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Any ideas?
Define "Southern"
i would suggest it will be somewhere exmoor/ dartmoor ish.
define "technical"
Define "Southern"
Good question. I would suggest below Birmingham, but others may disagree.
Theres a great secret trail in the FOD with big doubles and a few drops. But I'd have to kill you if I told you where it was 🙁 Even had a small trail gap jump in it!
Well thanks for that Sheldona - guess I'll have to miss out then.
🙂
And there was me thinking that mountain biking was one big friendly community. Perhaps I'll go back to Canada, where it is 
technical... has to be wheels on the ground.
has to be on Dartmoor somewhere, take your pick... couple over Exmoor... but i found one (cheeky) in Butterdonball that is mega tech. slow, steep off camber all the way, switchbacks, roots, rock and always wet. A corker of a trail.
oh and the middle 'HSD trail at Gawton... to ride that feet up and quick is tough.
mikey74 Happy to show you around if you want to come and ride!
Cheers Sheldona: Is there enough there to warrant a day trip from south of London?
Without a doubt, I'd say [url=
North face of the Uxbridge Rd.[/url]
This
[img] 
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that leads into this
[img] 
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on Dartmoor is 'interesting'
its Track 40 mikey
XC trails? dartmoor probably is the most technically demanding. quantocks is more fun and flat out but dartmoor is harder.
DH - i can take you to any number of tracks round the SW that'll stretch even the best riders. Quantocks has some evil tracks hidden away and some stuff around tavistock is super tech and super steep.
and technical doesn't have to be wheels on the ground stuff. there are some tracks that require some serious ability to get to the drops/kickers with enough speed to make them. add in hips and step ups/step down and you add a whole new dimension to technical...
jam bo... know what you mean... i meant to it read -xc style riding- reading it back iit sounds stupid.
Cheers Sheldona: Is there enough there to warrant a day trip from south of London?
Yup! Just mail me if you want to come ride! I know around 70+ miles of trails there!
Technical? southern? trail. an oxymoron surely? 😀
Snaps, way more technical stuff then that at the devils punchbowl, although that still looks pretty fun.
Snaps, way more technical stuff then that at the devils punchbowl, although that still looks pretty fun.
Really? Got any pics and/or location info?
Depends what sort of technical, steep switchback type stuff or rocky 'pick a line' trails.
But in those pics above your mind is struggling to process what you're seeing & feeling fast enough as you have to fight with the bars & add foward motion & balance with the pedals as your back wheel is getting bounced & deflected sideways constantly with grip randomly varying from sandpaper like granite to slippery moss covered wheel traps - very mentally involving even at a little over walking pace!
I've riden more techy short sections but that one goes on like that for nearly half a mile.
There are a few good tech trails (ladders, gaps etc) on the Southdowns (i kid you not) you just need to know where to look 😉
As before it really depends on what your call technical 😕
Uh yeah its slightly north of the devils punchbowl in hindhead, a descent that takes you down to a river.
Ahh 'tis true bigsi and I don't bounce nearly well enough to tackle the more technical drops / jumps.
Anyway I thought the North began at the North Downs...
TBH there's little bits of tech everywhere really, it's knowing where they are, and whether it's worth going to them. Even in the Chilts where I ride, I can find steep and techy singletrack, but it's spread out all over the place.
I did the one that snaps has suggested last sunday...from top to bottom it's a super involving trail that has a good mix of technicalness... from rocky step downs, mech bashing rocks lurking on the trail edges, multiple line all offering a different challenge and then you sweep clear of the descent and enter a forest of granite boulders to attempt to navigate through, using trials movements, balance and power to batter through a lineless trail..fun it is!
Aston hill black run
Even missing out the gap jumps, the hard tracks at Gawton DH are the techiest stuff I've ridden* in the South.
*pushed/fallen down if the truth be told 😳
herts shore imho
[img] http://www.itsadventuresouthwest.co.uk/main/en/images/activity_snaps/act_TANK.jp g" target="_blank">http://www.itsadventuresouthwest.co.uk/main/en/images/activity_snaps/act_TANK.jp g"/> [/img]Essex alps(only tech cause i have to put up with things like this trying to hide in the bushes)
psst... ...the woods 😉
herts shore imho
Agreed.
LOL at that 'technical' Dartmoor pic. Double LOL at MTBing in Southern England. Get yerself oop norf!
LOL at that 'technical' Dartmoor pic. Double LOL at MTBing in Southern England. Get yerself oop norf!
I agree with you, but seeming as I live in the South (just south of London), I want to find the best riding I possibly can without a weekend away.
mikey74 - seem to remember your local patch is leith hill etc. most tech trail (without jumps etc) is what I've always known as Weird and Emotional on Pitch Hill. Always surprises me!!
Whereabouts is it?
>Uh yeah its slightly north of the devils punchbowl in hindhead, a descent that takes you down to a river.
Errr, I can guess the section you're talking about and it's a long way from being the most tech trail in Southern England. I'd imagine Dartmoor/Exmoor would hold the answer.
barry knows best.
So tech, people uplift it.
Gnarly
When I last lived in England, I used to ride Dartmoor quite a bit and thought "the Nutcracker" descent was pretty technical 🙂
Nut cracker has few techy bits on the middle section but there is moor technical trails on the more.
Weird and Emotional - turn R at the end of T2 and at the crossroads go straight down. Brings you out onto the road near the end of Barrys.
sharki 😆
Weird and Emotional - turn R at the end of T2 and at the crossroads go straight down. Brings you out onto the road near the end of Barrys
Is that the rocky bit with a series of steps?