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posted by Pippa York on Twitter
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it is a good route to get to know, at least the first half up to the viewpoint at Holmbury hill.
From there, instead of turning left to Leith Hill you can carry on down BKB, up Pitch Hill down into Cranleigh and join the Downs link which takes you to the South Downs.
Up and over them (that is tough) and drop down into Brighton. A nice 100 km / 7 hours or so in the saddle
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NP: its a great route. Much more fun when it is warm and dry.
Here are some highlights from when a socially distanced group of 6 of us rode it in June 2020 (the full route GPS above) which includes a lot of the fun singletrack trails I cut out on Saturday cos I was doing everything I could to get home as soon as possible and in one piece
EDIT: (re-watches video) oh yeah, this was the time I was on my YT Capra too
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no idea re the train and frankly don't care. An empty train was there so i got on it :-)
A couple of GPS below with slightly different routes.
The full route I rode last summer and,
the shorter version I rode yesterday -
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went out on the MTB yesterday for an old fashioned XC/gravel type ride with me on my steel framed 26" MTB chasing my faster, fitter mate on his carbon gravel whip.
Epsom > Ashtead > Leatherhead > Ranmore Common > Holmbury hill > Leith hill > back up Ranmore Common.
I rode this last year a couple of times in the summer once even riding my YT Capra. I don't know if its cos its early in the season and with the recent rain the trails were sticky and heavy all the way to Ranmore, if I'm just lacking fitness or whether it was cos I had my Covid vaccine on Monday but I felt like a dog all day.
Normally a coffee and a bit of cake is all the fuel I need but I was chucking back the protein bars and gels all day on top of coffee and cake with no noticeable improvement.
I made my way back up Ranmore the second time and my legs were toast. The thought of dropping down the next valley then up and over Boxhill was enough for me and I headed back into Dorking for the train of shame with a measly 50km in my legs while my mate cracked on and covered 80km for a very good day out.
Despite the sun it was also really chilly too although I grabbed a few nice shots from the footage on my GoPro
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Onto the road and back in 2010 an office colleague and friend got knocked off his bike while commuting and broke both his wrists as well as the fork. His broken bike was left outside in his garden for about 12 months before I made him and offer and for £150 this bag of bits was mine.
A new carbon Tusk fork for about £60, a clean, lube, getting rid of the Dork Disc and general bit of TLC and the Specialized Allez Pro 2009 Gerolsteiner team colour bike was reborn in June 2011 (don't worry; this was a test configuration. I soon cut down the steerer tube)
This was my main commuter for about 5 years and according to Strava I've covered 25,000 km on this.
My eldest boy uses it as his road bike when we have been to France to follow Le Tour
It's still the most comfortable road bike I have ridden irrespective of whichever tyre/wheel combo I've had on there, and believe me over 25k I've had a few variations.
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Yet again, more bikes came and went and this one fell out of favour. It sat next to the SX trail in the back of the garage in a similar state of disassembly until I renovated this too during lockdown 2 2020.
Put it up for sale and this took 48 hours before it was out the door and the cash was in my hand
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After two alpine trips to Morzine/Les Gets in 2005 & 2006 I decided to try Les Arc in 2007. This coincided with my eldest boy turning 16 and he was keen to join me so I bought him a Big Hit 2nd hand.
This was the model that featured a 24" rear wheel but a previous owner (there were a few) had also switched in a 24" front wheel too.
It was both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time to watch my boy flying down those mountains #goodtimes
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Again after sitting unused, dismantled and generally shagged out in the garage for five years I renovated it during lockdown 2020 and sold it within 24 hours of sticking it up for sale
EDIT: You can see the different colour (green) chainstays/lower swingarm in this pic. After going large once too many times off one of the ladders at Chicksands I cracked the original. A mate who ran a bike shop managed to get me this beefed up replacement FOC.
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The next buy was in early 2006 and was a Spesh SX trail. After riding the above FSR in Morzine in 2005 I realised I needed a bit more travel.
Again I rode this everywhere from the Surrey Hills to multiple Morzine/Les Arc/Areches-Beaufort, Spain trips and only retired it when I bought my YT Capra in 2015.
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Deffo a fan of the Big S here. Let's see, my first proper MTB ignoring the pig-iron Halfords jobbie I bought was a 2001 FSR Enduro. I loved that bike and rode it everywhere from the local trails to Welsh trail centres to my first trip to Morzine/Les Gets/Porte du Soleil in 2005.
It's still in bits in the back of my garage. All the pivots are shot and need replacing.
This is it in its October 2002 configuration at Cwmcarn which is pretty much stock. Soon replaced the v-brakes with a set of Hope M4's (which I only retired from another bike late last year)
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thought so, read it on there earlier today