mountain biking in the surrey hills, novice
 

A guided ride for people looking to get into mountain biking with fun, rolling trails, all within a stone's throw of London.

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 blast.

This is a Wilderness Weekends grade 1 ride. This means it's not got any significant technicality (i.e. 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 reasonably comfortable on a bike but no experience of bike trails are necessary.

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.

We also have grade 2 and 3 rides on our website if you think you'd like something more 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.

If you are familiar with trail park grading these trails would rank as mostly green with some low end blue

The Cycling

Approximately 15-20km 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 1 (non negotiable stuff)
 

• Helmet
• Tyres wider than 2" with nobbles (no slicks or road tyres)
   
• Bke in fully working condition
   
• 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

Recommended kit for grade 1 (stuff that'll make your ride more comfortable)

• Disk brakes
   
• Suspension forks
   
• Thick tyres ideally 2.3" or above (for muddy sections)
   
• Beanie and gloves for stops
   
• A spare warm jacket

Any questions?