Up the Old Macc. Road and across to Three Shires Head.

A short ride today, I've been to work this morning and the days are getting shorter. We took Steve with us, one of Dani's tri-athlete friends, for his first taste of mountain biking riding Dani's old Giant full susser (Dani is now totally converted to 29ers since buying the Genesis). I rode the Mojito as usual, which I've been tinkering with, fitting a new bottom bracket and swapping the 34t Surly chainring for a 33t one, again made by Surly. When taking the cranks off I noticed that they're 170mm rather than the more usual 175mm. Quite why such short cranks have been fitted to an 18" singlespeed I cannot imagine, Dani reckons that the bike was built from the odds laying around Diamondback's factory... As soon as I can afford it they'll be replaced by singlespeed friendly 180mm cranks. On a singlespeed getting the maximum power to the back wheel is pretty vital on climbs! My On-One Inbred (original batch, Reynolds 853 frame) is fitted with 180mm cranks and climbs superbly.

We set off across town to the Old Macc. Road, a stony UCR running from Burbage to Derbyshire Bridge. We had the road to ourselves apart from a motorcyclist who came past us at the start. Its a lovely wide moorland track and a nice drive in the Landy, unfortunetely there are parts of it that are being trashed by muppets in 4x4s including a big hole at one point that I've seen two vehicles get stuck in. (The last one was a Freelander, so bogged down that a Park Ranger's 90 and my 110 coupled together couldn't budge it.)
The first part of the track is pretty steep, which is just a warm up for a very steep loose rocky section that had all of us walking at some point although Dani gave it her best shot and climbed most of it.

Dani after the hardest climb on the Old Macc. Road.

After the summit the rest of the track points downwards to Derbyshire Bridge. The track was wet in places which had Dani cursing her Continental X King front tyre, she's really not impressed with it and is planning on replacing it as soon as possible (the one on the rear has already been replaced with my spare Kenda Karma) with a tyre which actually grips in the wet.

On the Old Macc. Road, the Cat & Fiddle can be seen on the horizon to the right.

From Derbyshire Bridge its a short tarmac climb to the Cat & Fiddle, and the next off-road section opposite the pub. This is a lovely moorland bridlepath which runs through Danebower Hollow between the A537 and the A54, the riding is easy, and the views superb. We met a couple of walkers halfway along who held a gate open for us, a small courtesy but one which we very much appreciated.

Across Danebower Hollow.

On reaching the A54 another short tarmac stretch took us down to a farmyard and a very muddy, and quite challenging in places because of it, sheepfield. At the edge of the field we went through a gate and stepped from muddy pasture land onto gritty rocky moorland singletrack. This took us down to Three Shires Head, the point where Derbyshire Staffordshire and Cheshire meet, and Panniers Pool. Here there's a pair of picturesque packhorse bridges, the main one crossing the Dane and the other one of its tributeries.

Packhorse Bridge, Three Shires Head. Panniers Pool below.

 From there its a steep technical climb up a UCR past Turn Edge, which none of us cleared, up to Knotbury, then onto tarmac leading to the A53, and a mostly downhill ride back to Buxton.

Dani looking pleased with herself, UCR at Turn Edge.

Dani and Steve, on the last off-road section of the day.

As for Steve, he did superbly. Hopefully he'll be out riding with us again, and probably out-classing me!

Paul.