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Right people, I rode the full loop today as a bit of a test. 101 miles and a little over 8hrs.
14 September 2013, leaving Ligh****er Country Park 8am.
It would be great to get a good group of people to leave together. The updated full route is here:
http://connect.garmin.com/course/3847241
It is essentially in 4 stages, with short cut options after stages 1, 2 and 3. Look at the route and you'll see what I mean.
1. Ride from Ligh****er to Shere.
2. Ride trails on Winterfold and Pitch, down into Peaslake.
3. Ride trails on Holmbury, Leith, White Down, Holmbury, back to Peaslake
4. Ride back to Ligh****er from Peaslake.
Drink stops at 25 miles (Shere), 45 miles (Peaslake), 70 miles (Peaslake), 79 miles (Newlands Corner). No bike shops directly on the route so bring spares.
GB
That sounds fantastic. I would definitely be interested in joining in. I tend to ride from Farnborough to Newlands via Farnham and the NDW so it would be good to do something different.
Great. We probably need a Facebook group or something.
Obviously you'll be needing a GPS to follow the route - this is just a ride not a proper event.
Sounds like a good idea to setup a group on facebook. GPS is no problem, I guess nearer the time you will share the gpx file ?.
You can download it from the link in my first post.
Logging this. Good lord I only did 100 miles once and that was on road.
Drink stops at 25 miles (Shere), 45 miles (Peaslake), 70 miles (Peaslake), 79 miles (Newlands Corner). No bike shops directly on the route so bring spares.
Pedal & Spoke in Peaslake is directly on the route, Nirvana in Westcott and Beyond in Cranleigh only a small detour.
Be good fun, even I could be tempted!
Shere to Peaslake is about 3 miles, somebody needs to check their navigation! 😉
Pedal and spoke in Peaslake has been closed the last few Saturday and Sundays I've been over - seems to open randomly these days?
I guess I meant no shops actually on the route.
Don't think it will be a problem though judging by the amount of stuff I saw people carting round with them today in their mahooooosive rucksacks.
GB
Okay will aim to do this.
Pedal and spoke in Peaslake has been closed the last few Saturday and Sundays I've been over - seems to open randomly these days?
Really? It looked closed last couple of times I've been there, but was actually open.
Last time I looked into P&S Peaslake I thought it was now just a rental shed not a shop, they also were a bit grumpy when my SO asked to use their pump last year.
I wouldn't count on them as a source of spares.
A few of the Banjo boys and some others I work with are up for this. Sounds good.
pedal and Spoke was open on Sunday. I know, as my husband had to leave my bike there for a bit after I crashed on bkb and needed to leave in an ambulance 🙂 Thanks guys!
This ride sounds good - we might well be up for it and I need something to aim for when I'm allowed back on the bike!
I'll be in for this - hadn't planned to do Kielder but this looks right up my street
i'm interested.
I'm in and more than likely one or two others I know. looking at the complexity of the GPX track its a little worrying that we may struggle to stay on course given the nature of the terrain. I guess I could always just keep up with Gee and therefore make the GPS redendant (and potentially cause a self inflicted cardiac arrest)
Pedal and Spoke now largely moved down to their big new shop in Cranleigh...
Just be careful how big this gets if it takes off - remember the last farce of the DH / Enduro races that were called off. Might be worth talking to Friends of Hurtword or at least Howard at Pedal and Spoke to get some local buy-in.
Might be worth talking to Friends of Hurtword or at least Howard at Pedal and Spoke to get some local buy-in.
It's a hundred mile route, that's not competitive in any way. A) 'local' buy in is most of Surrey. B) in what way can buy in help, other than promoting it as an event, which it isn't really, it's just a ride, on a day when many hundred people will be riding the same trails, most at a quicker pace, it's not really anything like the "Leith Hill Mega".
From my perspective it'll just be nice to find out some trails that are local to me. Having lived just outside godalming for a month I've still yet to turn a wheel offroad in The Great Surrey Hills...
Really? That's shocking. Mayhem this weekend, but happy to show you around next weekend?
That would be awesome chap - I'll bring the MTB back with me this weekend so should be good for a ride the following.
I could well be up for this too (the 100 miler, not the njee/flange love-in)
although I'm doing London to Brighton offroad (70 miles) the following weekend so it won't exactly be tapering my training...
That would be awesome chap - I'll bring the MTB back with me this weekend so should be good for a ride the following.
Yep, drop me a mail, we'll sort it out.
although I'm doing London to Brighton offroad (70 miles) the following weekend so it's won't exactly be tapering my training...
That'll be a piece of piss if you do this!
BRAKES!!!! I saw that cheeky edit, you can come along too if you're feeling left out?
Nick - you have mail sir.
I could well be up for this too (the 100 miler, not the njee/flange love-in)
[flounce]Pfft, you're not invited to [i]our [/i]ride anyway[/flounce]
Yes - local buy-in to a ride with some friends would be an interesting one...
I am planning a route description - basic but it will probably help. A lot of the trails are pretty obvious - you don't really turn on/off trails a lot other than at the start and end - they tend not to have options down the trail, as it were.
If you end up ruined you can just short cut home from Peaslake (1hr 20mins)
GB
njee20 - Member
It's a hundred mile route, that's not competitive in any way. A) 'local' buy in is most of Surrey. B) in what way can buy in help, other than promoting it as an event, which it isn't really, it's just a ride, on a day when many hundred people will be riding the same trails, most at a quicker pace, it's not really anything like the "Leith Hill Mega".
You seemed to miss the key point of my post:
dashed - MemberJust be careful how big this gets if it takes off
If it's a mates pootle around Surrey then of course there won't be any issues. If you get a very large turnout and this really takes off (after posting on a public forum perhaps??) they there could be some bad feeling about it and you could come in for some stick (at the Surrey Hills end of things, rather than the "most of Surrey" bit!!). Don't underestimate the power of the internet to get the wrong end of the stick and blow things out of all proportion and trying to helpfully avoid you getting into that situation.
Just saying like...
Oh, and not referring to the mega, there was another "official" race event thing that got canned after a whole load of bitching on here and facebook. Can't remember the details but that did relations in SH no good whatsoever.
As far as I'm concerned it's a mates ride in Surrey. I don't do pootles. I doubt my group will be more than 3-4 riders.
GB
I will be starting in the same place as Gee, that's the last time I expect to see him...
I think this sounds like a good challenge and I don't really see a problem with it TBH. I think that due to the length of the ride it would put most people off joining in but it might be worth keeping it a little quiet so not to attract too much attention.
I was bored so just made the route guide...
Agreed on the length and challenge putting most people off. I really need to emphasize it takes me 8hrs of riding time, about 8hrs 30mins total time riding at a fair old pace with only about 20mins stopping in total for lunch in Peaslake. When I rode this at the weekend the trails were also in perfect condition - it would be a lot slower in the wet. I also rode home quickly from Peaslake as I wanted to make it to 100 miles without the Garmin going flat.
If you can't follow the exact GPS it doesn't really matter as you will always know vaguely where you are once you are on Winterfold/Pitch/Holmbury/Leith etc.
Be prepared for a very long day out and unless you really know the area I'd say a proper map is a VERY good idea.
GB
Cheers for this, I won't be able to make the 14th, as I'm in France for a wedding, but I've saved the course in Garmin connect and I'll be giving it a whirl at some point for sure.
Have you done the SDW in a day? Just wondering how relevant your 8 hour pace for this one might be for me!
Ta.
Yes I've done that. About 8hrs.
GB
Okaayyyy! Good work. I'm going to add 25% to your course time for starters. 🙂
The SDW is also a doddle by comparison - a lot easier riding as it's basically 100 miles of fire road. This is probably around 60 miles like that with about 40 miles on trails.
GB
still took you about the same time, though? Or did you stop for beer and ice-cream?
SDW was a lot more of a gentle pace. I'd reckon on 7.5hrs for SDW at a comparable pace. Also the start and end bits of this loop (c50 miles) are a lot faster as they are road/wide bridleways so can average 16/17mph. The middle 50 miles is extremely tough, hilly and on some very technical trails.
gee - don't suppose you have a GPX version of the file you could send me?
Garmin Connect doesn't seem to let you export as GPX any more, only directly to a Garmin device. I have a Satmap, so that's no help.
Email in profile if you aren't already feeling like this is all getting too much bother 🙂
+1 offthebrakes
It doesn't even save/store it to my account so am currently having to leave the tab open until I figure out how to get the GPX.
Ta
Hi
Here is the edited GPX route starting and finishing at the Country Park. Bikeroutetoaster was playing up a bit so it might not follow the roads precisely, but if you open it you'll get the idea. You can always tweak it a little.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10145663/Surrey%20Hills%20-%20the%20standard%20epic.gpx
GB
Cheers Gee. Downloaded so will have a tweak later.
Thanks George. Looks like even you've had enough of singletrack by the time you hit Clandon on the way home 🙂
8 hours is pretty quick. I'll be interested, how much is on Tarmac? I'll be doing woldingham to Eastbourne via ndw and sdw in June whilst the evenings are light, waiting for good wind. Attempted it last year but bailed at black cap, starts hard and ends hard with a boring but fast bit in the middle on the downslink.
SDW is nearly all on gravel/chalk/grass double track.