[Closed] First ride down Barry's

Whilst they've done a superb job with the top section I can't help but find it more dull now it's just pedally! But yes, it's brilliant they've made it drain so well and made it more sustainable.

It always drained well. It's always been pedally and it's always been fun.

Well yes, true, but the roots at the top have all gone now! Like I say, a fantastic effort, but it is more pedally than it was!

More pedally, is it uphill now? 😀

@njee - I suspect the roots will start to come back once the new ttrail has worn in. What I assumed is the new line didn't look as interesting certainly. I like the trail it's fun but these days I find it quite knackering as you are pedalling flat out almost all the way down.

I don't care if it is pedally. as long as it is fun then it is a good trail IMO. The new found smoothness has made it a lot faster and more fun I think. Maybe it's just because I only ride a hardtail but I really appreciate the work that is put in

The recent works make it smooth and fast, just like it was 10 years** ago. I rode it just before on my HT and was thinking "this is getting to squisher territory now". I'm glad it's been reverted.

@op yeah the lest berm is a drag.

** and only neophytes call it Barry's Blah Blah.

There was a time when Barry did know best, but with the continuous sanitisation of the trail Barry has kinda lost his way.
I expect most of this is down to ensuring the trail can hold up to higher traffic volumes though so perhaps its not entirely his fault.

The new found smoothness has made it a lot faster and more fun I think.

+1

There was a time when Barry did know best, but with the continuous sanitisation of the trail Barry has kinda lost his way.
I expect most of this is down to ensuring the trail can hold up to higher traffic volumes though so perhaps its not entirely his fault.

Exactly. It's not sanitisation for the sake of making it easier, but to help reduce wear and tear from excessive braking, massive volumes of riders and subsequent water damage

I have only really been riding properly for 18 months or so but vividly remember first attempts at Barry's and Yog Pots and Tel Rd. I was very tentative on the drop and the roots seemed much more pronounced then. As my technique has improved and with plenty of miles under the belt, it funny to look back in those early days.

I still enjoy Barry's but for a different type of challenge. Chapeau to th trail builders who keep it in such good condition and accessible and challenging for so many different types of rifing/riders.

Exactly. It's not sanitisation for the sake of making it easier, but to help reduce wear and tear from excessive braking, massive volumes of riders and subsequent water damage

and as a pleasant side effect, reverts the trail to how it rode several years ago, before the influx

the group I ride with have always called this "Golden Birdies", since at least 10 years ago. Does anyone know the etymology of either name?

Haven't been down it since Christmas on the cx bike, maybe it's time to get the tandem out again.

I found out about that track probably over 10 years ago and knew it as Sunset.
Barry, a local from Peaselake, broke his collar bone on the rooty drop at the top, hence Barry knows best.

I was very tentative on the drop

Drop? I assume you mean the roll-in?

It seemed like a drop at the time and on my first proper trail. Ok not now! Seemed a lot rootier back then as well 😉

yup it intimidated me for a while too

The drop, sorry roll-in on Evian still does it to me. Don't know why, but it is a mental block.

Thank you all for your kind words.

A number of the volunteers have been riding Golden birdies/BKB back when it was a beautiful ribbon of singletrack well over ten years ago. But like with most of the known trails around here, once the rider numbers go up it's not long before a B road becomes a motorway.

We had to make the trail as sustainable as possible, because of rider numbers, all of varying skill levels, the soil conditions are not ideal for high volume trails, and the volunteer group is not huge, so we can't go back to a particular part of a trail every month to re-build it, it has to last a long time.

It's not to everyones tastes in terms of technical features, but as long as you regard the trail as the motorway to Peaslake taking many hundreds of riders to the village stores, then its a good trail.

The only bit I don't like is the very last berm.
It comes up quickly and is littered with braking ruts.

We have plans for that. 😉

[url=www.hurtwoodtrails.co.uk]MTBHurtwood.[/url]

mtbhurtwood's link corrected: [url= http://hurtwoodtrails.co.uk/ ]here[/url]

It'll always be Golden Birdies to me, and Yog Pots will always be Park Life.

Ok so

Golden Birdies
Park Life
Telegraph Road

all song titles, it's not rocket science

Appreciate its a popular trail. But systematically removing all the technical bits is a tad short sighted is it not? Making it more and more like a towpath is great for the newbies to stop them falling off their shiny new bikes but for the rest of us that want to ride technical trails, what are Friends of the Hurtwood building for us? (Yes I do pay my dues). Oh, nothing at all? And so we shall continue to dig our own trails for Hurtood to discover and close,or at best be criticised for riding.

Hmph..

Who said there was any plan to systematically remove all the technical bits?

We had to make the trail as sustainable as possible, because of rider numbers, all of varying skill levels,

It's about sustainability in the face of a massive rise in riders, many of whom are new and don't always ride so smoothly, meaning the trail is getting torn up...

Friends of Hurtwood don't exist to build trails for you! Who gave you that idea? Go to a trail centre if you want that. The work going on is to try and maintain the existing network which will become unrideable without significant maintenance - look at YP.

Ever thought of turning up at one of the dig days yourself instead of griping from the sidelines and building trails elsewhere against the wishes of the landowner? You know, help to solve the problem?

Well said!

[b]mattjg[/b] - Member
Ok so

Golden Birdies
Park Life
Telegraph Road

all song titles, it's not rocket science

Doc at the Radar Station - I clearly remember that as my first technical trail, plus the roll in off the path. Perhaps we should take you there @teamhurtmore 🙂

Thanks to all the volunteers

@brooess - what's wrong with Park Life ? Hardly unridable.

@brooess - what's wrong with Park Life ? Hardly unridable.

YP will always be Parklife to me. I think what Brooess is alluding to is that a lot of work was carried out on it a few years back, but this year the trail has been going south, so just needs a little TLC to keep it running sweet.

The old naming convention for trails in the Surrey Hills was songs - Simon and Jackie at Nirvana pretty much started this (hence the number of Captain Beefheart tracks) way back in the early 90s.

BKB / Golden Birdies has been around for at least ten years, and yes, it was a skinny bit of singletrack back then. As said above, any trail that becomes widely known and isn't tinkered with quickly becomes a much wider trail, and BKB is and was no exception. There are differing opinions on roots, by the way - mine was always to armour the approach and exit and leave the roots in, but there are other opinions, and they're not automatically wrong. For the record I ride a hardtail (and singlespeed at that) as much, if not more than, my 5. Roots are fun on a hardtail.

Parklife was a real challenge when we went to fix it a few years ago - the original entrance was over the ancient hill fort, a scheduled monument - so there was no option for Hurtwood but to move the entrance. The other option was for English Heritage to make a compulsory purchase order on the top of the hill and shut the trail down permanently. Hopefully the new entrance was worthwhile, and people like it. What took even more time was fixing up the rest of the trail, and the people who did that in their spare time, usually after work of an evening, know who they are and deserve our gratitude. However, Parklife is always a tricky beast to maintain.

If you care enough - especially 10pmix - then please volunteer for the dig days or become a Friend of the Hurtwood and help out financially. Carping on from the sidelines is just weak.

Friends of Hurtwood don't exist to build trails for you! Who gave you that idea? Go to a trail centre if you want that.

+1. It is what it is, and if that's not what the rider wants they need to look elsewhere. What it isn't, is a "trail centre", like some remote forest in Wales, that's actually intending to increase visitor numbers.

(yes i am a Friend).

I actually think making BKB not quite so technical isn't a bad thing (not that it was super technical before). Yes it removes some elements a lot of us like but the number of people I see who are clearly very new to MTB is quite high. Everyone knows the types, couple of people who know what they're doing with mates/colleagues/girlfriends who look like they're only just under control. There's plenty of more technical riding in the area for people and I, for one, quite like the fast blast through the trees on the way back to Peaslake to end or midpoint a ride.

I did my Surrey Hills loop in the sunshine on Friday pm, was lovely as ever, trails are holding up pretty well considering. On a 29er for the first time so maybe hard to tell but the entry through the bomb hole at the top seemed more gentle. Am another one with a mental block on that since the fella had to be choppered out a few weeks ago.

I think you're missing my point. The "maintenance" could be done in a way to not remove interesting features could it not? Or is that impossible?

And I am a member of FotH that's why I said "I pay my dues".

I don't turn up to dig days because of my disagreement with the policy adopted. Why would I grab a spade and take out features of a trail that I like? The small jump taken out by recent "maintenance" was in great nick and wasn't in any way cut up or damaged. Ironically the one that has been left is causing riders to go off trail on landing and short cut the next corner causing quite a bit of damage. That was left alone for some reason.

Cries of "go elsewhere" seem a bit odd. That is exactly what I am doing as stated in my post. No one is forcing me to ride down the Barry Expressway and I shall gladly enjoy not doing so. It's not about me personally (hoped that was obvious) its about a policy that seems counter productive when taken in a wider context.

I don't turn up to dig days because of my disagreement with the policy adopted.

Thats convenient. Which trails do you volunteer to maintain?

BKB was first called Golden Birdies by Simon Thomas at Nirvana, and still is by many of us. After a line in a Captain Beefheart song of the same name, on the 1972 “Clear Spot” album. The best name reserved for, at that time, the best trail. Jon Webb called it Barry Knows Best later. The explanation of the Barry from Peaslake falling may be correct

“Those little golden birdies look at them

And the mystic Egypt tossle dangling down
Old sleeper-man shish, don't wake him
Up one hand broom star was an obi-man
revered throughout the bone-knob land
His magic black purse slit creeped open,
Let go flocks of them

Shish sookie singabus
Snored like a red merry-go-round horse
And an acid gold bar swirled up and down,
Up and down, in back of the singabus
And the panataloon duck white goose neck quacked
webcore, webcore”

People say these lyrics are gibberish, but think sex and it all becomes vividly clear. So thats what "Golden Birdies" are.

Just had a quick spin around Holmbury while wife walked dogs with a friend. With all the bad karma on here, I decided to give Barry's/Golden Birdies a miss today. Explorered and found a few new trails - but surprised at how wet everything still was. All the flattish stuff was full of gloop, water, roots and tire marks. The steeper trails were much better. Why is the flat stuff harder to ride in these conditions???? Parklife/ Yog pots was also somewhat damp but better than expected. Wet though!

All I can say from this experience, is if BKB is in good nick while the rest of the area is frankly not great, then just shows what a great job the trail builders and maintainers continue to do. So, for a second, time "chapeau" gentleman/ladies and thank you from the grateful MTB riders on the Hurtwood!

Observations from a first run down BKB yesterday since the last round of improvements

A dry, fast, fun smileathon of a trail. I'm sure the middle (new) section will bed in over time and get even betterer...Flinging the bike high onto the really big left hand berm and letting go of the brakes so the berm takes you round is still on life's great pleasures...

Well done Hurtwood trail pixies - enjoyed that
TM (one time Hurtwood volunteer trailbuilder - suspended due to over demanding two year old :))

Anyone know the funny story behind Summer Lightning's names?
I can only think of it as Becky's Bush...

I know why it's called Becky's Bush. 😀

Anyone know the funny story behind Summer Lightning's names?

I aways assumed it was from http://www.hopback.co.uk/beer-shop/summer-lightning.html

but that's just a guess.

Summer Lightning was named after the beer, yes. Waggle Dance named after the beer and after the change to the route we had to make to avoid a ground nesting bee's nest. Crooked Furrow after the beer brewed by the pub at the end of it. Regurgitator because the first chap to ride it, a certain mountain unicyclist who frequents this forum by the name of Joe, was the first to clear it, and said it almost made him throw up.

any good videos showing these trails? i'm intruiged

any good videos showing these trails? i'm intruiged

Just type 'em in on youtube, no shortage on there.

Out of curiosity are the paths vastly overgrown as everywhere seems to be of late? Not been to the surrey hills for a couple of months but what with all the rain, stinging nettles have been going crazy around the South Downs and I've had enough of them.

Cheers

Not too bad on the Holmbury the other day - its was more the gloopy mud. Loads of nettles and brambles nearby though.

When I was up there last week I thought specifically how overgrown it was everywhere!

Which bit were you on njee? I was only on Holmbury - mainly the middle bits between YP/TR and the reservoir. I cant recall getting stung. Compare that with areas like Hindhead/Punchbowl/Puttenham where the stingers and brambles have lacerated my arms!

I really hate the innocent looking bracken that hides the vicious bramble inside. Catches on the inside of the elbow 😡

@temhurtmore that's what happens when you drive off the bike head first into the bushes.

Quick local spin tonight ?

I really hate the innocent looking bracken that hides the vicious bramble inside. Catches on the inside of the elbow

wear them with pride, scars on the inside of the elbow are the mark of a Surrey Hills biker.

Which bit were you on njee?

We did Winterfold, Pitch and Holmbury, admittedly Holmbury was the least overgrown.

Anyone been up today? How wet is it? Up there tomorrow.

It was bone dry yesterday.

Barrys was as dull as ditchwater. It's like a Sustrans path.

Didn't ride Barrys but went for an evening ride on Holmbury today. Conditions much better and drier althought there are the odd puddles in obvious places on runs like Yog Pots/Parklife.

But generally nice conditions to ride. Secret squirrel (I think) was the easiest I have ever know it as the off camber roots bits were all pretty dry. The best fun I have had on that route - perhaps my technique is improving at last. Some of the routes near the bottom Holmbury car park seem to have been blocked at the top which is a shame as they were fun. The remaining sections are quie a bit shorter.

Beware of the flying ants everywhere. Worst sitting outside the Inn! Should be fun up there tomorrow but signs about overcrowding on weekend of 27th.

People say these lyrics are gibberish, but think [s]sex[/s] a hefty dose of good LSD and it all becomes vividly clear.

FTFY