Where to ride??? That was the question neither me (Sean) or Stu could not answer this weekend just gone between us. Reason being, we have rode pretty much all the popular trails and trails centres within the North West of England and top part of Wales. Although we like the fun of the well built routes at trail centres, we much prefer the more adventurous rides exploring the many great surrounding landscapes were lucky to have in the north.
As a last minute decision the night before I decided to go visit Macclesfield Forest for a bit of an explore of the area as its somewhere that I cant say that I have ever visited. So I picked my route and loaded it into the GPS. Only the following night on Top Gear would I learn that part of my route would be on the most dangerous road in England.
The route was just over 14 miles, starts by climbing through Macclesfield Forest before reaching the Cat and Fiddle pub and looping through the Three Shires and finishing with a very fast bridleway descent back through Macclesfield Forest. All in all and excellent ride and a good alternative to the normal places we visit, although the choice of bike could of been better. The morning of the ride I had the choice of taking the Mongoose or the Singlespeed GT, the decision was quickly made due to the fact that I hadn't got around to cleaning the Mongoose since the last ride and I couldn't be bothered cleaning it at that time of morning. This was a bad move .... lack of fitness and the big climbs made this a a really tough ride. Will deffo do this ride again but maybe next time when I have a bit more fitness or on the Mongoose.
