Lee quarry

reyrol

Pased thro Lee on the way to Rooley moor rd yesterday, noticed there had been a large rock fall near the top end of the quarry. Sometimes stop for refrashment there did anyone else notice?

delcol

one of the rangers we were talking to last year told us those rocks were put on the bridalway like that to stop 4x4s driving down it.
still good fun to hit on the bike though..

Neal_

I'm heading over to Lee and Cragg Quarry with a couple of mates at the end of the month which I'm looking forward to as I've not been since last summer. Couple of questions though, is the turn off for Cragg Quarry easy to spot as I've only done Lee Quarry so far and how hard is the main black route detour from the top of the quarry which I've not tried before? I'm confident in my riding and clear all the black stuff at Llandegla and Marin Trail no problem but I'm on a hard tail and have recently got SPD's so after watching the videos of the black run at Lee Quarry I'm starting to worry I'll end up in bits at the bottom! Am I worrying too much?

stumpyjon

The link is not that easy to spot first time, on the terrace section high up at the back of the quarry before you get to the black you'll see a break in the banking on your left hand side with a rock loose trail, follow this and you'll be on the link proper within a few hundred yards.

The black detour at Lee Quarry is a serious undertaking and is a proper black unlike places like Llandegla. I can competently ride the black at Llandegla, Afan, and Gisburn but the stuff at Lee Quarry is well beyond me. If you ride the rocks at the start you'll be OK, if you look at those and go eek think again about comitting to the black, it's a long way down.

one of the rangers we were talking to last year told us those rocks were put on the bridalway like that to stop 4x4s driving down it.

No they were put in as jumps, 4 x 4s would easily skirt around them. Tony deliberately tried to make the link fun to ride (down at least) despite it being a shared use trail.

1mancity2

"The black detour at Lee Quarry" is that the one that goes round and down the cliff to the pond on the right?

If so you need to scan the trail ahead and its more a case of pumping the bike up and over the rocks with your pedals flat to prevent pedal strikes which would scare the pants off you, the final drop to the pond is great fun.

I wouldn't do it with spds though, just in case!!!

Neal_

stumpyjon wrote:

The link is not that easy to spot first time, on the terrace section high up at the back of the quarry before you get to the black you'll see a break in the banking on your left hand side with a rock loose trail, follow this and you'll be on the link proper within a few hundred yards.

The black detour at Lee Quarry is a serious undertaking and is a proper black unlike places like Llandegla. I can competently ride the black at Llandegla, Afan, and Gisburn but the stuff at Lee Quarry is well beyond me. If you ride the rocks at the start you'll be OK, if you look at those and go eek think again about comitting to the black, it's a long way down.

Thanks, I should be able to spot that.

That's where I'm at with my riding and what my interpretation of the black at Lee was like which is why I've been unsure. The last time I saw the rocks at the start of the black I did think "%*#& that" but I've improved a lot since then.

1mancity2 wrote:

"The black detour at Lee Quarry" is that the one that goes round and down the cliff to the pond on the right?

If so you need to scan the trail ahead and its more a case of pumping the bike up and over the rocks with your pedals flat to prevent pedal strikes which would scare the pants off you, the final drop to the pond is great fun.

I wouldn't do it with spds though, just in case!!!

That's the bit. I have had a few comedy SPD falls while getting used to them but it wouldn't be that funny falling off there, they are the Deore trail pedals with the cage so there's a bit of support unclipped but not loads.

I'll make the decision on the day although my head is telling me to skip it and not end the day in a helicopter

Thanks guys

1mancity2

Don't get me wrong here it's pretty easy to do, you just have to keep your eyes peeled for gaps between the rocks so you don't get your front wheel stuck, the last part I usually prejump into it taking me down the rock slab.

Its defo worth trying it, as you go round the first bend you can stop and decide but if your unsure save it for later, while your there Neal go over to the four drop ins in near the big pump track they are great fun.

DodgeT

I'd not be wanting to be clipped in for that descent.

Its not too bad as long as you dont look left..

Neal_

1mancity2 wrote:

Don't get me wrong here it's pretty easy to do, you just have to keep your eyes peeled for gaps between the rocks so you don't get your front wheel stuck, the last part I usually prejump into it taking me down the rock slab.

Its defo worth trying it, as you go round the first bend you can stop and decide but if your unsure save it for later, while your there Neal go over to the four drop ins in near the big pump track they are great fun.

Ah right, I'd lift the front wheel for gaps and holes anyway so that shouldn't be an issue I guess.

Nice one, are those drop ins new? I don't remember seeing them there last August

DodgeT wrote:

I'd not be wanting to be clipped in for that descent.

Its not too bad as long as you dont look left..

Too late, the video I watched already gave me vertigo I'd probably unclip for it so I can dab a foot if need be or even just stick the flats back on for the day.

stumpyjon

Its not too bad as long as you dont look left..

That's the bit I have the problems with, I can ride all the stuff on the quarry floor. You need to have the balls to keep a reasonable speed up so you don't stall on any of the rocks.

delcol

stumpy thats what i thought when the guy said that,, a decent 4x4 would jusy ride over them or go round them,, and the angle they at looks an awful lot like they were put there to jump...


neal.
walk the blk section first to give you an idea of lines and how technical it is.. it is defo one of the harder blk trails out there..
first time i rode it i had devils pedals on and did the sh1t i don't want to go down there, sure as hell i looked at it so i ended up going head over tit down it,, lucky i managed to miss the rocks and got away with it... i only ever managed to clear that once with out dabbing and that was on the fullsusser...
IMO if you want to hit that i would go for flats for ease of dabbing, unless your 100% confident in your clipping in and out abilities..
and yeah those drops were in last august though drop 3 the big one has now been altered they removed the berm so you no longer have to hit it at 90 degrees.

Neal_

I'm about 50% confident of unclipping in a hurry :roll: Good idea walking it first though, I'm probably building it up too much in my head which won't help staying relaxed so I'll just see how I feel on the day and leave it for another time if I've got any doubts.

Not sure why I missed the drops last time I was there, will definitely find them this time.

1mancity2

When are you going Neal? may be able to get up.

Neal_

Sunday 31st March, we'll be getting to the car park for 12ish. I'm planning to do the first half of Lee then head out to Cragg and back before standing at the top of the main black bit psyching myself out I doubt the two guys I'll be with will be stupid enough to attempt the black bit, we're all married with kids so the amount of grief we'd get for coming home in an ambulance would be worse than the injuries

1mancity2

Neal_ wrote:

Sunday 31st March, we'll be getting to the car park for 12ish. I'm planning to do the first half of Lee then head out to Cragg and back before standing at the top of the main black bit psyching myself out I doubt the two guys I'll be with will be stupid enough to attempt the black bit, we're all married with kids so the amount of grief we'd get for coming home in an ambulance would be worse than the injuries

So am I but when I get on the bike that goes out of the window, It's what can I jump/drop, thrash today!!

Neal_

1mancity2 wrote:

So am I but when I get on the bike that goes out of the window, It's what can I jump/drop, thrash today!!

Either our wives are scarier or we need to grow some

Give us a shout if you'll be up there on 31st

delcol

we tend to be up there most most weekends,, if we going to be up there that weekend i will let you know nearer the time.. if we are there i will happily show you were the link way is,, and will escort you down the blk run..

like i said it best to walk it first and take mental notes of any tricky bits.... (a bit like the world cup riders do on a world cup dh course) it really is just a case of keeping enough speed to get over the rocks.....

Neal_

We did make it out to Lee Quarry on Saturday but as we would be strapped for time I didn't check back in here as knew I wouldn't be able to do much messing about on the fun stuff...unfortunately I still made a bit of time for it!

1mancity2 wrote:

...while your there Neal go over to the four drop ins in near the big pump track they are great fun.

I did find these drop ins and had a bit of a go on them, apparently I did the first one fine but on the second one I didn't make it round the berm so went over it and the next one rodeo style eventually hitting the back of another big berm resulting in this to my front inner tube...



...and this to my brand new lid...





...which was definitely money well spent.

I don't remember it at all and only have vague memories of the rest of the day, not surprising as I was unconscious for 15 seconds after the crash! My mates got me home and then I spent 6 hours in A&E with the missus getting an x-ray and CT scan which proved nothing broken and "just" concussion. Still feel pretty sore and not too sharp but will back on the back ASAP although will reassess my skill versus ambition in future

1mancity2

Bloody Hell!!!

we were up Sunday and Paul who was with us did the same, knocked himself out, front wheel trashed but to be fair it was his chain that got stuck which caused the otb incident.

Don't try the big one just yet then as you really need to push the bike round the berm to stay on.

Neal_

The lid certainly did what it was designed for and fortunately Giro do cheaper crash replacements. My front wheel has got a bit of a buckle in it but when I saw the inner tube I was expecting it to be fully goosed, credit to superstars wheels plus I'm sending it back to be trued for free so hopefully postage there won't be too much.

I won't be doing any of those drops for quite a while, the missus would kick me out if I FUBAR'd myself again on exactly the same drops! Think I might invest in a jumps and drops course before I buy any more nonessential crap

How's Paul doing?

1mancity2

Sore but fine bud

DodgeT

Get up one day when we're up there, just take it easy and all will be good. We'll be sure to point you in the right direction / laugh and point when it goes wrong too . I came off myself on the 3rd drop on sunday, rode up to have a quick look before doing it, hit the brakes and just slid on the gravel all the way over the edge and fell all the way down. Much to the amusement of everybody there for the leisure lakes demo day

delcol

shooooooooooot those drops have claimed many a victim since they went in,, they should get rid of those berms so it's a straight run out,,,,
did you manage to hit the blk run through the quarry.. ?

1mancity2

Neal_ wrote:

I won't be doing any of those drops for quite a while, the missus would kick me out if I FUBAR'd myself again on exactly the same drops! Think I might invest in a jumps and drops course before I buy any more nonessential crap

That will help no end, what a lot of riders do wrong on them drops is, they go too fast, you can do them at walking pace which keeps your speed in check for the berms, the biggest one I land on the brakes which means,

1) as you land your brakes are on, not fully, you have the most traction when you land so most effective time then just feather them to the berm them release.

Neal_

DodgeT - Seeing you skid off the drop would have cheered me up no end...of course I wouldn't have been able to remember it!

Strava tells me I didn't do the main black route so there is still new stuff for me to do there, in fact the bit of Cragg Quarry I did will be new to me next time I do it too! It did cross my mind that those berms shouldn't be at the bottom of those drops, part of me thinks you've only got yourself to blame if you bin it on them as it's not like they're hidden but it does seem like a stupid place to put them. Coming off drops on the brakes is the opposite to what I know, I usually attack them with speed but that only works with these if you can rail the berm properly which I obviously didn't do. You live and learn....might do Gisburn next though.

mcnultycop

I'm heading up this week, probably going to do the first half of Lee, then over to Cragg, then the second half of Lee. I have extreme difficulty with the section of slight climb at the start of Lee over the big slabs of rock. Are there any tips to getting over this as I cannot make it in one and probably have 3 or 4 points where I just lose momentum and get stuck? I'm on my hardtail with a pretty poor fork, but I think this is just an excuse on my part.

stumpyjon

I'm afraid it's down to fitness and strength, having enough of both to winch yourself up and not stall. I managed when I was fitter / lighter. Option two is to have a decent length rest at the top of the tramway before tackling it

mcnultycop

I often think that if it came at a time other than immediately after I'd lugged 18 stone up from the car park it'd be easier. I'll just keep trying, and sulking, until I get it right. Cheers for the response.

reyrol

Same goes for me, if i have a rest before i start the section i can manage it in two. Strange as it dosn't look much of a climb and i don't have a problem with any other sections

mcnultycop

I'll be having a go at it again in the morning. Let us see if I can do better this time. I'm glad it isn't just me.