Grizdale. First ride advice

drewlucas4

Evening folks,

I've got tomorrow afternoon off and plan to do my first ride round grizdale. Can anybody suggest a noobie route. I'm fairly fit and would like a bit of fun. Riding a hard tail Marin if that helps. Also, how long should I factor in to doing a route or 2?

Cheers,
Drew.

The Northern Monkey

hey mate... i'll be there tomorrow with my bro.. what time will you be there?
We'd be more than willing to show you the route (isn't hard to find though).

We'll be doing the North Face trail.. doesn't usually take too long, but we will be starting around 11am though so probably a bit early lol.

If your looking for challenging/fun/singletrack/well waymarked trails then i'd def recommend the north face for your 1st outing

drewlucas4

Thanks for the offer if I could get there earlier I'd take you up on it but I don't finish work in Kendal until 11.30am and was going to pop into ambleside first as I need a new back pack. Could always go straight there and use the shop at Grizdale. Havn't been in there for a while so i'm not sure what it's like?
May have to meet up at some time in the future though. If you're floating around tomorrow, I'll be the one on the shiny new Marin hawk hill. I need to get it dirty!

North face it is then. How long should I put aside for my first attempt!
Cheers
Drew.

Whytepeak

drewlucas4 wrote:

North face it is then. How long should I put aside for my first attempt!
Cheers
Drew.

About 1 and a half hours for a starter.

The Northern Monkey

drewlucas4
No problemo. We're leaving around 9:30 am so depending on traffic and how the car handles the lakes we'll be there circa. 11am.

The bike shop at Grizedale is pretty good now iirc... much better than my LBS thats for sure.
I'll be riding the bike in my sig (black and white NS Surge) which is pretty distinctive so if you see us feel free to pop over
We usually hang about a bit for a brew afterwards at the shop dependent on time

And yea, an hour and a half if you take it easy... we stop 1/2 way round for about 20 mins to take in the views and rest up for the fun bits near the end

Ben

P.S. don't forget your helmet!
P.P.S don't forget lots of fluid
P.P.P.S its going to rain in the morning and clear up in the afternoon so expect it to be muddy and a tad slippy

drewlucas4

First ride over and done with.

Sorry Ben, our chance encounter was doomed from the off this morning as I had to change work locations at the last moment so went up to Whinlater instead. (just after half the yearly rainfall for Cumbria had been deposited in 10 min's!).

Did the Blue route as I'm an off road newbie and I have to say it was just soooo much fun. In fact, I enjoyed the first section so much I went back and did it again! Managed most of it although I had to stop twice to "ahem" look at the view. If that's off roading, I'm hooked!

I'm now thinking of cancelling the family camping trip this weekend to go to grizedale! Is that bad of me!

Drew.

trailpuppet

why not go camping and try Glentress , Mabie, Dalbeattie or Kirroughtree

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/sites/detai ... revid=2924

dave_hill

drewlucas4 wrote:

If that's off roading, I'm hooked!

It's only part of it! Trail centres and waymarked trails are great to get started and if you want to go for a ride without thinking about it, but don't be afraid to get your maps out and go exploring the natural stuff (don't forget, bridleways and byways only in England and Wales!!!). I could show you some absolutely cracking stuff around Grizedale away from the NFT that would knock your socks off (and possibly your fillings out!!)

There's so much fun and and adventure to be had you'll never tire of it!!