I'm down that neck of the woods for a night Saturday night, and fancy a ride on the Quantocks, never been before. Anyone about care to show me around? Or can point me in the direction of a route etc?
I'm pretty fit, so shouldn't be holding anyone back, would need to be after 8.30 start and before 1.30 finish ideally.
Tah
There is an off road sportive going on this week-end think - the Quantock Quake. Should be plenty to follow round or perhaps enter !
[url= http://www.quantockquake.co.uk/ ]http://www.quantockquake.co.uk/[/url]
sold out! Nevermind
** makes mental note to [s]leech[/s] check Strava for Quantock Quake routes on Sunday evening 😉 **
Be careful though as apparently the Quake route uses areas that are normally off-limits. Bette to check the existing segments and piece something together from those.
Anyone else here entered on Sunday? Weather's looking good!
Im in for the quake
I did the Exmoor explorer as my first ever event and loved that hoping for more of the same
Weather looks OK too so that's a bonus
Be careful though as apparently the Quake route uses areas that are normally off-limits.
Nowhere on the quantocks is off limits...
Its not too big to just explore, but Triscombe for a bit of DH, along the spine for some XC views and into the woods for some random fun
here is a map and gps
http://www.mbr.co.uk/routes/western-england/quantocks/quantocks-gps-route-download/
Nowhere on the quantocks is off limits...
I've not ridden there before. Maybe I misunderstood the info from the organisers:
'Some of the route is over the sensitive Northern Moor, to get an event over this section has been very difficult, please ensure you stick to the way-marked route and don’t cut corners or paths.'
I've done the MBR route above and really enjoyed it.
Would recommend having a go, it's easy to navigate and has a good variety of open stuff, forest stuff as well as fast double track and fire roads.
It's quite sandy in places and my drive train sounded horrible when I'd finished. You might want to bear that in mind if you're precious about your cogs 🙂
I only live about 10 mins from the Quantocks and its very dry at the minute so you should have a good time.
There is quite a bit of erosion now in some areas - including braking bumps in some of the combes and the foresty bit so I guess the organisers just want peeps to be careful to not cause any more. I have no idea but that's my guess!
It's quite sandy in places and my drive train sounded horrible when I'd finished. You might want to bear that in mind if you're precious about your cogs
It's very abrasive when it's wet but as long as you don't use loads of sticky lube it's fine when dry. On the plus side you don't usually need any degreaser if you clean your bike in winter, there's usually no lube left on your drivetrain after about 3 hours!
That was fun!
A bunch of us picked up a trail marker that we shouldn't have and ended up on the extended section first. Bit disconcerting crossing the finish line after just over an hour! Ended up doing the main loop after the extension, but it was quite fun moving back through the pack.
Apart from the routing, it was a great event. Weather was perfect. The route was varied and fun, even if some of the climbs were actually impossible to ride.
The rotting dead ram in the middle of the trail was pretty stinky.
The rotting dead ram in the middle of the trail was pretty stinky
That wasn't just over the hill from Crowcombe carpark towards frog combe was it? Took the dogs up there this afternoon and our jack russell sniffed out the front leg of a sheep but didn't see the rest of it anywhere 😆
Was perfect weather for it today, shame it was full up by the time i realized it was on else i would have entered.