Surrey Hills at Bursting Point?

It all stops being beautiful when you become bitter and twisted. Friends should point out this malaise and drag said-friend back from the brink.

@rewski: the good thing about those maps is they keep “out of towners” on the BWs and leave the proper stuff to the rest of us 😛

I drive past Hurtmore, drove past it this morning actually on my way to another office, but hey.. and I’ve often wondered just what it’s like to ride “them there hills”.
I shall pop up one day soon, looks like you are having fun and by the looks of it it’s similar to where I ride now.

Room for another car?

@ spacemonkey: proper stuff! You mean there’s more than just BWs?

@bikebouy Hurtwood not Hurtmore http://www.friendsofthehurtwood.co.uk/

But it’s nice, mail in profile if you want to ride sometime.

Someone remind me about this in a year, what say we all go have a nice ride in the Surrey Hills next Rememberance Sunday. Maybe meet in Westcott, ride over to Peaslake for 1045 to pay our respects, have a cuppa and a chat with the locals and the Legion, then ride on.

I’m in.

Westcott?! We don’t want to see any more Audi and BMW’s with roof racks littering up our village. Go park in Abinger!

our village.

Its not your village. Its everyones. Everyone can park, visit and go there and anywhere in the UK.

As I said to an inbred prick in Calderdale ‘does this mean you have to ask my permission to visit Manchester’?

😆

mattjg
There’s no need for any cyclist to park in Peaslake, and in fact I find the store much nicer as a mid-ride stop than start/end point anyway.

Unfortunately a lot of people aren’t even aware of WB car park. Not their fault, they’re just directed to Peaslake.

joao3v16
I can’t be bothered reading any of the previous 8 pages, however I am intrigued that anyone thinks there are actual hills is Surrey. Unless they’re only 8 inches tall. Then I can understand how some of Surrey might look “hilly”.

North downs & Surrey Hills ridge is basically a bloody great glacial cliff.

It’s no mountain but while some mountains in Wales may be higher in actual altitude, the base to top climbs of the Surrey Hills are reasonable and more to the point there’s a lot of top to bottom to top on the routes, whereas many trail centres are long climb up, level and final descent.

Recent SH session covering just three of the hills, 2119ft elevation gain. Whites Level total loop earlier in the year, 1996ft gain. Similar amount of riding for both (utterly different terrain though).

As for Westcott – well just have to watch the Obsessive Hoarder documentary to see what the attitudes of the locals are there 😛

Hora, I know I’m kidding all are welcome, come and have a coffee if you happen to be passing by 🙂

No, you’ve upset me now. I must put the head of a dead pony at the bottom of your bed 😯

I propose we put less effort into correcting people’s misconception there’s no good reason to come here.

(My impression from the hoarder documentary is he was the most likeable person in the film by a good margin). I have a couple of mates living in Westcott, they’re OK. Mostly.

Ohhh an offer I can’t refuse, thanks for the info, shall be in touch.. 😆

My bike was born in Westcott, well built, born in Asia really.

A valuable contribution to a sensitive and controversial subject from a valuable contributor with an objective viewpoint.

I don’t think you can get a more ‘objective’ viewpoint than through the bottom of a pint glass in a Manchester pub. Of course, Binners is all-knowing about all sorts of things he has no actual experience of; I thought this was an established fact on here?

As for the ‘nimby’ attitudes of some residents of the Peaslake area; I imagine many of them make/made their money working in/from London, a heavily congested city. I wonder if they ever pause to consider the impact their commuting into the city has on the residents there? Or maybe they just think that because they have ample waelth, that they are somehow entitled to peace and quiet away from us plebs?

Why not move to a remote part of Scotland, if you want such tranquility?

Hi Mike

*waves*

Hi Binners. I find it somewhat unnerving that you manage to reply so quickly to any mention of your name. Do you have some sort of sophisticated software that alerts you whenever your name is mentioned? A sort of attention seeking app?

Wonder if you could enlighten this thread with your undoubted limitless knowledge:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/how-does-the-claims-system-work-following-an-accident

Not really Mike. It just get lonely, and I’ve got the attention span of a goldfish. Its a lethal combination, and the subsequent yawning emptiness it creates at the very heart of my being, means i sort of permanently need a hug

I’ll have a look at the thread now. See if I can bring my omnipotence into focus….

Maybe we need a critical mass Peaslake set up? Any volunteers?

As for the ‘nimby’ attitudes of some residents of the Peaslake area; I imagine many of them make/made their money working in/from London, a heavily congested city. I wonder if they ever pause to consider the impact their commuting into the city has on the residents there? Or maybe they just think that because they have ample waelth, that they are somehow entitled to peace and quiet away from us plebs?

Theres new money and theres old money.

I hate the former, with the latter you (ok, slight generalisation) tend to experience intelligent/educated people.

The former tend to be arrogant (in my opinion).

I’ll repeat what I said earlier- everyone I’ve met in that area has been friendly and inquisitive. If your mannerism or approach is off you tend to get the same (or advantage taken by the new rich).

Thanks MikeConner. Sometimes this forum really could do with a ‘like’ button.

If this was some remote rural idyll where everyone lived off the land and married each others cousins in some kind of pre-industrial Amish like existence the OP might have a point. It’s the south east of England, if you want beauty and isolation you need to go buy a Scottish estate rather than spending your, not insignificant amount of money, to live in a desirable village in the Surrey Hills.

Like many others here I buy food from the local shops and beer from the pubs when I ride in the area. I’ve had chats with lots of people walking with their kids or dogs and never had any unpleasantness.

I do think it would have less impact if riders didn’t park in the village itself and if not everyone tried to park in WB. Shuttle runs on BKB also strike me as a really bad idea. The locals could do with driving a bit slower in their 4×4’s – hey, they could even walk or cycle to the village shop.

BKB shuttle runs were, indeed, a daft move. It’s not like it takes 30 mins to get to the top and even when there it’s not like you’re going to use some sort of 40lb DH bike with everyone else riding too.

Blimey I thought the shuttle run comment was a joke? Please no…..

Recent SH session covering just three of the hills, 2119ft elevation gain. Whites Level total loop earlier in the year, 1996ft gain.

Whites level is ONE hill.

All that’s going to happen is that due to the increase in popularity all the trails will be straightened,flattened and covered in gravel.
Its the surrey way.

BKB shuttle runs

Seriously? Link or I’m calling an early April fools.

I don’t want to name names in case I misremember but there was a certain sponsored rider who put it out on facebook that he was doing SH shuttle runs, primarily BKB and somewhere else. I think the overall sense of horror and disbelief may have put him off it.

That said, there is a 2 year old thread on STW which says that someone saw an ad in the bus stop at Peaslake for uplift

happyrider – Member
Westcott?! We don’t want to see any more Audi and BMW’s with roof racks littering up our village. Go park in Abinger!

Parked my Audi (no roof rack) in Westcott on a Wednesday lunchtime for the Nirvana ride in the Spring, got left a nice 4 page colour note explaining how parking clogged up the village at the weekends and showing where else they would like me to park. Quite amusing really. Wednesday, deserted.

hora – Member
BKB shuttle runs
Seriously? Link or I’m calling an early April fools.

I’m not going to name the rider (who I recognised) but I saw Pedal and Spoke driving “testers” to the top of BKB to demo a new bike – pretty laughable really. I am possibly the lamest climber on STW but even I can ride up Radnor Road a few times no problem.

but I saw Pedal and Spoke driving “testers” to the top of BKB to demo a new bike

lol surely riding uphill is part of the ‘demo’ ….

lol surely riding uphill is part of the ‘demo’ ….

that means they were probably rubbish pedaling bikes and Howard was trying to dupe them…

but I bet they weren’t cheap rubbish

Whites level is ONE hill.

er. Yes, but you don’t just ride up the fall line and straight back down do you? There’s a climb, a bit of a descent, a bit more climbing, a traverse etc etc. A bit like riding in most other places in the UK. Actually – what makes UK riding more interesting than big mountains in many ways.

Looking back at a few rides I Strava’d over the summer I’ve got 56km/1123m on the Surrey Hills, 43km 1049 last time I was at Glyncorrwg. Riding out in the Pyrenees we were only doing about 1200m of climb off road (admittedly over as little as 28km). Surrey ain’t flat unless you want it to be.

I’m doing about 1900 feet over 14 miles on the Surrey Hills most weekends. Over 28 miles, I do 3600 feet of climbing.

Flat as a pancake, Surrey.

Distance: 22.9mi

Elevation: 2,789ft

Sunday’s ride, Leith to Pitch and back

jambalaya, that’s a shame it really is! Bt it doesn’t surprise me unfortunately. If they have the time to write a note 4 pages long they have the time to to navigate around a few cars extra. As long as people are parking with due regard for other people, resident or not, then its ridiculous to get upset. However people are people and most find something to moan about, don’t understand it myself.

lol surely riding uphill is part of the ‘demo’

I guess it depends on the bike. If someone was buying one of the v10s he had on demo, maybe dragging that up the hill would be a pain. That said, I’m not sure BKB is an ideal place to test it either