OK, so it’s all relative, nice hills, great riding but not the Alps.

Other than the Chimney and the DH stuff in Great Wood, what descents would the regulars class as the most technical? Looking to try a couple of new routes over the weekend.

I know the area fairly well, but might need help finding recommendations if they are well hidden

cheers

Concrete block can be tricky, Smiths combe at speed & there are some obscure decents from Dead womens ditch into Great wood.

OK, think I rode Concrete Block once, is it just up from Great Bear and starts on the road near a ….. concrete block? Steep, runs down into Ladys / Holford Combe? That was nice and steep, but short.

Never tried Dead Womans into Great Wood, have gone the other way down into Lady’s Combe via a rocky gully – that was fun.

Is there much worth riding into Frog Combe

What about Long, Paradise and Halways Combes dropping off to the west?

Correct with the location of Conrete block, frog combe was wet but fun in a slidey root type way two weeks ago but has probably dried out & someone more local than me can probably give a better description of the the other combes – I’ve been down them but not that often & not that recently!
Did once see some loons going direct from Beacon hill CP into Weacombe!

if its not hard enough you arent going fast enough 😉

there is a really fun, twisty blast down the spine of higher hare knap, or turn left into ladys edge for a short steep blast with some awesome natural berms on.

there are two sides to frog combe. the wide, fast one thats almost always wet and the narrow windy one thats flat out fun.

there is a really steep descent into the other side of ladys edge, i think sharki calls it horizon. I can never find the top.

and if you know where to look then there is some of the hardest, steepest DH tracks i’ve ever ridden in cockercombe.

Sharki has a nice little one in the trees im sure he can tell you about!
Im sure there will be some of us up there tomo. Where and when are you riding?

Right!!!!!!!

not wiling to be helpful here but…..

Frog combe as a descent although not a bridleway is ok on it’s own, fast as **** with a nice rooty section then a wideish trail and abrupt water crossing point, but beware there’s a couple of trees down across the trail. For locals with out a care this is an insanely fast descent, only the rooty section checks your speed then it’s time to crank it and shit bricks hoping there’s no walkers coming.

The better side of frog is left of the combe, this is accessed by heading towards hare knapp as the wide hard pack track turns to grass bare sharp right and drop by way of a harsh narrow rut(new line seems now to be up on the left)this drops you through a rooty section then hard left on off camber roots to pick up the single track with leads to the ain frog combe track(this is the trail in the first sequence on the ‘quantock sessions vid me and jambo made).

Whilst we’re on the main heathland side of the hill, look for a trail that links longstone hill with the bottom of lady’s edge, some locals call it ‘oblivion’ it’s kinda steep with lil drops on corners with a lovely loose woodland surface that i’s near impossible to brake on 😉

On the west flank the only worth while descent to call technical is off the top of weacombe hill dropping down across the top of bicknoller Quarry, though it’s just loose steep and short.. short combe is ok but i tend to head WNW off it dropping you out opposite bicknoller quarry, it’s starts off grassy for ages then suddenly turns to single track with a couple surprise turns..40mph can be reached before the singletrack but beware of sheep, they CAN’T run that quick hee hee.

From the corner of staple plantion car park facing the combe you’ll see a trail entrance dropping east down into weacombe….this can be fun, especially went you hit the 15 or so wooden steps………

*thinks!*

AH! i know………… triscombe combe with the words at the top ” last one to the ‘blue ball gets them in’…………..lol! that’s make things technical at THAT speed.

Fer the proper tech stuff, head over to triscombe and drop in north from the slades, steep rooty, steep rooty, tight twisty and mostly steep and rooty……if you can find it on the far eastern side north of the viewpoint, Brendan fairclough track hides….enjoy….my soiled undies may still be seen hanging in the trees!

If you want technical, stay heading south in the car for another hour or so 😉

No but seriously, the woodland stuff over by Triscombe is techno heaven, if you can find it. Stuff you really ought to be concentrating for 8)

No sharki, that’s techno hell 😯

i’d forgotten that little gem by bicknoller quarry. i think i nearly ended up in the quarry the first time i rode it…

lolz

rode it with big si, came into that first loose rocky chicane about 10mph to fast and overshot it into the bracken and the fence….

should have remembered as i’d pushed up it about five minutes before.

It’s not so easy as you can’t see nothing as the trail continues to drop away out of sight, until it’s almost too late..

Cycle to the top of some of the hills and just ride straight down the sides! Started to try that with varying degrees of success/crashes. There’s a few good ones coming down from near bicknoller on the East side of the hill next to Smiths. There’s also the stairs from the carpark leading down into Weacombe

that bit in the car park was in getta grip. will longden and steve peat i think, dropping in off the roof of the MBUK transit van…

Yeah watch it last night!

Just thought of another…not overly technical but the leaf litter covers what lurks in the bottom of the gully.
Little known gully run between ‘somerton’ and ‘slaughterhouse’ combe, makes me lol everytime and i still haven’t had a clean run down it….

How about the one that dissapears off left at the top of JP’s climb and ends up at Great Wood. Steep as .

thanks for the tips, will be up there tomorrow. Anyone got a link to the Steve Peat vid?

Trailmonkey, will be back for Dartmoor advice soon!

dropoff….from up at the square pond???? that’s called suicide.

Yeah thats the one, good fun 🙂

Anyone still ride the Slate Run? I haven’t had a go for a couple of years now, last time I tried it obviously hadn’t been ridden for a while and was “healing up”! That’s flippin’ steep.

Slate run??? where to john, there’s a few scree slopes dropping from the top of jp’s

Sharki, you used to be able to pick up the top if you turned right past the top of the chimney and started down the Motorway* then just turned left after 20 yards or so. If you go down the Chimney but continue straight on instead of going round the first bend then that drops into it too but much further down. I think it was Del (ex Ralphie’s) who I heard calling it the Slate Run. It goes straight down the fall line and comes out on the big track that runs parallel to the main track up past the Camp.

*(I think it used to be called that – used to be really wide and super fast before the last lot of logging round there)

We used to ride that slate run on the tandem, now that was fun.

LOst that along time ago, it maust be covered now, you can do the last bit from the chimney way in but the xmas trees are bigger now so it’s a prickly trail.