[Closed] Most Technical trail in Southern England?

Sounds about right - it's a gully that gets deeper, with a few rocks thrown in, before it opens out into a rooty section before dropping onto the main track.

Yeah, I do like that one, especially the two foot step about half-way down: I've had a couple of "walking through the air" moments on that.

The most technical one I think is just down from the top of Pitch hill: It is on the left as you go down towards the upper car park, about 75m from the top. It's steep and has a switchback very near the top before a couple of steep, rooty steps/drops.

Yep ridden that one too. We call it Wedgie for some reason! Some steep stuff over on Redlands too.

The track at Gawton that everyone keeps referencing is called Egypt. No idea why, but it is pretty tricky. The middle rock garden section is hard whichever way through you choose.

LOL at that 'technical' Dartmoor pic. Double LOL at MTBing in Southern England. Get yerself oop norf!

the track at gawton is called egypt because while it was being built we were trying to keep it under wraps. it got known as riding in egypt and the name stuck.

once you know your lines then its pretty straightforward.

Cheers guys, unfortunately Gawton is a pretty long way for me (from West Sussex). Looks good though.

My mates guided for a while in BC. The said without doubt the worst techincal riders were from the South , always fit but ATGNI Chris King this n'shiny that but no skills whatsoever, most walking down modest trails.

Suprisingly Midlands riders were generally the best, then the Scotch.

My mates guided for a while in BC. The said without doubt the worst techincal riders were from the South , always fit but ATGNI Chris King this n'shiny that but no skills whatsoever, most walking down modest trails.

Suprisingly Midlands riders were generally the best, then the Scotch.

After my experiences on mtb holidays I would totally agree with that, although I would say Northerners (including Scots) were generally the best. It's because the riding down here in the South is pretty lame, lets face it.

 

Oh i dunno.

Couple of yrs ago i answered a shout out on here for someone to help a bucnch of London lads around a route above Hebden Bridge.

I thought "this should be easy, they won't be used to hills etc".

When i turned up one lad had a road cassette on his hardtail and i thought "oh oh!"
As it turned out they were pretty damn fast & could ride everything we could ride, they only started to flag at the end when we rode up London Rd and i reckon that we beat them up that trail only because we knew what to expect and they didn't.
Turned out they regularly travelled to the Lakes to ride...

...won't make that misconception again!

Of course there are exceptions, but I would say as a general principle: people who live and ride in the South are not generally as good as those from up North.

Personally i don't know enough (any?) Southern-based riders to be able to comment. I'm pretty slow and crap compared to many but faster & more technically skilled than others.

I really should get down south but the only place i've ridden in the South was Monmouthshire on the Anglo/Welsh border. Nice easy riding but bloody awful clay mud.
It's too easy to stay in the North West when i've got the Pennines,Peak,Dales,Lakes etc either out of my door, a short train rida away or an hour in the car away.

I can't understand why anyone from up t'north would want to come down and ride in the south: there really is no need.

+1 for barry knows best. Much more gnarly than Snaps trail.

Vive La Difference?

One day i aim to ride the Ridgeway, not because it's the most technical trail, not because it's long but because it is an important historical route.
The views are going to be very different to what we have up here too.

muddydwarf, I wouldn't bother - much of it has been sanitised for easy access for morons, other sections are positively lethal in the damp (exposed chalk), much of the air of history is somewhat spoilt by having Swindon or Harwell labs in the foreground .... I only really know about Goring - Avebury though, maybe the Chilterns end is better. I did have cause to give thanks for the A34 though last time, as I hid in the tunnel whilst it p*ssed down around me.

Just ride the downlands around Avebury, Cherhill, some of the unmapped Ridgeway heading from the Sanctuary on the A4 out toward Somerset (it's still on the OS more or less) to get the same impression but a more enjoyable ride.

Leith Hill, Surrey has good stuff.
So does Stanmer Park, Brighton, with lovely carefully cultivated technical singletrack.
But neither of these will be 'most/best'.

Northern riders better than southern......

I wonder how much depends on the choice of terrain. Interesting that most of the tales where the southern blokes don't cut it are based on riding in 'Northern' conditions (rocky, etc.)

My only experience is with a work colleague, a good rider (fitter, technically better than I) from NJ, USA where the trails are typically similar to peaks riding. When I've been over there the way he rides stuff that I'd barely think could be ridden before I'd see him ride it amazed me.

When he was over last year I took him to Swinley. Through that sort of tight, rooty singletrack, with very little effort I was gapping him while he barrelled from tree to tree, and the roots on the corkscrew had him all over the shop.

I'm sure with practice, he would probably learn to ride Swinley faster than I'd learn to ride NJ, but is that part of the reason why when you take a group of riders to eg: the Sierra Nevada, the riders that ride similar rocky trails regularly are considered better riders than those who don't?

This.

Many riders don't have enough variety to get good at riding different terrain, others ride trail centres or groomed trails to much and don't like to push to improve in aspects they struggle with.

Many don't get out enough to warrant wasting a days riding not having a ride that flows, taking time out to session bits to get better at them..

I'd say there's a very high level of poor riders equally spread across the country.

So long as they're all enjoying it, it really doesn't matter..technical riding has many guises and if people see them as challenges and choose to tackle them then i say fair play, you're mountain biking and not just riding a bike.....

taking time out to session bits to get better at them.

I never do this.

Personally I getting desperate to learn how to handle launching off stuff because I have the brake when I don't want to to avoid it. Am thinking about some tuition.

I wonder how much depends on the choice of terrain. Interesting that most of the tales where the southern blokes don't cut it are based on riding in 'Northern' conditions (rocky, etc.)

I think there is alot of truth in that, especially as I try to go on holidays that feature terrain I don't get at home.

Many riders don't have enough variety to get good at riding different terrain, others ride trail centres or groomed trails to much and don't like to push to improve in aspects they struggle with.

This hints at my major gripe about trail centres such as Afan: I feel they aren't designed with enough variety and progression in mind. IMO in order for Afan/Glyncorryg (sorry about spelling) to grow, they need to introduce less well groomed, more technical sections as an option to the easier main trail. One good example is the black rated trail at Innerleithen where you have black graded options as an alternative to the easier main trail. I laughed when I rode the "black" rated section at the top of the first climb as there is no way that should be a black.

Dartmoor is shit. I wouldnt bother

Where abouts in west sussex are you mikey74?

riders good at riding terrain which exists in their locale shocka.

East Grinstead

riders good at riding terrain which exists in their locale shocka.

I think the point is that there is more varied terrain up north.

Mikey74 i'm just round the corner from you in Crawley Down, do you ever ride at Tilgate forest, if you come down the worth way it's ridable from your front door, i'm always looking for new riding buddies.

it's not even that; it's that the comment that Northern riders are better is misleading if the comment is based solely on comparing N vs S on terrain more akin to Northern conditions.

Kind of like saying that because Paula Radcliffe would lose to Usain Bolt by 30 yards in the 100m that Bolt is a good runner and she isn't.

Wasn't there a feature fairly recently where riders swapped locales and both struggled when on unfamiliar ground?

Theotherjonv - Yep, a recent issue of singletrack. the "northerners" struggled here in Bristol - they weren't used to the tight wooded singletrack i believe?
Leigh woods can be very technical in an XC style - check out the latest issue of Dirt and the interview with Box. The pic where he's rogering Luffman (the mad axeman) is at the entrance to picnic bench that drops down to Avon Gorge. One of many steep techy trails there that do.