Hamsterley route advice

abductee

Just got back from a couple of days cycling in Yorkshire. The plan was to ride on the moors but the first ride round Great Pinseat and Fremlington edge was so windy that it was unridable. To avoid a repeat of this miserable ride we went to Hamsterley forest to gain some protection from the wind. A few years ago we vowed never to go back to Hamsterley after following a red route that was 99% fire road with 300metres of climbing followed by descending on a fire road. Last year we gave it another go and were impressed by the new sections.

Due to the high winds and boredom factor we attempted to miss out the red route fire road around the exposed western edge of the forest by cutting across from Section 13 to Transmission. I had downloaded the red route from the Hamsterley trailblazers website the day before so we were good to go. As soon as we got on the bikes it started the horizontal rain, we did the start of the black loop and then my mates gear cable decided to break for the climb up to Section 13. The ride down Section 13 was a wet windswept gear mashing farce. No worries though we had transmission to look forward to with the prospect of a following wind and the rain was easing. We cut across the centre of the forest and connected with the red route downloaded from the trailblazers site but transmission was nowhere to be found. The route I had download was the old fire road route from years ago that we had vowed never to do again so the whole ride was a massive disappointment.

I've plotted the route that I think we should have done. I am wondering if I've missed any other good bits or if there is a better cut through from section 13 to transmission.

Any advice on how to maximise the fun and minimise the fire road would be welcome and thanks in advance.

BennyB

Thats a shame to hear because hamsterley is one of my favourite places to ride! Dont know my way round yet though, I ride with a local mate of mine. Sorry I cant help

Royal Dragoon

May help to ask for some advice here:

http://www.mtbe.co.uk/

They have a lot of riders who are very active at Hammers, Dalby, etc', etc.

Hope that may be of some help to you.

chemicalali

Sounds like a bit of a bummer - the Swaledale ride you were doing should have been a cracker but in the wind we've had it must have been hell.

Shame about Hammers as it's been in great condition recently but you're right - the signage isn't great and a lot of the good stuff is unofficial and off the signed trails. However in recent years it's come a long way and is now a great place to ride. As well as the MTBE site you could try the Hamsterley Trailblazers forum - I'm sure you'll get some good advice there.

Glad to hear that word has got out about Section 13 and Transmission. Section 13 suffered badly in the winter but after a couple of trailbuilding sessions it's now repaired and should be much more resistant to the bad weather. Transmission and the follow on Accelerator are riding really well and we're extending the descent to the valley bottom this summer - should be a cracker.

Try to arrange a return trip - if you need a guide give me a PM.

abductee

Thanks for the offer of guiding. I'm not sure when I will be able to get back to have another go at it but I look forward to the re-match. I agree its a great place to ride. I really enjoyed it when the weather was OK and we followed the signposts last year. The trail builders have done a superb job. My mates had to threaten to ride off and leave me to stop me from doing loops around section 13.