Route : Barracks Lane – Old Buxton Road – Teggs Nose Rear Entry – Off Piste descent to Langley – Rd ascent past the Leathers Smithy – Forest – Charity half descent – Narnia – NR cut through – Dentists Demise cut through – Rd ascent to Standing Stone – Nessit ascent but diversion descent – Rd to Hanging Gate
Sustrans Route : Train from Macc to Stockport – Muddy and Semi-Urban Route home to the Ship Keep It Local Route : Barracks Lane – Rainbow Bridge – Lidgetts Lane – Kerridge High Route – Ingersley Vale – Oaken Bank Lane – Jumper Lane – Highwayman – Blaze Hill Descent – Poachers Snicket in reverse – Middlewood Way – the Ship
First ever train assisted TNR. Pics courtesy of Dan and his SLR.
Mild but damp
Pete takes out Eric twice on slippery climbs
Croxy desecrates White Nancy (in Ozzy at the Alamo Stylee)
Ship Inn is a proper pub with proper Beer (Bosley Cloud at £1.90). Delivered Take-Out Curry tops it all. Lime pickle was a good call, Eric. Lamb Madras was punching above its weight ;-0
Chris arrives late to cement the (Palmer-Barlowe) Axis of evil ;-). Such was the after hours revelry in the Ship that we almost summoned up the spirit of Dionysus.
Bollin Valley, Wizard Rendezvous, new territory circumnavigation the edge, plus Pete’s Artists lane snicket twice! Blick Boy (:-)) Prestbury
Conditions
Mild & Still
Stats
2 Tesco torches (Eric & Croxy)
1 New Hope 1 El Pres
Wot– No Offs or Mechanicals!
Notes
The edge always seems to bring high turnout and tonight was no exception. Bollin valley surprisingly wet, Edge pretty dry with a carpet of beech leaves to boot. Plenty of Limbo practice on the new territory sections. Eric D approval was obtained in advance 😉 A
Stealth fireworks before a second run down the Artists Lane snicket to retrieve G’s glasses! The Whippet (on a 29er) ran out of juice on race to the pub (so that’s a rare victory for experience over youth).
A finer pint of unicorn you won’t find anywhere! Mawds trailer design trumped lumens talk (Although El Pres says forget the length of your tesco torches – feel the width and ribbing of my one eyed Hope 1!!) . Lucas was getting home on two wheels tonight so it was two-pints-good 😉 The full complement of Axis of evil were cruelly thwarted by the bar staff –> 4 pints insufficient…Late breaking news Axis of Evil stop off at the New Ship Inn one and a half Storm Force for the road!!!….Oh and dentist in tights on a hardtail (see pic below)
In El pud's words : "It was 100 miles of sun-lit mud-free heaven, totally off-road,
fully-loaded with thigh-burning climbs, and free-flowing swoopy
single-track descents. Always with something of interest on the trail to
keep the juices flowing. Chalktastic. Bigskymungus. Well sweet."
Crew : Salad Dodger, El pud, El pres, BigDan & Steve Fellbaum (on foot)
Weather : 3 days of Sunshine and pretty stonkin weather for October
Friday : Winchester to Cocking (Fnar Fnar)
Saturday: Cocking to Lewes
Rainbow bridge, Middlewood Way, Brookledge lane, Pott Shrigley, Backstonedale moor from higher gate, Wall descent to track, unusual entry to Lyme Park, Descent into valley of doom, Bowstones, Quarries descent, Poachers
Conditions
Cool & Clear with a couple of showers
Very wet on the moors
Stats
3 Offs – Kershaw 2, Stunt 1
Notes
Kershaw delivers a cracking route with 3 proper descents and surprisingly little mud & pushing. El Pres behaviour with Lloyds 29er being ridden to test something or other, but it proved surprisingly unstable at low speed with 2 comedy offs! Valley of doom descent would be even better in the dry. Sierra cycling chat with the Nancy’s on top of the moor. Poachers food and drink top notch – Landlord superb! Tythy residents committee interviewing potential applicant with desire to increase shed density – but it won’t be as big as Kershs! Who needs special projects with BAU like this…no lumens talk after last weeks decisive demonstrations!
Here is a classic “analogue” shot from the early 1990s (before I even had a mountain bike) . Lets hope we see some proper weather like this in the next few months
With all this talk of how many Lumens can be bought of the shelf…I thought it was about time we revisited the magic of DIY fettled bike lights. “Thy buys cheap, thy spends ages in the garage with t’ soldering iron” 😉
Another classic event thanks to Eric. The real beauty of it was that there was no “obvious” route to success.
Excellent Service, beer and vittels provided by our hosts in the Leathers Smithy. They even agreed to dim the house lights so that we could do a “geek illuminosity test” of the variety of lighting equipment on display.
