Surrey Hills at Bursting Point?

Why dont they charge to use the car parks on weekends?

A. it will bring much needed income for the “friends of hurtwood and trail maintenance/opening”

B. It will encourage people to ride there or park elswhere thus spreading the amount of people instead of everyone congesting Peaslake.

Wescott also had a problem with many MTB’ers parking all over the place.

Nasher….charging for parking would lead to all manner of moaning threads, which is ludicrous really when people have spent thousands on their bike, hundreds on their kit but wont pay a nominal fee for parking/use of the trails….always makes me laugh that one.

It’s heaven during the week

apparently Pedal and Spoke sell 1/3rd of all Santa Cruz’s in the country.

If that’s true then bloody hell! My first trip to the area was quite soon after they’d opened, if I remember rightly it was little more than Howard and his Mum, some energy drinks, inner tubes and some maps!

Pedal and Spoke do not sell 1/3 of all UK bought Santa Cruz

Audi make very fine cars

Was it not bikers who built some illegal trail through badger sets and cut down tress not so long ago. Different strokes for different folks.

I saw bikes heading up the Pentlands at the weekend. With the rain we have had that must be as boggy if not more than the Surrey hills. It will be difficult to stop it I am afraid even though the trails do get cut up and end up 6ft plus wide. Swinley is a good example of this and last time I saw BKB it was not a patch on what it used to be.

Why dont they charge to use the car parks on weekends?

because someone will have to police /run it, and they are concerned that it will just make parking on the roads even worse as people do it now when there is a free car park 1 mins ride away!

Up to 700 riders a day were using Barry Knows Best last summer as measured by electronic counters beneath the trail.

I know that when I’m out and about round Peaslake I might ride BKB 2 or 3 times so I question those numbers.

TBF even when the car parks are at their busiest you never meet that many people out on the trails.

Iwas at peaslake at 9 and again at 11 yesterday and TBH it was the group from KW that made it look busy 20 mins later and it was quiet again.
it’s the mild weather, this time last year it was like a ghost town..

Iwas at peaslake at 9 and again at 11 yesterday and TBH it was the group from KW that made it look busy 20 mins later and it was quiet again.

Weren’t no KW there when I couldn’t get the Audi through due to riders stopped on the road at about 11.30. No problem though, I just mowed a few down to help lessen the impact on the area. 😈

When you say audi is that the same as car but considerably richer than yaw?

More worrying were the clowns trying to ride up one of the trails on winterfold on their enduros. 👿 KTM/Honda rather than specialised 😀

Car park down by pedal and spoke does seem to be a lot busier of late albeit haven’t really noticed it so much on the trails. Presumably getting busier down that way because all the building is going on over there and everyone likes to finish at the bottom of the hill by the shop.

Madness. In the Peak District you can go for a 3/4hour ride and literally see less than four other riders.

Bonkers.

Yes the word Car has been replaced in Surrey with the word Audi.

We were in a BMW. 😉

I really was in an Audi 😀

Pedal and Spoke do not sell 1/3 of all UK bought Santa Cruz

that’s what Howard said the Santa Cruz rep had told him.

In the Peak District you can go for a 3/4hour ride and literally see less than four other riders

I don’t see many other rider in 45 minutes of riding either 🙂

I’m sorry to gloat, but …. Oh, actually… who am I kidding…I’m not sorry at all. Some beautiful empty northern countryside I was riding yesterday:

In fact, its the view from my back garden 😀

looks grim – prefer the Surrey Hills 🙂

Binners – but your trails are all eroded and bumpy and need repaired 😉

Nothing 3ft wide of gravel wouldn’t sort out eh Uncle Jezza 😉

Binners, beautiful….shame about the eyesores they’ve erected in the background….whoever decided that wind farms could be a realistic way of generating energy needs taking outside and shooting….preferably while being made to look at the hideous contraptions.

gloat all you want.

deviant – perhaps a coal fire powerstation would look better, or a Nuclear one ?

Cycling is getting more popular. The majority of the population live in the South East.There is a bike shop, Tea Shop and Car Park in Peaslake. The weather is very mild for January. More people have Saturday and Sunday off than other days. There are far less daylight hours at this time of year. How many more reasons do you want for it being busy on a pleasant January weekend?
Interesting comments about the bike shop driving the type of bikes in the area. I think it is more the way the market is moving but the guy in the shop did recommend 750mm wide bars for the area. I am “guilty” of being there on Sunday at around 1pm but was parked at Leith Hill and riding in a group of 4. Again we saw very few people on the trails other than a couple of fellas who pointed out a new to me bit of trail near Summer Lightning. Top blokes!
One more thing it is much easier to cycle up the fire road from the bottom to the top of BKB rather than going into Peaslake and up Radnor.
Finally to those who haven’t been before, I would recommend that you all go up north and leave us some room 😉
Oh while you are up there, can see if they can build some more nuclear power stations in all that open space.

Ooooh now i would just love to ride across some of those fields, must be really exciting. 😉

deviant – at the risk of opening up this can of worms again, I quite like them. It was really misty up on the tops yesterday. You couldn’t see the bloody things, you could just hear the blades whistling past you. Surreal.

Here’s the view looking back. Its not bad. Please excuse the quarry 😀

Trimix….gas, coal, nuclear…not fussed as long as its cheap and positioned out of the way.
Sticking wind farms all over the countryside smacks of politicians wanting to show how achingly green they are.

I only ride SH during the week and hardly ever see a soul!!

Good case study for sustainable development though – frankly good to keep BKB/Parklife/T Road as honey pots (Surrey’s Bowness) and leave the rest to the more savvy locals! I probably ride BKB one visit in 5 at most. There is so much else to do.

.

There we are, much better!

Right. I’m going to ride NDowns next weekend 8)

I doubt many of us soft southern riders would fit the criteria for riding in the north anyway remember…

^ chuckle

LOL At Gavin! 😆

There’s something missing though! There’s no obvious establishment where I could stop for a mid ride quiche and frapachino 😉

Sounds like an ideal business oppurtunity to open an alternative tea room selling cheese straws.

It’s inevitable, but needed posting.
Laughed more at this one than the northern one…

Laughed more at this one than the northern one…

Feel a reaction coming on 😉

The better know Surrey Hills trails have just become a victim of their own success, and Peaslake the current MTB hub due to location, shop for spares and decent cake. The village is also easier to find than many of the car parks so newbies to the area probably head there and that becomes their base for future visits.

Its been busy for YEARS. Its not a recent thing.