So Ambergate is somewhere I have only ever visited once before, back in May with Jeff . Ambergate is often compared to Wharncliffe, but I feel it offers something slightly different. The hill for one is nowhere near as steep or as big as Wharncliffe so the tracks offer a generally less intimidating proposition.

I lost count of just how many riders there were out but at there were at least 15 people i would say, a couple of people i had met before such as the dog man, and Eamon and many new people. Sorry i cant remember many of your names. Anyway this was the first time out with my new Nikon D40 Camera, i bit of a steep learning curve but i am please with quite a few of the shots so something to build on. The Camera itself if awesome.

09-10-18 Ambergate JI+, 20 Pictures by James

Here is a video filmed by myself following Matt P on a recent trip to Wharncliffe. Including full runs of (in order) Diamandback, XC descent line and NEMBA. Summer has final arrived with Wharncliffe almost being dry.

On a recent sunny July Sunday afternoon… what?, no really, there was one at the start of the month… anyway, Irwin, Matt A and I pushed up Win Hill to the Moorland Singletrack. We hadn’t ridden it for a while and I’d just got my bike back after it being at The Bike Station for a while as the forks were away being serviced. We had some good, fun runs and there was plenty of cool breeze on the push back up. Matt and I had our cameras so we did short runs of the middle section leap-frogging each other to get pictures of us all.

Afterwards we returned to the ridge and rode down to the top of Brinks Road. As we descended the top section of Brinks Road it reminded me of why people like full-sus bikes. It’s the sort of section where line choice is futile; it’s just a choice of very bumpy or extra bumpy, pedalling or braking aren’t needed either, it is just a case of hanging on and pumping small down-slopes where possible.

We ended a ride in good weather with a good BBQ, with our head chef, Shanus, making the school-boy error of turning up after the riding with some poor excuse about having to work.

09-07-05 WinHill MA+JI+JK, 7 Pictures by Matt & Jeff

On the Saturday of most recent May bank holiday weekend James and I made a late start and drove down past Matlock-on-sea to Ambergate, near Derby, to check out some of the semi-unofficial tracks in Shining Cliff Woods.

It seems the tracks have been there a few years and are generally tolerated, with most tracks towards the far end of woods. The first track we directed to was quite good with lots embedded rocks and tight steep sections making it very technical with a flatter fun section towards the bottom. With the heat and humidity it was a sweaty push to the top and we only did a few runs of that track. I got the only pictures of the day there, which I think came out quite well considering they were from one run and I sometimes need to shoot loads of runs to get what I want.
Further across the hill, beyond the footpath, there are more tracks starting from a small hill. There were many lines coming off the start point taking you into a small maze of rocky turns that led to two tracks. One was flatter with jumps and fun corners to slide into due the water still lingering on the track. The other went left and more steeply down the hill with some reasonable sized drops and big technical rock garden. I spent many attempts on this giant pedal and bash ring sander, eventually completing a run on the line I was aiming for, well more or less. For some reason when it came to ride back to the car my front middle ring was bent, hmmm. 😕
You can find more info on Ambergate and directions on Gravity Slaves, here.

09-05-23 Ambergate JI+JK, 5 Pictures by Jeff

So as the weather was great me and Jeff headed out for a couple of yours ride in the evening, as it would have been too hot and really busy with walkers during the day. But even at this time it was still roasting, with some people using the great weather to top up their tan at the top of Hagg Tor. With it being almost bone dry I was really enjoying myself putting in many runs of the top section of Hagg Tor, even trying the inside line 😉 in the lower woods!

After we had got enough shoots we headed over towards Gores to get some more there. In stark contrast to Hagg Tor the upper sections of Gores were much muddier looked like a 4×4 had been up there. Stopping over half way down to unblock a drainage gully. We did a couple of shoots on Gores but I don’t personally think it has the same level of interest as Hagg Tor. A couple more turns would make it alot more interesting. Which starting us thinking how good It would be if we had a transporter, which meant you could do a full run down Gores and then get transported to the top of Hagg Tor 🙂 One for the future maybe. Other highlights of ride must have been Jeff using a branch to hold his chain rings and bash guard to cranks. After completely destroying them at Ambergate isn’t it amazing how the Caveman comes out when required.

Earlier this month we were invited to join a small group of DHers to ride some of the bridleways on Blacka Moor on the west side of Sheffield. We initially met up with Eamonn and Josh and we started off on a bridleway that descends through the wood, featuring some embedded gritstone rocks to weave round and ending in a bumpy rooted section, there were quite a few lines to try and quite a few bits to remember. After sessioning this we headed back up and across to the top of another bridleway. It led you in gently enough with swooping singletrack across grass before reaching the moorland and becoming sandy and rocky. Then a sudden corner took you into a gulley with a few large rocks to avoid, after which came swooping turns into the cover of the birch trees and rounded rocks to weave round and over. It was a fun track with a lot of variety, bating us to do more runs. We were joined by ‘Dogman’ (Andy) and Micky who brought along some rather tasty home-made cakes. 😀 I got the camera out and did some shots on the moorland section before we started discussing where we’d go next.

After much debating and banter we decided we’d all headed to a bridleway near Bakewell. Near the bottom of the bridleway it crosses over the golf course 🙂 Situated In fairly open woods it had some nice line options, including natural bermed corners down a gulley Which was very difficult to take as speed due to very tight pedal clearance. Which lead down onto a slightly awkward wall ride to gully line. As much as the bridleway would have been fun on its own it also had a parallel alternative line with some drops, jumps and berms. 😀 Nothing too big but enough to provide entertaining. The woodland floor was covered in Bluebells making it interesting going off line, catching Micky out! It was great to ride some place new so thanks to Eamonn, Josh, Andy and Micky for showing us, and providing such good company.

09-05-09 Blacka Moor+Bakewell JI+JK+, 20 Pictures by Jeff