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Taking a trip down that way 9th-10th feb and want to do some riding.
What's it like up there at the moment? Trails easy to find?
It's a maze and full of puddles.
Spot on.
oh dear! Here's hoping it clears up a bit by the 9th 🙁
Best bet would be to find yourself a local or tag along with :
www.nirvanacycles.com
their sat XC ride and/or sunday 11am ride (this is quite 'jumpy and droppy')
Honestly, it's a swamp.
It's not going to clear up.
Stop being silly, you will still be able to string together a great ride there is just some trails to be avoided
Ah thanks for tips, was going to go up friday afternoon and head over winterfold area. I leave the mud x on then? 😉
Mud X
Pack your BB out with wax.
Wellies.
Snorkel.
Sense of humour.
Titus, thanks, will check that out. Not sure if I'll be able to get there for 9:30am on the Saturday as travelling from oop north, but the Sunday one could be worth a shot.
mud tyres it is then....
[i]Stop being silly, you will still be able to string together a great ride there is just some trails to be avoided [/i]
If you know where you are going...
Just come in from taking the dogs out. Conditions are not good. Muddy, sloppy. Not ideal npby any means for us or the trails. Someone posted the other day that there is also a lot of new logging on pitch, so expect trails and fire roads to be affected. My wife was walking dogs at Swinley yesterday a said much the same thing.
You don't need mud tyres. It's not muddy. It's very wet, but it's not really a mud fest. The substrate is sand stone and the top soil is pretty loose and mulchy, but it's not claggy mud.
I ride the same tyres all year round and most of the people I know round here do the same.
Id suggest you ask for a guide from here next week, i might be able to help but couldnt say atm
Personal suggestion might be to do more of the box hill, mickleham, norbury/ randmore stuff and then just do the more maintianed stuff on the sandstone ridge (yoghurt pots, BKB and summer lighting)
The 'official' Nirvana rides, especially on Sundays I believe, tend to be more free-ridey than XC, ie they ride out to some drops or jumps and session them a bit. (See the vids on the FB page for instance). Worth knowing in case that is or isn't your thing.
There are usually other people milling about at that time tho so you can always turn up and take your chances if XC is more your bag.
Yeah matt, i went out on the Sunday ride a couple of weeks ago and was surprised by just how much the riding has progressed, lots of 160mm + slack bikes and coil shocks.
the impressive thing is that they still ride the uphills and flats at a pretty damn good speed as well as doing all the drops/ sessioning/ etc
(as i understand it the saturday ride is still XC but will be quite fast)
Ask on Muddy Moles or Diary Of A Mountainbiker.
They seem like normal people and not " if you're not breaking bones you're not riding hard enough" types.
Haha it's not my idea of progress really, but each to their own.
I'm not really in the loop on what's a 'Nirvana ride' rather than a 'some mates riding from Westcott green', but yeah the Saturday crew are damn fast, it's race training by another name. I've done it and just about hung on but they could easily have dropped me if they wanted!
LMP - the good thing about the area is that it drains reasonably well although there are big variations between the traditional SH's centres (eg Ranmore vs Leith vs Holmbury vs Pitch vs Winterfold etc).
I normally try to avoid the well known stuff and stick to the cheekier, less frequented singletrack. But that may not be a good idea at the moment. In fact, if you are going for the day and for the first time, the routes described in the latest WMB may well be ideal as they cover a lot of the (v few) officially sanctioned trails. So you could check out Nirvana but if that does not suit do your own thing by riding across the road then up to Holmbury (taking in bits of Ranmore or not), up to Barry's (just ask anyone), down to Peaslake, a quick bash on Pitch (depending on the wet), then back up Holmbury to the top, Down Parklife/ Yogurt Pots and Telegraph Road (again just ask as easy to find and follow), then up Greensand way to top of Leith. Muck about around the top, then down Summer Lightening to the car.
This sounds a little cliched, but in current conditions may well be best to stick to these well-known and popular runs. YP will still be wet though!
If group rides aren't your thing then check out the [url= http://singletrackworld.com/trailguide/uk/south-east/the-north-downs/ ]North Down[/url]s guides on here, the grizzly lungbuster is a bit of an epic, mainly bridleways but a great all day ride with some pretty spectacular views. If you want cheeky stuff then check out strava.
I don't mind group rides, but I'm not much of a freerider - too many crashes!
Not afraid of wet/mud, so long as it's not unrideable 🙂