Off on holiday for a week up to Bude and then to Eastbourne on Friday for the weekend to visit Mrs orena45’s relatives…but appear to have permission to get out for a ride whilst we’re in the SE! Weather looks sh*te all week and heard South Downs can be nastily slippery when wet so is it worth taking the bike or best leave it at home?

(For info was going to give the medium length route from the Dec 09 ST mag trail route a go).

the skatepark is great, bring abmx

bring bike, mow down some pensioners

It’s always worth taking the bike 🙂

It does get a bit slippy and muddy on the Downs at this time of year – might be worth trying to hook up with a local rather than just following a route but it’ll all be rideable pretty much year round.

mud+chalk+hills=purgatory

mud+chalk+hills=purgatory

well, a challenge, certainly 😉

Downs are fine if you know where to go. I grew up in Eastbourne and you quickly learnt which bridleways were flint or coated in soil rather than bare chalk. Esentially well worn paths are down to the chalk which is lethal in the wet.

Look at it as an endurance of will challenge.
Oh and its tipping it down around here!

Hmmm, doesn’t sound like a good idea then!

at least if you have the bike you can pedal your escape from Eastbourne a bit earlier

Depends what you’re looking for, I guess.

If you get a clear day you’ll have some great views, the pleasure of exploring somewhere new and (tbh) an excuse to get out the house for an hour or two.

Yes, like most places, it might be muddy but I wouldn’t worry too much about the ‘slippy’ there’s not that many places where the chalk goes green and ice like. Repeated hills are going to hurt whatever time of year you ride 🙂

Definitely, head over to Friston Forest via Jevington on the SDW, there’s some pretty cool marked singletrack in the forest, a really nice red route, it’s probably very wet and muddy but it’s all good fun and good for technique. The SDW is pretty good too, stunning views on Firle Beacon, all the way to Brighton.