Good places to ride.

[sarahale]

I'm in SW London, nearish bushy park. I don't drive and I'm looking for good places to practice for long rides. I go about 40 miles atm and try to do as little as possible on road. I'd like to find some nice hills and varied tracks and ride lengths of around 50 - 70 miles. Any ideas as I'm stumped, swinley forest looks good but struggling to hitch a ride there.

 

[Pale Rider]

Talking to fellow cyclists is a good way to pick up route intelligence, although as a lass on your own you might be understandably cautious about that.

Are there any groups/clubs in your area?

Members of those will have good route knowledge which you could pick up.

Follow tyre tracks at junctions, particularly if they go in a direction you do not usually go.

If you see cyclists turning at a certain point, or emerging from a road or track, you can all but guarantee it goes somewhere ridable and will link to another route.

 

[Motozulu]

I really enjoyed Swinley Forest, despite people saying it's too flat and pedally, I think they have made the most of the terrain and it's a really good swoopy, bermy ride.

Sarah have you considered using the trains? living where you do I would have thought that would be your best solution? I'd imagine the rail links are better down there than where I live as well. I had a female riding buddy who lived in Brum and she would regularly use the train to get her and her bike to and from Cannock Chase (she didn't drive either). Just a thought.

 

[Twizit]

Trains have to be the answer. From Surbiton you can easily head down towards Guildford and jump off there or one of the earlier stations. Straight out into the North Downs. Ranmore Common, Pitch, Holmbury and Leith Hills are all areas to try out. I only know them a little (more of a roadie) but plenty of good trails around the area.

 

[sarahale]

Fantastic thankyou, I hadn't really thought of getting a train to furthur a field. Cycled to ranmore and newlands corner the other day on my mtb but less than half of the ride was off road so although it was a fun 52 miles could of taken my road bike for a lot of it and done it in half the time!

 

[sarahale]

Oh and I saw 2 fellow riders confidently go down a path so I followed behind (although at some distance) about a mile down the track the route turned into an inaccessible footpath so we all had to turn around, I had caught up them by this point so was pretty amusing as I thought they knew what they were doing but they were as clueless as me!

 

[Twizit]

Sara, I should have added, there are offroad routes that you can use to get down into the Downs - see the link below (hopefully this will work) for a route I took with a friend the other week. Goes from Hinchley Wood down to Box Hill then across to Guildford. We took the train back, me on CX bike, him on MTB. I'd say about 95% offroad and a real mix of different tracks, and all cycle legal.

You'd be amazed what routes you can find through seemingly urban / suburban areas that don't involve roads (although I take no credit for this one!)

http://bikeroutetoaster.com/BRTWebUI/Course/810300

 

[TheTog]

If you can get down to Tadworth you can easily route a ride that'll take you from there pretty much all off road from Tadworth Common and go via Stane Street, Mickleham Downs, Box Hill, Westhumble, Polesdon Lacey, Ranmore Common, down to Westcott, off into the Surrey Hills via Friday Street, Leith Hill to Homlbury Hill, hit the Yoghurt Pot, Telegraph Pole and Barry Knows Best Trails, then head from Peaslake to Shere, over to Albury and up to St Martha's Hill, over to Newlands corner, then basically follow parts of the North Downs back to Ranmore and then retrace your tracks back to Tadworth.

No idea on the mileage, but that's gotta be quite a few, and there's stacks of hills in there to.