Of course I've looked on komoot etc, but it's hard to get a feeling for a ride just on the map.
Finally after having a baby and life always getting in the way a friend and I will be meeting in January for a ride. Salisbury plain is halfway between us, and we've never ridden there before.
Does anyone have any recommendations? We'd be looking for a 4-5 hour ride, with a good lunch stop that is predominantly off road and any single-track ideal.
My recollection from a couple of winter rides is that it's VERY muddy, so hoprfully you'll hear from those who regularly ride there in winter
Local here. Now I accept that I'm a fully paid up light weight when it comes to mud, but my percentage of off-road to road goes from about 95% in the summer to 20%ish in the winter.
It does get very muddy, of the really sticky gloopy variety, unless you get lucky with the frost, or happen to hit a protracted dry spell........ in January?
Having said that there are gravel roads on the range that do stay in relatively decent condition for gravel type rides, although some are behind the red flags.
My main area is South of the range/plain, slightly more varied, more up and down, probably more pubs. Could do you a gpx if you don't mind fighting the gloop?
Thanks, if you could share a gpx of the southern bit that would be great. Maybe we'd see what the weather had been doing leading up to it
There used to be an organised ride between Christmas and New Year, the Salisbury Plain Challenge, consisting of 25k and 50k. I did the 25k route one year, and it was hard going! There were sections where you would be riding a surface like a corrugated metal roof, where the pitches were about the distance between your wheels, so the bike would be bumping up and down constantly for about a kilometre; it was very uncomfortable and hard work.
Have a good look at 25k OS maps of the area, there’s a lot of activity on the Plain these days, with live firing of artillery, that means tanks and big 155mm mobile howitzers - I live roughly 20 miles away, and I can hear and feel them when I’m out of doors, and last time I went down to Salisbury there were a bunch of tanks waiting to cross the road near Tilshead, so it’s a dangerous place to be if you’re not paying attention to rights of way and the danger areas.
That being said, the Plain does cover a large area and there’s lots of riding to be had on the fringes, especially if you’re prepared to go a bit further West and look at the Marlborough Downs, the Wansdyke, and around Avebury.
I shall have to look up the area where we bogged down on our first day of the KAW. Took us half an hour to cover about 400 yards as the bikes got clagged in clay. We had to try and drag them to a field, which wasn't much better
Plain mud is a particularly horrible clay clag that is incredibly sticky and slippery at the same time! Generally what's marked as doubletrack on the map is OK though if you're happy for an adventure and a bit of sliding around. Singletrack will be chewed up into unrideable paste that clogs everything on the bike by crossers so not worth touching.
More importantly, there are some excellent pubs. Dog and Gun or 3 Daggers are great choices. If you go more Marlborough way, the Horseshoe in Mildenhall or Ramsbury Distillery is a good start/end point for some nice bridleway cruisy loops. The mud there isn't as sticky as on the Plain.
I did the Singletrackworld Classic 139 Salisbury Plain ride from years ago recently and enjoyed it. It's out of Westbury. The double track once your up should be okay on the roads. The climbs and descents could be super sloppy.
Here's my slight adaptation that i did on my gravel bike.
https://www.komoot.com/tour/2655950266?ref=aso
Ah that's all very useful thank you. I think I'd heard the mud is both sticky and slippy at the same time!
There used to be an organised ride between Christmas and New Year, the Salisbury Plain Challenge, consisting of 25k and 50k. I did the 25k route one year, and it was hard going!
I've done the Salisbury Plain Challenge a couple of times. One year I was really looking forward to it as the forecast was for sub zero temperatures (frozen mud = fast and clean!)
On the day, it rapidly warmed up and all the fast people out front churned through the frozen inch of so of top mud resulting in a freezing claggy paste for everyone behind. It was horrific. Think it took me about 5hrs to do 50km. The fast people who'd got through while it was frozen did it in sub 3hrs. The people at the very back took 8-10hrs.
I did the Salisbury plain challenge on the / one of the / muddy years. I remember getting off my bike in erlstoke woods and actually throwing it down the track as the wheels had completely stopped turning 😆
that said, almost all my winter riding now is on the plain and I love it. I live in amesbury and ride most often on the east side, behind the tidworth ranges. All double gravel track and holds up well over winter. Much more open and less likelihood of an unexpected red flag spoiling your plan than other areas. Also near the dog and gun pub.
As above, don’t go near the mud…
Grim , bleak , boring but each to their own , done the Challenge a few times as well , echo everything that's been said .
Grim , bleak , boring but each to their own , done the Challenge a few times as well , echo everything that's been said .
Made me chuckle @oldfart . I used to feel the same about SP funnily enough. However I have clearly changed, and changed whereabouts I ride on it too. When I cycle on the east side, so the section north of Amesbury and in between the A345 and the A338, I get this immense sense of freedom and being uplifted. The views are lovely; wide open spaces where my head can breathe. Come and join us for a pedal!
@ Anna -B 👌
Just to the south of the plain are Grovely and Great Ridge Woods. Drain well, rideable all year round. I used to live in Shrewton and I'd ride all year round from there....sure, you'll get wet and muddy, but there are plenty of options.
although i live in devizes i don't ride the plains that much as i never know when they are open etc. i usually just do the red horn hill to westbury section as that is open all the time. i did do the salisbury plain challenge 2003 50 km route and did enjoy it but fell off a lot, unfortunately imber was closed off due to flooding.
Plain mud is a particularly horrible clay clag that is incredibly sticky and slippery at the same time! Generally what's marked as doubletrack on the map is OK though if you're happy for an adventure and a bit of sliding around. Singletrack will be chewed up into unrideable paste that clogs everything on the bike by crossers so not worth touching.
More importantly, there are some excellent pubs. Dog and Gun or 3 Daggers are great choices. If you go more Marlborough way, the Horseshoe in Mildenhall or Ramsbury Distillery is a good start/end point for some nice bridleway cruisy loops. The mud there isn't as sticky as on the Plain.
The mud is like that because of the chalk content. Once chalk gets wet, the trillions of microscopic fossil marine organisms become free to turn into a form of sticky Teflon! That’s how I ended up breaking my collarbone riding down the Herepath into Avebury one December, and getting stuck in one of the tractor furrows, then my front wheel slid sideways and jammed, dumping me on the ground. Hard.
3 Daggers in Edington is a very good shout, they have their own brewery, and Ethandun is what I’ll be drinking tonight in my regular pub in Melksham, it’s very, very popular. They also do a stout, but it’s not currently available where I drink.
https://www.threedaggers.co.uk