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With James running Bike Garage and Shane Peak ebikes, we had the chance to play with the latest full suspension electric mountain bikes from Trek and Haibike. And what better place to try them out than our old proving ground, Hope Cross (aka The Beast).

After filming the video, we carried on up to descend Potato Alley, climbed up the other side and over to Gores, so had a chance to try them on a variety of terrains and gradients.

A couple of notes on the technology. It only puts in power when you peddle, so it’s not like a motorbike. The assistance reduces and stops as you go above 15mph and you realise you’re not superhuman after all. All that high technology adds a fair bit of weight to the bike (and that’s unlikely to change any time soon), so on the flat when you’re going faster than 15mph (or if your battery were to run out) you have a lot of bike to pedal.

James’ Thoughts – Riding the Trek Powerfly FS 8 LT

“So I like ebikes,  but probably not for the reasons you might at first think. Often they are dismissed as a way of cheating, getting an advantage of your fellow rider. If that’s your game then yes you could quite easily use them to set the fastest KOM’s (King of the Mountain) on strava or equivalent. But for most people their real intended use is to allow you to ride further, take in more interesting routes, challenge yourself. Rather than being limited, because you know there is that hill. Effectively to give you the same freedom that as a cyclist we all enjoy.

With that said your probably wondering what that has to do with the challenge at hand. Climbing the beast, well our logic was if you can climb this route (spoiler alert: you can) then think of all the possibilities.  I was riding the Powerfly FS 8 LT, which in case your wondering FS is Full Suspension and LT stands for Long Travel. 150mm front and rear so you can enjoy the downs as much as the climbs. This model and other LT models also feature plus size wheels. The tyre width of 2.8 inch provided a really big benefit on this rocky climb, with Bontrager staying away from fitting a super knobby tyre and have gone for the chupacabra. Which provides good grip without compromising the rolling resistance on less technical trails. Where this bike really excels for me is when you get it going downhill, it feels super planted and very confidence inspiring to ride.”

Jeff’s Thoughts – Riding the Trek Powerfly FS 7
“It was very impressive technology, the assistance of the motor was useful when tired (or lazy). Getting to the point where I’d normally give up and push (which is often), and being able to wack it up to full power and peddle with easy was great. But on technical climbing, like on Hope Cross, it was quite different for normal climbing. The assistance gives the feeling that gravity or the steepness has greatly reduced, until you lose rear wheel grip, can’t get power into the pedals, or your front wheel won’t go up a rock, then you quickly stop. The easy of pedalling and speed from the assistance gives a false sense of momentum. For those concerned that eBikes make mountain biking too easy or might take the skill out of technical climbs, they didn’t in our test. I performed about half as well on this climb as the other two (I gave up three quarters of the way the first straight), so about the same ratio to how well they do when we’re on normal bikes. Climbing Hope Cross remains a hard challenge.”

Shane riding the Haibike SDURO AllMtn Plus

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The post Bike Garage – Peak District Mountain Biking video first appeared on Monkeyspoon.com.

It is definitely not a race, we ask that riders come along, enjoy themselves (hopefully without falling off!) and take up the challenge to complete the route – of course there is also the challenge to consume more calories than you actually burn off by eating the delicious cake provided at checkpoints along the way! Hot soup and a roll awaits riders at the finish. Advance registration is necessary. Check-in and car parking takes place at Hope Valley College.

Entry Form – www.hvmbc.co.uk

The route is the same as last year: OS Map Route

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Returning by popular demand the 9th Hope Valley Mountain Bike Challenge takes place on Saturday 26th September 2009. For those brave enough to take up the challenge it offers a choice of two off-road routes of approx 20 and 38 miles around the Hope Valley.

For experienced riders the route is technical and takes you via Jaggers Clough, Edale and Jacobs Ladder to Hayfield returning via Rushup Edge and Chapel Gate, taking in Hollins Cross (Mam Tor) on the way back.

For a shorter day you can return from Edale still taking in some of the most beautiful scenery in the Peak District. As in previous years great refreshments will be available at 3 main check-points along the route together with hot soup at the finish. It has been said that due to the amount of free cake and refreshments available en-route you can actually gain weight – despite the hugely strenuous challenge!

“It was probably one of the most varied and technical courses I have completed” and “I enjoyed the challenge and the refreshments kept me going – thank you for organising such a fantastic day” were some of the comments after the challenge in 2008.

Registration and car parking will take place at Hope Valley College. The start will remain the same, from Shatton, and the finish will be back at Hope Valley College. Advance registration is advisable – it will ensure your participation as well as assisting with organisation and catering.

The event is organised voluntarily by Hope Valley College and Hathersage school parents with all proceeds going to improving facilities for the children – last year over £1,500 was raised!

Click here for a Detailed map of the route. Light Green is the shorter route and the red show the extra add on for more experienced riders.

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Registration will take place at Hope Valley College where parking is available. Be sure to arrive in plenty of time to register and get to the start point 3 miles away in Shatton, the finish is at Hope Valley College (with hot soup ). The start time is intended to be 9.30am. Riders must be 17 years or older and must wear a helmet. The entry fee is £15.
The event is organised voluntarily by two local Hope Valley schools, HVC and Hathersage Primary School, with all proceeds going to improving facilities for the children. Advance registration is advisable – it will ensure your participation as well as assisting with organisation and catering. The first 50 entries will receive a free T-shirt.

The route involves the downhill section down Brough Lane (watch out for snake-bites), Jagger’s Clough and Hollins Cross to Castleton on the short route as well as the long descent towards Hayfield and Chaple Gate in the long route. It generally looks a good route with relatively gentle climbs and descents, with a few more extreme sections on the long route.

View the route map – PDF 2.2MB
OS Getamap of start point
An interesting account of the 2006 event

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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

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