I’m a local, there’s so much riding around here. Longmoor is a 15 minute ride, Hindhead or Rogate 45 minute ride. Qecp is just down the road too. Loads of xc in every direction and trail types vary from sand, loam, through to clay and chalky.

Shop rides on a Monday from Cyclesphere in Bordon, couple of hours long from shop with varying routes. Also ride from other start points locally for a bit of occasional variation but never more than a 20 minute drive away.

If you’ve got any questions msg me also Brendog is a local and lives about a mile and a half from Bordon, so the riding can’t be too bad.

Again Kingdom Trails in VT are great, spent a long weekend a few years back riding tandems there at an mtb tandem meet a few years back.

Also hiked a bit whilst we were there, enjoyed the hike up from Franconia Notch up the Old Bridlepath to the hut (had lunch there too) then back along the ridge and down, not super long but nice to get our boots on the Appalacian Trail if only for short while.

We are on our 6th 7th and 8th ones now, seems it a bit of an addiction in my household. Sold our kiddy back after the kids ourgrew it and can fit on the others (not that their now that interested). So the days we are down to the Rohloffed 29er/29plus (looks a bit rougher these days), our full sus Ventana and the fatty Ventana.

I took the liberty of just copying and tweaking your version for the Havant to Thursley section, its all gravel friendly, stays out of the more built up areas after Havant and takes in a nice way through the South Downs over to Milland Valley as mentioned before (nice little shop/cafe in Milland for a break) but then climbs out via Vann Road in Fernhurst (its as steep as the one mentioned before from the valley which takes you up and out to Shottermill, up to the Punchbowl via Polecat and down the ROW to Thursley. If you want more of an off road route let me know and I’m happy to help.

https://www.komoot.com/tour/1134139101?share_token=aaL0vEVpQr6k3m6AkXYFJ9oRwOJMQ8MHWUIFOw4EOJYHNxelyZ&ref=wtd

As many others have said Haslemere, Liss, Liphook or Bordon (dont discount it these days as its a different place these days with most of the military gone) are good options, might stretch your commute out a bit but there’s all year round trails, different soil types ridable to in every direction from the sandy commons, chalky south downs and the more clay like Hangers. Good road and gravel options from tiny lanes south towards the downs and sea or out across the wield.

I watched yesterdays stage whilst work on GCN and got to agree with the comments about commentator, random cuts to Manon, not to mention Iris on the motorbike and also the complete lack of info about villages and chateauxs on the route.

My highlight was Adam Blythe in the Breakaway afterwards rather uncomfortably ripping into the team tactics of the day of multiple teams and also his reaction as they played Garcia and the team car.

I think they need to let Adam in as a co-commentator just to spice up the content a bit.

Did a road trip across Spain a few years ago with the US side of the family, flew to Barcelona for 3 days in city then got a rental car drove out to Pyrenees, stayed up the road from Ainsa nearer Ordessa for another 5 days, then onwards to Picos via a night in Logrono and an afternoon out in Pamplona, then 5 more nights in Bejes in the Picos, highly recommended AirBnB (used to be cheaper but its huge) up in a tiny village, just a bar and a bread van in the morning plus the stinkiest cheese shop I ever encountered, brilliant hosts, 5km in the mountains up a dead end road. If you wanted to ride from there it would have been great as the gravel started 200m up the road and went on and on up and over the mountains. Finally dumped the car in Santander and jumped on the ferry, however it was the roughest crossing I’ve ever been on, most were being within 1/2hr of leaving the port!!

Airbnb details of you want them.

Been back to Ainsa since riding but drove all the way down, worth it though and will go back to both again in the future.

My mate Jon of Tomo bikes lengthened the rear end out of a Ragley Blue Pig for a customer into a mid length cargo bike, could be an option if you’ve got all the parts already.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CRI3bikFjFR/

TJ and Chipps have pretty much nailed it.

20 years plus for me on tandems off road, recently sold our Thorn Kiddyback we had as grandkids can now fit on my real tandems. If you can get to disc brakes do it, our second cannondale ran a disk up front with a magura 33 out back which worked pretty well as a combo, sticking a suspension fork will make things way better for you as will a suspension seatpost for the stoker, either a thudbuster or USE for the most comfort, wide bars is an essential too up front though not at the rear as they get hung up easily and stokers dont like their knuckles wrapped against trees/gateposts etc.

Tandems do have weird standards, though all of my stuff these days is pretty much mtb standards within reason, 29+ up front on the HT with a 135mm Rohloff and boost all round on the Ventana.

If you do end up on the KAW drop me a line we are only 2 miles off the route at the Liphook end or happy to show you around some of our tandem routes around the Punchbowl area.

The boost UNO is what you need, we run one on our tandem cranks with an Gx Eagle 12 set up with a boost rear end. As said above the boost is added in the ring design.

I remember the doing the winter Keilder one with Mrs Bpd, got a lift up there in the back of the Middleburn van, 4 people in the back with no windows, 6 bikes, pack of cards and all of our kit for 8 hours. Event was real cold, snowy overnight camp in a frozen bog then waking up having melted the frozen layer to have sunk overnight. Was enough for me as an experience of Polaris events, have friends who did loads of them and still hear the stories now about flooded campsites and arguments between teammates.

Seemed to do a string of Keilder events back in the day with a few Moore Large Kielder Classics too, trials first, enduro (long ride with trials sections, timed sections, trail tests) and then an xc race. Anyone else remember these?

Hooja, it’s my biggest ever biking bargain, bought the frame on eBay a few years back and built from there, custom 18bikes frame but sizing works for us, mix of tubing including a bit of 853, Rohloff specific sliding dropouts (already had the hub), can squeeze a 29 x 2.8 in the back, cost me about £400!!

Wheels out and into our Seat estate for us, though its a really tight fit with either the 29er or the EDCM, used to be easier with the shorter wheel based 26er.

Got one of the Avenir racks too but its awkward to load and wasnt very compatible with plus tires so just end up puttig inside, however we ride from home most of the time so its not a problem. Got the Avenir one just sat in garage if your in need in the future.

Kiddybacks are great if you can find one, we had one for a while for grandkids, ok off road, they’ve grown into my others now as my stoke is only 5ft 2.

Heres Bake Off boy Fyn with our old Thorn, he now progressed to the back of the 29er.

Pretty varied list when I look back it now, definitely gone through phases singlespeeds, full sus, these days its pretty much a bit of everything, garage is still very eclectic but tandems are the main use mtbs for me these days

1988 MBK Aventure
1989 MS Racing Cromega-LX
1990 Kona Cindercone
1992 GT Zaskar (early U brake version and built from frame to spec)
Fuquay Custom Cromor
1994 Dawes Edge LX 631 (snapped rear dropouts off)
1994 Cannondale MT1000 Tandem
1995 Trek 9800 OCLV
Cannondale LOS DOS MT Tandem (Custom build from frame)
Coyote Ti (cracked seat tube)
Coyote AL
Cove Hand Job (bought from a mate, loathed it and sold very quickly)
Cannondale MT1000 (retro 1987 model)
Dialled Bikes Prince Albert
Klein Adroit (Was my wifes, split and sold, one of the few bike I regret ever selling)
2003 MTBtandems Fandango Tourista (Rohloff from this is still going strong on my 18Bikes tandem)
Tomac Eli (cracked)
Litespeed Niota
Specialized Enduro (kind of regretted selling this as was a fun bike)
Commencal Supreme
2005 Bianchi Sass (sold and recently got it back)
2004 Surly Karate Monkey SS (snapped chain stay)
2006 Gary Fisher Rig
2005 Surly Karate Monkey SS (another one to replace broken one)
On One Inbred 29er
Calibre Dune
18Bikes 29er Tandem (second hand frame build using Rohloff)
2015 Cannondale Trigger 4
2017 Pinnacle Arkose 2
Tomo tall bike (my old broken Dawes on top and a Carrera underneath)
2019 Ventana EDCM 27.5+ tandem
Tomo 27.5 bikepacking bike (currently on loan to me)

As per a few others on here, Hankley Common is on a few on my routes so rode past Skyfall house still smoking on a night ride out there plus past a few others Black Widow, 1917.

Not film but did a 24hr in Coin in Spain where the last part of the lap was through the BBC failed soap Eldorado set, hand over was outside the staff canteen and accomodation was onsite for cast and crew. Very surreal event

We did Ainsa on a smallish budget 2 years ago ourselves with friends in an Airbnb apartment in town, had a secure cellar with a workshop in the basement, 100m in to the town square, pretty much ate at every place in the square and others in town, theres quite a few small bars too. Riding is great and can be straight from the door or chuck the bikes in the van for slightly more distant Zona Zero trails, generally plenty of climbing but worth the effort, there is plenty for non bikers, canyoning, kayaking, loads of decent hiking close by as its the base of the Pyrenees after all (check out Ordesa national park, the 4wd trip across the top edge to look down into it is worth it for the views and also Anisclo valley is pretty impressive too), its also worth trying to work out when they feed the vultures on the hill opposite town as a few hundred vultures circling above you before feeding is pretty impressive.

My very biased current favourite is this

But still love the simple lines of a singlespeed, just got back my Bianchi Sass as christmas present from my brother, forgot just how pretty a chromed steel 26in bike can be, sorry about the photo its a very old one.

We’ve got a Thorn Kiddyback for the grandkids, 26 in wheels, v brakes and not huge clearances but battered it through a few trails round here, small enough for a five thru to nine year old easily (though Fyn is short) dual positions for changing crank length, bought ours second hand off here cheaply. Its brilliant for what it cost the kids love it though Evie prefers a road ride and Fyn offroad so he has now progressed on to the back of the 29er HT tandem with SPDs and is now pushing me to get on our new Ventana but thats a bit big for him yet.

@chipps

Need to revisit the 2020 meetup thing, asked preliminary questions on the FB group after going to a US tandem meet last September, started looking for location and dates, CYB and mid June is the rough plan, fancy joining us, have a spare tandem too to bring along if anyone else is interested after our recent upgrade.

I’m with TJ here as I was going to say tandem too and I wouldnt dismiss it that quickly, it’ll improve your riding, push both of your fitness levels and your skills a lot, my wife hasnt had her own bike for years now and we now just ride tandems when we ride together. Its a niche scene but good fun, its taken us loads of places riding that I may never have been such as the Kingdom Trails in Vermont this year riding the trails there with 10 other tandems. I’m not that far away from you I think, little bit south of Farnham if wanted to try it out for a couple of hours.

36 will be fine even for touring with panniers on, our gravel/road Dawes has 48 spoke, very stiff but makes for a sluggish ride feel, we have used 32 holes on our mtb tandems for years they’ve been fine, we have the odd spoke break in the rear but no major issues, so if your touring just take a few spares just in case taped to the chain stay. We are currently in Vermont riding with the Etor group at the Kingdom Trails on a rented Ventana Edcm which has 32 hole boost wheels, strength and stiffness is fine as they are getting a hard work out on the trails here.

Mikertriod, I can help out if you want to try something as we are down near south coast, we have a bit of a collection, can try either a Galaxy (ours is a bit gravelised for the occasional trail shortcut, now runs discs front and rear too) or our 29er one, even got a 26in kiddyback too. Drop me a message if your interested.

Halo Vapour 35s have been good for us, using one of the factory fronts and a rim built on to a rohloff on the rear with a variation 2.6 and 2.8 tyres. There is a pair on ebay at the moment (nothing to do with me) well inside your budget.

We use a 2.6 Vittoria Mezcal on the back of the tandem, rolls really well and has held up really well so far, had a Terrene McFly 2.8 tough version before which came up to similar width/volume also quick not quite as quick as the Mezcal though.

We’ll be there for the sunday, we’ll be one of the three teams on tandems again this year.

Measured up and the Mezcal comes up at 68mm on a Vapour 35 rim

Had a Terrene McFly Hard version out back on the tandem for over a year but switched out now, was lucky and got one of the first batch brought over by a US relative on a visit was great tyre but does come up a bit narrow than the stated width.

Now running a Vittoria Mezcal 2.6 which comes up as big if not slightly bigger than the McFly, cant fault it so far for where we ride (quite sand based) but potentially not the greatest ever front tyre.

Took me ages to decide when I bought, ended up buying the ’17 version of the 105 equipped Arkose. Superb bike, use mine for a mixed surface commute a few days a week that varies from short sections of A road, small lanes, forest fire roads, chalky/flinty bridleways to singletrack, I really like mine, no changes apart from switching to tubeless when I got it home, rest is stock, spec is pretty much perfect I’ve found. Found I can ride a lot of the local trails faster on this than my mtbs these days. The only annoyance is that the cassette has cut into the alloy freehub body and now the cassette creaks like a pig under load in certain gears. If you are based where your username suggests and fancy a spin on one I’m just over the downs from Petersfield.

Looks like a good trip pretty similar to one I did a few years ago, we loved Crater Lake when we did a similar road trip a few years ago, did you get to do the boat trip on crater lake?

Flume was good but the riding in Bend was some of the best I’ve done, did a days guided on the tandem with Cog Wild (making the guide work real hard to stay with the tandem on some of the flowy trails in Phils was a highlight) and I also did the McKenzie River shuttle on a rental which is probably one the best trails I’ve ever ridden.

Spekkie, not sure on plans yet as blew the shear pins on the rohloff on day one’s ride and then to top that stripped the rear qr whilst trying to figure out what was happening meaning a long wander back in to town. Currently trying to source some parts from Germany/UK to potentially fix it, still got my solo but really wanted to ride with mrs bpd and push the boundaries of what we can ride on the tandem, she has no longer got skills/confidence if we rented a solo so unsure on whether we’ll drift home early with a grump on or stay.

Good luck with the course, if you fancy testing your newly acquired guiding skills after your course on some tourists we are in Ainsa from sunday for the next couple of weeks for some riding and exploring the area.

Not necessarily, if you run 1x or a rohloff like is then you can run a nornal cranks with a timing chain to either the inner or to an outer ring for the chainline,  We run 2 pairs of aeffect cranks, direct mount front and then spider on the rear for the two chain rings needed there.

Hardangerfjord is a couple of hours drive if you rent a car, decent scenery on the way, decent hikes, could be in full bloom in the orchards if very early june too, could go up to Folgefonna to ski on glacier if you want to. Been to Utne on Hardanger a couple of times over the last few years, Trolltunga probably not worth it unless you like hiking in a huge group and have to queue for your turn to have your picture taken.

Will be there saturday but riding down this year over tomorrow and saturday morning with a couple of mates as group on some tall bikes one of them made from old frames we had. Shakedown ride in the sun yesterday and forecast looks good so cant wait to get going.

I’d definitely repurpose the Rohloff, works so well on a tandem, shifting while stopped is a big plus on tandem and you dont notice the extra weight as a mass at the back axle as its so far behind as a captain. As I said before, it’ll be fine as a 32 with the right rim and build.

Also agree with the above, ask Alex at mtbtandems, he has more experience with what works and what breaks on mtb tandems than most.

Our tandem does get a battering too off road, we have another for road use and currently weighing up option for something splittable for air travel too, something that will do 700c and 650 for off-road.

We’ve run 32 on a rear rolhoff for over 10 years on our mtb tandem, if it’s built right and the rim is up to the job it’ll be fine, currently running 32 up front too, 50mm rim with 3.0 tyre on 35mm manitou forks with no issues as well, would prefer to run 36 hole but bit limited on choice when built. Highly recommend the Halo Vapour 35 rims if you can get them.

Main thing to do though is enjoy, every trail is different on the tandem compared to a single.

Thanks to this ongoing thread and a brief visit to the area last year with out bikes, we are coming back out to Ainsa from the start of June for nearly a fortnight, do you fancy guiding a group of four (two on a tandem though) on some of the trails for a couple days (when you are not working).

Not built for us, I bought the frame second hand and its pretty much bang on size wize for the pair of us and pretty much what I wanted from a frame.

18bikes custom 853 29er tandem frame, adjustable dropouts for a rohloff and takes a 2.8 29er too, was displayed at 2014 bespoked too. This is as I built it a while back, now running Terrene 2.8 out back and a 3.0 Maxxis up front.

Supposed to be riding down to Bespoked this year from London in a group on tall bikes, kinda custom I guess, built from a Carrera and my old 90s Dawes 631 Edge.

South can be boggy in places but its a matter of learning what works depending on the weather, there is a lot that isnt boggy that is fun riding, older hill, chapel common, ludshott and bramshott and iping common.

For Puttenham from Thursley I’d tend to head more towards Milford via 3 ponds over A3 and up to Peper Harrow, minimal road just around Eashing and then come back via Tilford and Frensham.

I can probably help you with that too, plenty of routes from Haslmere in most directions, go further than punchbowl and do Hankley/Frensham and even stretch out to Puttenham or do Golden Valley and either back over Ludshot/Bramshott commons via Waggonners, you could also do either Blackdown to Fernhurst and onto Bexley back via Milland/Marley/Linchmere or Liphook via Linchmere/Marley, Iron Hill/Milland/Rogate. PM me, I’m happy to help.