point me to Surrey Hill (from London)

armymankin

hey folks,

need a route plan to Surrey Hill from London. I live in the Docklands, but I think I have to go to Victoria for any train heading south., right? (yes train, poor me dont have a car)
which station shall I get out? and how to get to the bike route from the train station?

SH is a big place... and I aint sure where to explore. i am after some xc type of single tracks for my ht, so, nothing too extreme please.

Thanks
Kin

fyldesmurf

http://www.imbikemag.com/issue1/?page=39

this might help with a route choice etc, don't know about trains though i'm afraid

Anonymous

Either get a train to Dorking and head up Leith Hill.

Or get a train to Gomshall and head up Holmbury Hill.

gregsd

You might want to check out this thread over in the Rides section.

cooldad

gregsd wrote:

You might want to check out this thread over in the Rides section.

We ride there most weekends, and some odd weekdays. Always welcome to join in.

karlst

can someone please tell me if the routes around surry hills (as mentioned in the IMbikemag link) are all signed out? i mean is there signs or markers to follow?

just new to all this and would fancy getting lost up there

benpinnick

There's about 2 signs over the whole area. You need to plan ahead or have a guide.

benpinnick

2 specifically cycle trail signs that is! Lots of well marked bridleways etc.

thel33ter

Watch out though, this is what happened to the last Charge Duster that went on a group ride with the London Calling group...


You can do most of SH on a hardtail.

cooldad

No signage really. Best to go with someone who knows the area a few times

Anonymous

There is a bike shop in Westcott that sells their own maps.

http://www.nirvanacycles.com/

One shows some of the trails on Holmsbury Hill, the other a rout they call The Killer Loop, which also has the start of Summers Lightning marked.

Though personally even with a map I struggled.

diy

Do you have a sat nav - I have various garmin routes from Leatherhead (two stops before Dorking and more frequent trains) which will take you to leith hill tower, taking in summer lightening, ranmoor etc. I also have routes to Holmbury taking in telegraph etc.

If I can find somewhere to upload them I will happily.

I ride with a small group every sunday starting out at about 11AM. for between 25-30 miles.

Anonymous

RichardSwt wrote:

There is a bike shop in Westcott that sells their own maps.

The shop in Peaslake also sells maps for £3. Just simple laminated maps and they'll mark out routes on it if you like.

Best thing is to ride with people who know the area though. As said, London Calling thread. Loads of us about now who ride it, and we're a friendly (mostly leisurely weekend warrior) bunch .

Though occasional "rad" and "knarl" is thrown in that can destroy bikes, but there are always chicken runs.

diy wrote:

If I can find somewhere to upload them I will happily.

Noting the sensitivity of some trails. Hurtwood areas (Pitch/Holmbury) are generally okay as they have a fairly unique open policy on bikers (as in there are few restrictions, with the idea that bikers & walkers share the land and can roam almost anyway, so long as everyone acts responsibly). Leith, Redlands and other areas are sensitive with disputes with land owners.

diy

yeah but I knows my rights, I does

but seriously the Leith Hill tower National trust shop would not have a sustainable business without cyclists. We probably represent 50% of their custom and eat 80% of their cake.

Anonymous

It's just more about publishing the trails that's all. Stuff that's contentious can cause hassle when posted on open forums.

The rights to ride it is another matter and I'm all for far more rights and getting rid of the snobby anti-bike attitude (especially when you see what damage a bunch of ramblers can do!). A lot comes from assumptions and moaning locals & walkers rather than the land owners. Generally the landowners are just concerned about getting sued if someone has a smash on their land. If we only had the more flexible Scottish laws, or a law that said we can ride on open land at our own risk and waive all rights to sue the land owner, then they'd probably just say "go ahead".

But anyway

As for the NT, they like to take your money, but they're happy to screw people over too.

surreyhillsmtber

Leith Hill is National Trust so, officially, you should stick to bridleways, BOATs and official MTB trails. For this reason, you will not find much online about trail locations on Leith.

As deadkenny says, if you're on the Hurtwood (i.e. Holmbury & Pitch Hills), there is a right to roam, so you can ride any trails, including footpaths, unless signposted otherwise, subject to the code of conduct.

I've put a few routes I've recorded on GPSies if you have some kind of GPS device, otherwise, your best bet is a map from Pedal & Spoke in Peaslake or Nirvana Cycles in Westcott or to join an organised ride (of which there are plenty).

karlst

Thanks for all the comments guys.

I dont have a GPS, well i do on my phone but that costs!!

me and a mate are newbies at this and are looking at either doing SH or the Evans Crawley ride on the 23rd Oct.

We just not sure what we are gonna get for our £11 on the evans ride???

We have done 3 rides now around the Blean woods in canterbury, its been good, but we want more!!

I Live in Folkestone and my mate lives in Rainham, so not to bad to get to SH/Crawley but its just deciding what to do....... :roll:

Anonymous

I get the impression that Evans rides probably just potter around fire roads and bridleways in the main. Looking at photos at least they don't seem to touch much singletrack, if any.

benpinnick

For anyone going from Gomshall station, heres a circa 20 mile loop that takes in Barry Knows Best/Better, Yoghurt Pots, Summer lightning, Leith Tower, Holmbury hill, and some other great sections. Ride time around 3 hours with a tea and cake stop at Leith Tower.

The route is anticlockwise.

http://www.gpsies.com/map.do?fileId=ucyzfzcxoczwytsq

cooldad

benpinnick wrote:

For anyone going from Gomshall station, heres a circa 20 mile loop that takes in Barry Knows Best/Better, Yoghurt Pots, Summer lightning, Leith Tower, Holmbury hill, and some other great sections. Ride time around 3 hours with a tea and cake stop at Leith Tower.

The route is anticlockwise.

http://www.gpsies.com/map.do?fileId=ucyzfzcxoczwytsq

Problem with those is you can't actually see the tracks. no good to someone who doesn't know the area.

benpinnick

Switch the map view to osm cycle.

benpinnick

The IMB ride is here:

http://www.gpsies.com/map.do?fileId=ahwsgpcsfyasjzuy

Again, remember to switch to OSM Cycle as the map view. the toggle is in the top right corner of the map.

diy

benpinnick wrote:

For anyone going from Gomshall station, heres a circa 20 mile loop that takes in Barry Knows Best/Better, Yoghurt Pots, Summer lightning, Leith Tower, Holmbury hill, and some other great sections. Ride time around 3 hours with a tea and cake stop at Leith Tower.

The route is anticlockwise.

http://www.gpsies.com/map.do?fileId=ucyzfzcxoczwytsq

I'm gonna give that one a go, I can pick it up at the bottom of ranmoor, but is that first section the Surrey Cycle route 22?

njee20

When you get to the bottom of BKB there's an off road climb immediately to your right, much nicer than slogging up the road. That also appears to miss out Telegraph road, which is worth doing.

benpinnick

Yes, briefly. You come out of the train station and head left under the bridge and then right before picking up the 22. As Njee says it misses out the Telegraph section, but bear in mind its 2500ft of climbing, so you might wanna limit the amount of riding overall. Also, I think the road is better than offroad from BKB for 2 reasons. 1. You can stop at peaslake for cake if you want. 2. Its not as steep. BKB is suprisingly hard on the arms at full tilt. A stint of slow mindless grind up hill isnt the worst thing after that dh.

benpinnick

For anyone who cares, Ive decided to call this route (starting at Gomshall RW) 'Paddy's Loop'.

njee20

BKB is suprisingly hard on the arms at full tilt. A stint of slow mindless grind up hill isnt the worst thing after that dh.

May I recommend you buy some MTFU at Peaslake next time :-)

This has got trails on Pitch as well as some on Winterfold, and the others above, mix and match it, there's a lot of riding up there!

Anonymous

How do you miss Telegraph when climbing from BKB? :?

Or is this another Telegraph? I'm thinking of the one that goes from the end of Yoghurt Pots towards the Youth Hostel.

Now the way to miss that Telegraph properly is to go right after Yoghurt Pots and seek out the steep black DH . Or cross Telegraph and go down what I think someone called Diarrhea (parallel to Telegraph and loops up to rejoin it or continues down to the car park in Holmbury St Mary). Otherwise it's always worth doing Telegraph after Yoghurt Pots.

njee20

Where's the steep DH after YP? Turning right brings you to the 5 ways bench, then where?

Agree that Telegraph is worth doing, although there's a fallen tree/felling at the bottom of the trail it leads into, down to the car park right by the road, rather annoyingly.

diy

benpinnick wrote:

but bear in mind its 2500ft of climbing, so you might wanna limit the amount of riding overall. .

So only for poofs then but seriously if it can get me to yogurt pots, then I can pick telegraph up from the bottom and then pick it back up to LH.

Anonymous

njee20 wrote:

Where's the steep DH after YP? Turning right brings you to the 5 ways bench, then where?

Right at the bench up the slope and it's up there somewhere. Won't say exactly where as I suspect it's not somewhere you should really be going down. It's a footpath of sorts, steep, comes out on the road below.

njee20 wrote:

Agree that Telegraph is worth doing, although there's a fallen tree/felling at the bottom of the trail it leads into, down to the car park right by the road, rather annoyingly.

There's a left branch there onto the "man's route" (as Popstar calls it ) which comes out at the Youth Hostel. Need some speed to clear the rooty drops and watch out for people walking up it!