[Closed] South Downs Mud

wow those are proper 'mud' tyres

Glad I didnt bother riding at the weekend!

Which bit of the South Downs, it's pretty muddy at the Winchester end.

Muddy the Eastbourne end too ... muddy everywhere I'd say as it seems to have been raining for 3 days now, and forecast until Friday 🙄

Went out on Saturday but we try to do a route with less mud so wasn't quite as bad as that Tiger

Thats about 15-20 miles out of Winchester on the diverted bit after the old railway embankment. The whole SDW is pretty bad at the moment / very slippy, very cut up by horses and farm traffic and bloody hard work.

That happened to me riding near Findon...then it happed to my boots when shouldered the bike.

night riding last week Friston forest and along cuckmere river, complete mud fest and tyres like the ones above !
Forget it considering the rain we have had even just today !

To be fair, the proper south downs dont really start until Butser hill, which is also where the Geology changes more to the proper chalk downs ridges which are more generally rideable all year.
The bit between Winchester and and Butser was actually a fairly recent "add-on" for the sake of getting the Way up to 100 miles and is well known for being a nightmare in bad weather.

Went on sdw last weekend. For the first time in a long while I had to machine wash my spuds too. Also had to get undressed in my shed

That's what I commute through! It's taking an hour at the moment compared to 35-40 minutes in the summer.

Well it didn't get much easier after QE park and Butser Hill in fact if anything it got harder as the farm traffic has just cut the tracks into unridable grey sludge ruts.

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Full set can be seen on Flickr

[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/47300508@N05/sets/72157623494030614/ ]http://www.flickr.com/photos/47300508@N05/sets/72157623494030614/[/url]

we did warn you it might be a bit of a slog 😉

did you get to Eastbourne? If you did well done, it's hopeless out there currently.

I've been reduced to riding my road bike.

[Edit] just saw this - [i]Hendy fell on his tent after 9 pints crushed it gave up and slpet in a broken tent hopeing for a clear night and ended up wet [/i] fair play for him to get up and carry on the next day after that!

If you were down in Brighton Sunday then I guess you called it a day there - still a good journey in those conditions - did you get the train after that?

Yep many of us along the SDW are riding the road - the chalk is a nightmare as the snow/frost has broken it up then the rain has made it that sticky paste for grinding componentry.

looks familiar!

i'm new to the south coast (battle) and most of the trails i've found look like that.

i'm off to do more exploring this afternoon, doesn't look like the rain is gonna stop...

Friday we set off about 3pm and made okay progress and slept at the top of QE park Butser Hill where the mast is.

Saturday which we hoped to rack up the miles and do about 60-70 miles. In fact Saturday was a disaster we maybe covered 30 miles in the day it was just very hard going and very puncture ridden. Must of had 9-10 punctures between us. Lots of hedge cutting had happened. Mud and gear to see us three 3 days slowed us down.

Sunday it pi$$ed it down and progress was easier for it, it seemed to wash some of the clag away and if you rode in the little flowing stream it was okay-ish to ride but not very pleasant as we were getting soaked to the bone with biblical rain / sleet / hail on the hills. Made about 30 miles again and then called it a day and dropped down into Brighton.

Had Fish & Chips at about 2:30 and then got the train back to the big smoke. Defeated!

Much respect for sticking it out as far as you did - i suspect i'd have given up way before. I was out on the downs north or Worthing on Saturday afternoon & it took 2 hours to clean the bike & kit off afterwards.

I'm telling myself that we've only got another couple of weeks of this & then it's spring & it'll be back to dry & dusty 🙂

Tiger - ah I recognise that pic, the top of Amberly Mount heading east towards Washington!