Best biking in Surrey?

[Jonathan Legard]

I'm looking to get my wife into mountain biking. She enjoys commuting on her Specialized Hardrock, but I'd like to show her a pleasant, not too difficult cross country route that involves some easy downhilling. Anybody know of just such a route around the Surrey hills?

Many thanks.

[nessiemac]

Without a doubt Swinley Forest near Bracknell has everything you want if you want some nice easy biking all the way up to great short DH stuff and amazing singletrack.

[Jonathan Legard]

Sounds like just the ticket and not too far from me either. I'll look into it.

[mk1fan]

Swinley Forest, Leith Hill, Box Hill, Holmbury, Richmond Park. Loads of areas that offer an introduction to off road riding up to hard technical stuff.

[Dave_ITR]

Not sure where in Surrey you are but there are some great routes from the Reigate Hill view-point, just off the M25 junction 8.

[neenaw]

Swinley is the winner for me, some fantastic trails there and none of them were damaged by the recent fires.

There's some good trails listed on these sites too:

http://www.surreyhillsmtber.co.uk/

http://www.diaryofamountainbiker.co.uk/diary_rich....

http://www.surreyhills.org/Surrey-Hills-Map.aspx

http://maps.cloudmade.com/?lat=51.371405&lng=-...

[cheshire_cat]

Dorking is great. Holmbury hill is a good place to start for trails (some are quite advanced though).

[Gargamel]

Alice Holt Forest, Devils Punchbowl, Gibbet Hill or Blackdown are also good (if a little further out)

[shalmaneser]

Peaslake is close and excellent fun!

[MadDad]

Another vote for Swinley Forest (but I ride there a lot so am a little biased)! I have taken a lot of first time MTB-ers around Swinley and they have thoroughly enjoyed themselves on the easier singletracks - equally I have taken a couple of experienced riders around the more challenging areas and they have also really enjoyed themselves!

Word of warning though, the best stuff is not obvious so you need to do a bit of homework before you go, or ride with someone who knows the place! Openstreetmap.org has a lot of the singletrack detailed on it and is a good place to start planning your trip. If you don't fancy the singletrack there are miles and miles of firetrack, a great little cafe for a cuppa and slice of cake at the end of a hard mornings hack!

http://www.openstreetmap.org/

[MadDad]

You don't know what you are missing!!

[Fer]

nessiemac said:

Without a doubt Swinley Forest near Bracknell has everything you want if you want some nice easy biking all the way up to great short DH stuff and amazing singletrack.

Some flaming good tracks up at the Look out.

[nessiemac]

swerni said:

Sounds like we should have an outing at Swinley.

I'd be up for it

Sounds like a plan. I'd be up for that sometime!

[Kermit power]

Is there more to Swinley Forest than I'd realised?

The couple of times I've been there, it seemed tiny in comparison to Leith Hill/Holmbury Hill/Pitch Hill. What riding I found was great, but there didn't seem to be an enormous amount.