Calling Edale locals

magic johnson

Hi.

I'm bringing a gang up to ride the MBR killer loop route from the Oct 2008 mag.I'm looking to spend 4.5 to 5.5 hrs riding and arent sure if the route will be enough. We ride at a fair pace and are a hardy lot and it looks like it could be nearer 3 hrs??? I know its rufty riding on your patch so local advice gladly received.
I'm also considering doing it clockwise as I dont fancy Jacobs upwards....did it once and, by memory, it was a bit of a push.......but I'll take your advice again

Cheers

ratty2k

I haven't done Jacobs as anything other than a descent... I think the drop down the other side if you go up Jacobs could be great fun mind you- not sure its as good as Jacobs itself.
Not got the mag, so without the route I cant fully comment, but parts of the trail, (Roych clough/ Rushup edge?) are getting quite eroded- quite a few motorbikes using the trails some legal, some not.
I aint that quick on the ups, but I'd say the time they give in the mag (without knowing the route) would be pretty accurate. There is a fair bit of height gain on our standard Jacobs route...

Slow1972

Sorry, havent got the route to hand, but for what its worth I did Jacob's ladder a few months ago and rode over the back from Hayfield and then down Jacob's ladder. There's pro's and con's for riding it either way I'd probably go up Jacob's ladder next time because I think you'll have a longer more enjoyable descent on the other side (even if it means pushing part of the way up JL) as the technical part of the Jacob's ladder descent is relatively short

I know you say you ride a quite a pace, but it depends what sort of terrain you're doing it over and the conditions up there when you go. Because you can work really hard in bad weather / strong winds and have a cr*p average speed around there. Last time I went along the top part of Rushup Edge the strong wind combined with very boggy conditions meant a ridiculously slow speed and that was putting in some serious effort.

I would recommend you get a map of the area and identify a couple of small loops which you can tack on or leave out depending on how you're going. Imho if the killer loop is any sort of length I think you will have to be going at a flying pace to do it in 3 hours.

If its not on the loop, try going down the Edale Valley and up Jaggers Clough, turning right at the Roman Road to drop into Hope, there's other sections you can add on around there too.

Giggsmaster

I did the loop you are talking about from mbr. I think me and my bro set off from Barbers Booth around 10ish really looking froward to the ride but not knowing what was going to hit us later on. We did it in October when the weather was still good.

We thought we were quite fit, but it kicked us in the arse. We were like you, thinking it would only take us a few hours. In the end it did take us 5-6 hours. Let us know how you get on...?

sniper68

Doing it clockwise it generally takes me and ratty 4-5 hours depending on the trail conditions.In my experience larger groups can add loads of time to a ride if there's punctures/mechanicals etc.
We did a loop with 8 riders and according to rattys computer we had over 2 hours of stops for brake pad changes and punctures :shock:
In wet/boggy conditions i'd allow 5+hours

punctureboy

although i haven't seen the mbr route your talking about, i'm pretty certain the one i did this tuesday was essentially the one your talking about. i did it clockwise, ie down jacobs ladder. took me just over 3 hours not including a break in hayfield, which i was very pleased with.

in this direction i would say a very fit and skilled rider could ride over 95% of it at least. i'd be interested to see the difference a full suss rig would make to this run. particularly on the uphills, which i struggled with on the very technical parts.

the highlight was obviously jacobs ladder. lets face it thats why i was there. i managed to get all the way down without hiccup, even after some rider going the other way baulking at me riding it on a hardtail. not sure if i went the right way though. on the map there are two paths down. i took the longer, very rocky route. when i got to the bottom the other path had steps going up, which seems more ladderish to me!! did i take the wrong route? either way it was awesome and a great test for me.

Giggsmaster

punctureboy wrote:

although i haven't seen the mbr route your talking about, i'm pretty certain the one i did this tuesday was essentially the one your talking about. i did it clockwise, ie down jacobs ladder. took me just over 3 hours not including a break in hayfield, which i was very pleased with.

in this direction i would say a very fit and skilled rider could ride over 95% of it at least. i'd be interested to see the difference a full suss rig would make to this run. particularly on the uphills, which i struggled with on the very technical parts.

the highlight was obviously jacobs ladder. lets face it thats why i was there. i managed to get all the way down without hiccup, even after some rider going the other way baulking at me riding it on a hardtail. not sure if i went the right way though. on the map there are two paths down. i took the longer, very rocky route. when i got to the bottom the other path had steps going up, which seems more ladderish to me!! did i take the wrong route? either way it was awesome and a great test for me.

3hrs.....?!?! Can I borrow your legs sometime

punctureboy

i've been hammering myself fitness wise over the last couple of months, and squats have really improved my climbing. plus the conditions were ideal really, even on top of the hills the wind wasn't too bad. i reckon the guy who flew past me on the climb up to edale cross would disagree with you. although i keep telling myself he started in hayfield lol!

switchback18

punctureboy wrote:

the highlight was obviously jacobs ladder. lets face it thats why i was there. i managed to get all the way down without hiccup, even after some rider going the other way baulking at me riding it on a hardtail. not sure if i went the right way though. on the map there are two paths down. i took the longer, very rocky route. when i got to the bottom the other path had steps going up, which seems more ladderish to me!! did i take the wrong route? either way it was awesome and a great test for me.

The shorter way is the footpath.
I find it hilarious that people think you need full sus to ride anything. I ride full sus these days and it lets me go faster down stuff like Jacobs Ladder etc, but I've lost count of the times when I've been riding the hardtail & passed full sus riders on tech stuff!
People were riding that route years ago on fully rigid bikes. In fact we used to look for stuff like this way back in the early 1990's before any of us could afford suspension forks.
Am I tempted to buy a rigid now? No way, but I'd still ride one if that's what I could afford.

M6TTF

Did the edale loop today, great fun even if we did miss a turning and ended up doubling back. The wind is a killer though!! If I go back I would definitely do in reverse as the descent off the back of Jacobs ladder is much better than Jacobs IMO, and best go early as you can, on a nice day it's crawling with walkers

sniper68

M6TTF wrote:

Did the edale loop today, great fun even if we did miss a turning and ended up doubling back. The wind is a killer though!! If I go back I would definitely do in reverse as the descent off the back of Jacobs ladder is much better than Jacobs IMO, and best go early as you can, on a nice day it's crawling with walkers

The trouble with doing it that way is that is the only really good descent you get and you then have to go up Coldwell Clough/Roych Clough and Rushup Edge all of which are better as descents.Doing it clockwise you get 5 good descents,anticlockwise you only get 2 good uns.

M6TTF

we started at rushup edge (the car park just off the main road - went up the road and through the gate - rushup edge seemed like mainly uphill and flat to me apart from a nice couple of little descents - ruined by 6 landrovers crawling down

We went wrong somewhere as we ended up in the centre of Hayfield, climbed out the other side up a monster soney climb, and ended up back where we came from LOL

will take a proper map next time

switchback18

ibbo68 wrote:

M6TTF wrote:

Did the edale loop today, great fun even if we did miss a turning and ended up doubling back. The wind is a killer though!! If I go back I would definitely do in reverse as the descent off the back of Jacobs ladder is much better than Jacobs IMO, and best go early as you can, on a nice day it's crawling with walkers

The trouble with doing it that way is that is the only really good descent you get and you then have to go up Coldwell Clough/Roych Clough and Rushup Edge all of which are better as descents.Doing it clockwise you get 5 good descents,anticlockwise you only get 2 good uns.

Yeh, I totally agree, although the ascent up to Jacobs Ladder is hard work!
But the other DHs make up for it and some more.