"Pass!"

[Richard A Thackeray]

We've been up in Cumbria for a few days, & during one of the days out I drove us over Wrynose & HardKnott Passes
I'd quite forgotten how steep HardKnott is east to west
if our daughter had been with us, I think she'd have wanted to get out & walk

Top of Wrynose

The warning for HardKnott
30%!!

Waiting for the only visible vehicle to descend
I drove most of it in 1st, if only to minimise the risk of requiring a gearchange

I stopped at the top for a few minutes, with the bonnet open, to help cool everything down
(temperature gauge was fine though)

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20211213-the-hardknott-pass-britains-wildest-road

Don''t drive it again then!!! https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowU...don_Valley_Lake_District_Cumbria_England.html


Some good photographs here; https://skoobyblue.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-hardknott-pass.html

 

[chriswoody]

Both of those passes were part of my daily commute for several years in the early naughties.

I remember driving up Wrynose early one morning and coming across a dead Herdwick Sheep blocking the road, it hadn't been there too long, but rigor mortis had set in. With no one else around for miles, the only option was to get out of the car and move it to the side myself, Oh the joys of countryside commuting!

Still haven't ever cycled Hardknott though, not sure why, just never managed to get round to it.

 

[Jameshow]

We've been up in Cumbria for a few days, & during one of the days out I drove us over Wrynose & HardKnott Passes
I'd quite forgotten how steep HardKnott is east to west
if our daughter had been with us, I think she'd have wanted to get out & walk

Top of Wrynose
View attachment 680992

View attachment 680994

View attachment 680995


The warning for HardKnott
30%!!
View attachment 680996

Waiting for the only visible vehicle to descend
I drove most of it in 1st, if only to minimise the risk of requiring a gearchange

I stopped at the top for a few minutes, with the bonnet open, to help cool everything down
(temperature gauge was fine though)


View attachment 680997


https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20211213-the-hardknott-pass-britains-wildest-road

Don''t drive it again then!!! https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowU...don_Valley_Lake_District_Cumbria_England.html


Some good photographs here; https://skoobyblue.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-hardknott-pass.html

Woss!!!

 

[presta]

I absolutely love the passes, I have done ever since I first went up there as a kid, any excuse to drive over them, they're great fun. I like the foot passes too, the Nan Bield being my favourite, but Black Sail is special too, as I have a photo from when my father and his mates went over it carrying their bikes on their shoulders. I never did Sticks Pass, which is the highest, but I did cross the summit of it whilst walking the ridge. On the bike I bagged the highest roads in Wales, and England, but never did Cairnwell, Scotland's highest.

View attachment 680996

That reminds me of this photo of the sign that used to be at the top of Honister until relatively recently. I was disappointed when it finally went at around the millennium, because I have this photo from the 1940s of my father's best mate Stan thumbing his nose at the suggestion that cyclists should get off and walk:

Those shorts....

I stopped at the top for a few minutes, with the bonnet open, to help cool everything down
(temperature gauge was fine though)

Our Mini van boiled over once, it turned out to be the radiator (which vents into the NS wheelarch on Minis) being choked with mud thrown up by the wheel at a particularly muddy Essex Show a couple of months earlier.

Don''t drive it again then!!! https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowU...don_Valley_Lake_District_Cumbria_England.html

She should try this one for size:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iNLtwMtRSY


They do sort out those who don't have proper control of the car, though. Going up the west side of Hardknott on the bike, I saw an old duffer with clouds of smoke billowing out from under his car as he climbed all the way up slipping the clutch with the engine screaming. The clutch was doing 10,000 miles for every mile the car did.

My cousin said her sister was panicking about the drop on the south side of Wrynose as they climbed up from the east, but there are stones along the side of the road, and you can feel them on the wheel before you're anywhere near going over the edge.

(When I was a kid I used to think that Wrynose Bottom was spelt Rhino's Bottom. )

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

When I was at University (probably 1980ish )a friend and I did Wrynose from the East on our bikes - plus panniers
no lightweight stuff - mine was a proper frame made of steel - early (for the UK) Peugeot 10 speed with drops
and no lycra or any off all that

i.e. it was a long push!!!

then we got to the top - had Lunch and came back down the same way
down was a bit different!!!!
Scary and I felt it necessary to let go of the brakes for straight bits so the brakes could cool down a bit
at one point there was a loud bang from the rerar wheel as the inner tube exploded - I presume it was due to heat or possible a sharp stone - hard to tell as the hole was rather ragged

my friend was rather worried by the time I got to the bottom as had hadn;t realised I was missing for a while as he was concentrating on not crashing into rocks and cars

It was 'interesting' interacting with some cars as we passed quite a few of then - beeing about 20, male and therefore indestructible!!

 

[wiggydiggy]

Be glad there is no snow up there!

I'm more familiar with Honnister Pass myself, not as steep but couple of lovely pubs and campsites on the east side of it.

 

[icowden]

Of course this is the way to do it now... (no need to cool the engine) !

https://www.speakev.com/threads/nissan-leaf-vs-hardknott-pass.9933/

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Last rode both on the Fred Whitton. It’s towards the end at about 90 miles, having done all the other passes first. Wry nose is a baby compared to Hardknott.

 

[presta]

Scary and I felt it necessary to let go of the brakes for straight bits so the brakes could cool down a bit
at one point there was a loud bang from the rerar wheel as the inner tube exploded - I presume it was due to heat

There are two circumstances when the brakes produce no heat:
1) At terminal velocity, when they're not applied,
2) When the bike's not moving.

If you can't get close enough to the former, you can always get close enough to the latter, and it follows that the worst overheating is at moderate speeds in between. (Maximum power dissipation in the brakes occurs when you're descending at 58% of the terminal velocity)

The way to be safe if you're not sure is to descend slowly slowly slowly, and as most steep hills are not as straight as Wrynose east side, you don't usually get the choice. By the time you get to the bottom of big steep descents like Hardknott, your hands are usually agony from squeezing the brakes as hard as you can non-stop.