South Downs Way 5th 6th April - any takers?

pittpony

Hi all,

A few forum members are going to be doing the South Downs Way over the weekend of 5th and 6th April. So far there are three of us but we're all of the opinion that the more people who want to come along the better

Rough plan so far is as follows:

*Travel to Winchester on Friday night and stay in B&B ready for early start Saturday
*Early start on Saturday covering the first 65 miles (!) and taking in some lunch before overnight rest at a youth hostel
*Pub dinner and cheeky beers
*Finish the last 30 or so miles (steep hills hence the uneven distance split) and arrive at Eastbourne sometime Sunday afternoon
*Go home tired but happy

If anyone wants to join us please post here or PM either myself, RussAlf or Impished

We're hoping to get some good numbers but please bear in mind the hostels etc are already quite busy so we are looking to book ASAP! As we've booked holiday I'm afraid dates for this one aren't negotiable.

deadpool2e

I will check next week if i can get the Saturday off and then check SWMBO to see if i can afford it.

What kind of prices are we talking about for B&B and Hostal?

impished

We're in quite early stage of planning on this one really, but we know the hostal is £14, and I expect the B & B to be between £25-£45.
Train fare seems to vary a bit, but possibly around £40ish
PittPony & Russalf have been looking at a few B & B's/Hostals, so they should post some more concrete prices soon.

SBezza

Might be up for this as well, let me see whether I am on call that weekend. I will let you know Monday.

pittpony

impished wrote:

We're in quite early stage of planning on this one really, but we know the hostal is £14, and I expect the B & B to be between £25-£45.
Train fare seems to vary a bit, but possibly around £40ish
PittPony & Russalf have been looking at a few B & B's/Hostals, so they should post some more concrete prices soon.

I reckon it will be £100 tops for transport and acccommodation, plus extra for food and beer Hopefully it might even be a little bit les than that depending on where you're catichin the train from. I'll keep you updated on B&B prices i find...

breezer

65 miles offroad in a day? 25 is about the most I can do max! Luckily (??) I will be in Belgium doing service crew for a friend that is rallying so will have to miss this heh

pittpony

It sounds a lot but apparently there are a lot of hard, fast rolling tracks rather than boggy singletrack. I think its still off-road enough to be fun though and there are meant to be some super fast descents :twisted:

breezer

Do you know where you finish exactly in Eastbourne, can you point it out on Google Earth or something as theres a great bit of singletrack up there which must be right near you finish and its a couple of miles long plus it comes out on route to the station anyway so for the sake of another few miles along the top you get some extra fun instead of just going down the road. If you go down the road I think you will by the way, its so steep it has those truck gravel escape lanes lol!

andyturner28

I am definately up for this, sounds like it is going to be bloody good fun.

65 miles in one day shouldn't be a problem. We did 55k on Sunday over very varied terrain with loads of stops in about 3 and a half hours (i think) and i felt like i could do it all again.
I assume we will be travelling by train? If so i think there is a limit of how many bikes one train will carry, and i don't think it is that many. Might be something to bear in mind. Are you thinking about us all meeting up somewhere and travelling up together?

Andy.

pittpony

Breezer - I'm not sure where it ends up but if we can get some extra singletrack in I'm so much the better RussAlf has most of the details (it's all his idea - i just jumped on the bandwaggon) so might be able to find it.

Andy - glad you can make it along Yes we'll go up by train. I have a railcard that gets up to 4 of us a third off the tickets. I think we'll be ok with the bikes as most bikes i've seen on trains have just been put in the bits near the doors. There should be plenty of space

impished

I can't wait for April now :roll:

I'm off out to buy a rucksack tomorrow. Tesco's sell a decent looking 35l jobbie here with a seperate section to slide the camelbak bladder in 8) , for £40. A bit less than the £100 I was considering for a Camelbak HOSS :shock:

As for the bikes, that's another good reason for going up on Friday. At least if we have to wait for the next train, and the next train, and the next train, ad infinatum, we won't be delayed in starting our treck on Saturday

breezer

Taken a look at my map. The South Downs way goes down into Eastbourne, its just by the blue line I have badly drawn on this.

The small loop I do is shown in red so as you come up out of Jevington (git of a hill!) you could turn left there then do the twisty singletrack and end up in nearly the same place. It depends if you insist on doing 100% of the route or not as although you will be going slightly further you will be missing a bit although its only open paths

There are two files in http://www.complexdreams.com/docs/ called Singletrack, a MMO memory map file and a GPX file you can open in Google Earth

pittpony

So much to think about before we go - need to sort out a new Camelbak too, amongst other things!

Will definitely consider that loop Breezer - I guess it depends what everyone wants to do. How long is the section?

breezer

3 miles or less, quite fun and rooty. Following the SDW there is just open bridleway with a couple of short grass hills

pittpony

Cheers Breezer - there's nothing like a bit of local knowledge to improve a ride

breezer

Theres a fun little downhill into Jevington. I would come and join you for the last bit but I will be in Belgium. You could always take a brief detour into Friston and do the 8 mile XC course if feeling really energetic

pjm-84

Agreed to some corporate enterainment in the afternoon but could make the morning depending on what time you guys are intending to start.

Going to ride it tomorrow morning (first 30km only.... opps) to pick up the club road ride so I'm off to change my mud tyres over to give me a fighting chance on the road

Did it for the BHF last year in a day and know the first bit of the route quite well.

lego

65 + 30 miles = 111 miles Well thats what I made out to be last time. I'm would of loved to have done this but guess what, yep I'm working the Friday night till 10pm then back to work the Monday at 6am. a@se. But good luck all. Remember when you get up on the top of the downs it's all flat, yea right

impished

Check out this vid for a little taster of what to expect on this ride.
Bit worrying that they start with 6 riders and end with 3 :shock:

Have a look here for a great write-up of the route. I cant wait to reach Fulking Hill

pittpony

andyturner28 wrote:

I am definately up for this, sounds like it is going to be bloody good fun.

65 miles in one day shouldn't be a problem. We did 55k on Sunday over very varied terrain with loads of stops in about 3 and a half hours (i think) and i felt like i could do it all again.
I assume we will be travelling by train? If so i think there is a limit of how many bikes one train will carry, and i don't think it is that many. Might be something to bear in mind. Are you thinking about us all meeting up somewhere and travelling up together?

Andy.

Andy - are you a definite for this? We're looking to book the halfway hostel ASAP so can book you a spot if you like. Apparently they are running out of spaces fast

pittpony

pjm-84 wrote:

Agreed to some corporate enterainment in the afternoon but could make the morning depending on what time you guys are intending to start.

Going to ride it tomorrow morning (first 30km only.... opps) to pick up the club road ride so I'm off to change my mud tyres over to give me a fighting chance on the road

Did it for the BHF last year in a day and know the first bit of the route quite well.

Probably a fairly early start if we're staying overnight in Winchester. Maybe 8ish but to be decided. We'll let you know as long as you promise not to put us off with stories of how hard it is

andyturner28

pittpony wrote:

andyturner28 wrote:

I am definately up for this, sounds like it is going to be bloody good fun.

65 miles in one day shouldn't be a problem. We did 55k on Sunday over very varied terrain with loads of stops in about 3 and a half hours (i think) and i felt like i could do it all again.
I assume we will be travelling by train? If so i think there is a limit of how many bikes one train will carry, and i don't think it is that many. Might be something to bear in mind. Are you thinking about us all meeting up somewhere and travelling up together?

Andy.

Andy - are you a definite for this? We're looking to book the halfway hostel ASAP so can book you a spot if you like. Apparently they are running out of spaces fast

Hi Nick.

Yes i can definately make it. Really looking forward to it now. Have you any idea on prices yet? My Dad has just informed me that you have to pay to take the bike on the train as well :shock:. He has never done it himself though so not sure if it is true :roll:

Andy.

RussAlf

Thanks Nick for writing this all up, as said its open to anyone but just be realistic if you can cover 65miles in the first day. I really am so looking forward to this, ive wanted to do something like this for a good while now and finally meet some nutters wiling to jion me! Ive got OS maps of the route and ive got a Garmin GPS so its not going to be to hard finding the way, aparently its fairly simple to follow anyway.

The Saturday night we are staying at Truleigh Hostel, ive just booked places for 3 of us so Andy if you want to come you need to ring them qucik. On Thursday they had 14 beds left, minus 3 of that and a few more so they must be close to running out.

Heres the hostels details, i chose to ring them rather than do it online.

http://www.yha.org.uk/find-accommodation/south-east-england/hostels/truleigh-hill/index.aspx

Thanks

Russ

RussAlf

andyturner28 wrote:

pittpony wrote:

andyturner28 wrote:

I am definately up for this, sounds like it is going to be bloody good fun.

65 miles in one day shouldn't be a problem. We did 55k on Sunday over very varied terrain with loads of stops in about 3 and a half hours (i think) and i felt like i could do it all again.
I assume we will be travelling by train? If so i think there is a limit of how many bikes one train will carry, and i don't think it is that many. Might be something to bear in mind. Are you thinking about us all meeting up somewhere and travelling up together?

Andy.

Andy - are you a definite for this? We're looking to book the halfway hostel ASAP so can book you a spot if you like. Apparently they are running out of spaces fast

Hi Nick.

Yes i can definately make it. Really looking forward to it now. Have you any idea on prices yet? My Dad has just informed me that you have to pay to take the bike on the train as well :shock:. He has never done it himself though so not sure if it is true :roll:

Andy.

I take my bike on Trains all the time and never had to pay, you only need to prebook bikes on long distance trains such as Virgin etc. We will be travelling by southeastern who have always be fine with me, i commute to work with part cycles part train to london. The train service to winchester is southwestern or southern and ive read there cycle policy and its exactly the same as southeastern, so no problems there. Ive had 3 bikes in the cycles carriage of the trains before and it was fine, i reckon we could fit 4 in no problems though the train conducter may kick up a fuss so we may have to ctahc different trains.

Russ

deadpool2e

I’m not going to be able to come guys as i need my spare cash for my week in Afan on the 21st also can not get the day off work :x . but if you do it again sometime in the summer with enough notice i should be able to get a few days off.

andyturner28

I booked the room, and just in time as well as there was only 3 left! It says "1 bed in shared single sex room" so i assume i will be sharing with somebody else? Very cheap though, thought it would be £50 or £60.

I will pm you all my mobile no and e-mail later, got to go out now.

Andy.

pittpony

Nice one Andy, glad you got the room in time! Anyone else who wants to come will have to move quickly! I'll warn you about PMing your email - you'll be getting about a dozen messages a day as we're all pretty excited about this one!

impished

Check out this Flickr album here.
Shows a few of the sights and climbs :shock: we can look forward to :twisted:

Is it April yet? :roll:

pittpony

Mmm, fish and chip shop in Eastbourne. Would be rude not to after all those miles wouldn't it?!

impished

LOL

pjm-84

The South Downs from Winchester to the A3 was nice this morning. Ground was nice and compacted allowing a quick pace. Chalk was a little slippy though.