London Calling

montarius

deadkenny wrote:

From MBSurreyHills FB post...

"Trail Update | Forestry operations on Leith Hill has sadly destroyed Regurgitator; an officially sanctioned trail. Other trails in the area are effected, but only Regurgitator has significant damage to the trail bed and construction. A forestry machine has driven right up the hillside taking out several sections of trail and berms."

Oh no this is terrible news... hopefully they will fix / rebuild the trail... I wont hold my breathe though

cooldad

We have the school ride on Saturday and Woking Bikeathon on Sunday, so won't be around this weekend.

Naveed

Hey,

I'm about Sat morning early 9ish and whole of Sunday for SH riding if anyone's about!

Richard2118

Not about this weekend , may get out sat am but not sure. Will post something soon about a bit more aggressive ride than last one.

cooldad

Richard2118 wrote:

Not about this weekend , may get out sat am but not sure. Will post something soon about a bit more aggressive ride than last one.

Yeah the last one was for pussies.














And I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Richard2118

Cooldad ,Im glad you enjoyed , you did not even meow once!!!

When i say agressive i may do Boxhill with all the single track and then go over towards Ranmore and do all of the drops and jumps that way, therefore if people dont want to do the more techy bits they dont have too.

Blind Danny Johnson

Hi guys,

I've just had the wheels off of my road bike stolen so I'm going to use this as an opportunity to buy a mountain bike, which i've been thinking about doing for ages. I've got my eye on a Specialized Hardrock Pro 2011.

Anyway, to the point, I live in Stoke Newington, North London and was wondering how all you guys get from London to good riding spots without a car. Are the nearest spots to London close enough to train stations to ride to without getting knackered before you get there?

I'm planning on going to Swinley Forest when I get my bike as I have a friend near there and it seems easily accessible on the train.

Do you guys meet up and ride together?

Sorry if this is the hundredth time someone has come on here and asked the same questions!

Atz

Most of us drive to be honest but if you get into central London you can easily train out to Swinley, Surrey Hills, Aston Hill etc. We generally all ride most weekends and I'd say 90% of the time there's some of us together but how many and where depends on what people want to do or have time to do. Keep active on the thread and things usually come together.

Blind Danny Johnson

Atz wrote:

Most of us drive to be honest but if you get into central London you can easily train out to Swinley, Surrey Hills, Aston Hill etc. We generally all ride most weekends and I'd say 90% of the time there's some of us together but how many and where depends on what people want to do or have time to do. Keep active on the thread and things usually come together.

Thanks

cooldad

Welcome and no need to apologise for asking questions, that's what the thread is for, we just generally write lots of rubbish as well.
What we tend to do is someone suggests a day, time place etc, and some people make it and some don't.
If you feel like doing something and can sort trains out, post and chances are something will happen.
Lots of us don't actually live in London.

Richard2118

cooldad wrote:

Welcome and no need to apologise for asking questions, that's what the thread is for, we just generally write lots of rubbish as well.
What we tend to do is someone suggests a day, time place etc, and some people make it and some don't.
If you feel like doing something and can sort trains out, post and chances are something will happen.
Lots of us don't actually live in London.

Speak for youself I never ever speak rubbish.......

Atz

Loads of people doing some mtb orienteering thing in peaslake today. Oddly they rode little of the trails, sticking mostly to fireroad so it meant that the trails were almost empty.

thel33ter

Woking Bikeathon today, it was a good bit of fun, apart from the useless marshal that sent most of the people doing it the wrong way :roll: We ended up doing 10 extra miles trying to get back onto the right route. Ended up being a nice relatively quick 50 miles.

cooldad

@Atz. That's the Peaslake MTB Orienteering event, (supports a local school). They do it a few times a year, but this one always clashes with the Bikeathon. It's actually a load of fun and very well organised. They do fireroads mainly because it's a 'treasure hunt'. Can be bloody hard as well, as the 3 hour event goes all the way to Leith and back. You just have to get as many waypoints as you can in the time, so there is no actual route. Impossible to get all of them, so it's fairly strategic to plan a route that gets to most, and you get time penalties as well.
We should have a go at the next one.

cooldad

thel33ter wrote:

Woking Bikeathon today, it was a good bit of fun, apart from the useless marshal that sent most of the people doing it the wrong way :roll: We ended up doing 10 extra miles trying to get back onto the right route. Ended up being a nice relatively quick 50 miles.

Fine for him, 3 of the serious riders did their own thing and sprinted the course.
For my sins I had a group of hopeless kids to look after, got back about two hours later after an interesting exercise in seeing just how slowly you can ride without toppling over.
One wally was riding a new bike and after about 20 miles was finished. I rode with him a bit and noticed he never changed gear (had 3x10 so plenty to choose from.) He said he didn't know how as the shifters didn't have numbers on like his old bike. One day he'll be allowed to vote and have children.

Richard2118

cooldad wrote:

thel33ter wrote:

Woking Bikeathon today, it was a good bit of fun, apart from the useless marshal that sent most of the people doing it the wrong way :roll: We ended up doing 10 extra miles trying to get back onto the right route. Ended up being a nice relatively quick 50 miles.

Fine for him, 3 of the serious riders did their own thing and sprinted the course.
For my sins I had a group of hopeless kids to look after, got back about two hours later after an interesting exercise in seeing just how slowly you can ride without toppling over.
One wally was riding a new bike and after about 20 miles was finished. I rode with him a bit and noticed he never changed gear (had 3x10 so plenty to choose from.) He said he didn't know how as the shifters didn't have numbers on like his old bike. One day he'll be allowed to vote and have children.

Sounds like loads of fun !!!!!!!

cooldad

Not as bad as it sounds, raised around £350 from my office for Leukaemia charity, and got a couple of doughnuts so ok really.

cooldad

Any plans for the weekend? I'm free Sunday, will play at Swinley if nothing else happening.

Atz

I'm doing an airport run some time around late morning/noon so no early ride for me. Depending on when I'm done I may get the bike out to SH or Swinley but most likely I suspect I'll get the road bike out for an hour or two as that'll be all I have time for.

Anonymous

Still yet to get back on a bike of any sort, and yet to sort a helmet out. Might be a chance I'll be able to potter around something flat this weekend. *Maybe* get to Swinley but I'll only be able to go around the fireroads or maybe trails without bumps. If someone's there could meet up at some point, but I'll likely be doing my own thing just to get some exercise. But might end up just around where I live, down the tow path and stuff, annoying the walkers.

ThePriory1978

I'm hitting up Swinley Forest late morning/early afternoon Saturday after visiting a few LBS for trinkets. if anyones game for a hook up? Just name a time and place.

cooldad

Meeting up with DK for a gentle ride (very gentle) Swinley at 1pm if anyone else fancies it.

Richard2118

Sorry not out.

Where is everyone???

seems the thread has lost allot of people , what hapened?

cooldad

All seem to be injured, having babies or drinking too much.
Weird all through winter we had big groups, now the weather's perfect they've all gone into hibernation.

Anonymous

I believe some also have got season pass to Aston and are chucking themselves down there whilst it's dry.

Still haven't heard from Helter in a long time though, and a few others we've lost over time.

thel33ter

Also seems like most are using the facebook thing now, instead of here.

Anonymous

Though that's mostly full of inane chatter and the ramblings of Popstar.

thel33ter

deadkenny wrote:

Though that's mostly full of inane chatter and the ramblings of Popstar.

Implying that this thread isn't

Atz

I've just been busy this weekend. No bugger was out last week so I rode alone and I did 15 or so miles on the road yesterday to get some miles on the legs

cooldad

Met up with DK at Swinley today, he's looking normal again, scars gone but still ugly.
Mainly rode fireroads as he's still under docs orders not to do anything stupid, but couldn't resist Stickler.
Went over the fence and just aimed past the radio mast and explored around there. Didn't realise there was so much ground out that way - huge.
We paid a visit to Tim's Drop. Tried to work out what the hell he was thinking, and did a photo reconstruction, hopefully pics to follow.
Good afternoon.