August 2010 - Trip to Innerleithen and Glentress

Last year, a few of us from work decided that a couple of days up in Scotland would give us some decent riding done, since the locations for some decent trail riding around where we are have been done to death and we had heard so much about the 7stanes and the fact that, barring Wales, these were THE places to go if you want to ride on some good singletrack.

The plan was to stay somewhere in Peebles or Innerleithen, preferably Innerleithen due to its close proximity to the Innerleithen trailhead.  I had found a converted terraced house which had been made into two apartments, one on each floor, but with separate access so no common door.  The price was a very reasonable £70 PP for the 3 night stay. 

Once we got there, we realised HOW close it was to the Innerleithen trailhead, it was 5 mins on the bike!  MINT!

First attempt around Innerleithen was a bit iffy, since we'd driven up that day, plus gone shopping then gone to the pub AND had a BBQ, so we were a bit oiled and fuelled so no much oomph, PLUS it was raining, but still here we were.

Next day we tackled Innerleithen again but this time to do the full loop.  Yesterday we cut it short due to running out of daylight plus need some more alcohol :)  It rained again but only a drizzle, however the midges were out in force and had it not been for a dash of Avon Skin So Soft, I would have been screaming murder!  That stuff is brilliant for midge repellent, even though you get funny looks when you tell them what you use, it certainly works!

Myself and one guy cut the red loop a bit short and missed out the big climb to the top of the mountain, but the other two guys carried on, and boy did we miss out on some amazing bit of sweeping singletrack. A video of this is done by my mate who did it on his Contour Camera.

 

The run back to the car park was highly enjoyable since the clouds had broken and sunshine came out.  Definitely going back to Innerleithen again, but plan on getting a bit fitter for it next time!

On our penultimate day we met up with a forum member at Glentress, and unfortunately the heavens opened a torrent of rain.  This made our day a bit more miserable as we had realised that there was a big climb from the bottom to the interesting bits of Glentress.  There is a car park farther up where the freeride park is but we wanted to see it all not a diet version.

The climb up is not for the unfit (me), as its unrelenting uphill for a long time.  It is not particularly steep anywhere just a long drag uphill.  It is quite annoying seeing older folk on cyclo cross bikes whizz past you as if you were going backwards, but then again I would be if i were that thin!

Since the weather was putting a dampener on things, I'd lost a bit of interest and didn't bother doing the full red loop but was quite happy to go around on the blue route.  What I have noticed is that there is no two trail types the same, what I mean is, a red in England is not necessarily a red grade in Scotland.  I found a blue in Glentress was on par with a red in places like Grizedale or Llandegla.

Rivington Pike and Healey Nab

I have gone on enough about tarmac-based efforts, now its time to wax lyrical of sorts about my efforts off road.

I have to admit, my balance leaves much to be desired, never mind my fitness/physique/weight issues!  This leaves me in somewhat of a pickle when going offroad since the trails are not level nor are they smooth, or even curve gently!

Since I live in the shadow of the west Pennine moors, I have the luxury of having some excellent offroading opportunities within cycling distance, although most of the time I drive there to save energy (and i cannot be bothered!)  However I do have Rivington Pike within 10 mins drive, which seems far but I have to drive through Chorley to get there.  Healey Nab is another place which is even closer but that is more aimed at the more serious cyclist as the causal one might be put off by the severity of the trail.  It has Red and Black route trails which are experienced to downhill skill level riding.  By this i mean it is almost compulsory to ride the Black on here with some protection other than helmet.  Rivington Pike is more accessible to anyone fit enough to climb the path up to the top, but the views from there are fantastic.

Brief Summary
Rivington Pike.
Personally I would park at lower barn car park, which has a cafe during the weekend, I cannot vouch for weekdays as I have not been there.  And then ride up towards the pike following the well used trails marked.  There is very little in the way of guidance in terms of signposts that i have noticed on the way up but this is not primarily a cycling site, it is open access to all, so you will find ramblers and the family day out to dog walkers, and on Sundays a motorcycle club meets up at the Rivington Hall Barn, and I recall a BBQ laid on in the warmer months :).  I suggest you get an OS map, or look it up on google maps or similar and see how the trail leads you.

This is the loop I have been doing, and at just past 9 miles is the start of Healey Nab which is optional.

Healey Nab
Healey Nab was constructed by local riders in conjunction with Lancashire County Council, to provide a facility for the more experienced riders to have fun in the locality. I am sure there is more to it and if you Google it I am sure you will find more info on the subject but that is how I perceive it.

I first went to Healey Nab about 18 months ago on my hardtail (I did not own the Banshee by then), and as I was still a bit iffy on the more technical trails found it a lot to take on in a short space of time.  Since then, they have had fairly regular trail building days and I have managed to attend one of them, I am ashamed to say that I should have gone to more but with mrs B working some weekends, getting away is not that easy.

Here is a link to a route I did a few weeks ago.  It begins at the upper car park at Rivington, then encompasses Healey Nab.  The site is where mile marker 7 is located, so you can work out roughly where the site is.  If you make your way to the top, there are signs marking the start of the trails and point you in the right direction, but this only occurs at the trailhead not before.  You need to know where to go to get to that point.

I would advise parking around here, then cycling to the gate here, and head up the track up until this point where it forks up to the right and follow that until you see the forest ahead of you and a newly installed wooden gate.  This is the entrance to it and follow the signs from there.

Time to go and what to take
Rivington is suitable all year round to be honest, but since the majority if not all of it is hard packed ground there is little point taking aggressive tyres or mud tyres.  However, Healey Nab is under tree cover and drainage is ok but not great so when it is bone dry and a spell of hot weather has been around, then again some decent XC tyres should suffice, but in the winter and during a wet patch, I would recommend something with a bit more bite.

Cycle home from work

Endomondo Mountain biking Workout: Route home is hillier but has some nice downhilly bits which were ruined by the wind! :(. Working all day to cycle home on the SS isn't fun but certainly burns the calories!

Cycle to Work on a saturday

Endomondo Mountain biking Workout: Cycled to work on the saturday morning to do some office moves and get some overtime hours in. All done on the single speed! Wasn't too tired actually, but the south easterly wind was a bitch in places! :(

My foray into Single Speed

For me, single speed has always been the idea of an elite bunch of fellows who are masochists when it comes to cycling.  No get-out when it comes to climbing, nor be able to take advantage of flat or even downhill tracks or roads.  The main advantage is no mechs or shifters to worry about, and also you have a much lighter bike.  It is quite easy to convert from a run-of-the-mill mountain bike to a single speed bike, or even a road bike.  Actually any bike could potentially be converted, in theory.

You can buy off the shelf single speed bikes from people like Specialized with their langster.  I have never seen one up close but I have spoke to some people who have ridden and owned one and one in particular told me they have a "flip-flop" hub.  What this means is that its a wheel with a cog on both sides, however if you put the wheel on one way its "fixed" i.e. no freewheeling, so when the wheel turns so will the pedals no matter what direction.  And if you turn the wheel around, IE "flip-flop" its got the same cog size but is freewheel, so when u stop pedalling it freewheels.

This type of wheel setup gives you the option of either going hardcore fixed wheel or the more user-friendly freewheel.  It has been said though that everyone should give a fixie a go at least once.  It is a great workout as you do not get a break from pedalling and also you use your legs to slow the bike down, which explains why you might see some fixed wheel bikes out on the roads with only one brake or no brakes at all.

I digress, I am writing this to explain how I came about to have a SS not the story behind the bikes in general.  I subscribe to a mailing list from Freegle (formerly freecycle).  Freegle is basically a way of getting rid of unwanted items that would normally end up in a tip or on eBay, but you cannot be bothered to do either, OR you would prefer to see if someone else wants them instead.  This is a great way of extending the life of something that would normally end up on landfill.

So far I have accrued the following from Freegle:

• PS1
• PS2
• Nintendo Game cube
• Garden Shed
• Roof Bars
• Bike Rack for Roof Bars (x2)
• Townsend Mountain Bike

Now as you can see my new acquisitions are fairly "blokey", in that they are either games consoles or something to do with my main hobby.  All of the above I still have, except for the garden shed, which although I still have it technically, I cut it up into firewood as it was too rotten to be used safely and securely.

So onto the bike.  When I eventually got round to doing something about it, I had considered cleaning it and using it like any other mountain bike, except I already have 2, and this one is a rigid bike (no suspension), therefore offroading would be quite taxing on the hands and wrists.  Since the mechs were old and past their best, but the wheels spun well and without grinding, I did some research, plus some hassling of a fixie owning mate, and decided on making the bike into a single speed.

There is some technical research to do before you go out and buy the relevant parts.  What you don't want is to buy the wrong ratio and either face anything but pancake flats and the gearing too high to be able to make it up the hill, or conversely anything other than climb be a fruitless attempt at pedalling as your ratio is too low.  Same friend mentioned that I go out on the road bike or the mountain bike and shove it in a gear I could ride all day long with no issues.

I went out on the road bike, fiddled with different gear combinations and made a note of the teeth on both the front and back.  I then went to the CTC website and downloaded their gear chart. (this is an excel sheet).

This gear chart can help you plot what your preferred gearing is on your existing bike and give you a figure. 

Firstly, you need to go back to your notes about the front and rear cog teeth count and plot these on the chart.  both should cross on a square with a figure.  This figure is very important for your Single speed build.

Now, you need to work out what size chainwheel you want, so you could opt for a lower ratio'd mtb-style such as 38T, or a higher road-biased 42T or even 52T for the crazy folk out there!  Your next task is to plot on the chainwheel teeth column until you find the original figure you worked out earlier.  Don't worry if you are not spot on, nearest figure will do.  Then that line will tell you the size cog you want on the back wheel.  Once these are in place you will then realise your distance per pedal stroke is very similar to what you had when you did a test run on the road bike.

This may sound like a lot to understand, and quite possibly I have made it more complicated than need be, but it is how I understood it, and its important that I understand it because I can then calculate if I need to make changes to adjust to the differing terrain I plan on riding.



It really comes into its own when commuting or doing errands, as I have put a pair of "flatties" on it (flat pedals with pins to grip on rubber soles). So I can use anything on my feet, even slippers or crocs if the need arose! Plus without the worry of gears it is especially good at starting off from traffic lights, plus maneuvering around traffic as I don't have to worry about making gear choices.

Shopping List:

• Wellgo Copy Pedals
• Superstar Components Single speed Kit
• Superstar Components Chain Tensioner
• Charlie the Bikemonger Half Links
• Bar Tape
• Shorter stem (eBay)

Lunchtime loop including th'asda stopover

Endomondo Mountain biking Workout - timing was approximate, forgot to turn on endomondo on phone.

Lunchtime Loop on a Singlespeed

Endomondo Mountain biking Workout