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My mate lives in High Wycombe and I live in Cardiff - we need to meet to exchange some frames, and we'd want to do a ride about half way. We can't do a road ride because it's my road frame I am swapping; normally we'd ride the Ridgway/downs area but it's going to be a absolute mess in December. So something with a bit of gravel that's not a mud fest would be great. Any pointers?
Salisbury Plain.
Gravel as far as the eyes can see.
Swinley is probably the best bet for an easy place to ride. Much closer to Wycombe than Cardff though. There is plenty of gravel / minor road riding around the Hungerford & Inkpen area, but you would have to get the maps out to plan something that could potentially end up being a bit of a slog at this time of year.
Swinley is 2.5 hours for me.
Is Salisbury plain rideable all year?
Yes, very much so.
It's not gnar, but lovely to ride all year on a gravel bike.
Miles of this,
Always a few perma-puddles, but they can be avoided pretty easily. Don't ride through them, hidden depths!
Good suggestion ta.
Got any routes to suggest, probably 30-40km ish?
Salisbury plain is littered with gravel and byways, you could try the imber range path? That's a nice circular route that should be okay this time of year.
Swinley is 2.5 hours for me.
Is Salisbury plain rideable all year?
Salisbury will be pretty much the same time.
Pewsey maybe, for a start? Presumably those obvious big red lines on the map are the well surfaced ones?
The Imber Ranges will be open briefly in December I think (church closed unfortunately) so an option is to start in Warminster meaning fab views and lots of rusting abandoned tanks along with a bit of a climb at the start. This may help:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/salisbury-plain-training-area-spta-firing-times
Alternatively you could start at Bratton White Horse and use the Imber Range Perimeter Path which is open access at all times. At Redhorn Hill if the Larkhill Range is open then you could head South towards Tilshead then pick up the Imber Range Perimeter Path. Or you could continue along the Northern section which then heads South towards Larkhill. It's possible to head towards Stonehenge from here via a byway.
So many options!
Edit: this will assist
Some decent tarmac hills between Warminster and Stourhead, that I've tackled a few times on a hire hybrid or my 29ered fatbike, including...
Park Hill (main entrance/exit to Longleat estate)
Gare Hill
Kingsettle Hill (one I've yet to try, a tasty ~525 feet in 1.4 miles)
Forest Rd and then up past Heaven's Gate car park
Ride no.2 on the link below is Salisbury Plain, longer than you're looking for but you can chop it up. Just beware of red flags and tanks when doing any shortcuts 😉
The route of the Castles ride from Swindon is basically gravel and little country lanes. Park up at Coate Water, 2 mins from the M4
http://www.castlesbikeride.co.uk/route.html
You could do Salisbury Plain but it can be a bit grim up there even in summer.
If you're heading to Warminster, you could park up at Heaven's Gate and easily get through ~35K messing about in the woods on either side. Obviously it's wet and mucky in places, but there's gravel there too if you must, and a tea shop down by the lake.