I’ve ridden the Mendips a couple of times before, and always have followed a route from someone or a magazine.

Tonight I’ll be heading over with a map and just finding my own way, but I’d still appreciate any pointers you may have.

Thx.

If you want some tech fun head up into the top of Rowberrow Wood and the crossroads of forest tracks and cast about. Many nice singletracks with avoidable jumps have been built by the very dedicated DH boys. It’s easy to pedal back up and try all the different lines. Happily waste all evening just there.

Not obvious from the map which crossroads you might mean, but I’ll have fun searching when I’m there 🙂

Excellent ride last night. I did three ‘laps’ of Rowberrow routes which were a blast, then headed out to the trig point on Beacon Batch for a blast down Burrington Combe before heading back on the Link Road.

Must head back again soon, there is a dense trail network that maybe offers a little more variety than my local Quantocks. It’s certainly more fun than Ashton Court which as been may previous ‘Bristol-way’ ride spot.

Thanks for the pointer.

I’m not sure I’d say that the trail network is better than the Quantocks, although, being smaller and more ‘rolling hill’ than ‘coombey’ its easier to make links to different areas and valleys. In that regard, you can piece together a highly varied routes utilising all the links to mix it all up.

When you get the time to push your nose about, you’ll realise theres alot more to the Mendips than Rowberrow, Blackdown and Burrington.

Buzz_lightyear of this here parish and a few singletrackmonkeys are considering rolling out an STW Mendip Group ride – whatch this space.

Buzz_lightyear of this here parish and a few singletrackmonkeys are considering rolling out an STW Mendip Group ride – whatch this space.

Good news! I’ve been unable to attend previous ones due to other commitments. Did a bit of exploring last weekend & discovered some gems, but would be good to be guided by someone that actually knows where they’re going!

Muhahahaha 😈

The difficulty will be balancing cheek, distance and gems, but I’m sure between us will work something out.

Glad you had fun. I’ll stick my neck out and say mendip is better than the Qs having more variety and covering a greater area, but not when wet, and you need to be relaxed about trail use. We encounter very few problems but only because of our discretion.

We were discussing a forum event again this evening after the riding. I hope we manage to organise it.

Hang on a minute, I definitely did not say that the Mendips were ‘better’ than the Quantocks.

That’d be crazy 😉

What I meant was that I sampled more variety in a shorter ride / smaller area. The Medips were also very accessible because of the geography – the Quantocks is a like a tangled knot of combes and trails 🙂

It’s always good to ride with new people, so I’d try and make some group rides if it happens.

+1 for a group ride on the mendips. I know the rowberrow area well, and would like to get to know the other areas a bit better.