UKC

Has anyone had a go at riding the whole thing? I've got a new mountain bike which is currently working perfectly, so thought of christening it with an attempt at the weekend. I did 330 in three days last summer quite comfortably, but on my gravel bike and on much flatter terrain. I've got a feeling 3 days isn't going to be nearly enough time for me to do it. I know the starting bit up to Hadfield reasonably well, and have indeed bikepacked it on a CX bike! Some accounts suggest that is the roughest bit, but the VP guidebook seems to think a hardtail (which is what the new bike is ) might be the best tool for the whole thing. 

Just wondering if anyone knows the Yorkshire Dales bits and north and can pass comment on them?

Technical bits:

Dropping down to Blackwell Mill (walked due to wetness) 

Dropping down to Roych Clough (rode with a bloody big grin) 

Lantern Pike Ascent! (pushed due to fatness) 

Crossing the moor to Hebden Bridge and then crossing the valley and dropping back down.  - most technical section of the whole route. (pushed chunks due deep ruts and rocks). 

Resupply points on route:

Hadfield

Hebden Bridge

Barnoldswick 

Settle 

I found the 35 miles from Hadfield to Hebden Bridge really hard, lots of up and down.

Worth noting that the end of the Pennine Bridleway is a bit "huh, that was it", there isn't really any acknowledgement of the bridleway's end.

More than happy to pop you a copy of a presentation I delivered about the GNT last year. 

Mrs J-Lancs did it last summer in three days carrying her (minimalist) camping gear. Although she has a limitless selection of bikes (IMHO), she chose to use her full-sus 29-er and said it was, for her, the right choice. It allowed her to keep pushing on the more technical stretches.

She's just shouted through that no bike can help with the real time wasting feature of the route. That's the number of gates. You have to open and close them all on your own and somehow, the mechanism on each is just different enough to be the mountainbike equivalent of water-boarding.

Are they at least ordinary gates (and not kissing gates you'd have to lift a bike over)? You'd hope so on a bridleway (getting a horse through a kissing gate would be tricky) but you never know....

Yes, it's a proper bridleway, but even if it takes only a minute to slow down, open it, go through and close it behind you - you will spend about four hours of your trip messing with gates.

As Peak District mountain biker I fully appreciate the annoyance of gate opening! I heard the Mary Towneley Loop is particularly infamous for the gates!

Is Mrs Lancs a super hard endurance cyclist to do it in three days? That's 110 kms a day I believe - which doesn't sound too bad at all on a gravel bike on old railway lines, tow paths etc, and fine on a road bike, but going at jogging speed on technical mountain biking or big rough climbs, it sounds really tough!

Thanks Spenser - I had thought to FB message you as you're the obvious expert! Did you do the PB in one push as part of your GNT campaign? And if you did how long did it take you?

She's been cycle touring for over 50 years, so I guess she's built up some stamina.

You only do one side of the Mary Townley Loop and the longer option of the Settle Loop, so her mileage was 280kms and 22,000 feet of ascent.

Her only point was really that to keep her speed up, you had to be able to ride it all and for that, she was glad she was on her full suspension. Also the northern half was her mountainbike home area, so familiarity helps keep things moving.

Very nice bike and that does look a super light set up! Surely a backpack must have been involved as well? 😀 

Can I ask a geeky question? What set up did she use to attach her everything cages to her forks? My old MTB was designed for bikepacking (photo) but I got bumped around enough riding in the Peak that the new one has suspension! I got some velcro widgets for attaching bottle cages anywhere that worked well on my gravel bike last year to but bottles on the forks, but I'm not sure yet if they'll be secure enough on my new bikes suspension fork. 

She used heavy duty cable ties after first putting black duct tape on the fork tubes for protection. The carriers themselves where pretty cheap and I can't see a name or logo on them.

I did the Peak 200 earlier this year over 4 days though could have done in 3 as day 1 and 4 were pretty short. This was on a lightweight hard tail which I also did the Mary Towneley Loop (in a day). I also have an idea of doing the PB but probably in 4-5 days and would use the same light weight hardtail.  Reckon later in year - October or next spring to avoid the midges.  I probably wouldnt include the Settle loop - unless feeling particularly fit. 

Steve

I thought I'd replied to this post last night.

I split it over a few weekends due to riding it in loops etc so my timings won't be very helpful, I'd probably say it would take 2-3 days to Hebden Bridge maybe another 2 days to Kirkby Stephen?

The GNT facebook group is a good place to ask questions as well as there are a few people who have ridden the whole thing in one go on there.

Worth noting that the end of the Pennine Bridleway is a bit "huh, that was it", there isn't really any acknowledgement of the bridleway's end.'

Yes - not finished yet. The Northern extension has been on hold for a long time - currently supplanted by the C2C

Ah, that explains it, doesn't really need more than a post saying "Start/ End"  though. 

Oh yeah I fully appreciate the annoyance on a bike and you lose momentum which is significant.

I will come clean, I was asking about kissing gates with an all-terrain buggy in mind, as I'm always after long walks that won't involve chucking it over or under too many fences. I have a young three legged rescue dog that can happily walk rougher parts (in fact embarrassingly she is still more agile than me) but needs a rest on longer walks to stop her remaining joints blowing out so I'm afraid I'm the strange-looking person pushing a dog in a buggy and this means I end up seeking out suitable bridleways (as it has chunky wheels and good suspension). For really rough stuff she goes in a backpack but carrying 11kg of living creature is not as easy as carrying 11kg of gear so I use the buggy where I can and accept the looks.

(Not saying I'd walk the whole way with a buggy but good to know I could do bits).

Whatever you're comfortable doing the lower half on will be fine for the Dales. Hardtail or short travel full suss would be my choice, I think a gravel bike would rough you up a bit over the whole ride.

There is nothing particularly technical in the Dales section, and you should be able to do it in a long day. Here's the route card I put together a whole decade ago covering Settle to Kirkby Stephen, and even with the bits I left out it's not too bad.

https://www.ukhillwalking.com/logbook/r/?i=163

Getting already and packed for starting tomorrow evening or early Saturday - all excited - then I thought I better check how expensive/regular trains are to get home from Kirkby Stephen - if I can actually get there. Of course the one thing I hadn't really planned in was the British railway system. It seems completely impossible to be able to book a bike on to the train for seemingly weeks in advance.

After the original tears and wailing, I looked further into it. I need to get back to Sheffield, and it seems the train down from KS or Settle or other possible earlier stops on that line is fine, and you don't need to book but its the trains down from Leeds to Sheffield where you have to book and it just seems all those trains have been booked up for bikes for month in advance!

Trying to think of plan B currently. If I was absolutely desperate, I could drive up the KS, and ride south and home, then take a train back to KS to collect the car, but that seems faintly ridiculous from an environmental point of view and would mean more time away from my family. I think a three day - 2 night circular bikepack that I can drive to is becoming more likely.

I think i counted 80, if each takes 20s or so it adds up to half an hour of gate opening on a 7h /45mi ride

Did you ring up re the bike reservations? Sometimes either ringing or tweeting them yields a different result that just looking online. Sometimes I've managed reservations via twitter that weren't available online. Apologies if you already have and had no joy. Bikes on trains in this country are always stupidly difficult.

Dopey suggestion:

Lock bike up somewhere very public at Leeds station, train home and then drive back to Leeds to get your bike?

Some of the services from Leeds to Sheffield are Northern run - 19:05 service in particular

Not dopey, but I think I'm too paranoid to leave the new bike there! 

I've plotted a three day tour of the Howgills and Yorkshire Dales using chunks of the PBW and various bits of the Vertebrate Yorkshire Dales MTB guidebook routes - so it's looking quite good! 

Five of us rode the whole thing on mountain bikes in 2008. I always let the others beat me at last minute, then they went “doh” when they saw the gate just ahead that they’d be holding open as I sailed past.

I use Northern trains from Sheffield to Leeds quite frequently and never had to book. They are always two railcar trains with one end for bikes. Been on loads of times with four and five bikes crammed in and the guards have just squeezed past without saying anything. Exactly the same on the Hope Valley line. The facilities for mountain bikes though are absolutely dire.