Belated update - can confirm it's rideable and all in good condition. The southern stretch is a resin-bound path which makes me think Sustrans have probably spent some money there. The northern section is grass/plastic matting which wasn't 100% complete (there's a section of about 15m where a roll is left half installed) but it made no difference.
Cracking route btw Ian, cheers for your efforts there. Much of it I'd ridden before, but there were a few trails that I wasn't aware of so it was a bit of an adventure too.
Set off last Thursday lunchtime from Hadfield and made decent progress in beautiful but bloody cold conditions.
I got to Millers Dale at sunset and the change in temperature as I dropped down into the gorge was incredible.
By the time I'd got round to Long Dale and Gratton Dale it was -2º at ground level and I'm guessing about -5º in the gorges. I'd never ridden Gratton Dale before and was apprehensive after reading Steve Large's account (
) but everything was frozen solid and I managed to ride probably 95% of it. Coming out of it though everything on the bike was frozen - both derailleurs seized, water bottles frozen solid. Had the first of three or four sessions chipping ice off jockey wheels with a multitool.
Apart from that I was having a blast. The trails were great for night-riding until I got to Lees Moor Wood which was a bogfest HaB. Coming down the hill from there to Chatsworth my front brake started making a bit of a racket. Inspection showed it had lost a post-mount bolt.
This was a problem as my back brake wasn't 100% either but I couldn't be arsed to swap/bleed it the night before. I also clearly hadn't been arsed to tighten up the front brake when I put the adaptor on for a bigger rotor.
I pressed on up the road into Baslow to get supplies from the Spar, only to discover that the Spar is no longer a Spar, it's a "village shop and post office" and now closes at teatime. I rolled down to The Wheatsheaf pub to get water and have a look at the map. Turned out I was 2 miles away from High Peaks Cycles which opened in just over 12 hours. I wasn't overly enamoured by the prospect of lying in my bivvy waiting for the shop to open in the morning, but... it also turned out The Wheatsheaf do rooms for under fifty quid a night. Brake problem solved then. Peaks 200 attempt also over though unfortunately - I needed to be back in Manchester for 7pm the following night for a late Christmas do and the 10 hours I'd have would be nowhere near enough to do the remaining 139.5km. Ended up doing the rest of the outer loop, minus Curbar Edge after I'd left the bike shop at Calver. Came out at 169km total.
Wheatsheaf is a decent boozer btw.
