I'm doing a bit of work in hampstead at the moment and was wondering if there's any bits worth looking at? Eg jumps or anything?
there used to be a couple of little jump spots on the heath, don't know if they are still there. Bring the MTB as they weren't particularly tight and you can explore more easily. you can also get out of there quicker as evening falls.....
There used to be a bit of a downhill run and some jumps over the road at the very top of the heath and a few nice trails through there. Really can't remember exactly though as i moved back from London 6 years ago. Up from Hampstead past the hospital, up that way (used to be a lake type of thing next to the road up there?)
Word of warning though, last time i tried to ride there the police were in the woods giving out fines to riders as the millionaire locals didn't like cyclists getting in the way of their dog walking activities (probably done by the hired help as well!) in 'their' woods.
Of course it may well have all been flattened since i was there.
My mate runs a bike shop nearby and gets stopped a lot when he rides over the Heath.
Why does he get stopped?
Perhaps they think he's a Tory MP?
I assume that he's got his knob hanging out...
They think his riding is too furious. He does a little commute from Kentish Town to Golders Green and I think they have little purges every so often, but yes he does have his knob out quite a bit.
Yeah as people have described there is an area of sort-of bomb-holey slightly-downhilly trails in the area known as Sandy Heath (the part of heath directly west of Spaniards Rd).
According to [url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mountain-Biking-Britain-Footprint-Travel/dp/1906098530/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276179681&sr=8-1 ]this[/url] book there are some dirt jumps near Highgate tube station. They are apparently in [url= http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=London+N7+6DH,+United+Kingdom&ll=51.57687,-0.143702&spn=0,0.016201&z=16&layer=c&cbll=51.576835,-0.143845&panoid=4FPhL3NQNnhVx6Qmz9wzgw&cbp=12,307.1,,0,7.03 ]here[/url] but I've never looked for them.
In my own attempt to find riding spots I came across [url= http://hampsteadbandit.blogspot.com/ ]this guy's blog[/url] and he seems to ride around the Hampstead area. Might be worth contacting him.
Good luck finding something - would be interested to hear if you do find anything interesting!
I forgot about the highgate jumps. I checked them out last summer but you can see how worn out they are from the street view. Probably only worth looking if you're very close by on a BMX
If it were allowed there could be a cracking singletrack loop on Hampstead Heath.