Hi everyone,

Hopefully got this in the right thread. I've just picked up a Marin Pine Mountain 2 and I have 2 free days coming up Thursday and Friday next week. I'm looking for recommendations on a 1 night 2 day route in the northwest. Ideally something easygoing ish (I've cycled plenty before). I'm in Wigan, I've seen the straight outta Manchester route which I'm tempted by, any other recommendations welcome.

Cheers

Josh

Probably the best to ride from home( never done it ) but peak district , yorkshire dales , and lakes are all within an hours drive.and provide options/routes/choices.
Really depends on how far you want to ride and how hard ( height , technical and hike abike or not ) you want it to be

Hi Josh & welcome to the forum

There’s lots of options, it all depends on what sort of thing you want to do & if you want to ride from home or are willing to travel.

One of the easiest 2 day options from Wigan would be to head over to Formby Beach Woods. Easy non-technical riding over there & back.
There’s some local places around Ashurst Beacon, or even head over to Rivington..

If you’re willing to travel then the options are literally unlimited..

Also, how’s your navigation skills? You using any sort of device/map?

Ideally looking for something in the region of 40 miles per day to start. Don't mind some elevation but I don't want huge amounts of hikeabike. I'm comfortable on a bike so don't mind something technical. Ideally something mostly off-road, interesting enough that I won't get bored (I have had enough of my road bike for now). I don't mind a bit of travel in the car or on the train, probably nothing beyond an hour though.

Hopefully not too specific

cycle.travel's quite good to mess around with for ideas, and you can make circular loops or ones taking in dedicated camp sites if you don't wanna wild camp.

I was gonna suggest heading up towards Forest of Bowland (maybe using Beacon Fell or Longridge Fell as a place to camp), but I think that may end up being a bit road-heavy. The aforementioned cycle.travel suggested this, which is apparently 56% unpaved. https://cycle.travel/map?from=53.54572, ... ng=1548364

Locally ( just up the road from you) haigh hall to rivvy and then the west penine moors would be the only option ( with hills). Not much bridelway to Formby nor hills.
Return leg from rivvy would be a bit dull and mainly leeds liverpool canal but you could do it 90% ish off road . You would want advice as alot of rivvy is cheeky and will involve gates ( which can be avoided by route planning )
Message me if you want details.

Hi Josh and welcome to the forum Good choice.

Lazarus wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2024 10:14 am Not much bridelway to Formby nor hills.

Nonsense: I grew up in Formby and riding out to Clieves Hill as a kid made me the grimpeur I am toda … actually yeah, you make a good point there!

I boss headwinds, mind.

Hey Josh.

The phrase "don't mind some elevation" is a tough one to judge but if you fancy heading east into the West Pennines there's loads of off road bridleways across big open moors.

It'll be less than an hour's drive to Waterfoot and that would drop you in a decent starting place for the Mary Townley Loop- that's probably a more of a one-dayer at 45 miles but it's pretty lumpy. https://explore.osmaps.com/route/94948/ ... rd&type=2d

If you wanted to extend it you could head south along the Pennine Bridleway towards Littleborough/Saddleworth, loads of good trails along there, camp up on the tops then head back and finish the loop.

Or you could tack on another loop out to the west and back, something like this: https://www.strava.com/routes/3241504744821327832 Both routes will be 80-90% off road.

Good thing about riding around there is if/when the hills get too much you can always drop into a valley bottom, pootle along a flatter road and go to a chippy/pub etc as you see fit.

Bike looks like it'll be nice btw

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, really appreciate them and some for me to get my teeth into.

As for this week I've modified the Straight outta Manchester to suit my needs. What do people think? Quite a bit of riding down the cut but I've decided on this route just because I'm familiar with it so I'm unlikely to get lost.

https://www.strava.com/routes/3242482324495186704

https://www.strava.com/routes/3242482008117695536

Am I over egging it and should just get the train to Manchester?

Also, what does cheeky mean???

Cheers

Hi Josh,

Straight Outta Manchester was my first(!) overnighter, in blazing sunshine and with a loaded gravel bike.
I didnt love the route at the time but it has grown on me....weirdly I found it a bit technical the first time (gravel bike with 40mm tyres) and now im finding it too tame (ive ridden it on 50mm and 2.2" tyres).

Whatever the bike, im sure youll have fun unless youre looking for techy singletrack.

First time i rode it I stopped just past the North Lees campsite and camped at a farm. The name escapes me now.
That seems to be roughly where you also split the route, which worked well for me.

I've since ridden it another couple of times. Without bags, it's a 9hrs loop if you put your head down and keep stoppage time to the minimum.
I always fail to resist a good feed in Hathersage though!

I'd recommend fast rolling tyres, 50mm are plenty apart from the PBW sections.

I'd probably start from home, and take a train back if bored/running out of time.
The ride back into Manchester is my least favourite part of the route, everything else I really like.

I hope that helps, have fun!

If I'm not mistaken the swear filter installed by Stu/Dee (site owners) converts bicycle (r I g) into whatever it just has done and footpath (f o o t p a t h) into 'cheeky'.

Well, there you go. R I g does convert to bicycle but cheeky isn't on the swear filter. But it does mean 'footpath'. I personally always try my best to make it 'seen to be walking' but some places are acceptable by the locals for a bit of mtb-ing.

Hope that helps.

I would think 'cheeky' is an adjective applicable to a number of land-based nouns, rather than only a substitute for the noun 'footpath'.

If 'cheeky' was a substitute for 'footpath' then a 'cheeky footpath' would be, er, a 'footpath footpath'.


Cue a typical BBB over-analysis of a subject:

Riding your animal anywhere illegal would be 'cheeky', whether it be footpath, field, garden, maybe inside a building. 'Illegal' is either/or, but if we were to allow that it could be graded, say from 'a bit illegal' up to 'totally illegal', then 'cheeky riding' would be towards the 'bit illegal' end of things. Maybe 'naughty' is further up the scale for example. Roads, bridleways and other cycle-designated tracks cannot be 'cheeky' because they are legal ROW.

Curiously, a footpath would not be cheeky if you gained the permission of the landowner beforehand. Come to think of it, asking permission beforehand to ride across/along/through any bit of land would render it 'non cheeky' because the permission makes it legal.


A dictionary definition is: "showing a lack of respect or politeness in a way that is amusing or appealing. eg. "a cheeky grin".

Well that's interesting then. Even if you're riding something illegal, for it to be described as 'cheeky' you also have to be doing so while showing a lack of respect and at the same time doing it in an amusing or appealing way.

Does that mean neither of these can be cheeky: a/ respectfully riding a footpath but in an amusing way, b/ disrespectfully riding a footpath but not in a very amusing way ?


Synonyms which we should also try out are as below. How about going for a ride on an "impudent footpath" - that'd be ace - or maybe across a "pert field"?

impudent
impertinent
insolent
presumptuous
forward
pert
bold
bold as brass
brazen
brazen-faced
shameless
audacious
overfamiliar
irreverent
discourteous
disrespectful
insubordinate
impolite
bad-mannered
ill-mannered
unmannerly
mannerless
rude
insulting
brass-necked
cocky
lippy
mouthy
fresh
flip
saucy
smart-arsed
sassy
nervy
smart-assed
malapert
contumelious
presumptive
assumptive

Another dictionary definition of 'cheeky' is: "(of something pleasurable) consumed or done in an unplanned, rather self-indulgent way. eg. "a cheeky pint" "

Best sort of pint really! And in fact that description (" something pleasurable done in an unplanned rather self-indulgent way") would describe a large proportion of my bikepacking, so 'cheeky' is a very useful word .

Thanks Reginald for the extreme analysis. Sure it will come in use. I think they do a degree on the gnats wing in one of the Scottish universities and another somewhere else. Maybe we'll get a degree on 'cheeky' some day