…and you said be prepared for a walk up… 
lol
anyways… night night all… too… tired…
Joe,
Re: BMW 2004/2 - Cumbria
On Sun, 5 Sep 2004 08:01:36 -0500, “joe” wrote:
>Anyone else have anything to say about walking on muni rides?
I don’t mind so much if it is too steep for riding, I’ll happily walk.
However, what is ‘too steep’ differs from person to person, and I like
to make an effort to ride what I can ride. So what I hate is if it
isn’t rideable for some (or most), while I still try to tractor
through and am then forced to dismount by walkers being in the way.
And it’s also annoying (feels egocentric) to keep calling to make way.
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
“The more you think, the less you have to do. - Leo Vandewoestijne”
I think with a big group either a certain percentage of people will walk most of the uphills, or some people will find it very very easy. Some people’s mild cross country is other people’s extreme up/downhill. I don’t think it’s fair to either type of ride to force them all to go at one speed, the slow people feel bad about holding up the faster people and the faster people get annoyed by having to wait.
That’s why I split the ride at last years BMW between the Red Bull and the MBR trails. The Red Bull has one seriously long and tiring uphill and then it’s pretty much all rideable for the rest of the way. The downside to that is that the red bull flows best if you ride it super fast and there are quite a lot of possible waiting points, so you can get quite held up waiting for people.
The MBR is a bit more flowing and for a quite fit rider is at least 90% rideable, but would have been rubbish for the uphill walkers, because they’d have kept having to get off and walk stuff. It was good for the 7 very fit people who rode it, but would have been the wrong ride for most of the other people there.
I’m personally a ride as much as possible both uphill and downhill kind of rider, but I accept that a lot of riders are less inclined to ride up inclines and you have to provide for both types of rider. I’m lucky enough to be able to ride 10 hours or more every week, I know most people don’t have that kind of spare time available. I also have time to swim most days, so I’m generally quite fit, which means that I don’t totally kill myself riding the uphills and thus make the downhills less fun.
As for brakes, once you’re quite fit, there’s not much call for them on most rides in England, but again, for less fit people, they can increase the enjoyment and in a few cases, they can increase the difficulty of terrain you can ride. I’d say that in the Scottish Highlands or in some parts of Europe, it’s a totally different ballpark, the amount of up and down you’re doing is way way more, if I go back to ride in the Highlands again, I’ll definately consider a brake, if you ride up and down two munros in a day, however fit you are, it’ll make your knees ache if you have no brake.
The muni at the BUC was fun, but really really very slow in parts, so much waiting, I think next year it’d be good to split into fast and slow groups from the start, rather than just on the way back, the ride on the way back was furious flat out riding with 6 or 7 really fit people all pushing each other to ride faster, the fast group could probably have done 4 or 5 times as much riding if we’d split at the start.
I think asssuming we do have fast and slow riders at the BMW, maybe a good thing to do would be to have two ride leaders, who both know the route, and ride the same route at different speeds, perhaps with some detours / extra bits for the faster group?
As for which ride to do which day, I did the ride I thought would take least time on the Sunday, so people could start heading home.
Joe
Thanks for the nice big reply joe, yeah having two leaders is a good idea. For the first there will be one route which is really easy to follow so won’t matter but I think for the second day there will be a few options trying to please everyone…a easy but fun xc route, rocky technical with some XC in it and NOT STEEP and a easy but steep route, I think this should cater for everyone even if the groups are smaller. Then people can feel free to choose whatever they want to. I’m really looking forward to it!!! I hope everyone will enjoy it and be happy afterwards.
Thanks
Aaron
BMW/2 - Routes
Lake District Bridleways
For the new or infrequent visitor to Cumbria please note that the terrain dictates the general type of riding which tends to be Mountain Unicycling rather than trail or cross-country riding. The majority of bridleways are on the hills or over high passes, consequently there are lots of Mountain routes many of which can be a little steep. We have tried to pick a variety of routes to suit all tastes but all will require some riding uphill or walking.
MAPS – English Lakes OS – SE i.e. Explorer OL7
English Lakes OS – NW i.e. Explorer OL4
SATURDAY – Kentmere
Garburn Pass One of the top five routes in Cumbria. Linear in nature, up to a pass from Troutbeck to about 1200ft (may require walking) and over the top down to Kentmere, turn around and go back again. The downhill westbound i.e. the return is easier than eastbound which has a very hard and technical section.
http://gallery.unicyclist.com/album117/Garburn_Pass_East_2
http://gallery.unicyclist.com/albuq99/Image005_4
Kentmere has a high number of bridleways in and out of the valley. Therefore for those who are looking for a long cross-country route, Garburn Pass could be used to access Kentmere and devise one of the numerous circular routes possible. However, we cannot attest as to the quality of all of the routes around Kentmere.
For those wishing a fun day of easier non-technical non-steep riding we would recommend Claife Heights on the west side of Windermere. Numerous routes are possible including a longer circular one with plenty of short sections of interest to play on along the way as well as a swim in the Lake at the end if desired.
SUNDAY- Borrowdale
Skiddaw Downhill
Simple – walk to summit and ride down non-technical but steep in places. Start from Latrigg car park (preferable) or for the greatest amount of downhill, the A66 and the first layby east of roundabout signed to Carlisle and Bassenthwaite.
http://gallery.unicyclist.com/albur18/18_G
Lonscale Fell - Skiddaw House - Whitewater Dash - Blencathra Centre
A cross-country route (rare in Cumbria for obvious reasons) which is very varied in character. Please BEWARE of the cliff edge when riding or walking under Lonscale. Return from Blencathra Centre to Latrigg car park is via tracks and footpaths (map useful).
http://gallery.unicyclist.com/albur24/CumbriaMuni19703_27
http://gallery.unicyclist.com/album187/MTB_072
Latrigg – Mostly footpaths and tracks but easy gently trails both up and around Latrigg
Castle Rock to Grange
Part of a longer bridleway from Honister Pass but the majority of the technical interest leads down to the River Derwent from Castle Rock. This short technical section is best accessed via Grange. Plenty to play on – all rock and hard!
http://gallery.unicyclist.com/album195/Honnister_to_Grange_141
More details to follow.
Regards
Simon
Please refer and reply to this thread now.
http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=34964