (to me) to same effort as before. Climbing on the rough ground feels easier. Hike a bike feels noticeably harder, this is when I can really feel the extra weight.

I do standing pedalling as much as possible but stay seated if the grip is poor.

Only time I notice the extra weight really bothering me is when having to shoulder the bike up some of the Long Steep climbs up the mountains in the Lake District.

I don’t know if the extra maintenance is that much more. Both types are expensive to maintain but I think an FS is only slightly more than HT.

So it sounds like it’s still not all open yet

If the boardwalk is the only closed section then at least more of it is open than when I was last there

I think it was just worse today than normal, there were 3 trees that had fallen over and were blocking the trail on an already challenging rock climb. Plus me being tired didn’t help. But there were at least two places where you have to get up a steep uphill staircase, which to me didn’t look ride-able at all without high-end trails skills.

Another problem with Lee Quarry – Runners who think it’s Okay to use the Bike trails. Three times now I’ve been biking round there and had a runner in my way (twice going DH, Once going Uphill) and the tracks are often narrow so not always easy to overtake.

Nowhere near as big a problem as the MX though

<span style=”display: inline !important; float: none; background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: ‘Open Sans’; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.4px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;”>E bikes are great- they make a FAT bloke same as a FIT bloke</span>

Even a fit person can’t compete with an Ebike. I could only keep up with a poor rider on an Ebike on “Eco” mode. As soon as she put it in “Tour”, I was left behind on the hill. There was still another two settings to go that significantly increased power output: Sport and Turbo.

An Ebike set on Turbo gets KOM’s everywhere off-road where there is an incline.

I had a go on an Ebike once. Left it in Turbo and did 20k on VERY hard and muddy Lake District terrain in just one hour! When I was powering up 20% inclines I thought “there’s no way anyone would be able to go up this so fast on a normal bike” and I wasn’t even trying.

Shame really, the area isn’t that good for riding when you take out Cragg and Lee.

During the dry weather we’ve had recently Cragg & Lee have still been riding really well despite the Motorbike abuse. However when it’s wet it’s a whole different ride altogether, puddles everywhere, as it was from late Summer last year – through the Winter – to the beginning of May this year.

I’m off to Bubion in October for first time, never thought of Majorca, would Majorca have been a better choice ?

There’s an Airshot on Ebay for a fiver, normally they’re £45 elsewhere ? Too good to be true ?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/123252462904?chn=ps&var=423657368719

The Motorbikes will be the end of Lee Quarry

The noise made by the Crossers alone is enough to put me off staying at Lee Quarry for long.

The Motorbikes have been getting MUCH more frequent and numerous every year for the last 4 years.

They have taken over the place

Is Helvellyn no longer worth it on a bike?

Most of the time I go to Lee Quarry the motorbikes are there. It is definitely used by Motorbikes more than Bicycles. It gets in a bad state every Winter and on Wet Summers, puddles everywhere. The problem is getting worse.

The Motorbikes can completely ruin a session at Lee Quarry.

Even if there is somewhere else for them to go, they will still use Cragg and Lee as it is so good and it’s somewhere different than staying on the legal tracks all the time.

Losing the carpark won’t be the end of Lee Quarry, a lot of bikers start elsewhere (e.g. Bury, Rammy, Whitworth) and just include Cragg and Lee within a bigger loop

Yes plenty of places where you can park up just 30-35 minutes drive from Rivington and ride stuff that matches or beats it.

Park at Belmont or Darwen to do Darwen, Great Hill, Roddlesworth

Ramsbottom/Bury for Holcombe, Scout Moor, Cragg & Lee Quarry and Whitworth

Ogden Reservoir, Newhey, for riding all over Littleborough, Blackstone Edge, Todmorden / Stoodley Pike, or Marsden

Tried everything and nothing was working.

Then I left it plugged into a wall charger for 12 hours. Still wouldn’t work.

Then tried the Hard Reset and it has now finally come back on. So thanks for that.

When I plug it in to a Computer or Plug the Garmin responds to it by trying to boot up then shuts itself down without charging. The Port does not seem to be the problem otherwise I don’t think it would respond to being plugged in at all?

Just 2 years. Very new. It does not get past boot-up. It is on boot-up then shuts down. Was charging Okay until it got to 0%. Now it can’t get charged from being completely flat.

It’s obvious in every way that they are better to ride, when they work.

I just can’t be arsed with them yet as there is bound to be more mechanical and electrical things that could go wrong on them.

The Local Bike Technician told me he won’t fix my ebike if I bought one, as he has no experience of working on them.

The maintenance is the issue

I’d go elsewhere, for a while, plenty of other rides in the South Pennines can be done that don’t involve Winter Hill

I’m no fan of climbing, and can’t do 25kph on the flat most of the time, so definitely want an Ebike. The only issue is maintenance.

Yes, I’ve just found it, previously all I could find was the defunct page, thanks