Peterborough/Cambridge area MTB'ers

tankduck

mmmmm nice, so not the choice of woods for the riding I wanna do (chortle chortle). I'll have to give bourne a look see sometime soon, sounds quite promising.

jamieayres

There are some half decent-ish loops round ferry meadows/elton/wansford/sulehay dont forget if you want something nearer.

Only been bourne woods the once and seemed quite nice.....but then as a relatively new MTB'er (about 18 months) without a car license my experience is pretty limited.

tankduck

thats the thing, i'm even newer, haven't rode mtb since before uni (3 years ago) so was only riding racing bikes, just trying to get into mtb now cos I used to love trails riding and seem to have more free time now uni is over.
I'll just have to tag along on a load of rides to find out what is good trailwise in the area

Bike Bloke

Southey Woods is seriously wierd, with guys sitting in cars outside the entrance for "no apparent reason". Also at this time of year it's pretty overgrown, and forestry work has ruined most of the "good" trails. Bourne Wood's is a million times better, should have a little group ride there sometime soon.

Sgt Marmite

Southey Woods is OK to bike through as part of a longer ride - you can now get into / out of the far end since the white road was designated as a bridleway. There seems to be one fire road through from the car park right through the woods with a few smaller trails off either side. I don't think you would rate it as an 'mtb destination' though.

If you stick to the fire road you eventually come to a iron gate at a crossrods - turn right here and it leads you out near Ufford. If you go straight on at the crossroads the fire road just stops in a clearing and you have to bike back up to the crossroads - unless there are other trails that I haven't spotted?

You can link up Southey Woods with the bridleway / byway over the road that leads to Upton - from here you can follow the bridleway back to the Ailsworth road and then another bridleway parallel to the airstrip and through the golf course back to Ferry Meadows so it's OK from that perspective. You can make this into a loop by biking through Ufford / Bainton / Ashton and then following the Torpel Way back to Sainsburys Roundabout at Bretton - it's about 20 miles in total I think.

Cheers
Andy

acac

is anyone out tomorrow frieday 1st daytime or saturday 2nd in or around peterborough as i be about?

Bike Bloke

Southey Woods has some nice hidden trails but the current forestry work has meant they've been ruined. As for "oddness" i've had the same guy drive past me 5 times, follow me when i left, and then when i made a deliberate u turn, proceeded to also turn around and follow me. Wierd, wierd people!!!

tankduck

that would freak me out so bad, I think the u turn bit would definetely force me to find a slightly less 'car-friendly' route!!

p.s. bloody weather

Bike Bloke

I was in my car (bike in the bike) so made a swift get away. Weather forecast is good for tomorrow, taking my rather less bike inclined friends around rutland water, should be a laugh.

mikebert4

now, I know it's easy and mostly on tarmac, but I do really like having a doddle round Rutland.

Call me odd, given my usual affinity for jumping, north-shore, log-rides, berms and general 'why the crap don't I have armour on'-ness, but itt's true

mbrfan

Sounds to me Mike that your "inner roadie" is trying to get out. Talking of roads, Sue Ryder is after people to do a charity ride around peterborough in September, with a choice of routes from 18 to 83 miles.
I'm tempted by the 83 mile one, I don't suppose anyone would like to join me?

[urlhttp://www.suerydercare.org/events.php/155/ride_for_ryder_peterborough.

Good luck on your skills session tues - I shall be otherwise engaged that day, but would be up for a ride next Sunday. Will think of you all whilst hurtling down mountains tomorrow, wind in my hair, sun on my face, glorious scenery, good company, a few beers on the barbie, etc.

Steve[/url]

mbrfan

Oops, made a bit of a mess of that link. Oh well, you know where to look.

Troopy

Yeh I'm looking forward to tomorrow and getting some real riding in 8) :P .
I could be up for the Sue Rider thing, put some skinnies on, should good!

tankduck

I'm off to Bourne woods tonight to have a little look see, I'll probably be getting there for about 4:30, if anyone else is thinking of going let us know. If not, anyone got any recommendations for routes or anything over there, or even just where to park, lol!

Kris

jamieayres

That Sue Ryder thing looks interesting. Dunno if i could drag my Alpine rond 83 miles of road riding tho!

Oh and Tankduck, following the map below and you cannot go wrong. The turning for the carpark (A) is clearly marked and is on your right.

tankduck

nice one jamie, probably the most useful reply I could have hoped for!!!

Looking forward to seeing what its like, now just have to count the hours till end of work!!!

jamieayres

...and you want to hope the weather holds out. If it was anything like last night i would take a dinghy instead of your bike!

tankduck

i almost got caught out in the rain last night, was pretty bad. The weather for today basically says am showers, then mostly sunny, so i'll just have to keep my fingers crossed!!!!

Ironically I do have a dinghy pumped up next to my bike, so at least I will have an option

tankduck

am going riding tomorrow, is chicksands worth the extra miles over bourne woods? Only got a little go last night so didn't get a full impression

Kris

Bike Bloke

There are some good little trails in bourne that you can link up nicely, it's well worth a proper look around, it's by no means amazing, but it's a good local place. Never been to chicksands, but i'd imagine it's definitely worth a trip!

tankduck

I didn't really have time to look at any of the maps and see what bourne was all about to be fair, I got there and found that the car park shut at 7, so was a little pushed for time since I was running late. I basically went onto the main path and turned right, followed that as it beared left and followed one of the trails on the right for quite a while. Are there marked trails at all, like in terms of difficulty or something? Or is it just a case of having little explore?

Kris

Willrideforcake

There are no marked trails a la Thetford, it's a case of getting out there, having an explore and seeing what you can find. I spent a few days trolling around finding various little sections and figuring out how to link them...

Bike Bloke

There's nothing specific, and there are no real maps. We should organise a group ride sometime soon, i know quite a few routes, and a recent ride around with "willrideforcake" showed me some nice "downhill"'s, nothing challenging, but nice and fast!

Just head off away from the carpark about as far as you can get, the "top" side of the wood's are definitely the best and there's a loop that will take you all the way back to the car park with a nice ending downhill...

Oh and there's a nice little bit "wrfc" calls the "magic mushroom" which im sure if you stumble across you'll discover why!

tankduck

well if anyone else fancies heading over for a ride at bourne, pm me or something before 9 or 10 and we'll sort something. But yeah a group ride would be awesome, can learn everyone's little personal favourites of the woods.

Kris

mbrfan

Hi all,

Just back from our little trip to Wales and I would have to concur with Troopy that it makes Thetford look like a car park. Take "the beast", stretch it out for a few miles, put a 30 degree slope on it,and you might get an idea of what one of the easier routes would be like. The downsides are the climbs , and the odd possibility that you might fall off and hurt yourself (which I did). There were very rocky technical bits that I didn't enjoy, but they were short lived, and easily made up for with some fast flowing sections, scary cliff-edges and great scenery. We only did 3 routes, but thanks Chris, Carl and Scott for the company.

Perhaps we should make this the inaugural PoshTrails Annual Welsh Migration :?:

I'd definitely recommend you take some armour, though (although it didn't stop me getting hurt, I'm sure it would have been worse without). Still, chicks dig scars.....

Steve

Troopy

Steve,
Hope you are not too bruised & battered this morning and glad you enjoyed it and that your tumble has not put you off going back. Hopefully the trails next time will be a little dryer. I enjoyed riding with you all, nice to have some company over there.
I'll go along with making this an annual weekend trip, either back to Wales or even the Scottish boarders if we can arrange it for a bank holiday weekend.

Oh well back to the flat land riding, but at least it is still getting out on the bike.

mbrfan

Hi Troopy,

Took today off as could hardly sit up in bed this morning - hurts like hell when I cough. Swelling has gone down now, and paracetamol is kicking in, so I'm moving. Boy did I sleep well last night. I'm sure I'll be fine for a ride on Sunday.
Scotland sounds good too, I'd be up for that. I've put an entry in my calendar for 7-10th Aug 2009.

S

apoc_reg

Glad you 4 had a good few rides, i'll be up for it next year certainly

... i dont think we should wait a whole year for the next weekender though!

You guys take any good pics?

Bike Bloke

Apoc, how'd you rate those Nobby Nic tyres in terms of speed/durability/grip :S I'm trying to find a way of speeding up my heavy 07 Mongoose Teocali Elite without ruining performance too much, it's currently got kenda nevegals which are just sooo slow on anything vaguely flat & tarmac is horrendous :S

apoc_reg

I've got on really well with them so far. Havent got a lot to compare them against but grip and speed seem great.. possibly not the fastest for tarmac but i do a lot of tarmac miles cycling to work and they are doable

As for durability they have been good for me but I know Carlos has had lots of punchers in his. In 2 1/2 months i've had one... and i literally road over a thorn bush and had to remove it from my wheel!