We are off to the quantocks at the w/e.

I have done a little playing parking above Crowcombe here and doing the stuff north of here. All fab.

We will do as many ups/downs in that area and Dead Woman’s Ditch.

My thinking is that it is all a real blast & we just ride up & down what ever we find but some specific tips would be appreciated especially south of the Crowcombe road as I have not ridden there at all.

Sounds like you may know the area a bit, so ignore this if you like:

I’ve only been once – was great. A friendly (and scarily large) local showed us round. Pretty sure we’d not have had half as good a ride on our own, even with a guidebook (I guess GPS routes might help more but following a person is easier than reading a screen at speed)

IMO, beg for a guide

You need Sharki to pop up on this thread and offer his guiding if he is in the area. My favs are Five lords, Frogs combe.

I went there last weekend, such a beautiful place.
Have a number of rides but here’s a couple in the south.

head for weacombe combe , stert combe,somerton combe and hope you bump into a local guide . I maybe up there saturday but wont know for definate until nearer the weekend. Oh and a blast down Holford combe is a must.

YGM Bill

Edit: Also, what knottie said 🙂

What are the conditions like at the Quantocks at the moment?

Are they ever really bad?

Brilliant…!!! 😀

Just asking as I was last their in September I think and they have always been good, but on that day I even had to pedal on the descents 😥 It was a very disappointing days riding which I ended early, seemed like a thousand horses had been over the trails and churned them up like a farmers field!

Was pretty windy last weekend and I was pedalling hard down some of the descents too.
Trails were firm though.

I did Weacombe and Somerton combe mid-Jan. Fast, as usual. Some of the DH area was ruined by felling work and vehicle tracks.

thanks all. will look closer when not on my little phone. the for the mail buzz.

supplementary. where’s good for food. I know the pub in crowcombe but somewhere more central would be better or perhaps we just go self sufficient.

head for weacombe combe , stert combe,somerton combe and hope you bump into a local guide . I maybe up there saturday but wont know for definate until nearer the weekend. Oh and a blast down Holford combe is a must.

This is pretty much the best suggestion. Anywhere with “Combe” in the name will be a blast – Holford, Somerton, Stert, Smiths… You’re in for a good day.

The Plough in Holford is cyclist friendly these days.

^ is it open again ?

Yeah the pubs got new owners again. Was up there last weekend conditions were near perfect. As everyone says if ur not sure on where to go a guide is the best option or u will miss some good bits. Am going up at the weekend but not sure what day yet

thx all.

I suspect we are too disorganised to get to meet up with a guide.
We’ll still have a blast though I am quite sure.

Riding the Quantocks this wknd

meeting at the top of Holford about 10am will be looking to do 20 odd miles
plenty of combes and of course the chimney

Tep, generally all “combes” work, but not sure I’ll ride up Paradise Combe again! Good ride rounnd the base of the hills to the start from the bottom of Weacombe though, not done that before last weekend.

Will definitely ride down to Cockercombe south side from The Slades again though, there’s some fun and steep tracks in those woods. Plus a lot of forestry destruction.

surprised no one has mentioned the Chimney yet, still worth a ride IMO.

And just riding along the main ridge and back is a great ride when the weather’s clear

Forgot about the chimney seems to be riding better lately. Roll on sun morning can’t wait to get out this weekend

Thanks for the help guys.

We had a great although very misty ride. Frog Combe was absolutely amazing & my favourite. I think we must have gone wrong on Dead woman’s ditch as that was most unexciting and that was as far south as we went. Will go south of the Crowcombe road next time.

Stillwe managed 36 km & 1043 m of ascent and were well goosed by the end.

Here is a track if you are interested http://www.strava.com/rides/36kilometers-5014068

What day did you go on? We were there in the mist on Saturday morning, my first time at the Qs for 2 years. Only did 4 descents as one of us had an accident then a ride ending mechanical. Frog Combe was lovely as always and the last kick of Ladies Edge climb was a horrible as usual.
Was gutted it ended early but then again we did return to a lovely sunny afternoon in Bristol.

we were there on Saturday too. Very very misty. We did Leigh Woods & the others on the Sunday. Sunny, hot & tired legs

Looking at the route there’s some pretty strange choices, the mist must have been bad 🙂

apart from 30 minutes it was sub 100m visibility all day. down in Bicknoller it had been lovely all day.

I was there Sunday it was amazing.
You guys keep mentioning Frog Combe which isn’t on my map.
Is it this singletrack in the centre of the pic in the distance?
This trail goes down to Holford and follows a stream for a while.
It was fantastic!

The whole low cloud thing was spectacular.

@ Hugor, I think that’s Somerton Combe in the top picture, if it skirts round to the left then dives down into the woods and takes a right before going all the way to the bottom then it is. One of my favourite descents on the quantocks! I can’t get an OS map on my iPod but I would have thought Frogs would be labelled on a map, I think it’s one valley to the east of Somerton, can’t be sure without checking though.

Edit: just clicked mad bill’s link and got an OS map layer, that’s stert leading into Somerton, it’s still awesome though! Frog Combe is the next Combe over from Stert, very different depending on which side of the stream you go at the top, the west is sweet, flowy singletrack but a bit of a gully right at the start which suffers in the wet, the east is a bit more technical with a few rooty drops before the two meet at a crossing and you get the traditional quantocks Combe descent, criss-crossing a stream all the way to the bottom!

Thanks, I will try those next time. I just realized that many of these combes are not labelled on the 1:50000 maps but I’ve just been onto the streetmaps website and had a look at the 1:25000 maps and they are all there.
I’m keen to try some of these combes now cheers.

I have this video of Frog combe, the flowing twisty side. Its a little slow but my mate I was following was very hung over and crashed about 6 times on the day!!

Frog Combe descent from top of Crowcombe park

Hugor,
Ruscle’s video is the root we did.

The start here on streetmap is at 1:02 on the video.

Thats great thanks guys.
I’m organising a group ride there in a few weeks.
I think I’ll have Weacombe, Somerton combe and Frog combe in it.
Probably be done by then. All 3 are amazing descents.
Couple of decent falls in that clip 🙂

Try and find Slaughterhouse Combe it’s not so easy to find but well worth the effort.