Category: Local Routes

The weather’s not exactly been summery recently. In fact the ominous grey clouds and recent high winds have been more reminiscent of autumn. It’s hard to believe that it’s almost June. I decided today to start exploring in some other directions out of Manchester. After half an hour pouring over Google Maps looking for inspiration and memorising locations, I headed off towards Salford Uni. Up and over the Cliff, past the Manchester United training ground, before dropping down and picking up the Irwell Valley Way.

From here National Cycle Route 6 heads north. I followed it up through Radcliffe and into Bury, before heading up towards Ramsbottom. I turned off and then investigated the route to Tottington. A friend of mine, Hugh Bearn, is the parish vicar and after tracking down his church, it was under darkening skies that I decided that it was time to head home. Fortunately as most of the route is either canal towpath or disused railway line, it was fairly sheltered from the wind.

Riding back into the urban areas of first Salford and then Manchester was a different matter. Hideous headwinds in seemingly all directions. Quite tired after the ride and my left knee is twinging a bit. It started when I was riding a while ago, but I haven’t been to work out what is causing it. After a couple of rides I think that the CST tyres seem to drag like a mofo on tarmac, so I might need to try some alternatives, but still I seem to have found a fairly straight forward way of getting into the area to the north west of Manchester. Not quite made it to Rivington yet, but it’s definitely doable and almost within reach.

The weekend has been fantastic, but it wasn’t until at least 2pm today that I’d had a chance to contemplate going out for a proper ride. There were a couple of things that needed to be tweaked on the Planet X and after popping into Harry Halls to speak to Simon I had some highly recommended Specialized Roubaix bar tape to fit too. As I was fettling the sky darkened and you could hear the rumble and crackle of thunder, but the rain that was threatened never arrived and I headed out.

I’ve been wanting to explore the Transpennine Trail westwards for some time so I rode down to Chorlton and picked up the Mersey. After a few false turns I was on track and heading towards Altrincham. At Dunham Massey there had clearly been a lot of rain and the dusty trails turned to mud. After slogging though the mush I decided by the time I reached the edge of Lymm that I’d ridden far enough and wasn’t going to push on towards Warrington so took the road home.

A good bit of exploration that opens up more options for the next ride…

I rode a section of the Middlewood Way earlier this year and decided that it was worth another trip to follow the trail all the way to Macclesfield. The trail from Marple to Macc is an old railway line and in reasonably continuous until you get to the outskirts where the original line is broken by urban sprawl and a dual carriageway. Still it was a horribly humid day in Manchester and it was nice to get out into the countryside. It was drizzling most of the day and the Planet X was certainly introduced to British mud.

Manchester to Macclesfield
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Of course it takes a proper ride to really identify the bits and piece on a new bike that need some more fettling. One o the bar end plugs fell out, a bottle boss bolt vibrated loose and disappeared and the front brake yoke wasn’t done up tight enough and I forgot the 9mm spanner so the front brake wasn’t much use, still rode all the technical sections I’d ride on a mountain bike, although probably not as fast, but made up time on the flat sections. The 700c wheels certainly carry some momentum so once you’ve spun it up to speed it carried on rolling well, perhaps partly thanks to the CST tyres I picked up from Tim at Sideways that turned out to be rather good. Singletrack riding on a cross bike officially rocks.

It’s done, thirty days riding for at least an hour. It wasn’t easy, but it’s something that defines my passion and commitment to the sport I love. It wasn’t all offroad, but there was no indoor riding and all my memorable rides involved getting wet and muddy. The final outing today was the logical conclusion for me. It combined the new trails discovered over the last month with the ambition to ride to Marple Lakes.

Today I made it out there and then for good measure did a lap of the circuit we used to run Harry Hall demo days over. Then it was time to head off home. Very cold today, a good four inches of snow on the top of Werneth Low and it was muddy everywhere. Absolutely caked in mud after the first offroad section, but the stunning views of the Peak District dusted in snow made up for it. Very, very cold feet, possibly with a bit of frost nip. Nice to be home now.

<a href=”http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-kingdom/manchester/362396936″>30 of 30</a><br /><a href=”http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-kingdom/manchester”>Find more Bike Rides in Manchester, United Kingdom</a>

Well not a strict Breakfast Club Ride like MacPuppy used to promote, but it’s the Easter Break and I was home by 9.30 for breakfast and a brew. It’s the earliest proper ride (not counting commutes) I’ve managed during the entire year so far. I knew that Ivy Brook must join the Mersey, but it was actually flowing the wrong way for some reason, which was a bit weird. In the end I gave up following it and the chance of following the Transpennine Trail home and wound up back in Chorlton Green. Now the prevailing winds are westerlies so it generally makes sense to work outwards to Sale and then take the tail wind home. Not so today. We’re still in the grip of a bitterly cold north easterly and it made the ride home a pain. Still I reckon it only cost me a few minutes, but it felt like a much bigger effort.

Based on the unexpected outcome of one of yesterday’s detours I extended today’s ride by linking up some new bits and finally riding the Goyt Valley Lane. I’d originally thought that this would be an ideal way to get into the Valley, but it’s not. The previously scouted route has much nicer woodsy singletrack. The Lane turned out to be wide, potholed and hardpacked and rather dull. Despite a puncture above Reddish Vale, I made it home just before an enormous hailstorm which was nice.

The mild warm weather of yesterday that had Simon wearing shorts for the first time this year has been replaced overnight. Opening the curtains this morning resulted in a vista of shark skin grey skies and more than a hint of moisture in the air. Normal service for this time of the year has been resumed then. I rode the singlespeed in again today with the intention of riding from work once more tonight.

As the day went on the weather deteriorated and I decided to keep this ride as short as possible. Long circuitous route home, dump courier bag in garage head out immediately with some exploring in mind. Rode for a bit longer and ended up in some places I wasn’t expecting, but I think that’s the charm of navigating by sense of direction and what feels right – whether a particular option has a good vibe about it. Ended up soaking wet and a bit cold, but that’s another one done and some new singletrack through woods discovered.

I decided that having always skirted around Audenshaw, it was probably worth actually putting a ride in that took me through the area. Cold again tonight with a much more noticeable Northerly wind adding to the chill factor. Took the bottom bracket out of the road bike today whilst cooking dinner. The threads on the frame are fine so I stuck in a new Ultegra unit and put everything back together and it seemed okay. During the ride I noticed that there is play in the assembly. This is not good. It means that the axle has worn out on the Bonty Race X Lite cranks, so time for a new chainset then… I have put in the wrong king of bottom bracket for my cranks and need to order the proper unit. Doh!

Last night I watched an episode of Willie’s Wonky Chocolate Factory. People have been talking about this for a few weeks and it has been fairly interesting to hear about it. There’s not too much of a surprise in the story of an entrepreneur setting up in business and finding that it’s a lot more hardwork and difficult to achieve than might have been expected. The interesting thing for me was that there was an interesting focus on Willie and that he turns out to be a bit of a dab hand at cooking and (perhaps not that surprisingly) has the same passion for dark, spicy chocolate that I share. So as he spent a good segment of the show making hot chocolate, it seemed wrong not to follow suit.

Now I didn’t make the same – consistency of thick cream – drink that he produced, but I did have a good rummage in the ingredients cupboard and the end result of a very generous portion of Green and Blacks 70% Cocoa Powder combined with ground black peppercorns, a dash of red chilli powder, freshly grated nutmeg and ground cinnamon and some fresh orange juice with hot milk was probably the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had. So hat’s off to the man and I’ll be keeping a look out for his chocolate billet which is being stocked by Selfridges (will have to have a look next time I’m in the City Centre) and there is some more discussion on this forum. I’ll be experimenting a bit more over the next few days I think.

Tonight’s ride was a good one. Leg has improved over the day and I hardly noticed it on tonight’s ride. It was very cold again and I had to dig the Buffalo jacket out. I’m fairly sure it was still a bit breezy, but I can’t honestly say it was hard going in any particular direction, so maybe it wasn’t at all. Probably could have ridden for longer, but my inspection of the bottom bracket revealed stripped threads on the non-drive side cup and I didn’t replace the unit, so I’m probably pushing my luck to be doing too many more miles on it before I get it fixed.