Routes Surrounding Berkshire

LjStronge

Hi Folks

I'm new here,so please go easy on me!

Myself and a couple of mates are look for other places to ride around where we live.

We all live in Bracknell, and go to Swinley 2 or 3 times a week. We are lucky to have that place as our back garden and know the place pretty well now.

Although Swinley is awesome, we like to explore new places and get out of new rides. We have been to Afan a couple of times and done The Wall and Skyline recently.

What we are looking for is some more rides that are a bit closer to us so we don't have to travel to Wales to get a great ride!

We are all XC'ers and although I prefer the downhill single track more than the hills, we all still love to ride around and test us XC and climbing the hills.

We have been to Aston Hill, and were not that impressed as it is not that big and is really catered for the downhillers more than the XC'ers
Is there any other places for us to ride not to far away from Berkshire?
Looking forward to hearing from you all. Thanks

mikee1979

The Chiltern Hills which is not too far from you guys would be the best bet for fairly local riding. Loads of bridleways and rideable tracks through forest areas. The area it covers is just North of Reading and stretches over the M40 towards Princes Risborough so fair amount of ground. It's my main riding haunt and I'm still not bored of the area even after 6 years. If you use Tracklogs mapping software I could give you a ton of routes.

LjStronge

Dude - that's awesome - I have just moved into Speen!

The routes you have would be great - that would be really helpful.

I see all the foot paths driving to and from home but have no idea to start round here. I've only been here about 2 weeks, I see all the signs for the Chiltern Cycleway, but I think that's just road am I right?

Speen if you don't know where it is is just up the road from Saunderton in the hills

Any help would be appreciated

j_l

Mate, you have a world of riding, (I'm jealous) the whole of the Chilterns is ridable with 100's of miles of bridle ways and foot paths that have some great riding for XC day trips.

From the Reading area head up towards, Henley, Nettlebed, Turville, Lane End, High Wycombe, and beyond, all that area of the Chilterns is so good.

if you link em up right to can do a 25mile round trip with only a very small % of road riding

It's where I spent 12 odd years MTBing, never got tired of it not once.

Get a good OS map and get riding.



you lucky bugger :evil:

mikee1979

Aslo just checking out where Speen is which looks to be near Newbury you have even loads more areas to ride even closer to you although not quite as good riding as the Chilterns it would be closer to your doorstep and still very good. If you look around Hungerford and Malborough area which should be within 20 mins of you there are so many bridleways. Best bet is to get some OS maps of the areas. The Chilterns is split over three the best one is defintely the West Chilterns. It's closer and has lots more better riding.

Also get maps (these are the orange OS maps):

170: Abingdon Didcot, this has good routes arouind the Ridgeway
171: Chiltern Hills West
157: Malborough and Savernake Forest
158: Newbury and Hungerford.

If you use a GPS I have loads of routes but they are in Tracklogs format. I maybe able to convert these somehow to another format but let me know which fomrat you would need.

Trust me we may not have epic mountain round our way but we have enough hills and so many routes you wont get bored.

mikee1979

One more thing if you check out websites like 'bikehike' and 'Where's the Path' they give you OS maps at 1:50 000 alongside Satelitte images. This gives you a good overview of all the routes plus you can plot routes on these and save them to GPS. Well worth checking out.

Chris`I

Bikehike is great, well worth checking out before you fork out on hard copy OS maps. If you are really looking to go at it, there are a few Garmin nav units (Dekota and Oregon) with upto £150 off the full OS map of GB if you hunt around. I ride around Basingstoke and surrounding area and have a Oregon (admittedly its a bit big, Dekota would have been better!) and its brill Theres a few routes on the Hampshire County Concil website too, Berskhire might do something too - http://www3.hants.gov.uk/cycling/cyclin ... aflets.htm

LjStronge

Guys, thanks so much for your replys

Mikee - just to confirm mate, I'm not at Speen, Newbury - I am in Speen, Princes Risbrough.

There are 2 Speens - just go to google maps and typr Speen,Princes Risbrough - it's bang in the middle of the Chilterns.

I think by the sounds of it I'll be checking out my local area (the Chilterns) for a while, especially condifering I live bang in the middle of it. Sorry to make you jealous JL!!

Thanks again - Awesome forum by the way - you guys are really helpful!

anjs

Tunnel hill with the trolls. You can even link it up and ride down from Swinley

j_l

LjStronge wrote:

Guys, thanks so much for your replys

Mikee - just to confirm mate, I'm not at Speen, Newbury - I am in Speen, Princes Risbrough.

There are 2 Speens - just go to google maps and typr Speen,Princes Risbrough - it's bang in the middle of the Chilterns.

I think by the sounds of it I'll be checking out my local area (the Chilterns) for a while, especially condifering I live bang in the middle of it. Sorry to make you jealous JL!!

Thanks again - Awesome forum by the way - you guys are really helpful!

Moreinfo for you.

There used to be a really fun down hill from combe Hill Monument in to Wendover might be worth a try.

Also was some good trails on and around white leaf cross too that were pretty good.

Heading over to High Wycombe there are several good downs from Christmas Common down towards the ridgeway.

And one great down from Ibstone, go accross the green opposite the Fox pub and there is a bridal way down into the valley with really fun single track that is fast and tricky, once on the road below ride into Turville and stop at the bull and butcher for a pint of Ale

Getting home sick now thinking of all this

mikee1979

Ahh there are two Speens. Well to be honest you seem to be in the better one, you'll probably want the North Chilterns OS map as well then. Watlington / Christmas Common is a great starting point for the Chilterns as they have free parking and very central.

torgey33

Hi LjStronge
I live in Tylers Green, about 10 minutes from speen, and ride a local loop in and around Penn, mostly bridleways, singletrack, plenty of climbs (where in wycombe are there no climbs) but only short burst downhills, covers about 4 square miles but can total upto 15 miles by cross covering the trails, ideal for 2 hour blasts.

Your more than welcome to tag along.

torgey33

J L is right about the up/down at Combehill Monument Wendover, is good at 257 Meters. Loads of trails between you and there.

MattJWL

+1 on the 'use the local bridleway network' sentiment.
I used to live in chesham, and cycled up round Risborough amongst other places.

The bridleways are generally technical enough to keep you awake, and I've managed 90 + kms with minimal tarmac. If you don't have any other mapping software, download Google earth & I'll send you KMLs of some good routes.

Oh - and you will get fit riding out there.

LjStronge

Again thank you so much

I'll check all this stuff out online and maps and the like and get back to you gents for more info.

cheers again!

Torgey, thanks for the offer, Might take you up on that mate, I might need to increase my fitness first though!