I started out making a best of 2011 video and then extended it to include the last 3 years. Apart from it being previously seen footage to new music, quite a bit of the 2011 stuff is new and there are some older unseen short bits and a few alternate shots that weren’t in the original videos. For more of these videos see the Video pages for the last 3 years.

The bridleways we’re riding are all named, see more info on them on the track pages and you can also view their locations (and much more) on the OS tracks map.

Late on Saturday afternoon, Irwin & I (Jeff) went to Jacob’s Ladder, Edale, to do some filming. The lighting on the track wasn’t great, but we filmed pretty much the whole track. Since I was taking it easy after a fall at Glentress the previous Saturday I went on foot, which lead to a few sketchy moments as we rode two blokes to one bike on the return to the car.

Go to the Vimeo site to view the HD version.

View on Youtube

I’ve been out riding various DH routes recently, but not really had much time to write about them (or made the effort), so heres a round up of the last four rides featuring the current four ‘usual suspects’.

21st April, Chapel Gate
Nicky and I parked at the back of Mam Tor and sessioned the bridleway there for a while before riding along Rushup Edge to reach Chapel Gate, somewhere I’d never ridden (although Nicky had probably ridden it once years ago, like everywhere else), I knew it was rocky but I was still surprised how rocky, it was still good fun tho and we got some nice shots.

08-04-21 Chapel Gate NB+JK, 13 Pictures

6th May, Jacob’s Ladder, Edale
I got a lift over to Edale with Ben and we parked at Shane’s pub, before a fair distance of road (and ‘road’) riding to get to Jacob’s Ladder, we decided to walk and carry our bikes up the steeper but shorter footpath to the main corner. The name ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ originates from the Bible where a guy called Jacob saw in a dream a stairway (or ladder) leading from Earth up to Heaven. It certainly felt like it was going to Heaven by the time we’d got near the top, especially with all my camera gear. On the subject of which I later realised I hadn’t brought any discs for my camcorder, nuts! So this let concentrating on pictures, which worked out quite well.

Ben was on his first outing on his ‘new’ Kona Stab which had all sorts of randomly sourced parts on it, having previously been on a much lighter XC full-sus Rocky Mountain, he soon found the joys of riding the more tech rocky lines rather than taking the smoothest line. We pushed all the way to the top and got a few pictures on the first straight, and then Shane found a drop off a drainage feature. We did a helmet cam train on the way down, and all had fairly good runs. Then back to Shane’s pub (The Nag’s Head, Edale) and enjoyed a pint and review of the footage and pictures before heading home.

08-05-06 Jacobs Ladder Shane+Ben+JK, 30 Pictures

12th May, WinHill
Nicky, Ben and I met up for some riding on WinHill, we spent the whole time riding as the tracks were riding that well, so we only took a few pictures on our last descent, and after processing they have been rationed to one per person. On the way home I had the weird experience of a bat brushing across my shoulder!, I kept my head down after that.

13th May, HopeX-DH
I met Shane as I ascended the bridleway out of Aston as he’d had time and energy to spare and rode down to meet me. We pushed up, then rode down the ridge and then into the woods at the top of HopeX-DH, no sooner than we closed the gate Nicky appeared pushing up, “I love it when a plan comes together” 😀 . We sectioned the track filming each other, moving fast to keep the light, and got pretty much the whole track. Nicky then left us and Shane and I pushed back up to the first corner where I pulled the stills camera out, and inevitably the flash too as it was too dark for natural light, and we mastered a line with a nice rock jump at the end of it. As it got dark we returned up the ridge and then down the Aston bridleway. I nearly hit a rabbit on the road down from Aston, good job it moved otherwise I would have had to bunny hop it! 😆 😀 ( …and I can’t bunny hop 🙁 ).

08-05-13 HopeX-DH Shane+JK, 7 Pictures

Hope you’ve enjoyed my ramblings, and if you ever think we’re being lazy and not putting up any content remember to check out the gallery cos we’re probably put up pictures and not written any words to go with them (the story of my education…). Anyway I’m riding tomorrow night, o and Friday night, so I need some sleep now.

In conclusion, the tracks and weather are great for evening rides at the moment, so get out there and ride!!!

Today I was joined by 13 other riders from ‘UK MTB Forum‘ and ‘MTB in the Peak District’ (Facebook). As riding goes, it was a tough uphill day, but well worth the effort for the downhills!

We had a range of riders on all different bikes, but what made it better was the obvious passion for riding and just getting out there regardless of age or physical capability. I would also like share that we witnessed a bizarre phenomenom on the ride in the shape of malt loaf (Greg)…. it works wonders, well either that or it was the smell of chips! The ride was rounded off with free chip butties at The Nags Head Edale..much appreciated, thanks!

Thanks to Scott Preece and Ben Armitt for the pics. Also, to every one that turned out…Cheers!

With respect to my new bike…well I wanted a change and fancied something a bit different….so I treated myself to a new Marin Quake 7.2

It’s a awesome bike which descends with such phenomenal pace, as I had the pleasure to find out on the ride…also ascends really well, but being lazy, I resorted to pushing up hill!

Shane

I was in the mood for riding Saturday morning, and upon going on Facebook I had message from Gav of the Mountain Biking in The Peak District Group saying they’d be riding in Edale.

It was only in the car with James (Wilkinson) on the way over I found out it was more of an XC loop, with a mega hill climb out of Edale up to Rushup Edge (the name is ironic). It was a bad sign that we crossed the river right before the start of the climb, cos it meant we couldn’t start from much lower in the valley. Its 215m accent over about 2km to the top of the road, I was leading the attack at a fare pace, but just couldn’t maintain the effort for such a long climb and stopped to push at halfway, a wise choice I thought when I realised I’d only got halfway.
The ridge of Rushup Edge wasn’t easy going either with peat troughs every 10m or so to negotiate, but it wasn’t that wet and there was little wind. The track became more interesting when it rejoined with the footpath and got a bit rockier, however after it dropped into the gully it was a bit too rocky with loose stones everywhere sapping precious speed. The next “green-lane” section was good, quite fast and easy with a few bits to get some small air off.

Gav had his mini radios with him and I went ahead on the DH into Roych Clough, down a steep bed rock section, to set up for taking pictures. James (W) was the fastest down and the fastest to dismount from his bike at the corner. 😆

James (W) and I made the right choice in letting Gav and Greg go first down the next section as they opened the gate giving us a clear run down to the fords. I spotted how good the water spray from the ford looked in the sunshine so Gav and James went back up the slope so I could get some pics. It paid off. With the bright sunlight I could use a fast shutter speed and captured the spray so sharply. Just wish I’d asked them to do it again so I could get a landscape version too.

Unfortunately this rather good DH meant another big long uphill taking us towards Hayfield. 160 metres up and we reached the summit, the next section was quite fun and fast. Then down a long easy decent, which was a bit boring for my liking and didn’t make up for the big climb on the other side back up to Jacob’s Ladder. On the long push up it really felt like summer with plenty of sun and very mild temperature and virtually no wind (except for a certain group member 😉 ).

Unfortunately we arrived at the top of Jacob’s Ladder as all the walkers were heading down for the day, but this give us time for a self timer and some other pictures.

The ride won’t have been complete without some sort of bike problem and on the decent down to the right hand corner on Jacob’s Ladder James’ mech messed up so they spent a while fixing that while I took pictures and did a run down to the next corner and pushed back up, ‘too many cooks’ and all that.

All in all it was a great days riding and it was good to ride something new with a change of scenery. It was also good to get out in such great weather, especially considering only last weekend there was snow on the ground. Will we see any more snow this year, or will it be a warm spring and wet summer like last year… who can say?

08-02-09 RushupEdge+Hayfield+JacobsLadder, 20 Pictures