[Closed] Somewhere to session drops/jumps in SE

If you are near Sevenoaks, search Tracedefrein on FB.

If you want to do a Jumps and Drops skills training day there is only one place to go, UK Bike Skills. A Public session is a great place to start, then if you want to progress further private sessions with Tony are well worth it.

Rogate bike park is best this time of year. Or Bull Track or PORC in the spring.

Whereabouts in the South East are you , it's a big area.

chicksands bike park is excellent.

Why don't you session that trail? (It looks like Lovely legs?). Start on the smallest drop & practice it, once you're not even thinking about it, move to the slightly bigger second one, rinse & repeat, then onto the last.

Don't learn your technique off that video either, unless you want to perfect the dead sailor bar tweak.

+1 for Chicksands, Woburn Sands has loadsa jumps as well these days.

Rogate?

Alternatively since you ride in the Surrey Hills drop Si an email at coaching@pedalandspoke.co.uk He's very good and can either coach you on the trails or at a private quarry he has which is just down the road.

The drops on that trail are also probably not the best ones to get your technique sorted on if you're nervous. The first has a slightly awkward off camber landing which pushes you into the rut and the second doesn't give you much time to get set after you come round the corner.

Find a quiet wooded hillside, buy a mattock, build some wee lines.

Agree with Rogate - big variety of jumps and drop sizes (with chicken lines). Always room to practice and soft loamy soil to land on if you do crash!

Also - Sam, the head honcho there has done some training sessions (my son did one). You could contact him on Facebook to see if he'd be up for a 1 to 1.

Aston Hill
Chicksands
Woburn

shame swinley jump gulley has gone. I used to love that. Cannot understand how too many people used to get injured as it was pretty tame.

For an option further West, if you want to repeatedly session stuff the B1kePark sites are good - Tidworth (minutes off the A303) or Windmill Hill at Longleat. You can get a free membership and pay per session, or an annual pass. Not sure if anyone coaches there, if anyone here knows I'd be tempted myself.

B1ke do Jumps and Drops training at Surrey Hills and Tidworth.

I would stongly recommend you do get some training in before heading off to practice out on you own. Get the right techniques in place first, then you are far less likely to develop bad habits and hurt yourself.

^^ Rogate is also part of B1KE. Get a pass and try all of em 🙂

Not sure who owns them but there's jumps in Nonsuch park cheam and those mega ones outside Leatherhead.

Interested in Tidworth but cannot see how to get there on the website. Is there a postcode somewhere? Also what's it like in wet conditions? Still rideable? What's the parking situation like?

shame swinley jump gulley has gone. I used to love that. Cannot understand how too many people used to get injured as it was pretty tame.

Right next to the xc trail, many people would hit it on their 10year old trek xc bike with seatpost at full mast & be surprised when they were shot up & over the bars on a jump.

It it's drops rather than jumps OP wants then rogate probably best.

Interested in Tidworth but cannot see how to get there on the website. Is there a postcode somewhere? Also what’s it like in wet conditions? Still rideable?

SP9 7TE - A338 Salisbury Road.

It's closed until March 8th. I've only been once during last years bone dry summer. Was very chalky, if I remember rightly, so probably a 'mare in the wet.

Thanks all, yeah it's mostly drops I'd want to session and build up in size but some small jumps wouldn't hurt too.

I'm in Central Kent so anywhere from sussex/Surrey, Essex, London way is fine.

I'm definitely tempted to have a coaching session rather than just throwing myself off some drops 😀

Good thread and has reminded me to join B1ke and get down to Rogate. I'm like you OP. Really I am wheels on the ground but happy on some drops and gaps but not others (no rationale for some of this) so said to myself that some solid days sessioning things at Rogate will be time well spent. Just joined up now.

Build your own-

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and session in the back street.

Funny, when I first asked about Rogate on here (Hampshire thread, I think) it was all...

+1 Rogate. I think things went a bit quiet there and runs a bit tired, hence the tumbleweed, but since B1KE take over and improvements it's suddenly become popular again.

Always been good for sessioning though and holds up in wet weather.

As for Lovely Legs, I can't do the big drop stuff. They're just not my thing really. Hang left at the ramp and you get the old trail and couple of more natural drops. Smaller and handy to practice, though first got a bit overgrown which was putting me off yet I was doing it fine before.

Some nice drops to practice over on Leith too, off from the tower.

There wasn't many drops at Rogate last time I was there, especially given the sizes suggested for progression. Other than the one on the old main line, that looks like the landing was build with hand grenades?

It seems popular again at the moment, but I was bored after about an hour & had ridden everything there. Go on a course, learn the technique, or watch some instructional videos & self film to watch, then head up into the woods with a spade. The size of drop you are talking about building is an hours work, max. You can then add to it as your confidence improves.

thanks Akers.

If you're central Kent may be worth you checking out Perry Wood (North of Chilham) and Covert woods (Barham) .

If you’re in Kent, have a look at Perry Wood in Selling. There’s a small area with various jumps and drops you can session.

Vid here shows it quite well once you’re past the guff at the start...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oYwMD4lTQXE

Missed the post above! And covert as mentioned!

I'm a regular at covert woods, I try and make the biketart ride out as often as I can - there's not many drops there that I've seen though, one or 2 that I know of.

Will check out the rest of the suggested places, I'm never going to be riding off 6ft drops or doing 10ft gap jumps, I'm a couple of years away from 40 so faaaar too old for that stuff 🙂 but I would like to be about to ride normal trail size jumps and drops without having to stop and take the chicken line or walk them!

A group coaching day is definitely on the cards.

You definitely aren’t to old to learn.
I only tackled my fear of jumps and drops last year, aged 42. Glad I did, I’m a better, more confident rider for it and have more fun as a result.

Drops are everywhere-I think if you can go off a kerb/wall etc at a 'slow' speed and land rear wheel first or both together then your a big step towards riding bigger stuff safely.
I can ride around the block/town and find more drops than I would encounter on most trails.

I'm getting there, only started back on an MTB about a year ago from a 15+ year gap, the fact that I'm able to ride some fairly steep stuff at Surrey Hills shows I'm progressing well, but as you say having the confidence to ride stuff is a huge part of it.

And thanks for naming that trail, it is lovely legs.

Tidworth is closed for 10 days more or so. It's also awful in the wet, as it's a chalk soil. Wind Hill is probably the best place to go, as it's got quite a range of jumps and drop, but is a bit of a trek for you, I imagine.

JP

Thread resurrection time!

So today I went to a public jumps and drops session with Tony at UK bike skills.

I got exactly what I wanted out of the day, Tony's techniques for drops is different to pretty much every video you see on YouTube, but when he explains it, and you then go ahead an practice what he's shown, it's so very simple.

I was comfortable going off a 2ft drop and within a couple of hours of starting we'd gone into a 6ft tabletop jump, starting off slow but it didn't take long before I was clearing the 6ft table, and the 6ft gap jump alongside it.

A bit later we hit another roller/jump line, I'll be honest and say I was getting tired and hot by then which meant mistakes were coming in, it was high 20's on the hill and you really felt it.

All in all, a great session - the biggest thing I've come away with is that when jumping a 6ft table/gap, it feels like nothing at all. And when you clear it, oooh my it's so smooth! 😁

I'll definitely be up for a private session at a later date, I'll do it in the autumn though as it's bloody hard work when it's hot!

Couple of pics from the day, the first one wasn't my best jump by far (too far over the back) but it's a decent pic.
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Ah man I'm glad you enjoyed it

Good stuff-there is a nice little easy to session jump pit next to Shorne Country Park with a few bit in it - if you want somewhere easy to practice/progress-will be busy and crammed with kids for next 6 weeks though,so go early .

Get yourself done to Danbury common just out side Chelmsford for short but very fun runs

How is his technique different from every other video?