Reigate / Surrey Hills

theuncharmed

I saw a 'Surrey Hills' guide in a recent edition of MBR and on my day off yesterday I thought rather than my local haunt of Swinley Forest, I'd give the sunny South of London a visit.

The ride was quite possibly one of the best I've been on in quite a while. I couldn't believe the downhill trails! Fast, furious and to my surprise, flowing too.

The hills were a pain, but equally they made things interesting and kept me working hard.

My only issue was that the network of bridleways and off-route trails made it almost impossible to navigate along without a map. I found myself taking trails only to find 20 minutes later coming out 20 metres further down from where I started. For example, the ride should have taken 2-3, I took 4 and rode relatively fast the whole time.

I also found to my horror, that after a breathtaking downhill, I would then have to [try] and climb the hill out of Reigate and back to the car park near the M25 junction. I must have stopped 6 times!?

So after a ride that should have taken 2 hours, I was still on the bike after 4. Truly shattered, so much so even 1:1 didn't keep me going.

But I had a whale of a time and if anyone has seen the route in MBR and was thinking of having a go, I would strongly suggest you do.

Pros:
Lots of fask tracks
Barely anyone around mid-week
Lots of fast and furious downhills
Sweet sweet singletrack

Cons:
Lots of hills
Lots of mud in places that's been chewed up by mud
Difficult to navigate
Too easy to take the wrong trail turning and end up at the wrong end of a hill

Bike used:
Anthem X3 custom spec

diy

I don't have a copy of the guide, so am struggling to picture where you went. It sound like you did Box Hill?

theuncharmed

Yeah Box Hill was apart of it. Juniper Hill leading into Box Hill was an eye opener!

I went around Walton-on-Hill, Epsom Race Course and a few other places further west. Probably covered 30 miles of track at least on a route of about 20 miles.

Will upload a pic if you're interested.

WisePranker

Which issue of MBR was the guide in?

I might have to look for a back issue!

diy

I know box hill fairly well, there are a few good down hills nothing technically challenging, although if you don't mind straying on to foot paths you can ride down steps etc.

Its more of a training ride for me, I tend to go up and down a couple of different ways (e.g. moss side, happy valley etc) plus the track next to the zig zag is a good training climb to try to sprint up.

Its good for night riding for me as its just down the road from where I live, so I can nip out for 1 1/2 hours.

TBH if anyone is travelling to get there, you will have more fun over at holmbury or leith hill. Ranmoore and box are quite hard to link up to make a decent circuit, so you tend to do a run, link a track and do a run.

theuncharmed

Not sure of the issue, but it was only a few issues back. Will take a look tonight and let you know.

I'd agree, the downhills are essentially straight runs with a few curves, but they are steep and you do get some speed up

Not sure where Moss Side or Happy Valley are in relation to Box Hill or the rest of the route I took. I heard about the Zig Zag, or saw it on the map, how long is it?

I heard South of the M25 was where the better riding was too. That may be my next stop.

daniellesheridan

Sounds like you had a great time. I wish I knew exactly which trials you were blasting down!

As DIY said the main focus of the riding in The Surrey Hills is around the honeypots of Leith Hill, Holmbury Hill and Pitch Hill, but there's plenty of great trails in The North Downs too.

People often forget that there's some sweet singletrack around Box Hill, Ranmore Common, Mickleham Downs, Norbury Park and extending East towards Reigate and West towards Newlands corner and beyond!

Yes there is an issue with hooking them all up in to a flowing ride, but my North Downs local loop from Mickleham takes in enough singletrack to keep me happy for 2.5 hours without getting more than a couple of miles from my starting point.

bartimaeus

Was this the "North Downs" article in What Mountain Bike 115 - November? That has Easy/Moderate/Hard routes starting from Reigate. My sister-in-law lives in Reigate, so I'm keeping this article handy for next time up am up there with my bike.

theuncharmed

@Bartimaeus That's the one. Sorry thought it was MBR. I basically did the hard route with extra bits tacked on.

I know I did most of the same ride because I recognise the places in the photos

Definitely worth a visit!

@daniellesheridan Would be interested to learn more about your 2.5 hour route. I'm itching to go back already and the Mickleham Downs and Box Hill areas were probably one of the best parts.

diy

daniellesheridan wrote:

Yes there is an issue with hooking them all up in to a flowing ride, but my North Downs local loop from Mickleham takes in enough singletrack to keep me happy for 2.5 hours without getting more than a couple of miles from my starting point.

This is the reason I like 'em too. You can start out at the bikers carpark at rykers (next door if its a nite ride) and you can zig up down over across as much as you like in a nice loop and never be that far from the start, so if you've got a 2 hour pass, you know you can get back in time.

That and the fact that its 1000 cal per hour... well my route is.

Leith and holmbury are better, but its an hour off-road for me to get there pretty much.

daniellesheridan

@theuncharmed

You could join our evening riding group Love to Ride (formerly Cycleworks) if you'd like to get to know the area better. We also have a Love to Ride Facebook group.

We don't tend to ride at the weekend as that's when we're getting paid to ride with Surrey Hills Mountain Bike Guides, but we do arrange one away day every month to a trail centre or backcountry area.

Information on the rides is distributed via the Love to Ride web site, a Google Calendar or events being posted on the Facebook group.

We only ride the North Downs trails once a month (4th Tuesday) and you've just missed on last Tuesday. We're next in The North Downs on Tuesday the 28th for a turkey burner.

Cheers!

theuncharmed

@daniellesheridan :shock: Good grief that's how MTB / adventure websites and clubs should be organised! - very impressed.

Typical, I was there on Tuesday. Had I known I would have asked to have joined. I'm on holiday for December, but I'm certainly very interested in joining a ride or two in the new year.

Thanks for all the info, been a great help!

daniellesheridan

@theuncharmed

Thanks for the compliments. Much appreciated.

Maybe you could join us for the turkey burner ride if you're not on your hols.

The next free North Downs ride with Love to Ride is on the 25th of January. Lot's of other Tuesday night rides in between though.

The ride programme runs as follows:

· First Tuesday of the month - Holmbury Hill from The Volunteer with after ride social
· Second Tuesday of the month - Leith Hill from The Wotton Hatch
· Third Tuesday of the month - Pitch Hill and Winterfold Woods from Walking Bottom Car Park, Peaslake
· Fourth Tuesday of the month - The North Downs from Bockett's Farm upper car park
· Fifth Tuesday of the month - Swinley Forest from The Look Out car park

We also ride every Thursday night in British Summer Time.

Hope you can join us for a ride soon.

Cheers!

diy

What you call China Pig, I call Moss side, I haven't found chainbreaker tho.

I can't remember where I heard the name moss side, but most of my riding buddies call it moss side.

daniellesheridan

@diy

We only started calling it China Pig when it appeared in a MBR trial guide - I think it was MBR anyway.

I think I like Moss side better, but with all those balls of moss on the trail maybe "The Trouble With Tribbles" would be better (embarrassing Star Trek reference).

Found out on Tuesday that some people call KGB in Norbury Park "Scooby Do's Last Porno Flick"! :O

Put it this way, there's a lot of names and a lot of trails out there.

Cheers!

Richard2118

diy wrote:

What you call China Pig, I call Moss side, I haven't found chainbreaker tho.

I can't remember where I heard the name moss side, but most of my riding buddies call it moss side.

Think its one of the trails out there that has a name from 90's rock/grunge bands tunes.I am told by my mates who were riding ( back in the day) that quite a few of them get their names from these times and th tunes that were about , china pig is a captain beefheart song ( those crazy moutain bike pioneers of the 90's !)

I do know a good loop up that way though, out from Dorking ,up from the garden centre( towards brockham) coming out at smith and western, China pig,( on night rides up towards view point and down steps) along road, to next carpark, up Petes pass, then eventually come down and out by the Frastcati.
Across the road into Norbury park up to the druids grove switchbacks down the trail back onto main road.
Up through vinyard , do Grevious angel then back round and do Abba Zabba, then either Wescott/Dorking if thats it.

Or continue across Abinger roughs, out to pitch do a bit , back over holmbury, back up leith via high ashes then back to Dorking for a real cool epic that can be five hours or all day dependant on how much you take in on each hill.

diy

I have a couple of routes in that area.

From the car park at Rykas (box hill) I go up towards the zig zag, ascend on the flint track next to the start of the zig zag. From the top I go over towards the caravan site for the start of moss side, down MS, back up at the bottom on the grass bank, another nice climb, down happy valley, back up the grass bank, down MS etc. Its a good training ride.

For a bit more distance, I go, Bockets farm, to Ranmore, down ranmore by the scout camp (nice bit of DH), under the railway bridge then either the cycle way to holmbury (turn right) or off to leith (turn left and over the road A25?) towards the house with the water mill. Then ascend up towards Summer Lightening, though in the summer I don't ride up SL.