Funtington/Kingley Vale has great riding and is not far from you. I went there a lot there in the summer but haven’t been since the weather turned so don’t know what it’s like in the wet.

soil type like QECP but gets less traffic so holds up a bit better.

Nothing like being spoiled for choice is there! 🙂

Option to park at Bishop’s Waltham then head N to Street End where you can pick up a normally decent bridleway leading to Bigpath Farm, Woodcote and you can extend to near Baybridge House. A decent circular route that would involve minor roads to get back to BW. Do avoid Morestead Road though, traffic is fast.

Another option is drive to Cheriton, the other side of the A272. You can head SW and pick up the South Downs Way.

Word of warning for Old Winchester Hill- last time I was up that way it seemed to be a pick-up joint for men. 😯

If you are going from Bishops Waltham – try their newly launched circular ride. Nothing overly technical and some nice bits of fast singletrack in places. Bit gloopy at the Marwell end, but some re-surfacing has helped here:

link
http://www.southdowns.gov.uk/enjoying/outdoor-activities/walks-and-rides

Top cycle map-link.

Yak – thanks, looks useful. 🙂

These are walks and cycle rides:

http://www.visitwinchester.co.uk/xsdbimgs/Meon%20Valley%20new1.JPG

http://www.visitwinchester.co.uk/xsdbimgs/Meon%20Valley%20new2(2).jpg

http://www.visitwinchester.co.uk/xsdbimgs/Itchen-Valley-leaflet(1).pdf

CG – whereabouts are you?

Word of warning for Old Winchester Hill- last time I was up that way it seemed to be a pick-up joint for men.

Is this men that like to meat meet other men in public places?

CG – whereabouts are you?

Near Romsey but me and my bike roam all over the countryside. 🙂

Is this men that like to meat meet other men in public places?

Yep! I felt quite safe. 😉

T’other side to me then 😉

T’other side to me then

Not entirely sure how to read that, in light of CG’s comments. 😯

CG is the “right side” for me but the wrong side of Scumahampton 😉

Too far South for me! 🙂

Too far South for me!

Likewise, south of the 303 is for the road bike only 🙂

johnj2000 – Member

QECP is just too hilly at the moment, all those up hill switch backs and tree roots would kill me.
I love this Quote john, QECP’s new tag line maybe 🙂

What’s all this about right side/wrong side??? Is ‘Hampshire Riding’ (yet another) euphemism on STW?

Oh well, back to my knitting. 😉

“What wool for a thong….” Thread…

😆

More about not bring near enough for impromptu muddiness…. 😉

Here’s my Kingley Valil trail map…

Erm..
Botley Woods
Bere Forest
Wickham Lines
Fareham Lines
Chilling Cliffs
Warsash
Hamble River path to Botley
Gosport to Portchester via the estuary path, then on to Hilsea Lines, up over Portsdown Hill and back into Fareham, if you look you can do all that without going on any roads..

Miles and miles of either cheeky or BW riding to be done, been doing it for 15 yrs with a crew from Fareham Wheelers or on my own.

Now I am totally spoiled for choice. Where do I start? The only one I would dispute would be warsash bikebouy, where on earth would you ride in Warsash??

I am starting to understand the value of riding with a club. I should have mentioned that as well as my rapidly decreasing levels of fitness I have a terrible sense of direction.

Anyone up for a Hampshire STW ride to stop me getting lost?

There used to be Forum Rides taking place on a semi-regular basis in various locations in the South. In fact we even had a Winchester ride that included one or two hills ( :wink:), bits of single track and a gulley plus a great group of people. 8)

I’m sure there’s some folk you could hook up with, keep your eyes peeled. As regards sense of direction, have you thought about buying a basic GPS that could cost around £80?

If only I could get away with spending money so frivolously CG 🙂 when trying to find my way back to the car park following the ride London 100 I had my garmin car sat nav shoved in a bum bag with the volume on as loud as possible so I could hear it above the noise of London. I got some very strange looks when lost in China town with an automated voice saying “lost satellite reception” ” recalculating, recalculating”

Anyone up for a Hampshire STW ride to stop me getting lost?

Check out http://www.newforce.org for occasional weekday-daytime rides New Forest (like yesterday’s). Also there are 3 or 4 weekday evening groups, and Sunday 10.00am every second week.

Linky not sending me where I think you meant. Typo?

It’s missing the .uk bit

http://www.newforce.org.uk/

I’ll be back down in a couple of weeks and be more than happy to show you where I (and others like Fareham Wheelers) go. Could do a Sat or Sun, just post on here if you are interested and we’ll Hook up (see what I did there)

Sounds great bikebouy thanks. Just keep in mind I am a fat **** at the moment 🙂

Hello Bikebouy & Johnj! If I can get the time, could I join in too please? 🙂

Certainly SA, normally Sunday mornings are clear for me although I hear that is going to come to an end soon thanks to the boy starting rugby but I need to make the most of the remaining free time 🙂

I’ve also just come across SouthDownsMTB who are based in Havant and who seem to be pretty active. They say they ride out Fareham way as well as over where I am… I may join up!

Yup, all welcome, I have routes that last between an hour and 6 hours, just depends on where the front wheel takes us. No bother about fitness, we’ll be riding out so you can get a feel for the routes and access and linkups to other routes so you can then make your own up.
Sundays fine for me too, could meet somewhere like Lee on Solent or Fareham Town Ctr… we can sort that out soon enough.
Do you have Endomundo or some other GPS route tracker device? You don’t need it, but it would be good to revert back to if you want to make loops up and the like.

Catch up soon.

8)

Sweet, looking forward to riding out, so long as I can sort child care (am lone parenting for the foreseeable whilst Mrs slack is away caring for her terminally ill mum 🙁 )

Will keep tabs on any posts.

I use Cyclemeter on my phone which does quite well as a mapping doo-dah.

Looking forward to this also.

Ok Guys I’m planning for the weekend of 14/15 Dec, thats a couple of weekends away and if you are still interested then either Sat or Sun (time to suit all) being flexiable and all that.
I have quite a few routes I’d like to show you, I’d suggest at least 2 hours for the ride, maybe 3 at a push.
We’ll start at a location to suit us all best, update here for further info.
I’ll be on my NinerSS, bring/ride what you like, it’s not a race, we’ll head off steady and take it easy and we’ll stop multiple times so I can show you the different routes you can take off/head to on the route(s) we decide.

It’s all about showing you around beautiful Hampshire and to enable you to set your own routes up.

8)

I could do the Sunday 🙂

It’ll be my first ride for a couple of months, so relieved to hear it will be a relaxed one!

Happy to meet where the general consensus is.

Sounds good to me… if I can free up a day. I’ve not ridden much West of the A3.

BUMP’idge

Ok, so just upping the thread for a call for this coming Sunday if anyones interested.

I’ll bump it again on Friday, just in case.. 😉

QECP Tonight 6.30 in main carpark!!

As an FYI there’s a newish Facebook group called Join-a-Ride where people can post rides as Events for others to share. I had a guided tour of Whiteways/Houghton Forest on Sunday which was great fun.