So I was thinking today that I'd like to have a ride around the New Forest, I like trees and ponies so thought it would be quite nice. I appreciate not to many peoples taste, no "gnar" or "shredding" involved, but I think it would work for me. Anyway, I assumed access was pretty much go anywhere there's a forest track etc, which I understand you can on foot, but apparently not on a bike. You have to use the "bike approved" trails only, or forest roads that are approved, Anybody know if that's right, and if so, what's the logic, especially on the forest roads?
Ride where you like on the giant gravel paths. Ignore the Verderers, they're ****s.
The Rangers are really nice and will happily let you go anywhere as long as you don't go tramping across the heaths.
Don't touch the horses. They look friendly but are just as big pricks as the Verderers.
I can give you a load of gpx routes if you want.
stay in the car for another 45 mins and you've got the Isle of Purbeck
Yeah, New Forest is weird. If you remove most of the people, it'd be fine but the Verderers and their strange archaic rules can get in the ****ing sea.
And avoid the place any time there's a big Sportive in the area. The general anti-cycling attitude of the local yokels will invariably permeate through to you.
The ponies are vicious spiteful bastards who hate campers
I love New forest and visit a mate down there...roads and mud are both great...we ride all over the place...you do get the odd local threatening you with the old...£10k on the spot fine...imean wtf..lol
But in all I find it a very friendly place
Yep - New Forest was in my local area and always thought it a bit mental and 4 years of living in Scotland has done nothing but increase that!
Thinking about it now with fresh eyes, it's terrible mountain biking, but great gravel potential.
And avoid the place any time there’s a big Sportive in the area. The general anti-cycling attitude of the local yokels will invariably permeate through to you.
I went on a Garmin ride once - was ****ing embarrassing (the thoughtless, entitled behaviour of the cyclists)
Forest is boggy unless (, but even if) you know what you're doing and almost all is very much not challenging or gnarrly but xc-OK and, yeh, fairly graveltastic
Verderers, commoners and quite a few randoms do have a big dislike of bikers but as said above, the sea's not far; they can get in it
When we have been camping in the New Forest we cycled to Limmington via roads and bridleways and got the ferry to the Isle of Wight.
Lots of nice riding with lots of nettles.
I have lived in New Forest for 20+ years and love it. It is great for road and gravel riding but no need for an MTB. I have ridden wherever I want over those years and never had a single issue, even rode straight past a ranger sat in his Land Rover on some singeltrack I should not be riding on and he didn't say word.
The secret is riding early in the morning before most people other than a few dog walkers are out. Nobody to get in the way and nobody to see where you are riding. I guess is everyone ignored the 'rules' then it may be a problem but they don't seem to as in theory the Verderers could also stop use of the gravel roads too.
And about those Verderers, just look at them and make your opinion
Fascinating. Like a group of historic re-enactors or LARPers. https://www.verderers.org.uk/verderers-court/
They look like a diverse section of society! 😂
I grew up in Bournemouth, now live somewhere near Salisbury. So have ridden NF lots. I agree with others, keep going down the road to the Purbecks - absolutley brilliant and gorgeous!
Having said that, I still ride the forest on the gravel bike every couple of months, and sometimes join The Woods Cyclery rides - fantastic shop and great guys.
NF is great for gravel bikes. And I don't give two forks whether the local red trouser wearing nimbys approve or not!
The Woods Cyclery rides – fantastic shop and great guys.
My neighbours son owns it and yes he has definitely got the "what a bike shop should be" spot on. Their rides are useful to people who don't know their way around (some of those on this thread) as saying there is no nice scenery or singletrack to ride means you simply missed it all.
Just avoid the locals as you are deep into very entitled Brexit/Tory country
You could join New Force Mountain Bike Club who cycle around the New Forest and Purbeck
They know many of the good trails around the New Forest, and you’ll definitely spend time with fun people whilst admiring the trees and ponies… probably donkeys, pigs and maybe deer too
It makes more sense if you realise it's feudal and you're a peasant.
Woods Cyclery routes ar spot on. Personal Fave.
Do all those verderers have rosy cheeks or is it just the reflection from all the red trousers?
There is a lot of good riding north of the A31 too. It's generally quieter and less popular so you get less people and hassle up that way.
You can easily cross Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire in a single ride with more varied riding if you went to the north part of the forest.
I lived and mountain biked throughout the NF in the 80/90's and loved exploring every single pony path and trail.
But I suspect I am single-handidly responsible for "the ban" as I inadvertently got caught up in a fox hunt through the forest one day and the riders all started shouting at me to stand still to let the hound pack pass - I told them to **** off.
It's all my fault.
There is a lot of good riding north of the A31 too
Sssshhhhhh - we don't want the place full of softy flatlander southerners 😉
stay in the car for another 45 mins and you’ve got the Isle of Purbeck
Staying in Corfe for a week at Easter - heard there was some decent riding, any tips/pointers/routes etc?
I told them to **** off.
Good on ya!
@daveyboywonder about 70% of my rides are Purbecks based https://www.strava.com/athletes/jcallis
For gravel, Salisbury plain isn't too far away. Use the website to check when it's not firing. You won't encounter angry Tory landmongers, or any one much at all!
I don't ride it all the time as it's not very exciting, but, throught the spring/summer months I'll go a couple times a month.
I find it quite theraputic riding for a bit of headspace, miles of empty chalk roads and only the odd (odd indeed!) 4x4 enthusiast to wave at.
If OP hasn't been to the NF before then you can ignore a lot of the comments about locals and Verderers as there's enough 'official' forestry bike trails to keep you very happy on a gravel bike and you'll have no problems.
Can't go wrong with this - https://bikepacking.com/routes/new-forest-gravel-taster-uk/
From the comments above, seems the issues are where you're off the main trails, but can't comment on that.
From the comments above, seems the issues are where you’re off the main trails, but can’t comment on that.
There are not really any issues other that you are technically not supposed to be riding on them so have to be extra courteous if you do come across someone walking.
tips/pointers/routes...
I'd imagine the Purbeck rides have been described ad infinitum online. It was my back yard 20 years ago. From Corfe I'd join the main ridge from the quiet back road to Swanage, there's a track that heads up and joins the main Purbeck trail near the radio mast installation. Head towards the sea, turn left through the woods, down the the road, few hundred yards to the golf course. Left onto the golf course trail, finish at Frank's Tank. Then navigate through the woods and come out on ferry road. Ride to Studland, turn left as you enter the village to pick up the trail past old Harry's rocks. Aim for the obelisk. Short fast downhill, short road section in Swanage direction, turn right onto bridleway to go back up onto 9 barrow down and the Purbeck ridge, follow back to Corfe. All the trails are bridleway so easy to spot on aap.
I'd imagine the riding nav apps folks use will be full of this info
The best stuff in the Purbecks is West and South of Corfe.
We got told off by a horse rider for riding our tandem where we shouldn't and that we were causing damage to the ground...........We were on the same track as the horse. I could never work out why it was OK to ride a horse but not a bike off of the approved routes. I suspect the Verderers only ride horses.
Jimfrandiscos advice is best. There’s lots of gravel, bring a gravel bike. Go to woods, it’s an ace bike shop. Their 9am Sunday rides are good. There are nice ways to connect up to the coast and Keyhaven as well. There’s also some nice gravel riding from moors valley just over the border and some good longer routes out across holt heath where there are loads of old farm tracks that provide good gravel riding. If you want more old school mtb purbeck is best.
the verderers have changed a lot since that pic, in personnel and mindset, I’m currently actively working with the local cycling working group and a group of the verderers to widen the network to pretty much all of the gravel tracks and to connect a lot of towns and villages. The Verderers’s are mostly on board but the odd one will moan. We ought to be in a position to get approval late spring. Also working on funding to upgrade some connections and replace all the signage/ wayfinding.
the new forest is very ecologically rich and hosts a lot of important or rare species and habitats. There are parts of the forest that are very sensitive but by generally sticking to the gravel tracks you’re not going to cause any problems.
That’s good to hear Burko. There’s so much gravel track in the forest and it always seemed strange that most of these were off limits to bikes, will look forward to seeing how much more access is given- the current network is patchy to say the least.
+1 on gravel. Had a great weekend there with chums, Woods have lots of good routes (and great shop/cafe), and esp towards the north you can end up on chunks where every 10k you're pulling into another village with a pub before hitting lanes/trails again. It's barely techy which means you can get that nice smooth swift gravel riding that's advertised on all the packaging but bears little resemblance to the average UK Bridleway.
You can also pull together routes of a variety of lengths - I've done 30/50/80k routes with bits of everything on.
Purbeck also ace, but having ridden it on a (skinny/fast) gravel bike, I'm taking the hardtail next time, it's rocky enough to make a difference. The routes Brother Cycles have run for BITW out there are entertaining and beautiful.
gee. I used to pop around the Purbecks on a hardtail but defo worth going full-sus
