Few pics from today's ride – Malverns

Not quite as frozen as I would have liked. Ice and Mud, both properly slippy. Fab ride tho, amazing views and – busy as it was – everyone appears to be in the Xmas spirit.

Black Hill
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Malvern MTB[/url] by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

Cheeky 🙂
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Malvern MTB[/url] by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

High pressure loveliness

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Malvern MTB[/url] by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr\

Shadow chasing
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Malvern MTB[/url] by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

Good excuse to have a breather and take in the view
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Malvern MTB[/url] by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

Heading for tea and medals
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Malvern MTB[/url] by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

Ace ride. Few more of those would be a good Christmas present 🙂

Great photos and looks like a great place to ride.
Nick

great pics

ta 🙂 Off my £100 Pentax Indestructible Optio W80. I’ve been using the iPhone camera lately but no fun in winter taking the gloves off. It’s actually quite muddy for the Malverns at the moment but all perfectly ridable.

We did – of course – stop for tea 🙂

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Malvern MTB[/url] by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

Great photos.

nice one Al.
It looked busy just driving around in the flat lands, loads of MTBs out and about.
Now all the proles have gone (yourself included) Im about to head out.
Quick blat up to your picnic bench ^ there for a pint, then I reckon some “halfpipe” action, before rattlin’ down to the pub for some rum and beer chasers.

Dont forget, if you need those rebas/revs servicing to invite yourself round. best to the family.
M

Cheers Mark. So much stuff going on, need to sort that out when I get a min.

I so rarely ride the Malverns in daylight, it was a rather lovely event. Busy, yes but everyone seemed happy enough. Stayed either entirely legal or hidden cheeky 🙂 Even had a good chat with a ranger. That’s a first.

Anyone who rides the halfpipe trail in the day is mental 😉

Nice pics, I didnt get up there today. Some of my pics from Friday.

Some more here – http://www.flickr.com/photos/keyses/sets/72157628443314691/

luvly stuff keyes.

Its soggy under wheel at the moment, but while I was out the air temp was chilling everything, and all that soggy ground now feels like riding on Sorbet 🙂

bit of splatter, but a dose of rum on the back of a good pint and Im fit to go 🙂

Lovely shots.
I popped out as the sun went down and enjoyed a quiet skid fest of a ride – plenty of ice and sloppy, gloopy mud.

Not great for pace but fun!

that’s a stunning ridge! must ride there.

Anyone who rides the halfpipe trail in the day is mental

Depends which day.

Any chances you could out a route up for the Malverns ride? I’m after some decent routes 🙂

Proper snonwy Friday then. I was hoping to get out for a play but work got in the way. I tend to stay away from *that* halfpipe trail and everything on that hill except for night-riding. Probably less busy in the week but I really don’t want to give the conservators / rangers any ammunition. YMMV etc 😉

Somouk – there are some routes posted on backontrack bikes (local Malvern shop) plus some coming out in What MTB (feb I think, I did a route guide back in Oct) but if you want to ride some *other* stuff, best to hook up with a local.

Most of it is cheeky, isn’t it? My brother and I got a bollocking off some warden there about 15 years ago.

North side of the hills (from the Malverns Hills hotel out towards the Beacon) are mostly fine except for Jubilee drive. Herefordshire side is more tricky. Riding on the ridge is fine, stuff into the valleys needs care.

It’s really a case of staying away from the busy areas and being sensible where and what you ride. Night riding is fantastic up there. In the three years I’ve been riding here, we’ve had about three conversations with Rangers (all pleasant enough) and a few with walkers who had a point of view. But 99% of people are fine as long as you’re not blasting past them at 20MPH+ a bars’ width away!

[EDIT] answer to globalti, Al beat me

not really. Most of it is legal bridleway.

However there’s some natural loops which can be completed legally because of the 1949 Act being implemented by a C*** in Herefordshire and so some bridleways coming up to the ridge from the Worcestershire, transmogrify into footpaths as they cross the county boundary.

It’s true there are also some fine cheeky trails too, but one can ride the hills fully legally.

Either way, just avoid sunny sundays when it’s full of walkers to avoid confrontation and inconvenience.

Rag the crap out of it in the dark, its the best way 🙂

Anyone who rides the halfpipe trail in the day is mental

Is the halfpipe trail on British Camp hill and what was referred to as the “Toboggan Run”?

Just to clarify – from the Harvey Superwalker map of the Malvern Hills, almost all of the trails north of the Wyche cutting are in Worcestershire and are therefore Bridalways. South of the Wyche, none of the ridge itself is a bridalway except for a very short section on Pinnacle Hill, but consists of permissive paths. There are bridalways on the east (Severn) side between the Wyche and the Malvern Hills Hotel as these are in Worcestershire. The ones to the West of the ridge are in Herefordshire and are footpaths or permissive paths, with some clearly marked as not available for bikes. South of the Hills Hotel most paths are permissive with a few bridalways.

I tend to stay away from *that* halfpipe trail and everything on that hill except for night-riding.

I very rarely ride up there at weekends. IIRC at least one of the other contributors to this thread has also ridden that in the daytime, as I was riding with him 😉 Other stuff like HRH cheeky I’d be far more wary riding (though I have also ridden that in daytime).

IME of riding on the hills, I’ve only once had somebody complain – that was riding in the dark midweek, and what’s more I was on a bridleway (the zig-zags)!

As mentioned, anything North of Wyche cutting is bridleway (near as makes no difference). On Wyche Ridge (South towards British Camp pass), I take the attitude that all is available for riding unless marked, due to the mis-designation issue mentioned by Stoner meaning it should all be BW. I was about to claim I’d be a bit more careful riding the ridge path, but actually that’s not true – I tend to also ride that without worrying at all. On British Camp itself I am a bit more careful – it is an ancient monument after all, so erosion is a bad thing, but the most obvious through route is a BW. South of there, legal stuff is hard to find (is there any?), but I’d ride most due to the low numbers and lack of conflict – even on a weekend.

Riding on camp during daytime (other than the BW above the reservoir) is a bit daft, as it just gives the antis more ammo.

The halfpipe IMO is OK at night when there’s very little chance of conflict, it’s also not at risk of any real erosion damage because of it’s form and function. However, riding on any ridges or worse across ridges is v bad as it cuts water paths that can aggravate the erosion.

Beyond camp I have no idea which trails are legal or otherwise, I just ride them all 🙂 Bromsberrow Estate paths are all footpaths, BUT you can apply for permission to ride horses on the estate, but Ive never tried applying to ride a bike. I have ridden the estate tracks during the daytime recently but was quite self concious especially as my route goes past a lot of the pheasant pens (and my mum knows the game keeper) so I prefer to ride it at night when, again, other users arent out and there’s no risk of meeting a paid gun day shoot and really pissing some people off uneccessarily. And all the owls make you ride faster….

Last night I came down off the landrover tracks (filthy) past the Yew Tree which was fun. That’s a cheeky and amusing in the wet and dark.

And HRH Cheeky is strictly only after dark or 10pm which ever comes first. Too much chance of meeting a grumpy dog walker otherwise.

In my experience, if you are going slowly and carefully you just get moaned at more because the grumpy redsocks have more chance to shout abuse. 😛

Nice pics Keyses and Alex 🙂

I’ve never had too much trouble – main thing is timing, if you ride the popular routes during busy periods you are likely to get some comments off uninformed people, although you may have strayed off the right path at the wrong time. Best response I find is – “Okay, thanks for that I’ll bear it in mind for next time.”, don’t get abusive, it’ll just screw your day up and it ain’t worth it.

Too much chance of meeting a grumpy dog walker otherwise.

Forunately my lab just dawdles on the trails, it really pi55es cyclists off. 🙂