I have a free afternoon this week and want to ride somewhere new (I am usually North Downs and Surrey Hills). Where should I head to? I have ridden the South Downs way a couple of times and loops out from Washington but I know there is better stuff if you know where to look / start. I wasted an afternoon at Swinley last week and so I want to go somewhere a bit more inspiring. Thanks.
Stanmer Park, Brighton has plenty of singletrack to play on, all located in a fairly compact area beside the Uni. It can be tricky to find some of the trails but most of the good stuff is recorded on Strava. Note that the park also includes Upper Lodge Wood, High Park wood and Millbank wood which are to the north and north west of the bit that Strava calls Stanmer.
Houghton Forest which is accessed from the Whiteways Cafe at the top of the A29 above Arundel has some longer singletrack (you can link it together into the old XC race course) although the forestry works have caused a lot of damage and midweek might block you from access to certain trails
QECP just south of Petersfield - local collective have turned what used to be very dull fire trails plus a collection of cheeky singletrack into the jewel of the western south downs. Well worth a visit although the chalk can be entertaining when damp
There is a lot more but these are the three that I could think of that would be an easy afternoon drive from where you usually ride
What sort of riding? Tech ST, or beautiful rolling views and challenging hills?
Or both I suppose...
Have you got a GPS like garmin etc?
DrP
Take a look on strava at the explore section and zoom it on the area that you're heading for.
Anywhere on the Downs is going to be very wet after this weekend I'm afraid.
I'm looking for a bit of everything really - techy bits, big sky bits, stop and breath bits. The weather could put a stop on the trip though as riding wet trails on the local sandstone will be a lot less claggy then wet chalk trails. Time to pull out the OS maps and compare with strava.
If you'd had come down yesterday you'd could have joined the party.
And they left the place looking so nice...
I'm going to ride up there later and have a look. Most of them couldn't walk, so I doubt there would have been much of a clean up once they left last night (assuming the rain has sent them packing). When we passed through, it seemed a very happy and relaxed atmosphere.
EDIT: Not my video. It's a friend of a friend's.
Probably more South Uppers than South Downers 🙂
I think they must've been suffering with punctures badly on that section as there were loads of co2 type canisters lying around. 😀
Where was that rave? I was up around Firle Beacon about 6pm last night and I'm sure I could hear a low 'boom, boom, boom' coming from somewhere.
Yesterday was a cracking day, sunny and dry, today it's been raining all day so far. Friston Forest has a lot of new interesting trails and you can add a loop along the SDW to get a bit of everything, but not sure I'd want to after this rain.
It's was along the SDW at Devil's Dyke.
Rode the SDW yesterday, the mess/noise at the Dyke was hideous. What do 'they' do with the little cannisters then?
Probably just missed Kojak, the two of us passed Firle around 7.
Apparently it's helium. I thought it was a joke when my mate told me. As getting high off helium sounded like a joke, but apparently along with nitrous oxide, it's the legal high of choice.
Blimey, Devils Dyke to Firle Beacon is some distance for the bass to travel!