What’s it like?

Is there much techy stuff?

Is there much DH stuff?

What else does it compare to in the UK?

How does it hold up during winter?

Any good dogging spots?

Would you sell your mother to ride there?

Never been there and the finer side of the PMJ duo has an interview in that neck of the woods.

It’s not hugely interesting. Good for trailquests and the like because it’s big and covered in tracks, but it’s not very exciting.

You might see some ponies.

Flat and sandy grit – can get in a good 50k / 60k without any fireroad riding, but no gnarrr, and definately no DH or anything close to it, not even a mild gradient downwards for more than 10 ft 🙁

Suggest Lordswood (top if Southampton) if you are in the area – good for a couple of hours in the woods, very dodgy building and digging but adds some spice.

Can’t comment on the doggin, MIL is long gone…….

In the winter, as above, just add cold and wet

I think the phrase flatter than a witches t1t springs to mind.

Boring as hell.

if the other half is in the New Forest catch the Ferry to the Isle Wight and get some riding in over there. the Forest sucks for mountain biking.

As luck would have it the other half is interviewing on the IoW.

Guess I’ll be giving the New Forest a miss then!

there is some lovely riding if you know where to look.

winchester/ south downs is close. as rich said iow is also good.

plenty of riding in this locale.

tech/ downhill not really. winter is ok if you stick to the sandy bits not the muddy bits.

The Forest’s great if you like flatland XC, not if you don’t. The closest comparison I can think of is Thetford. There’s plenty of cattle tracks that wind in and out of the trees and you’re never very far from a pub.
The sandy soil never clogs your tyres when wet but does kill drive trains, so singlespeeds are best (and no real hardship) in winter.

Bizarrely I love Thetters as an ex-East Anglian and similarly SS there.

OK, it’s sounding better!

So essentially it’s flat and sandy(ish), but has a reasonable amount of singletrack?

yep – but you have got to poke about a bit to find it. I’m based on the West side of Southampton, so if you fancy a guide let me know.

I wouldn’t say it had that much singletrack; enough to link up if you know where your going most of it isn’t bridleway so would be cheeky too.

Cheers Lucien.

Cheeky soma_rich? What a shame… 😀

my local riding grounds… some good riding if you know where to look…

BUT…

Do be aware that in the New Forest National Park there are actively enforced byelaws to prevent you from riding anywhere other than roads of designated cyclepaths (which are all quite dull).

The New Forest Verderers have their own court of law (based in Lyndhurst and one of the oldest courts in the UK with the head Verderer appointed directly by the Queen), and they do have the power to fine or confiscate.

The New Forest is effectively run by the Verderers (in charge of supporting the grazing rights of the commoners), the Forestry Commission (who farm wood in the Forest) and English Nature. All three want completely different things, but the Verderers are weilding the power of the law and they aren’t massively cyclist friendly!

You have been warned!

Campfreddie – I ride 6 days a week in the NF, nights, days and weekends. I cover a fair mileage and a reasonable area and have never been stopped, warned, chased, told off or anything by a “verderer”.

A “verderer” has no more rights than the law, is not the landowner, and in the case of cycling would need to bring a sucessfull prosecution for trespass – (great for tourism in the forest no doubt.)

I have on 2 occassions in the last 6 years, had words with a park warden and campsite warden and had my picture taken once.

I’ve seen no “active enforcement” of bylaws as per your post

Lucien,

getting away with it is very different from the subject of whether you are breaking byelaws or not, which you are.

Please don’t get me wrong, I think the byelaws are naff and completely out of date. Unfortunately, I know the outgoing head verderer very well and the incoming one even better (I was talking to both of them yesterday and spoke with the new one last night about his views on cyclists).

Ultimately, it’s highly unlikely that you will come into conflict (as with you, I have been riding in the forest for years), but it doesn’t hide the fact that whenever we ride off the cycle-tracks we are doing so in blatant contravention of enforceable byelaws.

The BF and my then nine year old son went biking there last year … it compared to the family trails in the Forest of Dean. It’s nice area to take young children riding, but I didn’t find anything that challenging.

It does feel like what CampFreddie says, a sort of ‘keep off’ our land peasants!!!!

Crikey.

I’m now having visions of dementor-esque verderers patrolling the forest…

Got to love the English attitude to access. 😕

We still managed a little cheeky trail … was going to pretend we were lost if found out 😉 It was the only way to have a bit of fun!

OTOH the IOW is really nice. You’ll find that any bridleway, BOAT or RUPP on the map will be rideable. Buy yourself an OS map and work out a route that takes in the big ridge across the middle.

Im on the IOW so Im sure i can show you some juicy bits if you’re interested?!

There is a great bike event in the New Forest each August. If only I could remember it’s name.

Ok if you live to the west side of the forest, because you can then forget about the forest for mtb and ride the Purbecks instead.

New Forest is however fantastic for roadie stuff and flat relaxing rides (and a few decent sneaky bits if you know where they are).

Watch out for stroppy horse riders though!

I ride it, it’s quite dull unless, like me, you ride hardpack XC on a ss29er and kill it, it’s flat, a few rolling bumps, never been stopped by anyone other than a couple sh*ging in the gourse, gourse can be hard on the legs, sandpits and lime trails, lovely pinepack woods further north in the NF you go. Loadsa pubs if you fancy stopoffs, beware of Neds and soft burms.
Enjoy, try to keep to the trails but if you don’t don’t fret too much you’ll come across another pretty soonish.
TBH you’d be better off going north of the A27 for more varied trails.

some of the best riding imo is in the region of nomandsland/ redlynch. which means you are outside the NP for a lot of the time -which means now verderers (not that i’ve ever had an issue) and more ROWs.

the newforest refers to the national park boundary but there is loads of good riding on the edges – as above and ringwood/ hangersley area etc and you would never realise without a map that you have left the new forest as the wooded landscape has continued; if you follow…

thomthumb – Member
some of the best riding imo is in the region of nomandsland/ redlynch

👿 that bit is MINE, gerrrofff !

Im on the IOW so Im sure i can show you some juicy bits if you’re interested?!

Might yet be in touch – she’s at the interview as I write…!

some of the best riding imo is in the region of nomandsland/ redlynch. which means you are outside the NP for a lot of the time -which means now verderers (not that i’ve ever had an issue) and more ROWs.

Note made. 😉