Mountain Bike route Isle of Wight

[S10GTA]

Got the day off Monday. Was planning on getting the ferry from Lymington. Idea to spend most of the day on the island. Any suggestions on route?

[Herman Toothrot]

Go on Strava segment explore and zoom in on the Forrest next to Brighstone some great single track routes. If open hills are more your thing then Tennyson ridge trail is sign posted for mountain bikes. Other side of the island hills above Ventnor have loads of great fast trails.

Edit to add after two quick rides round Brighstone Forrest Tennyson trail passes along the edge of the Forrest and you can quickly divert to some of the single track which is great Ho Chi Min trail brilliant, Brighstone single track 1 & 2 both great, Quantum leap if you like gap jumps and drops.

I'd certainly if wanting an XC loop jump off Tennyson trail to do ho chi min.

Edited by Herman Toothrot on Sunday 18th September 15:51

[S10GTA]

My lack of knowledge and enthusiasm for going to the island have stopped me from going tomorrow. Heading to swinley instead before the weather deteriorates. Can I waste a day there?

[Herman Toothrot]

I'd choose Brighstone over Swinley, Swinley is good but almost all surfaced, better in winter I'm sure but you don't get mile long single track descents in Swinley.

[daddy cool]

S10GTA said:

My lack of knowledge and enthusiasm for going to the island have stopped me from going tomorrow. Heading to swinley instead before the weather deteriorates. Can I waste a day there?

You should have come yesterday (Sunday) with me and Yellowjack!
Waste a day at Swinley? Not really - if you are quick you can do Blue & Red in 1hr 20ish, though up to 2hrs at a moderate pace. You could spend another 1-2 hours off the marked trails (Crowthorne woods to the west, the Red trail actually goes past that area) but ideally you need some local knowledge to find them.
If you wanted to make it an epic ride you could drop out the bottom of the forest, ride the maultway a few miles and explore Deepcut (where a lot of local races are held) but again, local knowledge essential really. Also, its MOD land so if they are there popping caps you have to make yourself scarce.

[S10GTA]

Went to swinley. Did three laps of blue and a lap of red. That was enough.

Mountain biking is so hard

Edited by S10GTA on Monday 19th September 16:39

[daddy cool]

Ooof!
Still, hope you enjoyed the trails. People get pissy about Swinley being too easy, but while it is friendly for noobs, its also good fun for more experienced riders if you want to tear around at full pelt.
Hit me up if you are ever heading up again...

[S10GTA]

daddy cool said:

Ooof!
Still, hope you enjoyed the trails. People get pissy about Swinley being too easy, but while it is friendly for noobs, its also good fun for more experienced riders if you want to tear around at full pelt.
Hit me up if you are ever heading up again...

Who are these people? Its far from easy for me!

Quick question, it very much felt like the trails needed some maintenance, they were extremely bumpy/rutted. Is it getting towards the time when they are shut and repaired or is it always like that?

[daddy cool]

S10GTA said:

Who are these people? Its far from easy for me!

Quick question, it very much felt like the trails needed some maintenance, they were extremely bumpy/rutted. Is it getting towards the time when they are shut and repaired or is it always like that?

Well, we already have a thread moaning about the condition of the trails here: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

But no - there isn't a time when ALL the trails are repaired, but they are gradually maintained throughout the year by TrailTeamSwinley. But with ~13 miles of official trail and only one full-time guy, they rely on volunteer teams to help out (I'm probably overdue a day helping out)

I was up in Coed y Brenin last month doing their Red. Trust me, our Blue & Red felt like a snooker table in comparison...

Anyway, 3 laps of blue + one red is pretty good going.

(Edit: just sent you a follow request on strava, because I'm nosy like that. Feel free to reject me if you want, its the story of my life!)

Edited by daddy cool on Monday 19th September 18:02

[yellowjack]

S10GTA said:

daddy cool said:

Ooof!
Still, hope you enjoyed the trails. People get pissy about Swinley being too easy, but while it is friendly for noobs, its also good fun for more experienced riders if you want to tear around at full pelt.
Hit me up if you are ever heading up again...

Who are these people? Its far from easy for me...

daddy cool makes it look easy when you ride with him

But then I'd say he's consistently in the top one or two percent, time-wise, around most segments on the marked trails. If he's honest, he would say he spent a fair bit of time waiting for Slowpoke ( http://www.pokemon.com/uk/pokedex/slowpoke ) here to catch up on Sunday. My excuse (and I'm sticking to it!) was the sub-39 minute sprint from Farnborough without a warm-up to get there in time.

I wouldn't say Swinley was "easy", but it's quite benign for most of the trails. There are a few spots where over-exuberance can 'bite' you, but you can really make it as easy or hard as you want it to be. Me? I usually ride as hard as I dare, trying to leave enough in the tank to get home OK, and riding it like that I find it pretty testing.

As 'dc' already mentioned, you can take a different exit from Swinley and head off down the Maultway. There's an MOD vehicle proving ground that's got some insane gravel road climbs on it, then Deepcut, Porridge Pots, 'Area 51' and Tunnel Hill. A long canal-side blast would get you around the other side of Aldreshot onto Long Valley and Caesar's Camp, locations for more MTB racing. There's also Fleet Pond (really easy-going flat wide trail around a nature reserve, but usually heavy with walkers) and then onto Hawley and Minley which are both MOD training areas. Minley has a rather testing 8 mile race lap that's quite well-used at the moment, location for the TORQ 12:12 race at the end of August. A little further afield we've got Yateley Common, leading on to Bramshill and Eversley forests which are basically reclaimed sand/gravel quarries, with mostly flat, wide fire roads with some (optional) single track trails in the wooded sections. Big variations in terrain too. Everything from sandy fire roads to single track through broad-leaf woodland. And from 'pan-flat' to 'some cheeky climbs'.

Let us know if you're coming up this way again. As daddy cool has already offered his local knowledge, I'll throw my hat into the ring too. He's probably the man to lead out Swinley way. My knowledge might help around Minley and Aldershot. Having said that, I've been riding around here for twelve years or more, and I'm still finding new and interesting segments (and whole areas even) that I've missed out on until recently.