Planning to ride the whole Ridgewayc (Swan’s way & Ickniled way inc.) from Ivinghow Beacon to Overton Hill 87 miles approx.

Has anyone done it that way before please?

Cheers

Jules

not that i know of (could be wrong though),but i would love to have a go at it one day (i live in devizes,so it would be the other way for me).

good luck to you anyhoo 🙂

Yes, it’s a good ‘old school XC’ route as long as it’s not too wet, the area around Bledlow to Chinnor can be boggy and cut up by horse traffic. Also worth using the diversions off the RW footpath section around swyncombe and the church, bit sensitive to footpath use in that area and the swan’s way there is a better route anyway.

Not done it myself but quite a few do, I think it was last year that there was a 200 km enduro, ride the length of the Ridgeway on Sat and turn around and come back Sunday.

Did Streatley/Goring station to Avebury (47 miles I think, though admittedly the easier/more clearly defined end) in about 4-5 hours in late Autumn a few years back, including a DIY tubeless, when insulation tape was cutting edge, disaster under the A34 in the rain. Wasn’t particularly fit, but take everything you need with you, and ideally do it in the dry, else the chalky bits are lethal.

Then I got to the end and found my phones was flat so had to finish off with an extra 10-12 miles home I hadn’t planned on.

I did from Goring to the end, somewhere (edit: Ivinghoe Beacon), where ever it is a few years back. It almost feels as if you’ve reached Dorset by the end! 😯

Blinkin’ wonderful ride all the way. Magic. Was that 50-60 miles? I think it took me about 6 hours at the time, then I headed to Avebury for a massive curry and caught the train back home.

I always fancied completing the other bit north of Goring, but I remember the navigation looked a bit tortuous. That bit’s still on my to do list!

Yes, chalk is the devil’s own surface in even mildly damp conditions..

I did Wallingford to The White Horse at Uffington and back on Saturday. That was 55 miles with 2600 foot of climbing (3 hrs 42mins). It’s not exciting riding by any stretch of the imagination 🙂

Note that over that specific section it is generally slightly uphill heading westwards as well as potentially into a headwind as you are on the top of an exposed ridge. Riding all of that into a stinking headwind would be miserable, as it is once it gets wet and muddy which are good reasons for why most people do it eastwards.

If you pick a dry day (with the preceeding week being dry) it will be fine. Not much in the way of walkers, so dont worry about riding FP. Just be polite, but to be honest Ive never found any issues.

Riding all of that into a stinking headwind would be miserable, as it is once it gets wet and muddy which are good reasons for why most people do it eastwards.

I’ll vouch for that.. a few ‘character building’ loaded training rides heading west along there ) Pick a low-wind, dry day. Count on approx 10hrs E2E? as the east end is slower than the open, fast middle-west end.

Many years ago I did Streatley/Goring to Avebury. Living in Swindon I got the bus to Goring (bike in the luggage compartment), did the ride on my fully rigid, cantilver braked solid steel saracen tufftrax, then rode home from Avebury on the roads.

As said above choose a dry, low wind day. Avebury is a nice place to visit if you’re relying on friends/family to pick you up.

I’d be interested in doing it, is it CrossBike friendly ??

^ Yes but will get a bit rattly / uncomfy, when it’s hardpacked some of it is suprisingly rough for an easy route. Flinty also.

Done the whole route a few times, and a couple of times in one. CX would be a bit painful by the end tbh, but ok otherwise. west to east is best if there is any wind (usually coming from the west), but it rides ok either direction. The eastern half requires lots of diversions off the proper trail, but you get some nice singletrack compensation.

^^ thanks chaps 😉

Thanks everyone, some very valid and interesting comments there so thank you!

I live in Swindon so that’s the main reason for going East to West to end up back near home when I’m on my last legs!!

Cheers everyone.

choose your weather wisely.

worst days riding of my life was a ridgeway ride.
anything flat was standing water everywhere, downhill was so muddy that you had to pedal hard to keep moving, uphill was a combination of chalky slidefest or straight walking.