Great 35 mile XC blast around Surrey Hills today. First time on Evian at Winterfold – that’s a cheeky little drop and very unexpected. Pretty muddy at the bottom of it too!! That’s a blast of a trail – made Orange Clawhammer (?) and BKB seem tame afterwards.

Lots of horse-made shlop on the b’ways today leading to one early bath in the middle of W’fold 🙁 Surprisingly slippy glue in places.

I am getting too old for all this hardtail mallarky!! Time for a FS??

[bump]

Drops like that are good places to focus on looking at the exit not the drop itself!!

Another question – are SH’s singletracks notably rooty or are most UK trails like that. I guess the latter, but did make me think today – why do we ride rooty trails. Ok its a challenge but is it fun? Or is that where FS comes in. My back is aching now!

Places with trees tend to be rooty! Surrey Hills are rootier than some and not as bad as others. Wouldn’t have said that was a particularly rooty trail either! Agree it’s good though!

Njee – agreed there are far worse on SH, its just that you get on a nice flowing bit of s’track and every few meters there’s a root and little hole. The back end of my HT was flapping a bit today, but that was probably me!!

If you want smooth, go to a BMX track. I ride FoD mostly and roots are all part of the challenge and good fun. Stick me in the rocky Peaks and I’d be rubbish…probably.

How big is a cheeky drop? I don’t know the trail.

It’s not a drop in the sense of a drop off but a roll in…. and it is a great trail that you will find if you ask around when you are over that way but I won’t say where it is exactly as it will cut up something terrible if it suddenly gets a couple of hundred extra riders down it.

one of the best things about the SH is that there is plenty there and the more time you put in the better it gets…

Thanks, roll-ins are a weakness for me, always the same mistakes even though I know what I should be doing…must practice harder.

It’s already about the wettest trail up there, complete with bike sized braking bump!

It’s a roll in the same size as the one at the top of BKB, but slightly steeper. With a big puddle at the bottom currently!

Rickos – I dont want smooth, but maybe the odd 100m or so without a root!! 😉

Yes, sorry, drop is not really the word although I guess if you hit it with enough speed you could count it a such. Visually more of a challenge that the BKB dip, but this was the first time on the trail for me and I guess it was more the surprise especially as I was knocked off balance by the root just before it. Like most features like this, it probably seems tame second time around!!

Yes, the whole trail seemed oddly wet at least until the bottom.

Agreed – it has the biggest braking bump I’ve ever seen. It started as a smooth trail… Fantastic surprise to see some repair work to the trail that ends in the Peaslake car park by the gate, T trails and a new bermed swoopy ending on one that ends up on Pitch that starts near to T1. Thanks to whoever did the repairs. A hell of a lot of digging down done.

GB

Must go back to have a look at Pitch work but knee feels a little sore from W’fold crash yesterday. Gee, when you sat the car park, is that the slope down from the graveyard?

You have Tatoo Dave to thank for all that work. Although the jump on the new ending of Radlane/proper bo seems to have dissapeared. some mincer probably dug it out 😈

Excuse the numpty question – but breaking bump, what is that exactly?

Is this also known as double headed dog by any chance? ive not heard of evian.

I am not great on the names – but I think not. Basically hop across the road at base of DHD (if I am correct on that one) and make sure you get the correct of two trails immediately opposite. Looking North/downhill its the trail on the RHS and more obviously bike marked at the moment!!

Is this also known as double headed dog by any chance? ive not heard of evian.

Two-headed Dog (as I know it) is the drop to the east of Barhatch Road, with the little ‘dog leg’ halfway down.

From there, go around the gate, right onto the road and then into Evian on the left. There is another trail off Barhatch road which just goes straight down and crosses the climb back up after Evian.

That is a corker of a trail (Evian) only recently discovered that with friends a few weeks back, but definitely a favourite now.

I was giving it my all, all the way down there and could feel someone breathing down my back all the way down, as I turned round it was Brendan Fairclough and others, so i didn’t feel to bad about not being able to lose him.

I love the trails on Winterfold – one of the only places I know of where the trails are at all hard and great for technical practice. The rest of the hills round there seem lot smoother and less techy. I’m not into big jumps so Evian, switchbacks etc are all fantastic to practice skills on for the harder race courses like Hopton, Dalby etc…

A braking bump is created when the bikes bounce up and down when skidding the back wheel. The net result over time is to create an undulating trail surface with holes, called braking bumps.

Cheers Gee for the explanation. That makes sense – there are certainly a few of those on Evian! I was imagining a large bump at the end to slow people down (dooh!) and obviously that doesn’t exist. Do you like riding braking bumps?

Did you mean the trails are all hard or not at all hard?

Just watched a video of “Sim” riding Evian on YT and he (?) makes it look so easy and insignificant!! Is he The Stig?

Roots are rarely as much fun as rocks.

Also, W’Fld is Wakefield. Which is where the rocks are.