Can anyone recommend me an Exmoor route? Off down that way for a week over summer so could do with half a days pootle..

Hope you enjoy climbing 😯

It makes you stronger!!

Lovely place. Some nice singletrack, but never found a route that gave ample reward for the hellish climbing. Still, if you’re there and you’ve got a bike, you’ll find something to enjoy 8)

post nearer the time and I may be able to show you around .Where will you be based ?

I’m looking to do an Exmoor ride soon too. Will be my brother and I, leaving the wives/kids at Minehead while we pootle around for 2-3 hours.

Any Tracklogs routes for a 2-3 hour ride (15-20 miles?) would be appreciated. Something starting from Minehead up North Hill to Selworthy then up and down Dunkery and back are what I was thinking, but any collective wisdom or routes to link them up in the most enjoyable fashion would be great!

Any Tracklogs routes for a 2-3 hour ride (15-20 miles?)

20 Exmoor miles in 2-3 hours 😯

Good luck with that.

25 miles in June with Nigel from MTB britain took us nearly 5 hours!

15-20 miles….not ridden Exmoor before hence the question. Okay, how about routes for 15-20 miles in 3-4 hours?? 😉 From what Snaps is saying, 25 miles is achievable in under 5 hours. Our fitness is okay and not afraid of the climbing which in some of the routes I’ve seen looks to be around the 1300m mark for a 21 mile route taking in my above suggestions.

I’m fairly new to Exmoor riding despite living in the same trail-blessed county. Honestly, the climbing is quite taxing. Very easy to get over ambitions with mileage. Plan a couple of escape loops.

There are many exciting footpath descents from Selworthy Beacon; if only we could legally ride them! I say study the OS map so you can see exactly where they go, that way you can avoid accidentally including them in your route. I thoroughly recommend the Periwinckle Tea Room at Selworthy for coffee and cakes.

Also, trails around Horner are very interesting too. Snaps tipped me off about the descent from Webbers Post to Horner.

Yes, the Horner descent is great! From Webber’s post there’s also a really nice switchback descent going down to Horner Water.

riding here is fab, but not for the unfit….

give adrian a bell at http://www.justrideexmoor.co.uk/

there are also good some routes in this years active exmoor booklet http://www.activeexmoor.com/

so, who’s out there from the moor? i’m based in lynmouth (currently hobbling though man leaves bike incident yesterday). still going to the bikefest though

j

Thats Selworthy beacon on the left in that pic above with Webbers post in the trees central, Ley hill to the left – pic taken from here looking Northish
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=290713&y=143560&z=120&sv=290713,143560&st=4&ar=y&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf&dn=717&ax=290713&ay=143560&lm=0

All this talk of exmoor and climbing is making my legs ache, old farts ride a week sunday and i’m doing it on a ss 😆

mbr or another mag did a route from minehead which is very good. i have it plotted on memory map both of you dont have email contacts in your profile i could send you a gpx file.

http://www.bikely.com/my_routes

minehead route link. some around nettlebed and henley as well

I posted this up last year… it is a monster day out, however, now I know the place a bit better there are other good / better routes (like descending north off dunkery beacon)… but this links up well…

neilforrow – that is truly a monster route

Just noticed this on: http://www.activeexmoor.com/site/activity-finder/mountain-biking

“Moor Rover
For walkers, cyclists and mountain bikers – pre book your lift to anywhere in the park for £5. Dog friendly service! Uplift service for ikers, book 24hrs in advance.”

Neil – thats not to different to the route we did but clockwise, think it was nearly 30 miles & 7 hours!

Good find Buzz. I’ve been praying for that on most of my Exmoor rides.

I had one of the best days on my bike in Exmoor doing the uplift day with southfork (a bike shop in braunton)

it was un real. 35 miles of singletrack, all downhill, fast, technical.. most were cheeky.. and we never rode the same trail twice.

highly recommended.. (if they still do it)

I need to look into it. Exmoor singletrack can be superb but the climbing always negates its value, for me. 🙁

Trailmonkey… if you ever want to go up there let me know… we should get a day sorted… it is well worth it.

I was gazing in the window of Southfork yesterday on my way back from the coast

I have trouble finding riding buddies who are interested in self-uplift days. But I really fancy it hone downhill skills, maybe a little later in the summer.

Well I can get 4 bikes on my car (3 on roof, one on back) and 4 people comfortably inside so could do a 3+1 uplift day with driver swapping after each run.

What’s the best spots on Exmoor for uplifting then? e.g. Dunkery to Horner/Porlock?

Folks

Just out of interest could you define a hard climb? How much altitude, how long in terms of length of climb, and how technical?

A huge number of my local rides in Spain start with climbs of between 1 and 2 hours, although these are mainly on double track. Technical singletrack climbing is a different kettle of fish and I really struggle on them, but yeah, later on in the year, I am sure i’ll be up for joining the odd ride here and there.

Doable Uplifts – Hawkcombe from Porlock, North hill from Minehead harbour, Wootton common from Wootton courtenay, Dunkery from Horner or Brockwell, Ley hill from Horner
Simon – Hard climb on Exmoor 1300 – 1500 feet over 2 to 3 miles

Is there anything especially worthwhile on Wootton Common? At a glance it looks like all forest roads.

An uplift day in Horner wood has to be where it’s at.

Yes – this decent from the trig point is ‘kin mental in a rock strewn gully kind of way!
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=293816&y=143871&z=120&sv=293816,143871&st=4&ar=y&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf&dn=717&ax=293816&ay=143871&lm=0

I’ve been to Exmoor a couple of times camping with the family, and always get some riding pass outs. Hoping to go again this year cos I’ve been missing it. There’s some fantastic stuff there for sure.

In terms of hardness of climbing, I think what’s misleading is whilst the overall heights on the map can seem relatively low, your start point can be from sea level. The stuff I rode didn’t seem any worse climbs wise than what we do in the Peaks, S Pennines, Calderdale etc. I guess it depends what you’re used to maybe? Blimmin great place!

I don’t think the climbing on Exmoor is any worse than the Quantocks, its just that you have to ride further between the good bits on Exmoor 😉

It’s funny that you should make that comparison. Having descended Hawkecoombe recently, we decided that it was very similar in length and style to Weacombe. The difference was that it took us 1 hour 45 mins to climb to the top of Hawkecoombe and another 1 hour and 45 mins to climb out to the top of the next descent. That’s some rubbish return.

Theres loads of good stuff in the Croydon hill Bats castle area as well.
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=297565&y=141677&z=120&sv=297565,141677&st=4&ar=y&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf&dn=717&ax=297565&ay=141677&lm=0

Hey Guys,
its great to hear there’s so much interest in Exmoor. I’m from Combe Martin, and there are loads of shuttle-able trails around me, most of them starting above Hunters inn giving you a good 15-20 minutes of downhill. my favourite is Holdstone down – hunters inn.

Im currently living in Colorado, but I will be back in Devon in September for a few weeks and would be great to have people to ride with

hi all
i am the aforementioned ‘adrian’ from http://www.justrideexmoor.co.uk (thanks jim for the plug!)
personally i think the best riding is to be had in and around horner woods. i spent about an hour and a half in there this week just riding up and down singletrack. awesome! admittedly you do need a certain amount of fitness and the trails are not necessarily easy to find, but i think it equals what the quantocks has to offer in places.
we do hire gps units though, with all the good stuff pre-planned so if you’re coming down this way, drop me a line.

justride exmoor

buzz-lightyear, snaps, TM – I would be up for a days shuttling…

I can get my hands on a 4×4 they will take 4/6 bikes and people (quickly)

divi up the petrol money and away we go.. !!!

sound like a plan..

edit – Justrider –

if i did a point to point ride, would / could you do a dropoff or pick up one way service???

neil, I’ve got a Landy and 6 bike trailer too, so we could make it work with quite a few of us. I’ll have a word with the D-mo posse dem and see who’s up for it.

Sounds good to me – a few decents I’ve wanted to try but rather do the good ones I know rather than ‘waste’ all the height gained on a crap one!