Center Parcs Longleat
Mas0n
Posts: 23
Random one here and didnt know which forum to put it in to be honest but has any one taken their road bike to Centre Parcs in Longleat?
Im thinking of taking mine so i could go out on it while the baby is having a sleep and the mrs is getting ready to go out - probably only an hour or so. My biggest concern is the quality on the tracks etc in the park, would they be suitable for my road bike? Has any one taken their road bike there before?
Im thinking of taking mine so i could go out on it while the baby is having a sleep and the mrs is getting ready to go out - probably only an hour or so. My biggest concern is the quality on the tracks etc in the park, would they be suitable for my road bike? Has any one taken their road bike there before?
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The central track is tarmac, but you wont take long to get round this and the trails need wider tyres if I remember correctly (long time since I have been though).
If you escape from the compound there are some nice rides, but avoid the trunk roads (A350 and particularly the A36) - they are horrible. The back roads to Sherewater (near Crockerton) is nice, but the surface near Sherewater is very rough. A little bit further away Gare Hill is one of my favorites, and the Deverills road towards Mere or Maiden Bradley good too - not so twisty you worry about meeting a boy racer or tractor, but fairly quiet most of the time. Partly depends whether you want to do full burn workouts or a quiet pootle. Some of the roads I mention are minor so may fall into the latter camp.0 -
In terms of the park. I often run around it, and am concerned that it's not a long enough run.My blog: http://www.roubaixcycling.cc (kit reviews and other musings)
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Facebook? No. Just say no.0 -
I would not take a road bike there personally.
Can you borrow/hire a cyclocross bike? It would be a good opportunity to give that a try.
If not, go for a run or go to the bar ;-)0 -
Quite a few of our club rides pass through the park. The hill from the entrance down to the main house is fun (especially trying to get round the corner at 50+ mph!
Some pretty routes in the area and some testing hills not far away.
Take your road bike and ignore the poster above!
You can search other people's routes / rides on Strava and adapt them to fit in with your permitted time out.
Other options are to join up with a Westbury Wheelers ride or a Gillingham Wheelers ride one day....0 -
Quite a few of our club rides pass through the park. The hill from the entrance down to the main house is fun (especially trying to get round the corner at 50+ mph!
Some pretty routes in the area and some testing hills not far away.
Take your road bike and ignore the poster above!
Think you're talking about Longleat House (just outside the Centre Parks) Dorset Boy? Agree just outside is a better option than in the holiday park itself.0 -
I am, but they're virtually next door to each other.
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^ Hey, its a Center Parcs in the UK. Not Moon Base Alpha!
If he wants to leave the compound in the 'hour or so' and go find a road route, then obviously he can do that :roll:
Read the bloody post, he was asking about roads within the Park, er I mean Parc, and on that basis I would not bother taking a road bike (unless I also took the rollers to put it on perhaps).
Yeah, meet up with a club. Sure his family would love that
How about he just drops them off at Center Parcs, goes to Spain for some really good training, and then picks them up when he gets back?
Then again, he would miss the nudey spa. Is clothing still 'optional' after 7pm? :twisted:0 -
For an hour or so, I wouldnt bother personally. You wont get any decent training done in that time - even if you go offsite after you have faffed about weaving your way to the gate a good chunk of your hour will already be gone. And theft of decent bikes is rife so if its a nice road bike then dont bother. Take a beater trail bike and ride around the site and down the boardwalk etc if you just want to spin your legs a bit.0
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I just found a bike in the bush and thrashed that around a bit. Haha. Perfect for running though.0
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No - its not conducive to getting training in - why not just hire bikes for the whole family for the holiday - you can tow a buggy and get a bit of exercise in.
You'd look a bit silly smashing it round the villas weaving in and out of the novice riders on their first bike ride for years.0 -
For that length of time then your only real option (imo) would be hill reps in Longleat park, which is right next door. You could get there and go up/down it 3/4 times and get back in an hour I'd say. The climb itself was in the 100 climbs book (or the 2nd one - I forget) and is a lovely surface with very little traffic, so can be a decent workout.0
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We went to Sherwood Pines and believe it or not, there are Strava segments around the park.
The trails are suitable for taking the kids around on a hire bike and not much else really, the quality of hire bike reflects that.Advocate of disc brakes.0 -
I've never contemplated taking my Felt, a few times I've thought about taking my Tricross and one year (literally just after buying them) we both took our Saracen MTBs.
A few things hinder road cycling on the campus...
The low official speed limit (10mph?)
All the decent hills have signposts stating no cycling (albeit I've managed to ascend/descend the odd one without grief from staff)
Families and especially kids roam about without a care in the world, except on the first and last day, because outside this period cars do not have access (besides the odd staff vehicle)
Decent, non-hire bikes stand out like a sore thumb
The on-site hire bikes do the job (there are even the odd power assist ones now), it makes getting around the big site much quicker, even if they do sting you a little price-wise.================
2020 Voodoo Marasa
2017 Cube Attain GTC Pro Disc 2016
2016 Voodoo Wazoo0 -
Did not even think about speed limits, that in itself rules out taking a road bike.
Looking like a knob (in road kit), and an ar5e (speeding around a car free environment where people have brought their children and dogs) at the same time would not be great IMO.
Hope you let us know what you did in the end OP.
Training option = Road bike + Rollers
Best option = CX bike on the trails
Next best option = MTB bike on the trails
Family option = Hire bikes + child seat or Burley (you can go down to as young as six months with correct head restraint).
Bad option = Leave the park/leave your family.
Although I would advise against riding a road bike around the park, I would highly recommend that you take your own bike if you have or can hire/borrow a decent CX/MTB.0 -
shouldnt be on a road bike, unless your creeping about within the parc itself...theres a reason cars are banned apart from on arrivals.
people want to relax and have kids able to go about safely on the roads without having to worry about someone on a road bike zooming around. (even if u are going out at stupid o'clock there will always be other early risers)
just get on one of the cp bikes and use that, the weight of it and hills will aid u more if its just training keeping fitness up till u get home.0 -
2 posts b4 mine basically say what i meant. i hadnt read them till after posting...
btw would just like to add, cp has gone downhill in last decade big time.
woburn should be interesting to see if they've upped their game0 -
Update please.
Have you been yet? What did you do in the end?0 -
I was there last weekend and it was alright for training. Took my commuter bike and nipped out to Longleat park before the rest of the family had woken up for a few hill reps. The park itself was quiet at that time of morning so I used chalet to exit to warm up, then the hill reps, with a gentle spin back to the chalet for breakfast.
No major distance done or anything, but kept things ticking over easily enough.0 -
They used to have an extremely bad record for bikes being stolen from the site, has this improved?0
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[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19734585#p19734585]Arthur Scrimshaw[/url] wrote:They used to have an extremely bad record for bikes being stolen from the site, has this improved?
They always have been very secretive about this, so its difficult to find out what the situation is now.
Thetford was really bad a few years ago: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1245675/Crime-boom-Centre-Parcs-car-free-holiday-parks-hit-epidemic-bicycle-thefts.html so bad that they even recruited their own PCSO to help combat it: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/7750057/Center-Parcs-holiday-resort-recruits-own-police-officer-after-bicycle-thefts.html
Still happenning according to this, but Thetford still seems to be specifically targeted for some reason: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=1402654
We have been to Sherwood Pines a couple of times and took mountain bikes to go next door on the trails - kept them in the chalet and took D-Locks to activities in my backpack - family laughed at my levels of security but none got stolen so I dont mind... Not sure I would risk it in Norfolk though!0 -
[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19734585#p19734585]Arthur Scrimshaw[/url] wrote:They used to have an extremely bad record for bikes being stolen from the site, has this improved?
Mine was in the cabin all trip. I used it to get to and from the site, and then to do a bit of training in the mornings. We walked everywhere onsite so it was never locked up outside.0 -
We have been to Sherwood Pines a couple of times and took mountain bikes to go next door on the trails - kept them in the chalet and took D-Locks to activities in my backpack - family laughed at my levels of security but none got stolen so I dont mind... Not sure I would risk it in Norfolk though!
technically Elveden is in Suffolk, as is much of Thetford forest, its only Thetford that itself is in Norfolk so you should be ok
Ive got some friends who go every year and theyve not said theyve encountered any problems lately though totally aware of its past reputation and so take the precautions, it has to be said alot of people treated it like a walled environment, never locked their bikes up and expected them to just be there when they came back for them, or just left their chalets wide open.
why Elveden particularly had a problem I dont know, i know I was surprised how little security there used to be went I went, though why anyone would want to steal one of their BSOs I do not know, there were a group of 5 of us and we had to go through about 20 bikes before we got to 5 that were deemed "reasonably safe" to ride, the brakes were next to useless, the tyres were worn to canvas and they were heavy as hell, which is maybe the temptation to take your own0 -
[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19734585#p19734585]Arthur Scrimshaw[/url] wrote:They used to have an extremely bad record for bikes being stolen from the site, has this improved?
It has been a few years since I lost took my own bike, but that has been more down to not having a car these days, so I/we hire instead. I think the reputation for personal bike thefts at Longleat (at least) was much worse pre-2005, but non-hire bikes stand out like a sore thumb at the bike parks around campus, I would not take my best bike and we always took our Abus Granite locks with us.
In a twist of irony, I used a Longleat cable lock to pop down to the local shops back in the summer, a teenage scumbag cut through the cable and nicked the bike I was on (gf's Saracen Zena 2).================
2020 Voodoo Marasa
2017 Cube Attain GTC Pro Disc 2016
2016 Voodoo Wazoo0
