Finally got to Grizedale :D

The Northern Monkey

Well the £500 car got fixed at midday so my and the Bro went straight to Grizedale. Weather was perfect, trail was great fun

Quite a few changes, like what they've started doing with the boardwalks.... some are now slip free

Twas a good ride apart from getting cramp near the end, I think its something to do the the Kyle Strait pads..... has happened twice now

Anyways, a few photos

Smee


Bro


Obligatory bike photo


B

GHill

Did you grab a cumberland sausage and onion marmalade butty at the end?

Looks like a nice day for it (for the Lakes).

The Northern Monkey

Lol I wish!!

Yea was pretty good actually.... loved the bike, bike of an effort on the climbs but very very fast on the downs... caught me out once and I just saved myself from an over the bars incident

Oh, and neoguards are awesome!!!

sparrowlegs78

Looks like you smiled so much your eyes popped ..it is rather good that trail.
Caz xxxxxxxxx

The Northern Monkey

Aye tis pretty fun

Next weekend we're doing grizedale Saturday morning, camping somewhere in the lakes and doing the high street pass on the Sunday

then I get the road bike the tuesday/Wednesday the week after.

Already lost a stone so I should be pretty trim soon

delcol

if your heading up there again and camping skip grize,, and head a litter further north and do whinlatter it's miles beter both north and south loops.... and its easier to find...

The Northern Monkey

delcol
Yep done whinatter a few times. Prefer grizedale thought for some reason

delcol

i wasn't over keen on grizedale it persisting it down though when i went i found it a little lame,...
whinlatter aint exactly challengeing but i love the flow on some of the decents,,

c0zz

Looks like a bloody brillaint place to ride! Nice pair of bikes aswell!

elPedro666

Some top natural riding around Grizedale - straight up the hill opposite the visitor centre gets you to the Fox & one of my all-time favourite descents into the next valley over.

Couple of miles down the road (literally) is Grizedale Camping, which is a really beautiful campsite in the woods, run by a really friendly farmer, well recommended!

trailpuppet

can`t help but think that losing the BIG wheels, chain device, fitting some more gears and a longer stem to the front end might just help you pedal a bit better!!!!

Looks OK for a jump/street bike but not XC.

And maybe reduce the likelihood of you getting cramp

Get yourself an OS map, make up your own route using the bridleways, much better fun.
(only if you fit a longer stem and granny ring!!!)

elPedro666

Most definately not long-distance bikes, for sure, but I'm guessing that's not what they were built for (hence the cramp and, lets face it, Grizedale hardly needs the fork travel!) & this is them broadening their horizons, pushing their boundarys a bit.

Glad it's not me heaving them up the hills though - no wonder the weight's dropping off!

grumsta

Looks like you had fun. For next time though, there are millions of rocky bridleways around Grizedale that are miles better than the NFT.

Next time you are up check some of em out. You can do the first couple of sections of the NFT from the visitor's centre, then turn left off the fire road up to Parkamoor. Great bridleways going right down to Nibthwaite or left back towards Satterthwaite. Or a bit further round on the fire road and you can turn left down to Lawson Park.

VG Graphics do a really good guide with some routes in Grizedale.

Agree about the Fox descent, great fun.

BTW I ride a big bike (Pitch) with silly big tyres, short stem and wide bars round the Lakes all the time - it's great. :P

The Northern Monkey

trailpuppet
Its not an xc bike mate... its not a jump bike either :?

Just doing it for the decents + the fitness. Doing Grizedale because my bro isn't as capable on a bike (plus he's riding my old sh*tter thats been sat in the shed for a while), going up high street to find some bigger decents/more natural decents next weekend..... looking forward to the climbs too!


Oh and I didn't have a problem with pedaling, I have very dodgy knees!! Actually, seeing as though you lot are being picky ar*eholes (pardon) I found it easier to get the NS up and around grizedale than my old XC bike, because I am more suited to it! the wider bars, extra travel, bigger tyres etc etc actually helped with grip and riding position (for me). Yea I might climb fairly slowly... but I do make the climbs. But i bet i can descend a fair bit quicker, and lets face it, the descents are way more fun.

Right bunch of fairies aren't you!

The Northern Monkey

Actually f*ck it. I'm pissed off and a bit would up by some of the comments.
trailpuppet
Who the censored are you to tell me what I should and shouldn't ride on a bike that I have personally spec'd to be perfect for HOW I RIDE.

If you want to trundle around the lakes in your granny ring over some bridleways then so be it.... I won't judge you. But because I enjoy a different style of riding to you, doesn't mean you can tell me to do otherwise or change my bike.

and to you and elPedro666 IF you knew the full extent of the story, then maybe you'd understand why we went to Grizedale.
1) I've only been back up north a week, i've just finished uni.
2) my bro's car broke down earlier in the week so we couldn't go anywhere
3) it was fixed late friday afternoon so we sacked everything off that we had planned and decided a quick trip to Grizedale would be great
4) I haven't seen my bro in SEVEN MONTHS so wanted to get out there and spend some time with him on a route that we both knew

This is the second time i've posted on here about my enjoyable days riding and some c*cks have p*ssed me off.
I won't bother in future.

[/rant]
[happyface]

Whytepeak

Steps into the room timidly.....

Looks like you had a good time, like that trail a lot (the first trail centre i went to).
Have they built the new visitor centre yet bigbenj_08?

hope to get up there soon, wish i could drive :roll:

pdid

Eye, the world would be a dull place if we all rode the same type of bike!!!!

You should ride what ever you feel comfortable on and don`t let anyone tell you otherwise.

I`m gonna be going up to Grizedale at some stage this next week. My old fella want to come with me so i`ve decided to take him around the North Face and he`s gonna borrow my Rock Lobster. Should be an interesting day.

elPedro666

Umm, that's odd, sure I was being positive about the idea! :?

I couldn't care less about what bike you ride, it's just good to see bikes getting ridden, and I always particularly enjoy seeing bikes being ridden slightly 'out of context', as it generally implies someone's enjoying (hopefully!) new aspects of the sport, which has to be a good thing. And as you are running a very heavily downhill biased, dirt/4x kind of set up I'm sure the NFT wasn't your original inspiration! Again, I meant to suggest that's a good thing.

Can't see that I said anything offensive about Grizedale either - except maybe in suggesting that the man-made stuff's well below the level of tech you appear to be set up for, which it is. I was actually up there myself only last week and had a good ride, in fact I just read back further & notice that I recommended the really nice campsite I stayed at a few weeks before that.

I also recommended a track that was recommended to me, which, handily, starts from the visitor centre, thinking you might enjoy it as much as I do.

No, definately not anti as far as I can see!

So just chill fella: I'm glad you had a good ride, and glad your bro's car's sorted; know what it's like running cheap cars as I blew all of £140 on mine! So it's first-name terms at the garage & getting to know lots about the spanners too...

And enjoy High Street - I've not done it yet so look forward to hearing about it!

grumsta

Bit over-sensitive aren't we? One comment about the bike not being that suited and you ignore lots of positive and constructive comments.

By the way, I didn't rate High Street as much as some people do. The descent was a bit boggy and bitty for my liking. Try Garburn Pass or the Walna Scar Road.

passout

Those bikes would be fine in the Lakes - there is a wide range of terrain their anyway.

bungalistic

Yes possibly taking some of the comments slightly too personal, but then I see the point he is making. The bike isn't an XC bike, nor is it a 4X or DJ bike, and to set it up in a way to match something like an XC bike would be pointless, that's not what is designed for.

Fitting a granny ring to the bike would be pretty pointless, as would a too long stem which would compromise it's downhill capabilities, it might make the uphills a little bit harder to get up but once the bike is pointing downhill you'll reap the rewards.

trailpuppet

Apologies if comments have been taken the wrong way only meant to be "constructive critisism"

OP mentioned his cramp problems and I just thought that with the way his bike is set up it would be more suited to a jump park/street use than hooning around the Lakes.

Agree that if he and his mates are out & about enjoying the forests rather than being a street jump menace is great

elPedro666

grumsta wrote:

By the way, I didn't rate High Street as much as some people do. The descent was a bit boggy and bitty for my liking. Try Garburn Pass or the Walna Scar Road.

That's a little disappointing - half the appeal of Lakes is the (all-but) guaranteed all-weather surface! Love Garburn & Walna Scar too, top riding. Have to give the Scar another run now I'm not rigid & V-braked (talking of bikes out of their comfort zones)... :oops:

That reminds me; there's another campsite that's not so nice in itself, but right at the bottom of Walna Scar Road, with great views and a foot ferry across Coniston Water to Grizedale (cool way to start/end a ride!).

passout

Yes, Garbun and Walna Scar road are better than High Street I think. All worth doing though.

Mike T111

yeah just to confirm its definately not a 4x/dirt jump bike, they dont need much travel. Its a hardtail version of these do it all full sus bikes, designed for poeple who like DH but also want to ride their bikes to the top, to get to places you wouldnt be able to on a DH bike.

I've got a rockymountain flow which is more of a 4x cross bike. Done the NF loads of times on it and its actually almost as quick as my orange xc hardtail. The rockymtn is way better on the steeper, rougher climbs and so much faster and more fun on the downs. My orange is just better for reallly long rides and for climbing on stuff that isnt too technical.

What bike you use just depends what you're in the mood for. If your wanting to race round the whole trail to beat your best time then use an xc bike, due to the long sections of fireroad and relatively smooth contouring singletrack. But if your not bothered about losing a few minutes here and there, you just want to have more fun and get more thrills on the descents , then a long travel hardtail is a perfectly normal bike to ride around NF, especially given the more technical bridleway descents on offer.

I know someone who went round whinlatter on an ironhorse sunday team! now thats using the wrong bike for the job!

trailpuppet

my choices are steel hardtail, 1", 85mm forked Bontrager or Kona Dawg deluxe

so 2 extremes!!!

bungalistic

Mike T111 wrote:

I know someone who went round whinlatter on an ironhorse sunday team! now thats using the wrong bike for the job!

Totally ha ha, mate of mine has dragged his Cannondale Perp round Whinlatter also. I only have a hardtail similar to bigbenj which I use for all my riding, wouldn't mind trying out one of these smaller travel full sussers, which are supposed to feel and handle like a hardtail but just smooth out the back end a little bit.

trailpuppet wrote:

my choices are steel hardtail, 1", 85mm forked Bontrager or Kona Dawg deluxe

so 2 extremes!!!

I would have thought the Kona Dawg would be quite good for most trails, it's not like it's some 7-8" travel monster, surely the benefits of going downhill faster outweigh the slighty slower climbing times.

grumsta

At the other end of the spectrum, I saw someone doing Whinlatter on a cyclocross bike last week! He did kind of skirt round some of the rocky bits though.