Morning!

I was hoping that there might be some local knowledge around the forum on routes and rides in Hertfordshire, I currently live in St Albans and usually drive over the Aston Hill, Woburn etc to ride the mountain bike but was hoping there might be something a bit more local?

At the moment if I have a couple of hours spare to go out on the bike I take out the road bike instead, but would be good to find some MTB routes locally, instead of having to drive half an hour, or an hour, espcially when time is tight.

Finger crossed!

There is loads of stuff, you can ride out towards Bricketwood and around to Bedmond. Head out towards Sandridge and the out towards Sherrards wood and out towards Hertford or Tewin.
Addiktion Cycles do Thursday night rides and also a group of guys head out from the Jolly Sailor pub on Thursday evenings.
Mail me and I’ll send you some routes if you want.

thanks xanboy, will drop you a mail

I’m in St Albans

There’s not much ‘gnar’ but you can go get yourself lost for a bit, it’ll be hard going out there for the rest of the winter though, it gets proper claggy round here.

Hmm maybe I should show my face at one of those night rides, which one for amiable bearded non-whippets?

There’s a ride tonight, starting at 7pm from The Jolly Sailor pub on Sandridge Rd. Also every Sat morning at 8am.

Routes & durations vary a lot – but usually 2hrs ish.

Some the best/nearest stuff is around Heartwood/Symondshyde/Rifle Butts.

There’s some interesting bits out past Redbourn or over by South Mimms.

Pop along to one of the Jollies rides. We’re a friendly bunch. No really…

Noted, having a three week old baby is severely curtailing my bike based activities at the moment but I probably have more chance of negotiating an evening spin than a day at Swinley ATM. Plus I haven’t been night riding in in ages.

I’ll see if I can get a pass for next Thursday, no promises.

Look for a large furry creature on a fortitude.

I’m in the next town north- OTT mtb club has some (endomondo) routes linked to from their pages, and runs out weekly, as well as evening rides, but like hatter says, from here on in it all gets a bit messy locally.

Sat morning rides sound like a plan, will see if I can make one in the next month or so, work is a bit manic at the moment!

Will take a pootle out towards Hertwood way and take a look, if you see a fat lad on Capra.

Hello .
Since parenthood I’ve stopped driving to ride& sometimes ride over by North Mymms , over to Brookmans park , bways round the back of Hatfield house to Essenden. You can then go towards Wormley & Broxbourne woods or North towards Bramfield , Tewin , Burnham Green ,Codicote Ayot St Lawrence& Kimpton. Some of it can be unpleasant in winter.
From Kimpton it’s a spit away from the Chiltern cycleway(road) ,the bit East of Luton is very quiet and I use that as a spine to go off looking for bways and cheek.
As mentioned above it is in no way gnar , but great fun on a crosser. 🙂

Pop along to one of the Jollies rides. We’re a friendly bunch. No really…

Would I be shunned if I turned up on a CX bike? I’m mtbless at the moment, but it would be cool to learn some offroad routes…

No idea how long it would take to ride into Watford … but Whippendale Woods has some good biking. There isn’t much height so the runs are short but very fun and a bit more technical than the Chiltern bridleways.

There’s some good stuff for cx bikes around streatley, been out that way a fair bit recently. Will be looking up the areas mentioned towards kimpton to extend the loops, ta. St Albans to the ashridge area is a bit of a trek on a susser but there’s some direct routes using sustrans stuff and old rail lines that could make an ok day route.

vinnyeh – Member

I’m in the next town north

Go Harpo!

I’m in St Albans and must admit I’ve got into the habit of just heading to Swinley rather than bothering to try and find local routes.
Did a couple of hours north via Sandridge and across to Welwyn – bit of a random route but there’s actually loads of paths when you start looking, although nothing particularly exciting.

North Mimms sound interesting as I’m that side of town…

love riding hertfordshire. we ride north herts (from datchworth horns ) and aslo from old cross tavern hertford. 2hrs of trails, chills and piss takes

There’s some alright trails round ashridge aldbury way.. I’ve found most of the best bits (I think) and just put them all together..
I’ve got a few garmin routes I can share..

There are some good bits, but it is quite hard to link a decent route without having to do lots of bridal ways or paths, it’s worth going to Woburn or chicksands if you want to just ride decent stuff without the bits in between or the clay!

I love riding in Ashridge, its not too bad just now but will soon be a mud fest and it will stay like that till spring. I tend to avoid it in the winter and head to Woburn instead, it’s closer and has much better riding than Swinley.

Ah yes, there’s no clart like proper mid-Winter Ashridge clart, went for a sneaky Boxing Day ride there a few years back, ended up dejectedly carrying my bike back 20 minutes later, both wheels jammed solid.

It was good practise for the 2012 mayhem though.

Well, looks like I have a pass for Thursday, see you Thursday, weather and nippers permitting.

Ashridge has the best selection of off-road in the area though the mud is now at semi epic levels for the winter. To put this into perspective, strava segments we were doing in 3 minutes in the dry took us 9 minutes last weekend ( and my pie consumption doesn’t account for all of that). Breakfast at the cafe at the monument is mandatory. If you want hills head over to belsize then work your way up through the lanes and bridleways past chesham to wendover and back through gt missenden, chesham bois and sarratt. If you need maps or a guide give me a shout.