Chobham Common

Anyone ride out there?

Is it worth an explore?

From what I remember there are wardens of some kind lurking around who really don’t want mountain bikers there. This may be because it is a National Nature Reserve with a few fragile scheduled monuments. There are some bridleways but these are often really churned up by horse riders. I ride past there most weekends and used to work at the old tank factory round the corner and don’t remember seeing many riders on there.

Cheers, looking at the map there are loads of bridleways criss crossing the common, so surprised with the wardens etc, understand about the horses though.

Watch out for Tanks.

There’s a few bridleways mainly around the fringes that are rideable, but not exactly testing or thrilling. the stuff across the middle is ankle deep sand and not worth the effort.

Warden was a right one too. I was crossing on one of the main tracks one time when he came screaming up in his landrover and started shouting at me to stop. I asked him why and his answer was along the lines that (in his opinion) I was about to go onto paths that aren’t allowed. How he knew that I’ll never know but the erosion from his 40mph dash would have been significantly more than any caused by any off piste excursion I may or may not have been about to make!!

The section north of the M3 is OK for a quick spin, S of M3 is not really worth it – many of the “bridleways” are actually “permissive horse rides” or something like that, ie no bikes.

There are not that many bridleways, most are permissive horse rides and I think that some bridleways were converted to these permissive rides a while ago – I remember talking to some horse riders about it at the time and they agreed, and said they rode their bikes round there as well and it was annoying.

I think Chobham Common was the trigger that meant that, whereas I always used to stick to bridleways, I now don’t as it is not practical and also it is not sensible in terms of erosional damage.

Some of the horses go all over the place and on the paths as well.

The bridleways on the south of the M3 side are a bit loose and sandy – and the horses churn it up badly such that they rebuild/resurface them – sometimes filling in a few feet worth of vertical erosion, so the wardens protestations are meaningless and I had a ‘strong discussion’ with the massively obese one once over it – he maintained that bikes were worse because of the shape of our tracks and they were more susceptible to frost and freezing water damage, which seems to be the least of any issues. Informed him I had a Geophysics degree and he should stop with the BS.

The north side has firmer surfaces and can be more fun, but basically the whole area is only worth it for a ‘fitness’ ride – for example I ride from Horsell up to Chobham Common and across up to Sunningdale and then back across the golf course, back onto chobham common and then home. But it can get pretty muddy and unpassable, courtesy of the horses mostly.

It could also be argued that the large number of permissive horse rides verses bridleways isn’t a great idea. I remember having to cycle down to the edge of the common to guide the ambulance in after I came across some horse riders where one had been thrown and had landed flat on her back against the raised edge of the permissive horse ride, effectively breaking her across the ground and leaving her in a bit of a state.

And I was involved in something similar some years ago on Walton Heath where the horse bolted and left the rider somewhere out on the heath, so we went to look for them. I remember seeing the horse running down the tarmaced road and then taking a sharp left into the road home, and legs sliding everywhere as the horse ‘powerslide’ on its hooves and nearly smacked into the road name sign at the junction, which would have been pretty horrendous.

Only time I’ve ridden it was on an Evans Ride It event. Despite the fact that I live less than 5 miles away I’ve never bothered to go back. Pretty good if all you want is cross country type riding but it’s all pretty samey and the sand is a real pain in the ass.

Far better stuff a few short miles further west.