Riding with a couple of mates around the Long Mynd just before Xmas, never ridden around that neck before. It’s likely to be a short affair, so I’d like to know what people rate as their top 3 descents around there.

I can’t quite remember off the top of my head so take this with a pinch of salt.

No. 7 Minton Batch and No. 9 which was a rocky fast decent little alps stylee..

I hope someone comes along corrects me.

[video]http://vimeo.com/39292834[/video]

Great riding down there. Minton batch is ace

As Poonprice said #9 and #7 descents are both really good. I prefer #9 of the two though.

Forgot to say, call in at blazing bikes at Marshbrook and you can grab a map and the chap will do you a route.

If we are posting videos up …..
[video]http://vimeo.com/75236302[/video]

Great views, reasonably long descents, nothing particularly technical, but well worth the trip.

Thanks poonprice. I’m on their website at the mo. The map is very good, and the trails even have a description of each, but it’s great to have some local suggestion to back it up! So that’s Minton Batch and number nine, any others that stand out? I’m interested in number 10 described as fast flowing, rocky and technical, leads to Cardingmill Valley. Is that any good? Also heard that there’s some good stuff over the other side of Church Stretton on another nearby hill, anything worth linking in?

The markers are hard to spot from the road so keep your eyes peeled. They’re a good 15 to 20 feet off the edge of the road and only a few feet tall and green or brown, so can easily be mistaken for old fence poets. I took the Minton Batch, came back up past the gliding club then took another route (can’t remember the number) that dropped you into Little Stretton, which I preferred to the Batch. Great days riding though.

After your description I think No. 10 is the one I meant not No. 9… You can go flat out down there, watch the walkers and don’t fall off, it’ll hurt!

Go see Allen & kate at plush hill cycles in church Stretton square.
#localsknowbest

Cardingmill Valley, track 10 “You can go flat out down there” is not good advice, especially during the day at the weekend.

It’s the most popular route up for walkers, you’ll get on better with them if you go up it 🙂 they cheer you on, but you’ll do well to clean it.

Track 2 is pretty good and not as short as it looks on the map.

All the “descents” on the map are doable as climbs (with the odd push)

If starting from Cardingmill itself I would go:

15
14
12
11
Up to Polebank
7
Along to Hamperley
1
2
4
5 (horrible climb, but it is your last and more interesting than 6)

Then depending on time of day/night I might do 10 or 9 or even back to 14

About 18 miles/3500ft climbing, nice 🙂

After the climb through the woods from Marshbrook and down to gate before turning right to the glider club, there are a couple of good decsents from there.
One is a switchback descent leading down to the road, and the other is christened the ‘Tobaggan run’ good in the wet if you like sliding on your back side.
You can then ride along to Meddlicott before climbing up to Pole Bank
We always finish off with a blast down to Little Stretton.
Its a balls out finish. Not technical in the slightest but a fast wide track to the bottom, which always stinks of cooked pads.

All of long mynge descents are not worth all the climbing ime. 40 mins of up for 10 mins of down X all day. But it’s nice wild riding and a nice place to ride a bike. I’d make more of an XC day of it rather than all about the downhill.

Sorry jekkyl but youre wrong. 😛

Townbrook hollow looks rather nice. Remember, it’s “cheeky”, so get off and push.

I’d imagine it would be an absolute hoot to ride down 😉

i think it looks like really really good fun the long mynd, nice fast flowy singletrack far from the usual peaks stuff i do, pretty annoyed with myself that i didnt go this summer as it looks great in the sun/dry

defo going to go next year/maybe when its frozen

edit : jekyll not sure why you’d think it was a ‘downhill’ type area, all the vids and footage ive seen just show it as being a nice xc type area

Minton Batch is excellent, mostly tight singletrack that isn’t particularly technical but gives you no margin for error. No. 10 into Cardingmill Valley is excellent. Some very technical little bits, but overall you can maintain good speed (not sure about flat out though, unless you’re pretty much on a DH bike which kind of defeats the object imo) whilst keepig an eye on line choice. Best done early or late on though because, as posted above, it is very popular with walkers. Only been there the once (old man lives in Shrewsbury), but will be back there again soon 😀

It’s pretty dry at the moment, well it was over Stiperstones/Eastridge last weekend and there has been only the odd little shower since.

Hope it stays that way as we’re planning a nice 40 miler for the Sunday before Christmas, riding from dawn till dusk it includes 5 ascents of the Mynd, might have to pack some lights 😯

Here’s the map with the tracks marked, as has been alluded to above there are other cheeky ones and even stuff that isn’t marked on any map 🙂

I understand where jekyll’s coming from – a lot of the descents are very fast and so over quickly, so if you go there only for the DH bits you’re not going to get the most out of it.

I was there on Saturday and really enjoyed it. I’ve done Minton Batch a few times but somehow never understood what the fuss was about, but this time came away buzzing (turns out there is margin for a small error 😯 )

12 then 14 was also great it’s own way. Bit of tailwind so charging across a field at about 30mph in that lovely silence you get with a tailwind, followed by a nice steep singletrack down to the road.

Only ever done Carding Mill as a climb. Should have done it the other way as it was desserted on Saturday…

On the other hand number 5 does nothing for me. Waste of hard earned altitude.

might have to get down there it looks great

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There is some DH stuff in the woods by 1. You’ll pass some motorbike enduro stuff, then further up is some MTB. Its not bad and worth giving a go as you climb back up. The fireroad ascent is fine. We did ascent 12/14 as well and I thought neither ascent was bad at all? Was ‘kin wet though! last Nov.

From that map descents 2 and 3 are my current faves, although the last time we did Carding Mill valley descent it was dark. Made it more interesting

Ashes Hollow is ok but IMO not worth it as most of that ‘footpath’ is boring. Milton is good. We had a good time but the pub next to our campsite had the life sucked out of it!

Ashes is great and probably one of the more technical tracks on the Mynd, very difficult to ride clean (seen it done, never managed it myself). Townsbrook isn’t marked on the map above and is surprisingly tricky to find, especially in the dark.

As above, 5 is a climb, don’t waste your time riding down it.

Another up option from the West is to go past Medlicott (that’s a shite climb btw) to Coates farm and climb up from there, it’s a bit mucky at the bottom but soon improves and is quite a nice way up once the first bit is out of the way.

Or go out to Bridges for a pint of Three Tuns XXX and then on to Ratlinghope, hop over the river there (dont try to follow the BW from Bridges, it’s unridable and lots of gates), then along Darnford Brook up to the Golden Valley and then turn right when you hit the Portway.

+1 for shinsplints’ suggestion, http://plushhillcycles.co.uk/