Hey all, i’m new to MTB and only just begun this year, I have a Specialized Hardrock hardtail just for a start and was wondering if there are any groups around Oxfordshire which do group events or could perhaps help me get started with some fun off-road routes and trails…

Regards, Brad.

Greetings.

Where abouts in Oxfordshire?

Not sure where you are, but a couple of us are meeting up tomorrow at 0830 just off J6 of the M40, for a mornings’ ride – happy for you to join us.

EIP

I am at Kidlington, but can and will travel. I’m only 19 and my knowledge of MTB is non-existent but i’d like to get involved with group rides and such. Do you have a post-code for your meeting place, b r?

Brad.

I’m only 19 and my knowledge of MTB is non-existent

You’ll fit right in here then 😈

You don’t need to know anything, just pedal your bike and enjoy yourself, then as stuff breaks learn how to fix it…

If Reading is not too far we do rides on Sundays and Wednesday evenings.

Current Rides

I guess z1ppy, and as it breaks, I can always ask you guys! Reading may be a bit far to be a regular ride, but would be nice to travel around and ride with different people sometimes.

J6 of the M40 is Lewknor Turn, so you can get the Oxford Tube out to there.

I can drive with my bike so just need to know where to drive 🙂

http://www.roughrideguide.co.uk/mtbike/2010/07/chilterns-challenge-woodcote-nr-reading-berksoxon/

Great way to ride some new trails and meet some new riders.

What about the Chilterns, I’ve read they are good to ride but like I said, i’m new and I really have no idea where to go :p

Loads of good stuff in the Chilterns. Drying out nicely now. Get an OS map and look around Watlington for a start. Enjoy 😀

Second the OS – start from, for example, Watlington, Turville, Goring, Woodcote, Nettlebed, Wendover etc etc, and make a loop. Like Squirrel says, drying out nicely now, it’s a good time to start riding there!

Bradley – you’ve no email in your profile, but here:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ll=51.671331,-0.967269&spn=0.014691,0.038838&t=m&z=15

We park at the side of the B4009 (Oxford Tube parking), come off the M40 and turn right towards Watlington. We’ll (blue 5 series and Landie) be there for 0830, to ride 0845.

Aiming for a mornings’ ride.

Ahh, a mornings’ ride seems like a bit longer than I could probably cope with at the moment, but i’m sure as my fitness gets better you guys will still be around so when I can keep up I will join you!

How’s your OS Map reading?

You’re in a really great county for fast MTB rides on brilliant singletrack. The Chilterns are *FULL* of bridleways, it’s a real mesh. It’s really worth getting out and exploring, especially if you’re building confidence and fitness to start out on group rides (and once you do that, the fitness and confidence comes even quicker).

I’d really, strongly recommend getting out and exploring, particularly through the spring and summer when conditions should be great. In Winter it can get *very* muddy round here, but that’s a thought for another day (you’ll get to know different mud tyres pretty well!). OS Maps are a wonderful asset, and now you can get them on smartphones with apps like ViewRanger (which I think is great for just getting out and exploring).

Oh, next month the bluebells will be out. Don’t miss.

I don’t know how to read a map, but what’s wrong with learning? 😀

I so desperately want to try the Chilterns, I’m free this Sunday but I have no idea where I’m going and how to get there. Is anyone going to be cycling the Chilterns this Sunday, I shouldn’t imagine so it being mothering Sunday but none-the-less doesn’t hurt to ask!

I shall look into the ‘ViewRanger’ app on my HTC and see what sense I can make of it, thanks ormondroyd!

Brad.

Try a start from Wallingford then take the Ridgeway up to Nuffield. Head towards Checkendon and you’ll find round 1 of the Southernxc series at Hammonds farm to see how fast you need to be to race. Then retrace route.

The thing is, there is SO much stuff out there that (perhaps unlike big northern routes) it’s hard to describe routes to you, or to let you know which bridleways are really good. There are a few long distance trails like the Ridgeway but the best stuff, of which there is a shitload, is buried in the woods

So I’d suggest some or all of…

– navigate your own way around with maps/map software and explore. It’s a huge mesh of bridleways. I love just finding them and learning the good ones. Map reading will really pay off as you learn this way. I can point out some good sections to try linking up, as I’m sure can others… Where are you based?
– find a local club or group rides on here. London MTb on FB seem to do Chiltern rides, for instance
– do way marked events like Evans and Trailbreak rides.

I hope youll absolutely love it. Great age to start.

I’m based in Kidlington so I’ve got Cotswolds and Chilterns within relatively close distance but really don’t mind travelling around a bit.

How best can you describe the Chilterns because i’m going to take a trip up there this Sunday but I ‘REALLY’ have no clue what to expect.

Woodland and farm tracks. Short sharp climbs, Clay and chalk trails. Pretty. The trails aren’t really cohesive obvious routes/loops, more like lots of random stuff that you link up in different ways… The “mesh” of bridleways I mentioned. Lots of them, varying from twisty singletrack to doubletrack farm roads

Of the two, I’d focus on the Chilterns over the Cotswolds any day – and you really don’t need to travel any further than that for *lots* of good riding. So, 40 mins drive from Kidlington (?) to any of those places I listed above.
ormondroyd’s post [EDIT – refering to their first one] is a great one – second all that.
Trying to describe the Chilterns? Hmm, tricky – a mixture of good singletrack, mud and gloop in places (though less so now from a month or two back), a little bit of flinty and rocky stuff, some rooty stuff, some double track that’s good for connecting up sections.

Don’t forget the riding from your door either – heading over to Stonesfield, Boars Hill, Kennington etc.
br’s start point off the M40 is also a good one -lots of riding from there.
But definitely check out the OS and link together the bridleways – that’s before you start looking at the fps for night riding 😉

Yeah Stonesfield was something I thought about straight away but not really sure on where to go, I’ve only ever walked my dogs around there and so the routes I’ve taken are not long enough for a ride. I shall see how I get on at the Chilterns on Sunday. Will probably be there from the morning, depends on the weather I guess. Thanks guys!

When it’s muddy it’s very muddy but you shouldn’t have to worry about that yet. Stick some money aside in autumn for good mud tyres but for now enjoy the summer.

By the way, one other point is that the trails are often very quiet. The big ones like the Ridgeway and Thames path (bear with me on that latter one… It’s mostly flat footpath but Whitchurch to Goring is a HUGE exception to that, brilliant piece of trail) are busier of course, but often you’ll barely see another person out there. Which makes cheeky footpath linkups something that might be an option to consider at times. Obviously that’s very bad and I wouldn’t condone it for a minute 🙂

If you find yourself wanting a bit more of a trail-centre type experience, there’s places like Swinley (Bracknell) and Aston Hill, too, a shortish road trip away

Do take some sort of map if you can. OS Explorer are best (1:25000) and Landranger (1:50000) good too. The art of chilterns riding is to link up bridleways, sometimes with short bits of road. It’s hard just to wing it. That said, in bigger woodland bits you can often pootle around exploring random tracks anyway

get http://www.roughrideguide.co.uk/In-around-The-Chilterns-A5-size.html
nearly 40 routes on os maps for just £10.95

todays rain won’t help but the henley ride it stonor rides are always pretty good though.
chilterns is a great place to ride for all abilities. the singletrack gets more technical the faster you ride. enjoy.

Just ordered that map, singletracksurfer, thanks! I’m gonna go for a ride up there tomorrow I think without a map and see how I get on.

Just put together a ride from Pangbourne for some colleagues at work… might be of interest (I don’t think it’s too bad a drive from Kidlington). This has some of my favourite stuff at the Reading end of the Chilterns… the Thames path section I mentioned earlier, a view at one point from the edge of the scarp right across to Didcot and beyond, and lots of woodland singletrack including a fantastically fast section out of Woodcote that just demands to be ridden flat out (once you’ve crossed the 12 foot long permapuddle at the start).

http://my.viewranger.com/route/details/ODQzMw%3D%3D

I’ve also bought that route guide too! I know it well round here but always good to find new stuff.

Yeah that’s not too much of a drive really maybe I will try that tomorrow! I can get to Pangbourne with the satnav and go from there. Is it likely to be quite boggy tomorrow or will it be ok?

Brad

I rode most of the stuff on that route yesterday and it was pretty much all fine. Only found a few patches of mud anywhere… enough to leave a bit on the frame but nothing much on the drivetrain.

Depends how much rain falls between now and then, I guess, but it probably won’t be too bad as the ground’s not really soaked through already.

Happy to meet up sometime to show you around stuff down this way (I’m a somewhat creaky 36 year old with dodgy knees and the biggest bike you’ve ever seen), but it can’t be this weekend.

I’m east Chilterns but often head over that way – as above, loads of great trails and OS maps are your friends. I’ve put together loads of alternatives in the last couple of years. Obvious start points (if you have a car) are Watlington – big climb up to kick off with – or Nettlebed / Woodcote, Russell’s Water (fantastic area). As above, a great loop can be done from Wendover / Prince’s Risborough but probably best for the summer. Really just follow your nose. There’s also a good organised ride in September – heaps of fun last year, great cake, lovely couple who organise it:

http://www.roughrideguide.co.uk/mtbike/2010/07/chilterns-challenge-woodcote-nr-reading-berksoxon/

Finally finshed tipping it down now so I suspect you had a wet one! Planning to slip out this afternoon on the singlespeed / mudplugger.

Would offer to show you round but I don’t get much time what with work (hoping to get out there tomorrow with Mrs O though) plus I’m really old now and recovering from injury so am incredibly slow and a generally crap rider so would just slow you down.

PS, there’s this lot too who I keep meaning to catch up with:

http://www.summitmtb.co.uk/

Cheers

I’m happy for whatever pace ononeorange so if one time you do find time we can go for a ride! Thanks!

Forget about age ormondroyd, I’m 19 and unfit so you’ll likely outpace me anyway, I really struggle with climbs atm. But I am free most weekends just let me know a time and a place and we can go!

Stick some money aside in autumn for good mud tyres but for now enjoy the summer.

tbh In the Chilterns it can go from summer to winter and back to summer over a weekend, as far as the tyres go.

You’d have probably struggled with us this morning, the rain didn’t help but we just roamed around (south of Kidlington), many cheeky trails but pretty empty. As other guys have said, its all about linking up routes – get the 1:25000 OS maps and highlight the bridleways, check the contours and go from there.

I knew I would’ve struggled this morning b r hence why I didn’t come lol, a mornings ride seems a bit much at the moment, can possibly manage 90 minutes or so on a good day but I gotta start somewhere, and killing myself keeping up with a few regulars isn’t a good start :p

I did go for a ride this afternoon, only an hours worth and in some place I didn’t even recognise, I just kinda drove till I fancied riding, about 1 mile out of some place called Christmas Common, how far off was I? :p

some great trails around Christmas Common, so you were definitely in the correct area 🙂

very near, see link:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Christmas+Common&hl=en&ll=51.645773,-0.950747&spn=0.029399,0.077677&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=14.358205,39.770508&oq=christmas+comm&hnear=Christmas+Common,+Oxfordshire,+United+Kingdom&t=m&z=14

To the north you’ll see ‘Sadlers Wood’, a cracking b/w runs down through there and onwards.

Click! Light comes on. Ormondroyd, you’renot the chap on the white whyte I saw on Thursday near woodcote, are you? If so, you’re quick!! Couldn’t keep up.

Don’t be afraid of getting out of your comfort zone and go exploring! There’s loads of terrific stuff in the Chilterns.

Christmas Common is a good starting point and there’s a fantastic descent near there called Pyrton Hill. 8)

Good luck. 🙂

(wish I wasn’t so far away from the Chilterns now, boo hoo)

I will be going to Boars hill tomorrow afternoon I think to have a look around but I’ll have to see as there’s been a fair bit of rain but my only time today was with my fiancée who was just walking behind me, so I didn’t really want to tear off a few miles away and leave her behind :p