Hi all. Just joined after only riding for about 2 months. Most of that been at night with lamps which we enjoy.
Tomorrow we were going to Woodbury Common for some daytime amusements but we now have to go to Plymouth to collect a xmas present so are looking at the new forest instead.
Can anyone point us towards any trails? Having never been before I’m a bit in the dark about finding trails or single track there.

Thanks in advance
Barry

No waymarked singletrack in the new forest as such. Sure people will pop up and suggest areas, but you do need to know some ot the way around those. otherwise you are stuck with the family friendly routes.

The purbecks are always good, if not, plenty to do around wareham.

I went here at the weekend – enjoyed it immensely!

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=391955&y=92600&z=5&sv=391955%2C92600&st=OSGrid&lu=N&tl=%7E&ar=y&bi=%7E&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf

There are some good pubs the riding is poor-to-average on most of the forest…

You would be better off stopping in the Purbecks or some other part of Dorset. NF is flaaaaaaaaat. I ride bits of it but only because it’s local. No worth travelling to.

Excellent! That will explain why it’s hard to find much about it in the forums. I’ve seen Purbecks mentioned a few times and it’s right by my old Airsoft grounds at Bloxworth.
Thanks chojin for the map. Will I need to know where I’m going once I get to the arrow in the map?

Purbecks is getting its annual winter rest as the ferry is out of action for servicing. Many locals will be riding elsewhere (Wareham Forest or Canford Heath) for a month or so. Gives the trails a chance to recover a bit too. Puddletown could be ok this time of year, but haven’t ridden there for ages so not sure of current trail situation / tree clearance.
As said, New Forest is not really worth the hassle of falling out with horse riders for.

Ah, I got confused. I thought the arrow that chojin had set on the map was Purbecks, sorry about that. My geographical skill are somewhat lacking.
Purbecks is now on a growing list of places to ride.
Anywhere else specific to head in Wareham Forest or is it a case of have a mooch about when you get there?

Depends what you are after in the forest, can be hard going when it’s wet, sandy, muddy and flat (most of the time) and does require a bit of grunt, technical capability etc to stay moving. Other than that, it’s all pretty standard stuff. What I would say is that the NFDC website or Forestry Comm website has got the scummy fireroad routes that are the only authorised places to ride (although most cyclists ignore this) and that google maps / other online maps will show you other paths etc – if you have a GPS I would suggest this is probably the best method to navigate with as paper maps won’t show these paths. If you know where to look there is some other ST around, few and far between though.

There is some superb singltrack hidden in wareham forest – it’s a case of knowing where to find it though! 🙂

if you live in somerset and are going to plymouth, why is the NF in your mind at all ?

Think I’ve been sniffing too much brake fluid. Portsmouth not Plymouth. Well spotted, just double checked the text. -2 geography score to me 🙁

QE country Park is v near Portsmouth – someone could suggest a route round there I guess (might need a new thread though)

Queen Elizabeths Country Park has a waymarked route of about 8K I think? Couple of laps of that or check out an OS and see if you can hook it up with some of the downs riding. Deffo suggest some mud tyres for that place though, it’s a touch slippy.
There’s a blue grade route opened up at Moores Valley Country Park which is all twisty singletrack, no tech stuff but it’s waymarked and 7K in distance. We whipped round in a 25 minutes, when I say “whipped” I mean stopped for a natter every so often. I think with that place it’s more fun the faster you go. Also it drains mega well.

With the New Forest It’s only decent if you’re know where you’re going even then it’s not great, if I wasn’t working I’d volunteer to show you round.

Some brilliant suggestions thanks all.
Is the mud at Queen Elizibeth claggy old clay does anyone know?
I think we will ‘try’ to get around a couple of those ideas as we have plenty of time. You have all saved me loads of time searching for places even with my dodgy information. I’ll google the other places to see what i can find we have sat nav so will just head to somewhere and try to get lost.

Thank you all for your help i’ll let you know what we found.

QE can be claggy, has a chalk base so can be a bit like riding on ice in the wet. Makes for interesting runs.

Lordswood in southampton is ok at the moment too.

I actually quite like the new forest for biking. It’s certain not gnar-core or whatever the latest phrase is.

The route at moors valley is supposed to be good, and there is some FC north shore very close to it should you wish to try to kill yourself!

Again to get the best of these areas go to somewhere like garmin connect and search the saved trails.

If I wasn’t nursing a broken collar bone I would offer to show you round.

The garmin connect idea helped me very muchly! So thanks for that.
After a very slow start (someone couldn’t get out of bed) we only had time to go to Wareham forest. Nearly 3 hour we plodded about and there is certainly some good stuff in there. Like zoolander said, just a case of knowing or finding, finding probably being the most fun.
An amazing day and amazing weather. I think we shall return to there again as think we skirted around the same bits. Sat nav needed next time!

Thanks again! 🙂