Big Bike Challenge

First true BBC trail ride

Well, at last. Sunday the 7 th of August was the date of the first thoroughly organised Big Bike Challenge trail run.

I'd attempted to get it all together for the previous week, but a blown engine the previous month in Germany had necessitated more spannering than planned (as usual). Then a late delivery of my new bikey transport van, meant a last minute shift of date. Unsurprisingly this meant some people couldn't make it, but we still ended up with a healthy 6 runners, 2 X XR650's, 1 XT600, 1 XL600, 1 CCM604 and me, fighting the twins corner on an E750 Elefant, the recipient for the good bits from my blown up 944 Rogue Elefant.

The idea had been born from the gap in the Rally events calendar in July and August. Making use of contact email addresses from the BBC website I made an effort to organise a crew of big trailie riders into a bit of testing trail riding to alleviate the boredom.

And this was it. Fortunately blessed with good weather we kicked of at 9.30 from the Calton Lees car park south of Chatsworth house. I led the run in a loop south from there taking in 4 or 5 good lanes, some quite rocky, including a ‘bloody hell this is steep, glad I'm going down hill', with rocks bonging off the sumpguard.

We looped up to near Bakewell, where a little lane and some whites took us back past our parked transport, to Baslow and out to the collection of Rakes (High Rake, Deep Rake) on Longstone Moor. A whizz round that, including another ‘bloody hell this is steep, glad I'm going down' moment, and we navigated north out over High Fields to Stoney Middleton.

A brain wave! I'd been rather making it up as I went along, due to a complete lack of preparation, but Stoney Middleton! Of course! I remember a caff there serving reviving tea based beverages there after a trail ride, burned in my memory by my CRM being run over by some bloke on a KLR250.

Convenient, as my ICO was telling me it was 11.40am. So I managed to conjure for the group this vision of tables on the pavement with steaming mugs of tea. Magic.

Suitably fortified we all set off to mill about in Eyam, managing to find 2 or 3 entertaining lanes.It finally spat us out onto a long straight gravel track heading for Grindleford. I was just getting a good pace on, when I attempted to pull the clutch in, only to find the middle finger of my left hand clamped immovably to the bar. Cramp!

I had to brake to a halt, stalling the engine in the process, to massage some life back into my hand. I found I was alone. Walking back fifty yards over a low rise I found the rest had stopped, though not due to cramp.

Ady, one of the XR650 riders, has sheared both bolts off the right hand foot peg, removing it from the frame. After a bit of discussion he professed to be happy carry on, waving one foot in the air. Hero.

The route through Grindleford allowed us to turn north, up to Hathersage, turn right along the A625 to pick up the track across Burbage Moor. Ideal big trailie stuff, everybody enjoyed the sandy rocky going across the moor in the brilliant sunshine, the blue sky stretching above us. All a trick, as I knew it would lead us round to Stanage Edge. Heh heh. A mile of downhill over massive rocks.

When we got there, of course, the only person who fell off was me, crashing to the ground on a tricky bit where I thought I'd seen the ideal line and got on to it. Hey ho there we go, all part of the game.

Bamford Clough got us back onto the A625 over to Castleton, looking like Brighton beach on August bank holiday. There is a little lane behind Castleton that's a cracker, through a quarry, which allowed me to display of turning the Elefant 180 degrees in it's own length, to face the oncoming run members. Impressive if it hadn't been unintended and I hadn't fallen off when it came to a halt.

That really brought the run towards it's close, we took in Royche Clough out towards Hayfield, to see the changes made by a resurface earlier this year, not too bad, they've flattened the most testing climb, but left in the rock steps so it's a good route for big bikes now.

We took in some of the lanes we had already covered on the way back, to get us back with the vans and trailers by about 4.30pm.

A great day out, blessed by the weather, and one of the XR650 riders is happy to organise a couple of more runs out this year, in the Dales and the Lake District.

So, keep an eye on up coming trail dates!

Sun 6th Aug 2006 North York Moors

saw the first big bike trail ride in the North York Moors. There was a wide range of machinery including an XT600, CCM 604, KTM LC4, TTR600 and a BMW HP2 1200. The riders assembled at Kirbymoorside nice and early, after a quick fuel up they were off on their way. The first half on the morning was a nice run up to the Northern area of the national park via a lovely tight technical lane among overhanging trees and then a 13km long UCR across the high part of the moors to Kildale. One of the lanes around Kildale involves a steep loose rock climb that is a challenge in itself to bigger bikes. After the climb we came across a couple of felled trees. It was decided to get round the trees and not turn back. The big bike trail ride team spirit was soon in attendance and all 5 bikes were negoitiated around the obstacle with a combination of Horsepower and Humanpower. After a brief rest at the top of the hill after all the huffing and puffing the run made its way using a variety of lanes over to the Danby/Glaisdale area. After a number of slippy with algea and rocky ford crossings were undertaken and a bit of bogging down on the only wet area of moorland the run made their way to the pub at Beck Hole near Goathland for a well deserved Drink and Sandwhich. After the lunch break the run made their way through the algae lined fords near Grosmont and after the TTR600 rider washed his bike unintensionly by depositing himself uninjured on the cobbles in a couple of inches of water the run made their way over Wheeldale road and through the Cropton forest drive. The run now made there way using UCR’s and a BOAT circumnavigating Dalby forest towards Wykeham forest and after a long loop of lanes found themselves at the petrol station at East Ayton for fuel and an ice cream. The run then made their way back to Stape using a similar route and stopping to see the exotic Alpacas in a field at the side of the lane. The run members now used a little used UCR towards Cropton village and made their way to the jewel in the North York Moors Crown – Rosedale. Rosedale has a history of copper and lead mining dating back a thousand years. The run rode two fantastic and little used lanes in Rosedale with a scenic backdrop. The run now headed back towards the starting point of Kirkbymoorside by a variety of lanes including a lovely climb in Farndale. The run finished at 5 o clock and had fantastic weather thoughout. The run members were lucky to have been in the Moors after such a dry period and some of the more technical lanes were easier because of this. The run covered 160 miles in total of which approxiamatley 115 off tarmac.

A repeat of the run is planned for next year in the summer and indeed a repeat if enough requests.