Hi there,

Am moving to just outside Taunton in Somerset and wondered if any souls out there could recommend any local loops, trails, singletrack down there?

Many thanks,

Nick

your in for a riding treat. the quantocks is less than ten miles away, exmoor 15, dartmoor 30. I lived there for eight years and still didnt ride everything.

look up knottie, dibbs and sharki for local guides.

best local shop is ralphies just by the station.

You lucky barsteward!

Not to forget the Mendips which are about 20-25 miles away.

Welcome to Heaven on a bike, lots of riding round here and plenty of locals on this forum, who will willlingly show you about..

Beware the Inbreds though ! 😯

how much work would there be for a sparky down there? I really want to move there, but i'm concerned that there would bve no work at all?

hi nick
i ride the Qs most weekends but im banned from riding for the next three weeks or so . Disregard oldfarts comment , its the barstwards that ride inbreds you need to be wary of. lol http://www.paul-knott.fotopic.net/

Ummm thats what i thought i meant ! 😀

saladoger is the person to ask about sparky work in the area. There should be a fair bit of work in the area soon as its pretty certain they'll be building one or two of these:-

Have a look at http://www.exmoorexplorer.com lots of old routes there.

BTW entries open April 1st

Hinkley Point is NOT a beauty spot

F A C T

😯

Lyons

Sorry to piss on yer dreams but the work situation down here is er PANTS ( compared to Swindon where I used to live) but there again for leckys at the mo its not brilliant anywhere

Fantastic riding area though

Some awesome riding around there especially around minehead. Combe syd isn't far. What's the other dh track that's part of FC land?

Gawton DH is 90mins away ish, uk bike park about an hr.

Triscombe has DH and an little bookable private uplift service some weekends.

Haldon is FC managed and about 40 mins away, lots about really.

jam bo said.. "best local shop is ralphies".. 🙄
"Best".. if you want to wait 10/14 days for something they don't have in stock, best if you want to buy a Marin or a road bike, (coz Barry knows best !)
IMO Halfords are streets ahead of them, and just as "pricey" !
I'm still laughing about the stainless spokes they fitted into my wheel and painted them black coz they didn't have/wouldn't order any in !!!
Paint was still wet when i picked up the wheel !! (It was a few years ago, but hey, i've got a great memory !)
Would try BicycleChain or even Kings rather than Colmans.
"Speak as you find"..

Speak as I find to Ralphies have never let me down

And they will internet price match the internet to boot

Kings are a bunch of crooks, bike chain is staffed by incompetents.

All subjective though. Still stop by for a chat in ralphies whenever I back.

Some good guys in Ralphies.. Charlie and Daimo come to mind, but they just don't deliver on service. Even if they could/would deliver in 7/10 days. it's still shite compared to "tinter web" thingey, and B/chain do WWW. price match and can deliver in 2/3 days,(and have tea and biscuits on offer !!!)
Colmans went to pot when DC left..

Charlie 😆 😉

Charlie,, nod nod 😉 😉

Ralphies service is shocking, I ordered an SLX double ring chainset on Saturday afternoon and it didn't arrive until yesterday (Tuesday), and then they had the barefaced cheek to give me discount as well 🙄

Thats bloody disgusting Dibbs

Indeed, Im suprised you bought anything less than XTR….

Bike shops aside though, self maintaining and the Quantocks is hoofing fun.

Taunton itself doesn't seem like too bad a place either. I spent 3 months there and quite liked it.

i spent eight years there and hated every day. only bit I miss is the riding.