Fanylion Mountain Bike Team
Official site of the Fanylion Mountain Bike Team. Includes mountain bike ride guides, gear reviews, bike maintenance, team reports and rider profiles of the Fanylion Racing Team.
Pudsey
October 19, 2003, Leeds
Aim: To put the X back into Xtreme. Bike upgrade: Panaracer Fire FR 2.4 tyres. Suspension setting: 6”. Intention: to ride 4 of the steepest, biggest, scariest drops in West Leeds, or die in the process.
Well not strictly true. As no-one else from Team FanyLion was prepared to accompany me on this hair-brained trip I was keen to ‘push the envelope’, however if any of the drops looked too gnarly I would err on the side of caution as I would be on my own, not wanting to lie broken and beaten and bleeding at the bottom of a cliff with no-one to call me an ambulance/laugh at me.
I ride to DZ1, my new 2.4 tyres making my bike feel extremely slow and heavy but with awe-inspiring levels of grip.
DZ1: Railway embankment south west of Pudsey. I have ridden past this location dozens of times and seen two routes just dying to be ridden. One a snakey singletrack route dropping about 40ft from the disused railway line to the valley bottom below, the second a straight 60ft drop into nothingness.
The first route was loose but the two gentle twists made the descent relatively easy, on a par with the trails we rode in Cham. Seat down, bum out the back and the first drop was nailed without incident. One down, three to go.
The second drop was altogether different. A straight drop, about 60feet high, that looked to be a straight chute when viewed from the valley bottom. However from the top there was no discernible track for the first third of the descent, just a loose scree of ash and cinders and a few large tufty weeds. Dropping my seat all the way down, I launched off the embankment, knowing that I would have to keep my speed up to avoid loosing control on the sketchy surface. With my arse buzzing on my back tyre I rolled down the loose surface, my front wheel trying to slip out from beneath me, both wheels locking in the gravel. Releasing my front brake I managed to get past the loose section and onto the grass below, sliding my way to a stop at the bottom. That was without doubt the steepest descent I had ever ridden, and certainly the highest. I am pumped. Two down two to go.
DZ2: I ride the three miles or so to Post Hill in east Pudsey, a hill I heard about from the North Leeds mountainbikers, who said that one of their group once rode off it and that he was ‘mad’. I couldn’t resist this challenge and was keen to ride it. I needn’t have worried. As I arrived at the top a bloke walking asked if I was going to ride down it. Of course I said, lowering my saddle. From the top you can’t see the hill itself as it is so steep it just disappears into space with the curvature of the slope. Post Hill was built years ago as a hill climb track for cars/motorbikes and was cobbled, therefore giving excellent grip. As I rode off the edge I needn’t even have dropped my seat. Whilst steep at the top, the hill soon became shallower and I let go my brakes and screamed down to the stream at the bottom. Three down, one to go.
DZ3: By now the weather had turned very cold and a fine drizzle started up (that fine stuff that gets you soaked) as I rode to Drop Zone 3, a steep drop I had spotted whilst driving on Leeds Outer Ring Road near Farnley. As I stood at the bottom of the hill looking up, it looked very steep. Maybe 30 feet in a washed out gully with nowhere to run out to at the bottom. Hmm. After a steep climb and shove and push on a footpath around the side of the hill I stood at the top of the peak looking down over West Leeds, the cold wind buffeting me and the fine drizzle stinging my eyes and legs, taunting me. If lightning were to flash overhead and thunder roll it would have been very fitting. This was a horror film of a drop. Much steeper than drop 2, and on grass the whole way down. Tufty, tussocky grass that would try to grab my tyres and send me over the bars. The washed out gully I had seen from below was a definite no-no, almost vertical and too narrow to fit pedals between. I stood and looked at the drop for a good 5 minutes, envisaging what it would feel like to skitter down it. And bottled it. It was too steep to attempt with no one else around to pick up the pieces should it go Pete Tong. I bowed out gracefully and rode home, vowing to return at a later date with a full Team FanyLion Paramedic Mountain Rescue Squad in attendance and ride the final bitch of a descent.
I felt that I had failed, however I had conquered 3 very steep drops and erred on the side of caution and sensibility with the fourth. I live to fight another day.
Team Hodgson, out.
Riders present
Team Hodgson, FanyLion Solo Downhill Assault Squad
Enjoyment level
Extreme