Farleton Knot – 24/02/08

01 March, 2008 by

Wingnuts

Well, its been a while since I last ventured out on my Downhill bike. Living in Kendal there is a lot of XC riding spots but not many places to ride DH (Without meeting a lot of walkers!)………. Until Now!!!

I heard of a trail near to my house on the outskirts of Kendal. So I went to investigate. Originally on foot I had a walk up Farleton Knot. I was pleasantly surprised to find a trail that is off the general footpaths & a damn good laugh!!

Scott (Yoda) decided to join me for the day. As we ventured up the hill for the premier run, Scott showed interest immediately!! All the way up, Scott & my smile got bigger & bigger!! We also found some extra trail that I didn’t know existed. A very nice surprise!!!

Well, let’s describe the run for you. From the top it’s quite an open moorland type of riding, although you are following a singletrack line for around the first 500 yards, dropping down a consistent gradient all the way. See photos!!

Running along a slightly rutted & slippy line in & out of the trees & over small limestone rocks hidden in the grass, you are thrown into a long sweeping flat right hand bend, then onto the open moorland for about 50 yards. The next section is rocky. Lots of small rock steps only about 6inches in height but hitting 3-5 of them at a time within around 2 bike lengths.
On the next section it gets tighter but still flowing through sections of gorse bushes & small drops on corners!! The last 100 yards of the course is a little man made, some small kickers & drops have dug into the land but a lot of room for landing, you can make the jumps as short or as long as you want. Off the final hip jump & drop and your finished. In around 2-2.5 minutes you have travelled along the entire fell, quite a physical pedally run if you want it to be, or you can just swoop your way down & enjoy the trail.

With both myself & Scott feeling quite happy about the run we headed down!!
I leaded out the first run (apparently I knew where it went!!) at the first turn left, I turned & Scott didn’t! So he headed straight & our paths crossed again within a few seconds. I chased Scott for the next single track section, trying to keep off the brakes rather than sprint & then brake hard. Into the tight section Scott pulled over to let me through & I took the opportunity to try & pull out a little gap! Out of the singletrack & onto the moorland section I pedalled like a man possessed, (just so Scott wouldn’t catch me back up!). Then into the rocks, Scott mentioned trying to keep me in sight so he could see which way I was going, I managed to keep the gap over Scott & we met up at the bottom, both feeling pretty battered & with our lungs burning but still smiling we headed back up to take the photos you can see here!

A great place to play on & help with fitness, hopefully we can get the full TFK & MTB Leeds crew up here & have a real session to try & push our limits as far as possible!

Until next time, keep it rubber side down!!

Tim “Wingnuts” Brown

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