Driving through it on the way to work at the moment and wondering if there are any half decent routes around the area. It looks promising .

Used to live next to the Common. Its pretty flat but can be hard going in the mud or sand of which there is lots depending on the time of year. Loads of Strava segments too with some nice ribbons of singletrack – best thing is to aim for a hill and see what’s off the top. I could at a push touch 1000ft of climbing in say a 15 mile route. It’s obviously xc and to do the whole lot is anything from Sunningdale, across the golf course to Windlesham, down to Chobham and then to Maclaren HQ area. There are bridges or underpasses to get across the motorway. There are Rangers about but I never had an issue on footpaths which seem to be extensively used by horse riders too. Don’t go at night or you will eaten by Doggers if not quick enough.

Cheers,I like the idea of exploring it if nothing else. Just need to sort a bike out now as mine was stolen yesterday 🙁

Ride on Sunday, pop gorse spots on Wednesday 🙂

IME it has been quite aggressively policed (wardened?) by the warden to keep people off anything narrow and twisty. There are some bridleways across, and at the eastern side in the woods there are a few more interesting bits, but the open bit is as above either boggy, or sandy, and for about 15 mins per year ‘goldilocks’ and just right.

My best experience was on a gravel ride, so actually perfectly happy slogging E->W along the sandy bridleway and warden prick came racing towards me at about 60mph from about a mile away, kicking up masses of dust and sand and scattering horses and children under his wheels as he approached (OK, poetic licence, but he was definitely ‘eroding’ stuff on his way) He roared up to me, pointed at a narrow path up towards the road and shouted ‘You can’t go up there!’

– I know, I wasn’t going to

– yes you were, I know you cyclists, you’re all the same

– But I wasn’t.

– ah, but you would if I wasn’t here!

– nope.

(and repeat over and over)

Sort of Minority Report, Bridleway edition.

I live in Woking so I ride on and around the Common quite a lot. Never seen a warden, let alone been hassled by one. It’s definitely more interesting on a gravel bike or hardtail. Late spring/early autumn are probably the best times to ride. It’s a sloppy mess in quite a lot of places in winter and crumbles into shingle and sand when its dry.

LOL. The good thing about the Common, is if you know it well, and due to it being flat, you can escape from any wardens and be well away before they get anywhere near you. Loads of paths arn’t even marked on the OS Map.

A few of the Strava segments have literally over a 1000 riders on them, but don’t let you fool you – its down to annual cycle events. In 3 years I rarely saw any other mountain bikers and there only seemed to be a few regulars, some evidently very racing snake-esque.