Opps – Apparently I’ll be riding the North Downs not the South Downs – Just shows you I need help.

Hi
Just wondering what the conditions are like on the North Downs at the moment. The Wiggle event covers Ranmore Common, Hurst Wood, Wooton Common and Broadmoor. There could be a fair amount of rain in the next 24Hrs do the tracks turn crap very quickly? I’ve got Conti X-Kings on at the moment; will I survive?
Appreciate any detail as I have no idea what to expect in that part of the country.

Andrew

Well it was very wet/boggy/sloppy in all the usual places last night. Really wished I’d had my winter boots on

North Downs will be a lot worse than the adjacent Surrey Hills. I’d be considering mud tyres after last nights rain, and looking at the forecast.

Just been wandering Winterfold and saw all the nice pink signs…first year that its included Winterfold iirc, be interesting to see the route. That aside, its going to be wet and muddy 🙁

:edit: Just seen the route: shame they have taken that nasty last climb back up to the top of Denbies from Chapel Lane out…you guys are getting it easy.

No Leith Hill either. You do get the lovely Deathstar climb

What was said about the South Downs on your other thread applies to the North as well. There’s a few sandy bits on that wiggle ride, but not many.

I ended up fitting mud tyres for the Wiggle Rough Ride (definitely on the South Downs) a couple of months ago and too be honest they were NOT needed, in fact they were a hinderance. Is it really that different on the north side?

what day is? The Peaskae MTBO thing is also on, the hills are going to be chokka..

It’s on Saturday.

Is it really that different on the north side?

no, not that different, they’re 40 miles apart but the geology is similar.

if you’re happy with your tyres then stick with them, people are giving you advice based on local experience, there’s no rule that says you have to follow it.

For most people, most of the year, something like a Mud-X or Conti Baron is fine on the Downs. They’re not ‘slow’ on hardpack but will get you up and down stuff when it gets wet and/or muddy. There’s lots of people who put a purgatory or something on the front year round and have a less knobbly tyre at the back.

its been raining for most of toady and ground is changing quickly

IME, conditions vary significantly between W’fold area and Ranmore areas with the latter being slippier.

Have fun.

Well it’s either Medusas or X-Kings. I’ve only just fitted the X-Kings and went tubeless so would rather not have to strip them off. I think I’ll give them a go; what’s the worse that can happen – a long walk?

Thanks for your inputs.

Enjoy!

Might be worth taking some spare brake pads if you have some, the sandy sections (broadly anything south of the A25) can eat pads in no time if the rain is biblical.

how did it go?

Tough, if it was anything like the Eastbourne end of SDW couldn’t get any shelter from the wind, never seemed to be behind me, good work out.

I went for a ride at 11:30, passed the broom sweeper taking down the direction arrows and, a little further, found a rider at Deerleap Wood/Park Farm just outside of Westcott fixing a puncture…stopped for a chat/offer help and he had started at 9:10, he was 6 miles in. Im sure he did but I really hope he made it

It was claggy and greasy on Saturday and will remain so for a while. More rain forecast.

FAO visitors: the Dorking-Guildford valley is a geographical boundary. To the north side is the North Downs (part of), it’s chalky and claggy, it does not drain well. To the south side is the Greensand hills which is sandy and does drain very well. The whole area is generically known as “Surrey Hills”. The bits people treat as a trail-centre (which it’s not) are in the Greensand part.

Whatever tyres you have for one will be wrong for the other. Pick an all-rounder and be done.

The bits people treat as a trail-centre (which it’s not)

What’s that supposed to mean? How do you “treat an area like a trail centre”? There’s no signposts to follow, but people turn up and ride round. Surely that’s the same regardless. 😕

Yes it was pretty muddy, quite a few areas were more like slush than mud and yes the sandy sections were getting on for chain killers. I enjoyed it. The climbs weren’t as bad as the Wiggle Rough Ride on the South Downs a couple of months back but sadly had to walk a couple of them; along with most others I add; I’m from Cambridge and we don’t get hills. Certain sections/climbs were bare rock and traction could have been difficult but my Conti X-Kings were tops; really impressed with them TBH in all of the various conditions.

If you were the guy that made a crazy “on yer right” pass on one of the rocky/rooty descents only to be stopped by a copper on a trails motorbike – Ha, serves you right; idiot!

If you were the guy that made a crazy “on yer right” pass on one of the rocky/rooty descents only to be stopped by a copper on a trails motorbike – Ha, serves you right; idiot!

That’s piqued my interest: more details needed…if he called out and didn’t ruin it for you, why does it matter if he overtook? What the heck were police there for on the course…a road crossing?

ooh the police thing is interesting, more info please.

@nuke there are coppers on motor bikes about as part of normal patrols, may not have been anything to do with the event

I’m from Cambridge

I’m interested if the events are bringing many new people to the area.

Did you come just for the event? Would you have come otherwise?

It’s good eh?

That’s piqued my interest: more details needed…if he called out and didn’t ruin it for you, why does it matter if he overtook? What the heck were police there for on the course…a road crossing?

+1, don’t get that at all.

total conjecture as I don’t know where it was and I wasn’t there, but if it was on a bridleway then something to do with inappropriate riding/’racing’ on a shared use trail perhaps?

Are you not allowed to overtake now, lest it be construed as ‘competitive’ 😯

It was on a tricky, narrow 3 foot gully section with particularly rocky/rooty, quite steep descent. There were a line of riders, we had just passed a group of youngsters doing their DOE who had to hug the side of the gully to let us pass. The guy made the pass and just managed missing a trials bike coming the other way; it was not a good place to make a speedy pass. Anyway he did and shortly after we passed the Policeman on his trials bike also making his way up the track; he was having a loud word expressing his concern that said rider was riding out of control(his words not mine).I’m not sure if the rider had come off but he was leaning on the bank of the gully not saying much. It must have been a green road as we shortly passed a Landrover rather stuck at 45 degrees sideways with more bemused DOE’rs clogging the route. It was pretty busy on the hills at times.

Proper claggy. Agree with awptechnical – that was a nasty bit – I was riding Hans Dampf and the front tyre looked like a Fat bike.

I thought the epic section around Holmbury was pretty good, but the final 3rd around Polesden lacey dragged on and on – down the side of a field, up the side of a field X repeat.

Good event mind, well organised and nice to see fig rolls at the feed stations – made my day!

that could have been the crappiest bit of Wolverns Lane perhaps.

ajt no need for an event to come ride here, there are loads of routes on the inter-tubes and mags, none of them do mile-padding laps around fields at Polesden!

bring all the fig rolls you want

Hans Dampfs not ideal for mud I have noticed myself, they really hold it – that turned out to be an expensive experiment. Oh well maybe I’ll go to Finale one day and ride them in dust.

there are coppers on motor bikes about as part of normal patrols

News to me that one…not seen any. However if they’re on Wolverns then that’s good as the offroaders have been straying off making a right mess probably close to the overtake described.

Fwiw I ran a Hans Dampf on the front of my 29er on Saturday around Holm/Leith/Ranmore and I thought it was great: no clogging, dependable grip, my current favourite tyre… shows how its impossible to agree on ‘perfect’ tyre choice

ha ha this is brilliant… awptechnical I hope you have buggered off back to Cambridge where you belong and are planning to stick to the flat because that decent was hardly more than a gravel track with the old pot hole and hardly worth mentioning as a course highlight. For your information the copper was warning me of a land rover coming up the track as he could see I was going to make full use the so called decent and didn’t want an accident. FYI I’ve ridden mountain bikes competitively for over 25years, so I can assure you I was quite comfortably in control thanks, hence the “on your right” warning (pretty standard call for anyone who wants to continue past on a decent or going into singletrack). I thought the idea was to enjoy the ride and therefore enjoy what decents there were.
Oh and your an idiot!!!

kettle’s on.

😳

So that’s why he was shouting at you to ride responsibly and you were resting against the bank looking very sheepish – sorry my mistake.

Hope you apologised to the other riders that laughed at you when they passed for being idiots as well.

Love it. Excellent.

should have come over and had a word in the carpark after if it was a problem, I was the guy with the Audi S3 😛

Sheepish or not, im not gonna piss a copper off during at an event am I!!! Did you see it slowing me down after that? I didn’t notice anyone laughing, saw a lot of other confused people as to why I was singled out and told to “hang on a minute”.

I was the guy with the Audi S3

A mountain biker who rides the Surrey Hills also drives an Audi?

I don’t believe it.

😉

why I was singled out

he’d seen your car 😉

*calls IT dept to ask for a new F5 button following the Yeti frame thread*

for the record, people are free to ride as slow as like on descents in my opinion, it doesn’t make them all idiots. Just the ones who see being passed with a warning as wrong

I predict 7 pages.

lol @lcj

(Cmd-R on a mac)

Obviously the Audi comment was made in ref to thread of last week. I don’t need to race my car because I race my bike, providing traffic allows

Why were you riding the ‘sportive’? If you weren’t, why were you troubling yourself riding along boring byways with the competence challenged?

Just asking. Genuine questions in bewilderment!