Just wondering whether any of the forum members from the North East have ever been down this road ? It leads from A66 near Barnard Castle, to Reeth in Richmondshire heading towards Leyburn (eventually). Went for a little run out early this morning and this road was part of the route I'd picked out but never been along before. Typical moor top road, not a fast road but decent tarmac with some interesting twists and turns and none of the dreaded potholes you get with more trafficked roads. Very undulating in parts with one point where the road drops about 10 feet, a bit like a hump backed bridge, except that you're travelling along a flat but downhill road and you hit this seemingly innocuous hump in the road but find you've just ridden off the edge of the planet, (at least that's how it seemed to me), I was only doing 40-50 ish and next I was fully airborne. Landed nose heavy, forks actually bottomed out with a clunk, though don't think it did any damage, bike handled ok after and I was out for another hour before getting home. It's a route I'll do again as it needs a couple of trips to get to know the road and it'd been super fun, especially that early on a Sunday morning when most are still in bed and the sun is shining.
pretty sure i have done it the other way round when going from leeds up to scotland, avoiding the boring a1. Did it bring you out on the road that goes to the tan hill inn if you turn right at the end of it ?
Yes that's the one, if the tan hill was to the right then that's the same approach to the junction I had
I will ride it again, I'd like to master that "jump" and probably go up to Tan Hill and view the "double glazing" that was such a feature of TV ads many years ago
Done this road in 2013 with a few mates on a Yorkshire Dales Tour on my old Blade. Rode up to the Tan Hill Inn (Highest Pup in England) and stayed the night, even bought the T Shirt Pissed up at 2am!
The roads up there suit my hyperstrada more, due to the low down torque and longer suspension travel ,but as i work 4 days on 4 days off shifts , i get loads of time to do my favourite 350 day trip from Leeds to Hawes , over to Bowness ,then go over the kirkstone pass to penrith and up the Switchback road to Hartside cafe near Alston . Then across to Barnard castle and down the road you mention and back home .
