Trans Pennine Trail

I’ve been doing a bit of (re)design work on the shop website based on a revision I knocked up a month or two back, the new look is here.

Well it had been planned for a few weeks and finally for a few of us, today was a shop staff ride. Well it was supposed to be Conrad was there, but when we called to pickup George from Cambridge from his digs in the leafy suburbs of Manchester he wasn’t out of bed and the verdict was that it was probably unsafe to move him. SP didn’t show up, presumably deciding that riding with a bunch of mountain bikers on springy full suspension bikes would do his credibility no good at all and it seemed opted for the delights of the club hill climb.

Anyway we rode out from Chorlton along the banks of the Mersey on the Transpennine Trail towards Stockport, later taking in such delightful parts of Greater Manchester such as Reddish Vale and then Broadbottom, Hyde and into Glossop. This is where a seemingly well laid plan was exposed to be not quite so well thought out, as the prospect and reality of riding 35lbs of fully active suspension bike up and over Chunal is a bit different to riding a road bike.

Conrad of course disappeared over the horizon in no time and eventually even I managed to grind to the top and then descent down to the Bridleway up and over Middle Moor and past the Shooting Cabin, before descending down to the Kinder Reservoir. It was a bit blowy up on the tops and most of the slog up across the fields towards Brown Knoll was against the wind.

On the ride up Oaken Clough, we bumped into a guy who had just taken a spill on the descent and was recovering from the aftermath. Fair bit of blood, but his Giro seemed to have done its job. From Edale Cross the fun began as we rattled down Jacob’s Ladder and rolled into the station cafe without (too) much drama. After a good 5 hours on the bikes and some good miles put in, tea, bacon butties and chips were well received.

This is a bit off the wall.