Isle of Wight – what's the riding there like?

Planning on going over to Cowes next month with the bike, but never ridden there before. I hear there’s some good stuff, but would anyone care to expand a little?

Cheers!

done the wight diamond weekend a couple of times..really enjoyed the riding so its well worth taking the bike! I’m sure there’s a local with better info than me coming along shortly..!

Nice place to ride, PMJ. I think Trailbreak do an event there, so his Lordship may know more! From memory, it’s lots of lovely tracks and trails, not massive gnaarage.

They’re all a little inbred over there, though. You’ll fit right in! 😉

I just thought, because it’s an island, they were all good swimmers… 😉

I’ll check with his Lordship!

I know that there’s some good stuff around the south and east coasts – anyone know what Parkhurst Forest is like?

Surprisingly hilly! Get yourself on the Tennyson trail and definitely have a scout round Brighstone Forest, lots of trails in there from singletrack and fireroad climbs to a really good and very long dh run that you can ride back up to the top of. Old dear lives down the road from the forest in Calbourne so I always take the bike when i visit and go find new bits and bobs each visit.

Trailbreak stopped doing the island some time back – they couldn’t make it pay. 😥

The south of the island is the best for single-tracky stuff, very similar to the Surrey Hills.
There’s a long ridge that runs through the centre of the island that’s good for a day ride. Bit like the South Downs.

It’s not hugely demanding, but on a sunny day it’s a lot of fun.

PS: While you’re there, stop off in Ryde and try some of this…

http://www.isleofwighttouristguide.com/articles/minghella-ice-cream/75/

Being resident on the Island for 15 years, I think I can comment.

not much riding around Cowes to be brutally honest. There are a few Paths west of Cowes, mostly cheeky that may be ok.
Parkhurst Forest is a combination of fire roads and singletrack. Not too bad for an afternoon explore.
From Newport you can head west on the Tennyson Trail to Brighstone Forest (some good twisty forest singletrack), or carry on to Freshwater and Alum Bay. Great views, couple of big hills, again not particularly technical.
The best bet is to grab an OS map and head for the south of the island. If you’re around for a weekend, be happy to show you around some of the more interesting stuff if you want to get in touch. E-mail in my profile.

Parkhurst is alright, bit flat, lots of dogs walkers.
Brighstone is good, quite a few good tracks.
You could do the seven hills route which goes from Freshwater to Shanklin, about 26 miles (about 3 hrs)

Thanks all.

Cheers bigyinn – I’ll drop you a line before you we head over. How does it hold up over the winter? Typically southern (chalk and clay based) or better draining?

Typically southern – part of the same geographic feature that includes the north and south downs, running aslant from Kent to the Hampshire coast…

Holds up ok on the main routes, some of the “other” routes are generally best avoided to prevent trail damage / erosion. Most of them aren’t bad though. VERY dry around here at the mo.

It’s a real mixed geology and not really as Downsy as you might expect – apart from the odd big climb! 😉 Always enjoyable, you’ll have a great time.

Hopefully see you some time over the summer Paul, those southern forests sound intriguing….. 🙂

Hi Pete! Yes the forests are fun indeed. As for getting to them, its probably easier to get yourselves over to Lymington and start the ride from Yarmouth. I can take on some really scenic and exciting loops from there.
Oh and Im trying to get a ride organised from Petersfield along the SDW to Brighton, so perhaps we could meet up with en-route? I’ll let you know how the logistics pan out…..

Camping here:

Home

Right on the edge of the southern stuff…

Hey, Paul – sounds like a plan, I’ll look into that.

Definately(!) let me know when you’re over, we could show you the singletrack at Whiteways Lodge which is not too far from Petersfield on the SDW near Amberley/Arundel, or the lovely singletrack at Brighton…two really good areas.

🙂

Ninham not bad at all. Close to a supremarket for food etc and right on the edge of America woods, which is in its prime at this time of year. Also handy for getting the south coast trails, which again are rather good.
Pete, will be in touch. Not sure how much off piste from the SDW we’ll be able to do, as we’re normally hanging out our arses by the time we get to The Devils Dyke!

Off piste trails are always fun… 😀

The best! 😉

OK bigyinn, it seems I may be in touch soon! Pimpette has been offered a job and we potentially have a house in East Cowes.

PMJ, any chance I can come and stay? Say around the 6th to 13th of August this year? Can I? Huh? Can I?

😉

Nothing happening until November. So next year. 😉

(This is assuming we haven’t rented the house out for an obscene amount of money to a crew)

You’re almost native already! 🙂

I am native….
Pimpmaster, feel free to drop me a mail….. Where will the mrs be working??

Primary school in… erm… somewhere. Could be Wooten. Name escapes me at the moment.

Wootton, not a bad area. E Cowes not the nicest part of the Island by a long way. Wootton far nicer and closer to some decent riding. There is FA riding in E Cowes to to some bint called Victoria formerly owning large tracts of land and preventing public access….

There is FA riding in E Cowes to to some bint called Victoria formerly owning large tracts of land and preventing public access….

I had a horrible feeling that was the case. Is access to Barton and Pier Wood that difficult then?

E Cowes not the nicest part of the Island by a long way.

Yeah, but it has a Waitrose now. 😉

There is no public access or rights of way ANYWHERE East and North of the road from Wootton via Whippingham to E. Cowes.
Nothing, which is a shame as its quite nice terrain around there.

Waitrose is not enough to raise E Cowes from its current ranking. Im in Ryde BTW. Its only a short drive to E Cowes (25 mins) from Ryde, or even Cowes might be worth looking at.

I know that there’s some good stuff around the south and east coasts – anyone know what Parkhurst Forest is like?

Parkhurst Forest and some cheeky bits off of the Cowes-Newport cycleway are OK for a 1-2 hour loop. Lots of forestry work with heavy machinery has been done in the last year or so which ruined large chunks of of the 1-2 hour loop I had sussed around Parkhurst. What’s left is riding quite well in all this dry weather, gets very churned up and muddy in the winter though.

As BigYinn so diplomatically put it, E Cowes is not the nicest part of the island and all the potentially good rideable bits are part of the Osborne House estate. E Cowes wouldn’t be my first choice of where to live if I was moving here, Waitrose or no Waitrose.

As has been said, the best bits of riding on the island are Brighstone Forest and points west of it, or anywhere around the southern tip.

As an aside I was riding about Parkhurst last monday and parts of it were badly churned up and muddy.
Oh and plenty of good cheeky riding with little conflict over here. Theres room enough for everyone here (Apart from Shanklin undercliff, but thats another story)

There is no public access or rights of way ANYWHERE East and North of the road from Wootton via Whippingham to E. Cowes.

Well that’s a bit rude, really!

As BigYinn so diplomatically put it, E Cowes is not the nicest part of the island and all the potentially good rideable bits are part of the Osborne House estate. E Cowes wouldn’t be my first choice of where to live if I was moving here, Waitrose or no Waitrose.

I was told this a while back, but it seems no worse than most of the UK (we’ve spent quite a bit of time there, the lady-Pimp has family there and it seems there’s a lot of development planned too). I also need to get back to the mainland for work, and we’ve been offered a good deal on an eco-newbuild. The riding is a sore-point, but if there’s something within reasonable distance I’m not too worried, and the fact I can surf more on the south coast is a large bonus.

I’m not too fussed about Waitrose, if I’m honest 😉

(although apparently it’s caused a small ruckus between East Cowes and Cowes dwellers)

Oh and plenty of good cheeky riding with little conflict over here. Theres room enough for everyone here

That’s good to know. 😀

While there’s plenty of riding where I am now (Chilterns) there’s also plenty of people, and conflict is not unheard of.

Given you have to ferry about to the mainland and back then E Cowes is prob not a bad choice. Its only 15 mins’ish on the bike before you can pick up offroad stuff.
We’re prob being picky, like every town there are nice parts to all of them.
If you want to hook up on the Island feel free to drop me a mail.

Time again to wheel out the….

Round the Island route (avoiding E or W Cowes).

Join the Yahoo club and there’s a full OS map.

I might do another of the 3 main ST trails in Brighstone Forest (Ho Chi Minh, Baghdad, and Berlin Wall) soon.

We’re prob being picky, like every town there are nice parts to all of them.

Ha! Ever been to Slough? 😉

I’ll drop you a line next time I’m over bigyinn – thanks again.

Join the Yahoo club and there’s a full OS map.

Willdo.