Altura Trail opens

rode this the other day and must admit the trail is awesome!! great flowing trail, superb jumps that can be easily jumped or rode, only downside is the tight switchbacks on the uphill sections of off-road but this only encourages you to improve your handling skills. A truly great trail, with more on it's way 10/10
Posted: 05/07/2008 16:23

How boggy was it Patroit?

There have been some comments on the other forum that it was getting really badly boggy in places, the presumption being that is exactly what the intention is to remove on building an armoured trail. Suggesting that either the designers or Clixbys have made some errors. Although others were saying this is normal with long trails, they build it, let people ride it, see where it's going wrong and then pay some attention to those bits.

Posted: 07/07/2008 13:36

I rode it pre-opening with the KMB lot.  Its good fun and has some interesting features.  I wasnt as impressed with berms which camber away from the hillside and are little more than shail which left them very loose.  However my opinon is that if you cant cope with little 'oddities' then you shouldnt be on the trail.

It doesnt surprise me if it has cut up a bit as the gegeral nature of the sections i rode were that it was quite loose.  Maybe the intention is to let it bed down and then repair or solve any issues later.  I know from experience that just about all of the stanes sites cut up in one form or the other initially, then had to be repaired.

Posted: 07/07/2008 13:45

Sounds right to me, build it and see what needs tweaking, BTW, although Hugh Clixby is the contrator, the FE Civil engineer has about 90% say in what is built and where the trail goes......
Posted: 07/07/2008 15:23

hi prof,

to be honest i didn't think it was boggy at all?

it rained when i went and although there was mud in places it wasn't bad at all,

the only bad part was all the rocky sections seamed fairly greasy.

i think this will soon bed in cos all trails round here go like that when first opened

(north face trail for one). take into account the rainfall we have and before long there will be hardpack uncovered....

should be going up again on thurs/fri so will keep you posted on it 

Posted: 08/07/2008 20:51

did the trail twice tonight and even after all the rain we've been having

it's still holding up really well!

roots are still very slippy to catch you out but hey, it's all there to conquer??

Posted: 23/07/2008 23:08

is there a way to work the Altura into some nice natural stuff ?
Posted: 23/07/2008 23:27

to be honest simonm, it's quite a hard place to add natural stuff into the ride

simply cos there's not many bridleways to go at.

the nft at grizedale is good for this as there's so many bridleways/green lanes

to add to the ride, but from what i've discovered so far i can't say there's too many to

choose from??

that said when we rode we did have a sneek peek at the forthcoming bits that are to be added and must admit they are turning it into a great ride.

all this with an on-site bike shop and bike wash, it can't be all bad

Posted: 24/07/2008 22:06

I did 3 rides around those parts with the KMB lads recently.  Made use of little sections of the Whinlatter trail in parts.  Excellent rides but tbh i wasnt paying attention and i am pretty sure footpaths were involved.

There was mention of Barf hill and The Chair in amongst some rather good singletrack sections.

So the answer is yes but i havent a clue where.

Posted: 24/07/2008 22:17

LOL @ Barf hill, is that a particularly nasty ascent?  
Posted: 25/07/2008 08:14

Not really Karlos.  I found it quite a pleasant climb.  I beat carl to the top
Posted: 25/07/2008 09:15