Going to be working in Gosport for most of next year, is there any trails to riding in the area?
QE park, South Downs,
New Forest, IOW, Lordswood (Southampton).
Gosport - none!
+1 QE Park and South Downs.
I live I north Wales now, but as a kid we used to ride qe country park near petersfield and for a bit of a mess around we'd go to what we called "foxes forest" think it's better known as hilsea lines. Loads of cheeky trails around, chalk pits near widely and along the hill sat the forts ect
Gosport has an excellent bmx track but nothing else. I spent my 9 months in Gosport riding elsewhere - queen Elizabeth country park, lordswood and rogate.
Whoooo hold on there bouys, there's loads...
Bodley Woods, Bere Forest, Wickham railway lines, loads of trails along the sea front between Lee on Solent to Warsash, Fareham and up near Knowle, there are masses of trails I use and I recommend you join Fareham Wheelers cycling club and ask for Palky, he runs the MTB set on a Tues and Thurs eve and Sat and Sun mornings, they are a great bunch and of varying abilities..
Palky showed me some places I never knew existed...
All from my front door.
Queen Elizabeth Country Park (see [url= http://www.pinkbike.com/video/255358/ ]this[/url]), Kingley Vale and the South Downs. Join up at [url= http://kingleyvalemountainbikers.ning.com/ ]Kingley Vale Mountain Bikers[/url]if you want to meet up with local riders and get a guided tour.
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Ah Kingley Vale, i knew i'd forgotten a spot, some good stuff in there.
kingley vale is always a good ride about 12-15 miles depending on the route! but about 30 miles away from the gosport area.
Its all relative, theres lots of riding, but great riding no? No! I have spent 30 weeks a year mon to fri working in portsmouth for the last 10 years. All I say is thank god for the revival in qe park, that is really good fun. Its no dalbeattie or afan, but really good none the less. Try to explore off the marked trails. Rogate is also worth a visit, the locals are v freindly, and theres a nice feeling about the place. I look forward to getting back home to ludlow after my weeks there, it makes me appreciate how good bringewood, hopton, the mynd and all are. If I was going to spend a whole year there, id get a cx bike.
come join FWCC (fareham wheelers cycle club) for some night time riding. There is also south downs MTB club and petersfield mtb club I think they call themselves. Not ridden with those myself though.
I guarantee you these people saying the riding is shit are complete idiots. Yes, its not wales or yorkshire but you can still have a good ride. If you want "epic" rides then theres the SDW. If you want urban rides portsmouth/gosport etc are excellent. If you want BMX there is a fantastic track. If you want a trailcentre-esque ride there is QECP.
If thats aimed at me its a bit harsh, I agree there are a few quality areas, qe park and rogate being my 2 fav's. But if someone from pretty much anywhere else in the uk other than east anglia or lincolnshire etc came to this area, they would be dissappointed. I class a quality biking area, as being an area where you can get a quality ride within say 5 miles of your front door, hampshire is not that, and especially gosport area. If you were to base your self in NE hampshire, thing would look alot more promising.
... and if you like jumps there's Stoughton (at Kingley Vale) - see [url= http://www.pinkbike.com/video/275955/ ]this[/url] and [url= http://www.pinkbike.com/video/287565/ ]this[/url]... and check them out [url= http://www.facebook.com/StoughtonDownhill ]on Facebook[/url].
I love living in this areas, I live next to bartimaeus and you can see from his map how much local riding there is. Kingley is great, XC and DH trails. QECP is going to get better and better. Trail builder have only been working there for 14months, lots has been done but there is load more to do. There will be 3 races at QECP this year an XC race, a DH race and a gravity enduro. We have so much bridleway in the southdown could easy do a 100mile plus loop all offroad, viva la trail revolution!
im going to be in gosport weekdays from next weekend untill july, so looking forward to some riding.
ill prob be trying out some of the FWCC (fareham wheelers cycle club) for a bit of night riding.
You are welcome to join our regular wed night rides at qe. Usually meet at 6:30. Always a good ride and a drink at the pub afters 🙂 see kingleyvalemountainbikers.ning.com
i like the sounds of that ride, joining up to the site now.