Quite fancy a ride outside of Bristol and not in a Welsh trail center this weekend.

Don’t suppose anyone has tried the mendips up by Charterhouse? I know it was bog death but is it any better now?

whats the riding around the mendips like??
any vids about??

shouldn’t be too bad tbh. Not been up for a few weeks. There will be bits are only every dry in a drought but other than that it’s ‘okay’.

Did a great loop from cheddar up to rowberrow over to crooks peak and back through axbridge on Wednesday. Everywhere was really dry, although we did miss out beacon batch, as it’s always wet up there. The odd puddle in rowberrow, but it certainly didn’t stop the fun!

Check YouTube for vids of rowberrow, crooks peak and cheddar raceway bridleway, a favourite of mine!

Does the raceway bridleway start at the end of the track that goes past the quarry? Ie you pass the raceway, continue to curve around the north west of the quarry and then it starts?

start of bridleway is next to the quarry gates, just past the the raceway. Great fun, should be there myself in the morning 😀

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLwfVf995kM[/video]

Mendip is fantastic at the moment, compared to last 3 months of rain February has been kind and trails are firming up a treat.
Come on down , it’ll be great

Thanks guys. Will be heading that way shortly.

Summer:
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kInR52twS8c[/video]

Winter:
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l023DqAkSqE[/video]

Well had a really great lap up from and back round to cheddar on Saturday afternoon. As dry as could be hoped for, beautiful weather and with a bit of help managed to find the top of christmas tree descent (thanks if ur reading this). Only saw 6 other bikes in 3 hours (this was a bimble) compared to that many within about 100m of Leigh woods this morning!

Great days riding. Felt like the right choice.

Morning,

I am looking to ride on the Mendips this year but don’t know much about them, I usually ride the Quantocks and know the trails there pretty well but as I am from Weston-super-Mare, it makes sense to try out the Mendips.

I took a walk up there last weekend, around Rowberrow and found a load of DH stuff but I am into XC (too much of a wimp to go flat out down some of those DH runs!). Is there any singletrack around that area suitable for XC? Has anyone got any routes they do which could be a good start?! Blackdown looks good too.

Thanks

whats the riding around the mendips like??

Really good in the dry, got taken round there by some chaps on here last year 😀

I absolutely 100% do not claim to be someone who knows the mendips… but if it helps here’s a trace from Saturday.

Parked up in a side street in cheddar and rode up through the gorge. Have also pushed/rode up over the top to the right of the gorge before but just wanted to spin up the start this time.

You’ll see a took a wee wrong turn after heading up the beacon. Was quite fun down to the road there!

Edit: larger version http://i.imgur.com/krIq0GV.jpg?1

just been out for a nice long dog walk around the old fort and it’s fantastic. Hope the weather stays like this long enough for me to get a bike built up and get time to go for a ride.

I’ve been studiously avoiding the ‘dips for about 7months due to a combination of wet weather and work. There has been quite a bit of change on some of the trails due to use in wet weather, but its all drying out very nicely. It won’t take much rain for it to get rubbish again, but right now its definitely worth a go.

About the only place I don’t have much of an idea about is the DH trails in Rowberrow – they can take longer to dry out because they’re undercover.

I dare say, if the summer turns out to be good, Buzz, candid avid and I will probably feel compelled to do a STW best of Mendips tour, or sommat.