This thread being resurrected has inspired me to try out the trails at Peaslake! 🙂

Illegal trails are nothing compared to the mess the logging has made, and that must have more impact on wildlife…

This is an actual photograph of what it looked like in 2004…

2008…

2012….

over for another 10 months?

njee20 – yes, cyclists have been here for years, but not to the extent, that you have to use a road to get to the shop, because that bit of pavement is occupied by the cyclists! Riding in here does not mean living in here and putting up with it 24/7, get over yourself if you can’t spot the difference.

mashiehood – how can you say this? Just for the sake of posting something? You must have been visiting another Peaslake 10 years ago. And noone could say, that the tracks that are being used nowadays looked the same, that they do now.

And lastly – I can’t see how a shop providing pet food could bring bikers to the village! (that’s what the Pedal and Spoke’s “shed” used to be years ago, just google “peaslake pet provisions”)

The point about illegal trails is they’re unsustainable – end up being unrideable mudfests, let alone causing conflict with walkers because they’ve not been thought through route-wise.

End of BKB was lousy for everyone until they got the digger in.

The TD trail down to Walking Bottom is just water cos the berms were stuck in the fall line. Not just an eyesore and causing erosion but unrideable after any amount of rain. Amateur!

proved right re TD… 😆

Back to X factor I think,

You won’t be laughing when you realise 2 out of 4 of your car’s tyres are flat, unless you cycle here all the way down from London. There’s no CCTV anywhere, maybe it’s the best time to move your camera from the helmet to the dashboard. Good luck to you 😉

HoratioHufnagel – Very nice pictures you have on your living room walls 😆

Riding in here does not mean living in here and putting up with it 24/7,

Hardly 24/7…the place is empty during the week.

Peaslake Village shop would be happy without you here (it’s always been!)

Really? You asked them? Bet you’d see a big drop in numbers of bikers if the store banned bikers. Can’t imagine they’d want to do that though 😕

Crossfire80 – im just stating what im observing. I dont have any stats to prove my statement (and I suspect you dont either)

As for the blighting of the village by cyclists, you could approach this in two way, accept the fact cyclist will use the area and form a ‘neighbourhood’ commitee to look at ways to improve the current blighting of the village or just get angry and rant a lot. Your choice.

Yeah nuke even stopped for a cheese straw the other week 😉

Have to agree with Nuke re the store/deli. They make a fortune from bikers and I’ve never once seen them angry/irate/moody/stressed/whatever. All the staff are friendly and willing to have a chat, even more so when not speedily dishing out cheese straws and mugs of tea to the world and his wife.

IMO I really don’t think that area is all that bonkers. Sure, if you hit the start of BKB at the “wrong” time then it can look like Picadilly Circus, but other than that there’s plenty to go round.

Speaking of BKB, I preferred it pre-update – much more flowing IMO. I/we would always include it in a route if over that way, but aren’t really bother anymore.

Loving the NIMBY attitude on this thread.

Will be out riding the Surrey Hills tomorrow for the first time on about 3 months.

Cannae wait!

has it actually burst yet?

See you tomorrow. Supposed to be sunny.
The hills were there before all,of us and will still be there after we are all gone

The troll is having a rather large three course meal tonight gents.

Yeah nuke even stopped for a cheese straw the other week

Yep, there we were mid afternoon on a sunny Saturday fighting for a seat with that one other biker…just horrendous, never again 👿

BTW anyone ride the hills today, if so conditions update please as im out riding the minute the sun rises. 😀

M U D D Y – well when I walked the dog.

mashiehood,

Wet!

oh well, im all set so here’s hoping for a frost and crispy ground!

It’s not that bad. Usual places. Barely rained all week aside last night. Fair weather riders <waves at freeridenick> 🙄

Hey crossfire80……

Enjoy your ride. You’re not welcome.

Assume you still want us back a few times a year for the Peaslake MTBO to pay our tenners towards the running of your school? Thought so.

It’s amazing what people will moan about.
I can understand a motorway, waste incinerator plant, drug dealing, prostitution or a high crime rate would be worth kicking up a fuss about.
but for somebody to spend their Saturday night going onto a forum that they have no interest in and complain about people on bikes is laughable, it’s almost as if the overnight ban of bikes would leave their empty lives even emptier.

I haven’t ridden there since 2003 (and it was busy then) but I’m in London this weekend so I might now make the effort to get back 😉

Will probably invite a few mates too. Come to think of it, one grew up there so I guess he can tell all the newcomer local commuter types who’ve not grown up there to sod off 😉

heihei – can’t comment on that. Not my business 😕

MrSmith – the forum was found unintentionally, if I may say so. I was not really looking for an opportunity to have my say, I would have done this years ago. I’ve been dealing with the situation for a long time, with some success, details of which is only known to me and other people, who will be laughing at some reactions to was was said before. Mind your own business and don’t be nosy what others do in their free time. I hope I won’t see you soon 😯

Well Peaslakers. A beauty spot with the freedom of access you enjoy is also rightly enjoyed by others. So inevitably living there comes with baggage. If you don’t like it, may I recommend you move to Tooting, where you can be assured there are no beauty spots with such problems. Most Peaslakers don’t contribute to the Hurtwood, so its a bit rich to expect anything in return. As for the shop. it would shut without bikers. 7 million people within 50mins max brings a growing tide that won’t be turned. Unless you can find a way to turn off the internet. Welcome to the future.Embrace and see the benefit: a thriving village shop, and if you embraced it like Howard, probably many more benefits.
Perhaps lobbying for appropriate facilities would be a starter.
ps, the biggest perpetrator of your problem is a certain David Hancock, aka Dave the Bullet, creating illegal trails that attract a large following faster than yo mamma on welfare cheese day. Stop him and you’ll halve the problem. His grey van is regularly parked at car park 10 on Lawbrook Lane. If you want to do something about it rather than sitting on your thumb and wining, theres your starter.

clubber – you may as well come in hundreds. you’ll wait an hour for a mug of tea in the shop and will have no place to leave your bike 😆 Not mentioning traffic lights when the paths cross and charging a tenner for a coffee 😐

Mind your own business and don’t be nosy what others do in their free time.

🙄 💡

may I recommend you move to Tooting,

It wouldn’t.

I was thinking that my mate could stand right.in the middle and tell everyone who.didn’t grow up there to sod off and then we’d be served quickly and have space for our bikes… 😉

TD again!

Surrey Hills is not at bursting point and never has been.

Sure the Walking Bottom carpark is a bit of an issue – personally I park elsewhere when visiting the area – Peaslake either the Village Store or the Pub makes a good mid ride stop.

There are a lot of people who seem to just ride the obvious trails on Holmbury and Pitch this is many ways reduces the traffic everywhere else and allows you to find some quiet bits. Having ridden in the Surrey Hills for the last 20 or so years, never worked in London and never owned an Audi I have noticed an upturn in mountain biking as people are trading the TV for outdoor pursuits.

I don’t think Howard is to blame for any significant increases in throughput. He is merely taking advantage of it.

If you want to stop people turning up and using the village and its amenities I would suggest that discouraging the shop from selling tea, coffee and cheese straws to mountain bikers and the pub from selling beer etc would make a lot of sense.

No food – no throughput in the village – simples. The problem goes away. So whilst the shop and pub are happy to provide a service for mountain bikers – mountain bikers will come. If not – they will all be on Leith at the tea hut. Peaslake was quiet before the shop started doing tea and sandwiches so very well.

Taking the law into your own hands is ill advised. Letting down tyres and sabotaging cars is pretty stupid and fingers can easily be pointed given the rantings on a public forum.

The Surrey Hills is a beautiful area – it is only natural people doing what ever sport will take advantage of it and come visiting.

Suggest learning to live with it. Getting some double yellow lines put in and working with rather than ranting.

Just some thoughts and observations.

Well said shortcut. Good night

Someone bright will understand Peaslake really was a quiet place once. Somewhere, that you were coming back with a smile on your face. Someone will surely get it, that it used to be a part of the world worth coming back for. Some people really love this place and care for it. Doesn’t matter who it is, a person that grew up here, a Londoner, someone from Guildford or Brighton, it’s never going to be the case of “the more the merrier”, hundreds of people in the small area like the centre of the village will never become a Picadilly Circus and will always look odd. And I do understand these things are never gonna be the same. But for the person, who fell in love with the area, looking at it at the moment is simply heartbreaking and sad.

Looking at the bigger picture I can’t help but think of other parts of the UK that have ‘outsiders’ coming into the area and how insignificant your issue is compared to theirs.
There are many tourist/recreational hotspots that get absolutely rammed with cars and people beyond comprehension when compared to your trivial issue with some mountain bikers.
You should consider yourself lucky.

Someone bright will understand that we live in a democracy and can live where we want and cycle on designated paths! If you don’t like it, I suggest you move.

Shortcut – it would be really good, if something could be done to the situation at the moment. I don’t think anything will change anytime soon, it’s just frustrating seeing such a beatiful place taken over, loud, car parks packed etc. With anything changed in organisation of the village Sundays will always be the same. They have put a collection “stone” on the left hand side at the entrance of the car park – I guess it’s just the beginning, and sooner or later proper car park machines will be there, which probably will not change anything… But the fact, that the collection stone is there shows that we do have more cyclists now, than we used to. Ignorance is a bliss. Stay calm and keep on pushing the pedals… 😉

PS. Innocent until proven guilty 8)

Shortcut’s nailed it. People will ride on the Surrey Hills whether you like it or not. The thing that attracts people to Peaslake is the pub and the shop. If the feeling in the village is so strong that you don’t want their custom, then get them to stop providing for them. You say the shop don’t want their custom anyway.

Don’t make it attractive and then moan when people come.

The North Downs is full of riders because UK population is increasing faster than ever and there is feckall else to do outdoors in the South East. Get used to it you nimby slags…

Maybe a protest to raise awareness of your NIMBY concerns?