Work is sending me to Portsmouth for the next 9 weeks – is there any riding nearby suitable for an evening jaunt?

QE Park is grand for that sort of thing.
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/EnglandHampshireNoForestQueenElizabethCountryParkVisitorCentreCarPark

The Soton Masseeeev on here also do week day rides in Lordswood (Thursday nights?) and there’s some fun riding to be had in them there woods!

I’ve heard QE country park is pretty downhill, is that true?

Well, you’ll need a 6″ travel enduro gnarpoon, at least. Oh, and if you’re not top to toe in Troy Lee gnar-pyjamas, you will die. To death.

No, it’s really not! It’s just lots of great riding!

Where are you working/staying?

I work in Portsmouth, live a mile or so from QECP so happy to show you round some of the local trails

that would be cool – I’m over in fareham. I’d class myself as fit but not rad (but with aspirations to be) so make of that what you will

Sounds like you’ll be fine then 🙂

Bring a hardtail if you have one, 1×9/10/11 is fine, no mountains here.

If you have a FS, you’ll be fine too

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Awesome, I’ll have my bike by the first week of may I expect. I’ll be in touch

QE is standard trail stuff and the official trail stuff is way too much pedalling for any DHing 😉

Even on a trail bike I find the climb to descent ratio a bit too much on the climb side.

Chalk by the way so a bit slippy in places when wet.

QE (now) has a red and a blue route. I used to regularly ride my cross bike around the old orange route, which has morphed into the new red route. I reckon the cross bike covered the loop in about the same time as a mountain bike – faster on the flats and ups, slower on the downs. It’s a little more gnarr now, but not much. The new blue is very gravelly at the moment (very new – I guess it will bed in) but is great for fitness riding as its not technically hard but quite rolling.

QE is good, once you’ve ridden that to death get on a catamaran over to the island! Mountainous by southern standards..

WhiteWays/houghton Forrest is about 30mins away and has some good singletrack for an evening ride.
Welcome to ping me a message if you like and meet up with us.
Pm in profile.
Bats.

South Downs Mountain Bike club meet at Walderton on Wednesday evenings, Charlton on Fridays and have Sunday rides from other selected start points. We are happy to have new folks to share a pint with after a ride.

QECP and Whiteways are the closest “good” riding.

You can do some stuff directly from Fareham though, getting up into Botley Woods and just exploring and/or heading down to the coast around (say) Stubbington/Hill Head (parts are a bit stoney by the sea). You could do a loop Botley Woods/cross river at Botley then down to Manor Farm/Park and along the river Hamble and if you’ve time past Warsash and along to coast or just come back on roads to Fareham (A27 is a bit busy). Have a look at the map, footpaths are ok (cough)

You might like to post the same question on this thread too Hampshire Riding

Chrishc777 lives near some hills that rise from the sea to over 200m. That’s almost Welsh! 😉

It’s a good 20 minute trot out of Ryde to get to the decent hills, but Jo Burt covers some good stuff on the eastside here: http://singletrackworld.com/trailguide/uk/south-east/the-isle-of-wight/

Looks like my riding buddies have already given the hard sell on the IOW!
If you can get the boat across to the Island (bikes are free on Wightlink CAT or car ferry) then im sure we could show you some of the nicer bits of the Island.

Where is this Whiteways you speak of?

Been riding locally for umpteen years, never heard of it before!

@40mpg – South Downs, eg Houghton/Stammer Woods (see post above) just North of Arundel. Often referred to by the name of the Cafe, Whiteways. I’ve only ever walked around there (eg up to Bignor Hill) but you see plenty of bikes

Given how stupid the internet is most of the time, this thread is a great example of it being great. Cheers guys 🙂

FYI:
http://www.qecptrailcollective.co.uk/
http://kingleyvalemountainbikers.ning.com/

If you’ve got aspirations of rad you might enjoy a visit to Rogate for some push up and ride down kind of riding.

If you’re prepared to drive for an hour the Surrey Hills are nearby and a brilliant place to ride. You’ll need someone to follow around though.

40mpg as above ping me an email if you like and we can show you about

New bike arrives friday so it looks like I’ll be out on the trails next week 😀

What is it?

Commencal Meta Trail with added dropper

As scottfitz (my neighbour) and m0rk have said, you’ve lots of good riding at QECP as well as at Kingley Vale / Stoughton and then a little further afield there is ‘Whiteways’ which is Houghton Forest near Amberley… and all points in between.

Check out the Kingley Vale Mountain Bikers forum for a map… and join our Strava club to see where everyone is riding.

This is Stoughton: http://www.pinkbike.com/video/400859/

Anyway

bring lights (trail lights if you have them) and knee pads

And some better weather. Please

If you can get out for midweek evening rides me and a couple of mates get up to QE around once a week or do a local route of around 28 miles. The local one goes through Fareham so meeting up should be easy.
Email in profile if of interest..

Are bikes allowed on the wightlink cat then?

Pretty sure you cant take them on the Red Funnel RedJet from Soton.

Welp weather looks spectacularly bad for next week