wilderness weekends

a slice of adventure in your busy life

mountain biking in the surrey hills, intermediate (grade 2)

A guided ride for people who are looking to explore the Surrey Hills, take on some technical challenges and have a blast.

Price: £55 pp

Duration: One day

Dates:

Trips being added as we speak...

Start Point:

Gomshall Train station, Gomshall, England, GU5 9NU

The Plan

Some of the best mountain biking in the south east of England is to be found in the Surrey Hills.

This entire area South of Gomshall is an absolute rabbit warren of trails on which we can spend the day developing your confidence, improving your skills and generally having a ball.

This is a Wilderness Weekends grade 2 ride. This means it's got technicality (i.e. medium level balancey or tricky stuff ), all features can be rolled over and do not require you to jump . In simple terms it's a day's ride that will require a decent level of fitness and be comfortable on a bike with experience of bike trails.

On a grade 2 you will encounter berms, roots, small drops and reasonably technical uphill. There will be no unavoidable features and the "chicken line" is always an acceptable option. Mud can be an issue on certain trails but if you have a reasonable set of tyres (wider than 2" with knobbles) you should find it great fun rather than sinking to the axle.
Bikes will need to be robust and well maintained.
We also have grade 1 and 3 rides on our website if you think you'd like something more relaxed or technical.

Komoot have a really useful trail terrain scale which I will use to describe the difficulty of the trails we use. Have a look at this link before reading on.

Using the above scale the trails you will take during a grade 1 ride are:

S0 Trails
Trails void of or with few difficulties. Mostly wider paths comprising compacted gravel or solid earth. Roots, rocks and uneven ground is not to be expected.and

S1 Trails
Trails comprising mostly compacted gravel or solid earth with some flat roots and smaller rocks. The surface may become loose at times and periods of stand-up riding may be required to overcome obstacles.

S2 Trails
Trails that comprise a looser surface, as well as many roots and rocks. Narrow curves and steeper gradients are to be expected. Readyness to brake at all times is required, as is the ability to shift your center of gravity on the bike.

S3 Trails
Trails that include blocked singletracks, hairpin turns and tricky traverses. Loose scree and slippery terrain comprise the majority of the trail. Good command of the bike, excellent balance, unbroken concentration and controlled braking skills required.

If you are familiar with bike park grading this route would be mostly blue with some low level red features.

Just for a bit of bike clarity... types of bike that won't stand a chance so don't bring em:

Fixies
Sit up and beg
Road bikes
Unicycles

Types of bike that will struggle badly:

Gravel bikes
Hybrids, with slim tyres.

The Cycling

Approximately 17-23km of off-road cycling cycling during the day.

What's included

First aid kit
General bike tool kit
Group shelter and emergency equipment
Qualified mountain bike guide/coach
Navigation equipment

What to bring and what to wear, essential kit for grade 2 (non negotiable stuff)

Helmet
Tyres wider than 2" with nobbles (no slicks or road tyres)
Bike in good working condition
Suspension forks (contact us at info@wildernessweekends.com if you want to chat about this)
Disk brakes (as above contact us if you want to chat about this info@wildernessweekends.com
Water bottle
Small rucksack for the day
Protein and carb rich snacks (stuff you can nibble on quickly)
Packed lunch (something sizeable and decent to attack halfway through)
A rain jacket
A light warm jacket
Bike tube that fits your bike