Well its me, Harvey, what do I say? I'm a North East chap who is used to being surrounded by piss heads, cold / wet winds and good cheer, no change there then!! Since I moved over here 2 years ago, giving up my volleyball to get out on my bike, I have had a fantastic time, not only because of the area but because of the people.

One thing that has to said and I'm sure that everyone who knew Paul Redman would agree, is that Paul put a lot of time and efforts over last few years as Chairman and did a tremendous job. I would like to thank him on behalf of the whole club. Thanks Paul!

I've never really seen myself as a chairperson and it was with reluctance that I took up this role, but I must say I was taken aback by the support that came from every one in the Club. So to everyone thanks, with a special thanks to the vocal group on the night out. thank you!!!!

What I have seen of the Club in the short time I have been here, is that it is well run and is populated by people that really enjoying themselves, which makes all the difference. They come from far and wide, some people out most rides with others popping in for a odd ride here and there (E.g. Scottish Nigel with his kilt) When we cannot make rides, for whatever reason, there is always the Bogtrotters website to keep us up to date and interested. With all this going for the club, I'm sure it will go on for years to come, well after I've given up the Zimmer frame. Well done everyone and lets make this year as enjoyable or better than any other.

Harvey

As we are for the most part Lancastrians and we are a Lancaster based club, I am sure many of us will have enjoyed the pleasures of riding around the South Pennines and Calderdale. If this is the case, you would have come across a near perfect line of paving stones laid neatly before you. Or so it appears...

Nine times out of ten, by the time your rear wheel goes over the first slab, your front suspension has started to kick in and you start 'juddering' along. Your skills as a mountain biker come naturally when a slab has fallen victim to subsidence or disappeared completely into the black maw of the peat. As your speed and confidence increases, you may have a heart stopping moment when a slab is missing at a stream crossing. Eventually, you will hit a smooth section of grass with aching wrists and an endorphin induced grin from ear to ear….but they are still under your feet….several feet actually. These are the pavings that have finally succumbed to nature.

So, what have you just ridden?
For 500 years up until the start the Industrial Revolution, these ancient Pack Horse Trail would have been what was considered the modern day motorways for the cotton trade. This network was enormous in the North and routes stretched for several hundred miles across the country serving mills, farmsteads and weaver's cottages. Some routes even stretched as far as the out skirts of London. In fact Holloway derives its name from the grooves the horses made in slabs that were called 'Hollow Ways'.

This source of transportation was essential to the cotton trade in the area. No roads existed in the valley bottoms and the traders found the best way to move the cotton, cloth and goods was straight over the moors.

Heavy wagons were not an option due to the wheels becoming bogged down. Also, these hills were steep. There was no way wheeled transportation of the day could negotiate the rough ground.

Packhorses were ideal for this duty as they could travel anywhere and in any direction. Just point them up hill, and away they went. Eventually, Galloway ponies were introduced to carry out this work. They were sure footed, and could carry up to 90 kilograms apiece!…and they excelled at long distances. The horses were only limited by their driver's endurance. Due to the nature of the ground the ponies were still restricted when it came to soft, peaty ground.

This was why there was a need for the slabs. Each stone was deeply embedded in the ground. Carefully cut so it was sat snug against its neghbour.The stones were laid across the path so the loaded ponies bore down in the middle of the slab. If they were laid end to end (which was more economical) there was a good chance the stone would rock and un nerve the pony. The consequence of this could be disastrous as a stampede could ensue.

Eventually, this ribbon of stones became part of the ground itself. Several of you will recognise some of the names given to certain sections…Long Causeway, Limers Gate, Gorple Road etc.

Imagine the scene, You are idly strolling along when you hear the distant ring of warning bells breaking the silence. Suddenly, the lead mare comes into view followed by the thud and grind of hooves on stone. Up to forty jet black shaggy beasts will be bearing down on you all jockeying for position within the hierarchy. Do not get caught in a narrow spot as these animals will stop for no man. They are widely loaded and have you flat on your back dare as look at you. As they pass, the air will be redolent of sweat, dung and the leathery smell of tack. Nostrils will be flared and snorting as each of the ponies thunder by.

If you are trapped on one of the many packhorse bridges, your only chance of escaping being trampled is to get into one of the recesses built into the parapet for this very reason.

Leading the head mare will be one man…the driver. He will be responsible for the loads, payments places to rest and pasture for his ponies. He would also need to be armed with a cosh. His cargo would be easy pickings for the undesirables of the day.

That said, it is written that one Pack Horse driver who went by the name of Serge Noble had complete and total faith in his lead mare. This meant that at the start of the day, he could gallop to his first 'refreshment stop'…(read hostelry) and wait for his mare to bring in all the other ponies safely to him. As soon as he could hear the warning bells, he would'sup up', check his loads and continue to his next rest stop. It was said none of his horses ever went astray or lost a load.

This would be a common sight across many of the moors in the Pennines.

The Industrial Revolution brought roads to the valley floors serving the mills and towns and after the second World War, there was an abundance of vehicles to ferry goods from town to town. This sounded the death knell for the packhorses as goods could be delivered faster and more efficiently across the country. Between 1946 and 1947, over 6,000 horses were slaughtered due to becoming redundant.

In 1949, ALL packhorse routes were downgraded to FOOTPATH status. This was so the highways authority could avoid maintaining them as a public highway.

Much of the network has now sunk into the peat and mother nature has started to reclaim her land and naturally re-turfed over forgotten routes. What remains is only utilised by a selected few. The walkers, horse riders and of course, the Mountain Bikers. What was once a busy thoroughfare has now become entertainment for us. The thrill as you descend steeply into Calderdale or that twitchy moment when your tyre slips from the edge of a slab was all in a days work for the humble packhorse…though a stumble over a ravine would signal certain death for a horse.

Many of the packhorse routes in the Pennines still have status as footpath. This means that is still strictly illegal for horses to travel on PACK HORSE TRAILS….some horses given birthright!…And of course mountain bikers.

There is an ongoing campaign to restore packhorse routes to their proper status and resurrect much of the network. This is probably most evident with the implementation of the Pennine Bridleway where several footpaths have already been re-classified back to bridleway.

The most successful long distance leisure route to be re-classified to bridleway is the Mary Towneley Loop. This loop is entirely bridleway for almost its 48 mile length and several sections are upgraded packhorse trails.

Time is limited for the campaign as it only has until 2026 to submit a footpath to be up graded back to its proper status. This should open up much more of the Pennines for horse riders and Mountain bikers to enjoy in the future.

Further info on the campaign to reinstate these ancient pathways can be found at www.rightsofway.org.uk

Many thanks to Ben Reedy (Blackburn Mtb Club) for the inspiration to write this.
Photo credits…Potty and Me.

Glenn

Here Adrian had a copy of the Pennine Bridleway Mountain Bike Challenge but you can view it online :-)

Chain maintenance is one of the most controversial aspects of bicycle mechanics. Chain durability is affected by riding style, gear choice, whether the bicycle is ridden in rain or snow, type of soil in the local terrain, type of lubricant, lubrication techniques, and the sizes and condition of the bicycle's sprockets. Because there are so many variables, it has not been possible to do controlled experiments under real-world conditions. As a result, everybody's advice about chain maintenance is based on anecdotal "evidence" and experience. Experts disagree on this subject, sometimes bitterly. This is sometimes considered a "religious" matter in the bicycle community, and much vituperative invective has been uttered in this regard between different schismatic cults.

One of the great controversies of chain maintenance is whether you should oil a chain or not. The downside of oiling a chain is that the oil may carry grit into the interior of the chain, and that this grit-mixed-with-oil will act as grinding compound, causing accelerated wear. Many experts whose judgement I highly respect hold this opinion, but I do not believe that this is always the case. I have no doubt that this "grinding-compound" effect can occur, but the severity of the risk depends upon the sort of dust/soil prevalent in a given area, and, particularly, the oiling technique used.

There are several ways that people try to clean their chains, none of them very satisfactory. Two of these ways may actually work. The traditional way to clean a bicycle chain is to remove it from the bike, then soak and scrub it in solvent. The other major way to clean chains is with an on-the-bike cleaning machine. These are boxes that clip over the lower run of chain. They contain brushes and rollers that flex the chain and run it through a bath of solvent.

The off-the-bike approach has the advantage that it usually uses more solvent than will fit into an on-the-bike cleaning machine. Thus, it can dilute away more of the scuzz from the chain. The on-the-bike system has the advantage that the cleaning machine flexes the links and spins the rollers. This scrubbing action may do a better job of cleaning the innards.

Waxing Chains

An alternative approach to chain lubrication is to immerse the chain in hot wax. This is a variation on the oil/solvent approach. The hot wax is of a thin enough consistency that it can theoretically penetrate into the private parts of the chain, then when it cools off, you have a nice thick lubricant in place where it can do the most good. The major advantage to this approach is that, once cooled off, the wax is not sticky, and doesn't attract dirt to the outside of the chain as readily. Downsides of the wax approach include the fact that it is a great deal of trouble, and that wax is probably not as good a lubricant as oil or grease.

Author: Adrian and various articles as I haven't got a clue. Pictures from Simon's Repertoire.

Well, I suppose the Boggies' local hills easily put to shame what the soft southern county of Leicestershire can provide to the mountain biker. Loughborough is a dreary little town on the edge of Charnwood Forest (really lots of little woods with lots more fields in between), but when you have to live there for two thirds of the year then you have to make do with the local resources.

Setting off from the normal meeting place of the fountain at Lufbra Uni, a quick negotiation of some cycle track and pelican crossings puts us in the estate known locally as Beirut. Luckily its daylight and you're not usually alone so the old railway line to Ashby is reached without having to stave off too many locals. A quick blast along the railway line leads to a short woody uphill a squelchy track behind a college. A brief downhill with its own unique kind of mud (consistency of crude oil making it impossible to steer away from bramble bushes) drops you onto a private road out to Shepshed. Its normally a bit windy here as the track traverses a flat plain then pops over the M1 to take us through the small town of Shepshed (not sure of why this place exists).

Out the other side of town a riverside singletrack takes us along some muddy field edges to the local jump spot, which we avoid in case we embarrass ourselves in front to the local 12 year olds. A quick spell on the main road and a very straight and seemingly endless (for Leicestershire) climb on a minor road takes us to the top of Whitick woods.

Although fairly skinny, these woods are full of a spaghetti of interwoven trails with more than enough roots, rocks and drifty corners to keep anyone smiling on a five minute downhill blast. After playtime is over it's back on the road for a while before a little path takes up along the side of a huge quarry (which I didn't actually notice for a year) then it's a game of dodge the monk as we follow a footpath behind the local monastery. Crossing the road a track takes us over a bit of heathland that wouldn't look out of place on Dartmoor, dropping onto a piece of rocky singletrack that always proves a technical challenge. Unfortunately this doesn't go on for ever and it's back onto the road for a descent into the outskirts of Coalville. Then once the correct cul de sac has been identified, a drag up through a field to a plantation on the side of Bardon Hill.

Bardon Hill is apparently the highest point in Leicestershire and comes in at around 250m, which means its probably downhill to Dover from here. Not much of Bardon Hill is left as they've turned most of it into aggregate for motorways. Wimps can take the access track up to the transmitter station on top, heroes can take the steep forest road up onto the exposed shoulder, which gets a bit slick in the wet.

Peak number 1 under the belt, a fast singletrack descent through recently deforested land (which if you half closed your eyes (and didn't crash) could be in Wales) takes you to the mega wide track which the oversized Tonka trucks used to move their pebbles around. After this a private road, then a few miles of roady hell take us over the M1 and to Benscliffe wood. This is much like any forestry commission plantation, except any good tracks have been eaten up by horses hooves or choked by brambles ruining a potentially fun bit of the ride.

More road takes us to the car park for Bradgate Country Park, this is quite a big expanse of grassy hillocks and coppices with the obligatory deer. Peak number 2 is reached here with Old John Tower (standard issue folly), then its avoid the ranger time as we traverse the park and leave via a fantastically fast woody singletrack descent.

Next up is Swithland Wood, here they actually say you can ride a bike along waymarked paths, but these are far too boring so yet another twisty, rooty way is made (with lots of clay to stop you dead in your tracks if you miss the racing line).

A little road work takes us though the quaint little village of Woodhouse Eaves and onto the first bridleway of the day! This is a quick up and over lane that passes fairly quickly and takes us to the foot of Beacon Hill Country Park.

Legs are normally pretty dead by now so we tend to take the fire track through the woods towards the top of the park, this avoids steep technical climbing but is very drawn out and gets steeper towards the top. The top does come eventually giving us Peak number 3 and almost all downhill to Loughborough. A rocky and grassy downhill winds its devious way back down the Beacon and ends with a blast along a horse track that ends in a bizarre sandy section.

A bit more road and we are in the Outwoods. A quick climb and a choice of steep descent followed by a bit of fast threading between trees takes us through these woods to leave us with an interesting descent into the suburbs of Loughborough town. The steps are fairly shallow, but the spiky hedge and barbed wire fence on one side and the muddy quagmire on the other side ensure that attention is maintained. A few more housing estates and we're back on the campus and ready to sample the delights of the hosepipe and weird lukewarm water that can be found behind some kitchens. Marvellous - jealous?

Graham Lund

As everyone probably knows by now regular use of a M.T.B fitted with a Fox shock causes the bushes to wear. This is easy to remedy by replacing the bush. The bush suppliers would have you believe that you need a special tool to do this job, this is not the case. The following words are only a guide to explain how I did my bush. I will take no responsibility for anyone destroying anything. Anyone who attempts this procedure should be reasonably confident in their abilities.

Parts required
1 x new bush (swan bearings Lancaster cost 90p)
1 x piece of 15mm copper tubing approx 40mm long
1 x Yorkshire type in line coupling
1 x vice

Preparation
Try to fit the 15mm copper pipe through the coupling. If the solder won't let you pass it through you need to file the inside of the coupling until the pipe fits through. Now try to fit the steel tube that goes through the bush on the shock into the copper pipe. It should pass through.

Removing the old bush
Place the steel tube into the worn bush in the shock so that it is approx central. Place the 15mm copper pipe onto the steel tube on one side. And place the coupling on the other side. You should now be able to compress this assembly in the vice taking care to make sure that the coupling is in the right position to receive the bush.

Fitting the new bush
Place the new bush on the steel tube. Place the copper pipe on the steel tube. Now with the coupling on one side of the shock and the (steel tube , bush , copper pipe) assembly on the other side push the bush into the shock with the vice ensuring that everything is perfectly lined up to allow the bush into the shock squarely. Take care not to push the bush too far, as it needs to be flush on both sides.

(These photos were taken of the shock on my Intense, which is slightly different. Simon)
Bob

I'm often teased about the weight of my pack, so I thought I'd empty it out and see just what I had in it. This is the full list, though I have to admit that there were actually 4 inner tubes, and the water was only there as Harvey had forgotten his pack on the Glentress ride and I'd volunteered to carry some of his stuff.

(items from left to right and back to front)

After careful thought, I decided to leave out the shock pump, the spare waterproof and a pair of gloves. The battery packs only come out on night rides, when I usually do without the bladder, as I rarely drink then. Everything else seemed too important to do without, though I expect to ditch the spare clothing for the summer months. I had intended to add a 2 way radio handset, after I got lost on Roundthwaite Common, but I've still not gotten around to buying one. I'm not suggesting anyone should take my example, but I suppose the exhaustive list is at least a guide to what you might consider carrying...

2 week's later I needed the shock pump and didn't have it :-)
I've since added a pair of pliers and a bottle of sunblock!

Simon

The printed copy included the full rides list, which can be seen here.

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Thanks to Adrian for compiling the newsletter and layout design (which has been somewhat lost in translation to HTML), and also to all the contributors for their entertaining efforts. I apologise for the quick and dirty presentation, but I felt it was better to get this out ASAP. simon