London Calling

Anonymous

Blind Danny Johnson wrote:

I take it no one is going to make it out today?

Whilst not torrential, it's just continual miserable rain out the window at the moment. Though supposedly it will stop by 4pm. Think I'll wait until tomorrow at least for some of it to drain away.

benpinnick

The sun actually came out at 4pm by some kind of miracle. Really nice here today by comparison. Pity I am in the office

cooldad

benpinnick wrote:

The sun actually came out at 4pm by some kind of miracle. Really nice here today by comparison. Pity I am in the office

Yeah bloody annoying isn't it.

ThePriory1978

All weekend i wanted to ride my new bike and not once did the storms let up, i just sat on it in the garage playing with shock pressures and brake lever angles. Today glorious. So f%$k#@g angry.

Blind Danny Johnson

Is there still something North Wales orrientated being planned for the 19/20th May weekend? I have the weekend off of work so if it's on I'm in and if not I'm still going to ride all weekend! Win-win

benpinnick

Yep for sure. well need to book something soon. Care to vote on trail centers?

Blind Danny Johnson

benpinnick wrote:

Yep for sure. well need to book something soon. Care to vote on trail centers?

I don't have any knowledge of any of the trail centres so you guys are probably better equipped to make decisions as far as that is concerned. I'll have a look though and put my two pence worth in

bartimaeus

Guys, I met a few of you last October when you showed me and my nephew round Winterfold. I'd like to offer a 'repayment' some time by inviting you down to Queen Elizabeth Country Park near Petersfield in Hampshire. You can ride our new Red Trail, other *cough* unofficial trails, and of course the South Downs Way and South Downs.

Our Red Trail, which is reviewed in the June issue of MBR, will be officially opened on 19th May. Apart from one new section to miss out some fireroad it's all open and signed, so you don't *need* a guide to ride the park... but if you'd like someone to show you around then let me know. At the moment it is very wet and muddy, so if you do come bring mud tyres!

We also have the QE Cyclefest on 19th/20th May, which promises to be a good weekend. There's our Red Trail launch on Saturday 19th and the the "MBUK Royal Rumble Enduro" in the evening - as well as events for families and even roadies. On Sunday 20th Hargroves are running a demo day, which is a great opportunity to ride bikes you can't afford.

QE Park - right next to the A3 just South of Petersfield, (40 miles from the M25... and a pretty quick journey now there's a tunnel through the Devil's Punchbowl)

Andy Dobson

I'd be interested in doing some time at QECP.....I only live in Cranleigh so not a million miles away, plus.... I can recover from the climbing (which I'm crap at BTW) on the way home by dropping in on my old friends in Haslemere and sink a couple of beers .

Andy

ThePriory1978

Definately want to try QE park and the South Downs some day soon.

Any plans for this coming weekend? Any epic adventures around SH on Saturday?

Swinleys all torn up and the Gorrick Enduros running Sunday so gunna make matters worse.

cooldad

Hi Bartimaeus I was planning to try and come down the opening weekend, sounded like a bit of an event with camping etc. Hopefully will be dried out a bit by then.

No plans for this weekend yet. Maybe Swinley one day and SH another - it's a long weekend yay.

Anonymous

Would like to check out QECP too and any guide would be great, especially for the unofficial bits.

This weekend looks like cloudy. There's one final huge downpour due tonight to ensure it's still a mud bath though.

If I'm about, Surrey Hills hopefully. Over there this afternoon so can report back on the conditions. I expect it sucks,

milko9000

I'll only be about on the Monday, but definitely going to ride somewhere. Has anywhere else in the UK been a bit drier? I'm tempted to head elsewhere but not sure there's much point.

pilch

Hi guys, I'm after a bit of advice.... i'm thinking about entering the Gorrick 100 this weekend, I know a lot of you ride regularly down there, just wondering how the trails hold up after the rainfest we've had.

I'm not adverse to a bit of mud & wet but i've just done 2 weekends of complete bogging conditions and as a result spent a fair bit of time fixing bikes - so may opt for a trail centre instead if its too bad.

benpinnick

Swinley survives ok, but where the Gorrick 100 is probably the worst part of the forest for mud and bogging... sorry.

pilch

Thanks for that, Afan it is then...

Anonymous

Surrey Hills wasn't half as bad as I expected yesterday. Holmbury holding up okay, just big puddles/lakes in stuff like Yog Pots, but most the less traffic trails are dry/damp with the odd little puddle and fireroads are generally dry. BKB dry, though work hasn't finished there it seems. The berm improvements aren't on the bottom section so still braking bumps galore.

Pitch trails not too bad. More traffic there, some sliding about in places but still not that bad, other bits dryer. Fireroads on the other hand are massively churned up thanks to logging machines. The climb from WB car park is a total mess towards the top. Oh, and at least one trail destroyed. The little bit with two practice jumps - flattened.

Anonymous

FYI - Those who head to Surrey Hills via Clandon (coming from A3 or Woking/Send), Clandon Road/The Street (A247) is closed from Tues 8th May 2012 to 29th June 2012. About 8 weeks!

cooldad

Which road is that? I just drive, don't take any notice.

Anonymous

The road between Send / A3 junction and the A25 road below it

Blind Danny Johnson

I'm off to Devon for the weekend so won't see you guys (maybe DK?) this weekend so happy riding to all, hope you find some dry trails.

On another note, I gave my back wheel to somebody at work, who knows all about bike stuff, to true for me because after Cwmcarn it had a little wobble on! And he took it home to examine and it turns out my axle is bent and the wheel is buckled in a few places. Anyway I'm picking up my new bike tomorrow so I'll be riding that for near future and this guy said he'll be able to replace the axle and true it for me to get the bike rolling again but he recommended I invest in some new wheels. Any recommendations on what I should get? (I can't be bothered to post in buying advice because everyone gives you a different answer and you guys are great for product advice etc anyway). Thanks.

cooldad

@DK thanks got it now. I'll just come via Bisley and the edge of Guildford.
@BDJ - round ones, obviously. More seriously I'd get some advice off Ben - he knows a bit about wheels.

Anonymous

Not going to make it down to Devon. Need to be back before Tue so would be driving Monday and that rules out the opening day of that trail at Gawton. Though I suspect it's beyond my skills anyway. And the 'rents are booked up anyway as retired folk tend to be.

thel33ter

Hope or XT hubs, Stans rims, probably a Crest. Have a look on the Merlin wheelbuilder bit of their website.

Anonymous

Currently debating when/where to meet on the FB group, but at present...

Tomorrow, Surrey Hills, some of us meeting at Walking Bottom car park, 10-ish.

bartimaeus

cooldad wrote:

Hi Bartimaeus I was planning to try and come down the opening weekend, sounded like a bit of an event with camping etc. Hopefully will be dried out a bit by then.

I'll see you there... not sure if I'll be camping, yet, but I'll be there for our Trail Launch on Saturday, and I plan to ride some bikes on demo day on the Sunday... and in between I may have to toast the Enduro riders, so I may end up staying.

It's pretty damp here at the moment, but apparently QE is not too bad. Here's a video to publicise the trail... shot pretty recently, so you get a reasonable idea of the conditions. Ironically they decided not to do this shoot in March when we had fantastic weather as there were no leaves on the trees so it looked like autumn!

Andy Dobson

deadkenny wrote:

The road between Send / A3 junction and the A25 road below it

Oh Balls!!!!! Thats the route I use to shortcut going through Guildford when I'm in London for work. That means an extra hour on every day in London until work is complete. May have to start hacking through Shere to East Horsley then down to Ripley if London work comes up for the time being.

Funny that I use that road 2-6 times a week almost every week and have seen NO signs about this work! WTF!!??!!

Anyway, Saturday is out because the better half is working. Sunday is good if Surrey Hils but I think there is a local Venture Trail event on so caparks willl be FTB or FUBAR and trails will be busy to boot. Really want to get out and try the new tyre combo and the remote for the Gravity Dropper so may just hit SH and say "what the hell" / "just because you have a laminated number on the front of your bike, who says you're more entitiled to be here" / "why are you riding UP BKB???".

Anyway, I'll keep and eye out for something suitable here.....

Anonymous

Signs are up along that road, at least as of Wed as that's when I saw them. Hard to read them as you go past and just assumed it was a short term thing for resurfacing but spotted the duration and alarm bells rang. Well, realisation that council contractors were at work. Probably about a day's worth of work to be done, so yeah, 8 weeks closure is about right. The full details are on the Surrey CC web site.

cooldad

Anyone up for a latish morning Swinley ride. Or somewhere else?

Anonymous

Tomorrow or Monday? Gorrick 100 is on at Swinley tomorrow I think. Don't know how that affects things or what time they're doing it.

Surrey Hills report - Avoid Pitch. It's wrecked (by logging). Some trails destroyed. Fireroads seriously a mess and even more so now it's v.muddy.