Hi Everyone,
Me and a few of my mates have caught the biking bug and need more places to visit. We live 15mins from oxford.Willing to travel up to around 1 hr and a half
We have done Aston hill and Chick sands which are both class.
More suggestions would be massivly appreciated!
what we like - anything apart from long slogs and uphills (we are lazy adrenaline hunters!)
Thinking Swinley forest is next on the list.
Cheers
Just ride around the Chilterns - they are 20 mins drive south of Oxford on the M40.
Start in say Christmass Common or Watlington and ride till your legs drop off. Get an OS map and pick some trails.
You will need to earn your fun though, normal trails have an up as well as down and there are no chair lifts in the Chilterns. However, there are some singletrack decents that are good fun.
no chair lifts..........ffs!
Yeh we live a 10 min drive from the chilterns and done exactly what you just said, took and OS map. But we didnt find many DH stuff. Just all nice and relaxed paths. We like jumps, burms, drops etc but seem to live in the wrong part of the country!
I know the area really well. You have any recommendations? huge ridge, there must be some good stuff hidden away!
Plus i have recently converted to a 1 x 9 so not great gearing for long trudges.
At the outside of your allowed time are the Forest of Dean, Cannock (Stile Cop), Cwmcarn and the North Downs. Woburn, Aston and Swinley are a bit closer (to Oxford). There is some great riding to be had around the Chilterns but most of it needs to be earned.
Start off in Turvile, steep sided valley full of good decents, but you will have to pedal up to the top first.
Ive gone 1x10 at the start of this year and after just a few weeks I found I could ride up all the hills I used to bring granny out for. You do get used to it and toughen up.
But for serious DH stuff where you just push up try Badby woods, near Faringdon off the road to Swindon. Google it and you will see what its like.
You should be able to fill your boots with DH stuff there and not need to ride back up hill.
Cheers for all the info people. Great stuff!
Yeh its not that im unfit or anything, I play rugby 3 times a week and run marathons! I just like the 'rush' stuff!
Stile Cop looks perfect for a full day job (with the travel)
Chilterns are 10mins away and definately deserve some more exploration.
I have aston hill on the doorstep, but its just a constant stream of rooty drops. Not a massive variation.
Although, there currently developing a new track, which I cant explain how good it looks. The park ranger showed me around, its basically as sick 5ft wide tabogen run designed for bikes. Out of this world! nothing like I have seen before
Swinley is excellent and you only need a small range of gears for most of it...and can easily walk up the few steep/loose bits.
Get someone to guide you as the maps are useless and you need to experience the flow, not constantly checking the GPS.
PaulD
woburn sands. Surprised Trimix hasnt mentioned it. Has a chicksands style bike park with loads of lines with all manner of jumps, drops, doubles etc, and some cracking twisty singletrack. Holds up well to poor weather, when the chilterns is foot deep gloop we get our "winter" riding thrills there.
Riding by permit only to cover liability insurance, well worth it and we all bought annual passes.
http://www.woburntrails.co.uk/
http://www.getmountainbiking.co.uk/woburn.php
Surrey Hills are fantastic too, certainly for us mile-munching XC types. Also see plenty of lads on bouncers and full face helmets. Head to Pedal and Spoke at Peaslake for good advice on the trails all around the village. Its a beautiful spot.
cheers guys this is all gold dust. Love this website!
Crashtestmonkey - Is wobern good then? I have ridden chick sands a few times and its bloody wicked and some of the guys there said try Wobern for a blast
Surrey hills could be interesting!
I know of one 'downhill' track in the chilterns, and it's only about 50m verticaly so not very long and not worth driving form Oxford to find it.
You'll enjoy Swinley, but best off finding a guide otherwise you'll miss most of the good bits. Strava's logged some of them, but there's plenty of minor trails and areas with 10's of short interlinked runs that are good fun.
If you make the trip to FoD or Cwmcarn I suggest you book the uplift to make the most of your time (google cwmdown or fly up downhill for the uplifts).
I know Swinley pretty well, if you'd like a guide? I've been getting more and more into the gravity-orientated side of things recently and am always keen to meet riders with more of an interest in such things!
email is in profile, as yet i have no riding plans this weekend...? let me know if you're interested.
Like chicksands but with far more singletrack spread over a bigger area. Not "better" than chicksands but for all round riding we go there more often.
Variety is always good and that way you can get out and find what you like.
To get the best of places like Swinley or the Surrey Hills its best to join up with someone who knows the area, plenty on here who can show you around myself included. I think the South Downs are an hour away but its constantly up and down so perhaps not for you. A ride including a few laps of Queen Elizabeth Country Park might be good. If I were given the choice of 60/90 mins to Swinley/Surrey Hills or 120+ to Wales or longer to the Peaks I'd favour the longer drive perhaps staying overnight and doing 2 days riding.
Wrong side of Oxford for you but Leckhampton hill (near Cheltenham) is pretty good for DH stuff. Only been once myself for some reason, but really enjoyed it; push up is no worse than Aston. Trimix & co, need to come out with you guys again soon; would you be up for a trip to Lecky Hill?
Personally, I prefer Woburn to Chicksands and think Aston is better than both of them. Aston and Stile Cop are crap in the wet, mind. Last time I went to the FoD, we'd done a day at Triscombe beforehand and the former didn't really measure up but it is a cracking place and if you use the uplift service, you'll get a lot of runs in.
as mentioned, woburn, swinley, chicksands, also aston hill should suit you sir.
chilterns is great, especially ridden fast. go along to this www.roughrideguide.co.uk/mtbike/2010/07/chilterns-challenge-woodcote-nr-reading-berksoxon/ and you can ride it fast (the routes are signed) and explore the area.
Its a little bit further but if you can get onto the M40 fairly easily then you cloud blast upto Cannock chase for its trauil and bike parky type stuff...
FoD and/or Cwmcarn and barely more than an hour away - and they've uplifts.
And Swinley is brill for wasting away half a day having fun.