I am just trying to looks for a few routes to do over Christmas and save the bother of route planning looking at gpx routes. I would like to be-able to filter by riding type e.g. on road / off road, “family”, mtb off road.

I have tried http://www.justgoride.co.uk and that just seems to allow search by area and shows a map of each route. I also tried https://ridewithgps.com/ and that a little better but no list of tags that I could see so may be searching for wrong tag as I don’t know what is common.

Any other site recommendations?

Specifically looking for non technical primarily off road “family” routes East Dorset / New Forest area so recommendations welcome for this too!

New Forest has many family friendly tame gravel type routes. Nothing exciting, but can be a nice pootle amongst the ponies (when they don’t stand in your way).

https://www.thenewforest.co.uk/things-to-do/cycling

https://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/new-forest-cycle-code.pdf

Venture off the official routes and you’ll incur the wrath of the New Forest anti-bike NIMBYs 😉

Thanks. I’ve used the new forest web site before but I thought the maps were crap. Wondered if there were any variation and gpx for lazy me!

The new forest NIMBY is pretty annoying. Usually the “green hunter welly I’ve moved the country side, all I do is walk my Labrador 500m from the car park Range rover evoque brigade ”

Worth looking at Strava. I always have nose at the routes of riders on the local KOMs where I want to ride. Or search for a local club and see what they’ve been riding.

Searching is a bit of trial and error, but it often comes up with good routes if you know what area you approx want to ride

What length routes are you looking for? I have quite a few for around the New Forest, Fordingbridge, Holt Heath etc.

I’d be interested if you’ve got any routes west of the nf. Bored of the nf gravel tracks and could do with venturing west. Lots of bridleways around the Fordingbridge to cranborne chase but bridleways are usually a lottery in the winter without a bit of local knowledge.

I have a nice route from Ashley heath along the castlemain trail up through holt and across to the north end of moors valley and back to Ashley heath. I did it with my wife and the little uni in the bike trailer. It was touch and go in a few places but would be a nice ride without one if you fancied an easy gravel/ bridleway pootle.

on ridewithgps there is a ticked by default box labelled “all recreation types” untick it and options appear one of which is specifically mtb – does depend on whoever created the route correctly tagging it though

As antigee says, it depends on the tagging. We went to Iceland last year and were looking for recommended routes – some were just someone’s commute through Reykjavik! They may have been done “on” a mountain bike but they certainly weren’t mountain bike routes.

OP – it’s likely you’ll have to do a bit of checking on any route. Load the GPX into Bikehike or similar and see where they go using the OS map layer. Google Earth, Google Streetview and sites like Geograph.org.uk will give you more background info.

@jonm81 approximately 10 to 15 ISH round trip. Towing a trailer, hence the off road (but not MTB off road) or very quiet road preference. Ideally with a stop half way for a play.

@burko73 Ashley heath one sounds good please as I am in Ringwood.

@antigee thanks, I saw that option but as you suggest it’s a bit to hardcore for our requirements or broad a catagory depending on how you look at it.

I’ll have a look and see what I have tonight. There is quite a lot starting from Burley. Unfortunately there is very little to stop and play at with kids in then New Forest.

If you are in Ringwood you could do the Castleman trail to Moor Valley Country Park. Great place with loads of fire road in addition to the MTB trail and loads to do with kids. I often tow the trailer to MVCP along the Castleman trail from Ferndown in the other direction.

My mate runs a little Strava club based in the New Forest:

https://www.strava.com/clubs/gravelguerilla

They’re gravel bikers so the rides are non-technical and primarily off road. Have a look at some of their monthly club rides and download the gpx.

Thanks jonm81
Thanks theboyneeds I will check that out.

TheBrick, Burko73 – Emails sent.

TheBrick, if those two are no use I could plot something east of Ringwood/Burley but would have to wait until later in the week.

Hope the routes are some use to you.