Anyone got a longish route – 30-50 miles taking in hardpack trails or similar in the south-east?
Looking for an xc route that’ll keep me and the bike relatively mud free and isn’t technical. Just want a nice day out really.
Local Croydon/North Downs trails are already turning pretty boggy, especially with the rain this week.

A few laps of swinley?

Bedgebury?

Do u mean MTB or more just offroad pottle ?

Swinley is reasonably well draining, and u dont get any of that claggy sticky mud. But u do get alot of grinding paste spray. So u and bike will get very dirty but u wont get bogged down.

This is one of the main problems with MTBing in the SE I find, the summer riding is great but Winter riding is a bit meh.

Hardpack???? Have you been outside lately? 😉

I think you’ll struggle ….maybe pick a canal towpath after two or three dry days. 🙂
Any way ,Surrey hills dry waaaaay better than north downs ,go there.

My standard wet weather winter xc loop

Guildford – NDW – Ranmore (bit muddy there) drop down to Abinger Roughs then either Peaslake/Winterfold/Ponds Lane/Little LondonAlbury or Shere/Albury then Wtaer Lane to Newlands Corner and back to Guildford.

If you want you can start at Newlands (large CP, bacon rolls etc) – you can start this route around Ranmore or Westcott

You can do some singletrack around Peakslake, Pitch, Winterfold – Holmbury dries pretty well and North side of Winterfold too.

Another 3 hills classic is do-able on Bridleways / tracks which drain reasonably, Westcott/Albury Roughs/Peaslake/Winterfold/Pitch/Holmbury/Leith via Greensands Way/Summer Lightening/Westcott

Will send you some marked up OS maps later may a GPX too.

NDW from Newlands to Ranmore is a bog fest when wet, not helped by walkers and horses. Trails off Ranmore (chalky clay) I wouldn’t even touch in the wet, but they’re going to be quite technical for a gentle pootle.

Hard pack, really the options are Swinley (still some grinding ginger paste in places though, and maybe stick to the blue), tow paths, Bedgebury I guess but never been due to the massive rip off parking charges, or a loop round the paths and roads of Windsor Great Park (actually is quite nice for a gentle day out spin). Or road, but that’s dangerous 😉

Or just deal with getting muddy. It’s not that much of a faff.

senor j – Member 
Any way ,Surrey hills dry waaaaay better than north downs ,go there.

North Downs is part of the Surrey Hills, and parts of it have some of the best trails in the whole of the hills. Just not fun in the wet.

Not hard pack but lots of free draining sand? NDW towards Farnham, Frensham, Thursley and Hankley Commons and ride up Devil’s Punchbowl. Rain tends to firm up the sand in places and not the complete clag-fest you get on the chalky downs

+1 for Swinley, drains surprisingly well. I tend to have a spin around there every few weeks in the winter when my local trails turn to gloop.

Trails off Ranmore (chalky clay) I wouldn’t even touch in the wet,

Still got a nice scar on my leg from one of those – the chalk is nicely mixed in with some flint…

“North Downs is part of the Surrey Hills”

Its part of AONB yes but often when people say the surrey hills they mean the greensand ridge ie Holmbury, Leith, Pitch etc.

This area is somewhat better for MTBing in the winter than the chalk based north downs (as u say).

Its part of AONB yes but often when people say the surrey hills they mean the greensand ridge ie Holmbury, Leith, Pitch etc.

That’s what I meant. North downs is mucky, Surrey Hills are sandy.
Quality pedantry. Keep it up stw. 🙂

scu98rkr – Member 
Its part of AONB yes but often when people say the surrey hills they mean the greensand ridge ie Holmbury, Leith, Pitch etc.

For MTB mecca, generally yes, which is good as it keeps the riff raff away from the good stuff 😉

Greensands ridge is the better choice in wet. Holmbury generally the drier of the hills.

Interestingly (or not) Surrey Hills goes all the way over to Hindhead (some nice stuff there too 😉 ).

+1 for dovebiker’s suggestion. For extra mileage you can extend past Haslemere to Black Down without hitting clay or chalk. Nice views too.

A bit leftfield and a pleasant unchallenging day’s pootle In SW London is the Thames Path between Richmond Park and Windsor taking in Bushy Park and some of Windsor Great Park? A return trip taking in the parks is an easy 50+ miles.

We ride out from Richmond and have a pretty good 50mile loop with about 80% off road out to Mickelham, Ranmore and back in. It’s reasonably wet weather friendly although you do of course get splashed, but it’s not axle deep.

Thanks for the suggestions. I’m basically looking for a big pootle really and to scope some easy stuff to help progress my lad with future trips.

a pretty good 50mile loop with about 80% off road out to Mickelham, Ranmore and back in.

That’s interesting. Do you have route info or map please?

from Richmond and have a pretty good 50mile loop with about 80% off road out to Mickelham,

aP – I’d be interested to know more about this route if youd care to share
I live in Dorking and gf lives in Molesey; would be good to know a decent mostly offroad route between the two.

Don’t really have a gps trail that I can publish, but I’m happy to meet in Richmond one weekend and ride out and back with people. There may be tea and cake at some point along the ride, and maybe a cheeky half?
Anyone interested?
Can’t do this weekend (Badlands CX ride), potentially 17th December? Can;t do 11th or 18th as I’m commissairing CX races then.
It’ll be about 4 hours round trip, we normally ride cx bikes, and one of our friends rides a 70s road bike with 32mm cx tyres.
Let me know.

ooo That sounds interesting. I might well be up for that (Twickenham based).

Very interested. 17 dec penciled in. I should be able to keep up. 🙂
I may be at Henley on Sunday too. Work permitting.

errmmm…. 😳
Just realised can’t do 17th Dec as I’ll be on my way back from mid Wales that day.
Right then, I can do:
3rd or 4th December
10th December
Crimbo week ie 28th, 29th 30th December

Shall I start a new thread? As a mixed-surface/ CX style ride.

Good idea. I can do all of those days .up to 29 dec. Sunday 04 my favourite.