Cycling - 2014

Strava stats for 2014, broke the 1000 mile barrier this year, and almost 80,000 ft of climbing.
Not bad considering the only free time seems to be 1 day per weekend.

2015 gives me more to aim at.

Year-to-Date    
Distance     1,085.7 mi
Time     99h 54m
Elev Gain     72,123 ft
Rides     75

covered many of the Byways and Bridleways in Kent, UK and found some cracking trails and rides. Some of which I'll be doing again next year.

Another route out from Bredgar

Saturday December 13th

Trip out from Bredgar Kent, via Doddington.

We parked at the church in Bredgar, and set off north towards the M2, after crossing the motorway and follow the road to the left and up to Dove's Croft, the first bridleway is up on the right, it's essentially a farm track to Ruins Barn Road, once there turn left, follow the road, past some houses on the right is Cromer Road, Take this and follow it to the junction, here on the right is the bridleway entrance, this leads up to Cromer's wood, there's a dodgy part through a farm yard, where the bridleway has been blocked, but follow the edge of the orchard up to the wood (it's a grassy slog but worth it). At the edge of the wood the KCC have sign posted this as a restricted byway (the purple sign!).
Follow this through the wood, it's a good trail, slippery in the wet, but wide and clear. This leads out onto Bottom Pond Road, turn right here, then take the first left, and carry on down to the M2. Cross the road here and follow this road left then right, on to Slough Road.
At the left hand turn, the bridlewa is on the right, this is a muddy, grassy track, that follows the line of the M2. the track then turns right over the motorway and down onto a farm track.
Turning left here, onto Down Court Road, follow this and turn right onto Chequers Lane and down into Doddington, turn right onto the street, and then left onto the Old Lenham Road,
At the first fork in the road take the left hand lane, then follow this through Borden and Hazel woods, then take the left hand lane, and the entrance to the Oakenpole woods bridleway is on the right. This is a great trail, wide farm track, through the woods, then up a short climb to open coppiced land, and finally out of the woods.
A quick right and right again leads out towards Limekiln Woods, on the left. This is a swooping downhill along a muddy bridleway, at the bottom of the hill is a gate, and this leads across a pasture (normally filled with sheep!) and back into the woods.
Back on the Old Lenham Road, we took the small Byway that links this to the Faversham road, (this is underused and overgrown, hard going), then a naughty dash through the footpath in Wichling wood to bring us out near the entrance to the Coalpit Lane byway, (this is better taken the opposite direction), its a slog of a climb up a stony/flint ridden trail.
Then we followed the tarmac through Frinsted and back to Bredgar. 

New Bike

The new ride

On 10 July I took delivery of an Empire MX6 Evo, this seems (according to many of the reviews and forums) a bit of a Marmite design (you either love or hate it). I thought it looked good (the original MX6 was good too), and after seeing it at the bike show, I put my order in.

The move from 3x9 to 2x10 is a bit of a chore (having spent 7 years on an Orange P7 pro, hardtail to full susser is a suprise too), I'm still trying to sort out the right ratio for climbing!

After 200+ miles and some very varied terrain, the bike has been great, quick, agile and good fun. 

A user error on the Stans no Tubes conversion gave me a headache until I read the help and troubleshooting guide on the Stans website. Now I'm running tubeless too, and that has proved to be a brilliant decision.

All in all, apart from an uncomfortable saddle and the stick Kent clay getting stuck all over the frame, its a joy.

Empire Cycles - MX6 EVO 

Stans No Tubes

Loop out from Ightham, more byways and bridleways

Loop out from Ightham, more byways and bridleways

10:31 on Friday, 4 July 2014    18 miles, 2100 ft climbing

From the car part at Ightham Village hall (free parking), we take the route to Oldbury

Hill, (see previous posts for this), and up through the woods then out and over the

A25 and around Raspit hill, taking the bridleway along the hill top through Raspit woods

and then redhill wood, these are great sections if you keep left or right of the actual

trail and take the detours.

It's a good flowing set of trails, with a great downhill at the end onto Grove Road.

The aim of this trip was to get out to see some of the trails I'd not visited before, so

I took the road down to Godden Green and found the entrance to the bridleway past the

pub, its on the left, and at the end of the drive to the hospital/clinic.

Its a good farm track, leading out along the woods and out to the road.

Here I took a left to Bitchet Common and then out to Fawke Common, the restricted byway

runs from the common out to Carter's Hill, and is a good run, nice and long and varied,

all the way down to the A225.

A quick dash along the B245 to Bank Lane to head back up towards Underriver, to take in

the bridleway at One Tree Hill, this is a nice trail through the woods out to the road,

on the right just out of the exit of the trail is the next on a long track and trail over

the fields towards the national trust site at Ightham Mote, here you ride alongside the

house and get a good view of the gardens too, up to the hill.

On the left is the next trail, a gravel track, nice and steep with plenty of spinning

wheels, out to the road back at Raspit Hill, this bridleway is very steep, and nothing

but a push was possible.

Then we're back through the woods and out to the A25 and back to the car park.

Longfield, Pilgrims way loop

Longfield, Pilgrims way loop

11:25 on Friday, 2 May 2014

17miles - approx 1200 ft climbing.

This loop begins from the car park at the St Mary the virgin Church on the
Longfield to Fawkham road, (Free parking).
Turning left out of the car park you head towards Fawkham on the very nasty
lane, be careful of cars passing as it's a bit narrow, and not quite enough
room for passing traffic.

Follow the road towards Fawkham and take the left on Micheals Lane up the hill
towards New Ash Green, these are small lanes, single track, and quiet.

I followed the Ash Lane along side the village and out towards Stansted, there is
a byway on the left this is a good trail, (I've covered this in a previous
blog) singletrack, through the hedge borders in the field and at the split I took the 
bridleway out to Hatham Green Lane, the route is grass, and a slow ride.

Then its a left onto the lane and a right at the junction onto Parsons Lane, and
another right onto Plaxdale Green Road. This is a long slog along the lane towards the
A20. At the junction turn left on the great named, Labour-In-Vain Road and follow it
to the end, it slips into a bridleway. Broken tarmac, large flints and fallen trees
were the order of the day when I rode it. The trail ends at the A20, which you need
to ride down to the bridge on the right.

Cross the bridge and head left downhill towards Wrotham, take the second right onto
the Pilgrims Way, this section is gravel and solid, a good ride leading onto the road.
I took the second right hander onto Cotmans Ash Lane, and should've paid attention to
the contour lines, it's a bit of a sod of a climb up the hillside, at the top on the
left hand bend you get a brief spin along a byway, (surface is a bit poor, but an
interesting ride).

You end on Tinker Pot Lane, (another great name), follow this to the right, and onto
School lane heading back towards the A20 and onto Fawkham, and then back to the start.

Loop out from Longfield

Loop out from Longfield 11:30 on Saturday, 26 April 2014

19 Miles, approx 1400ft climbing.

This loop begins from the car park at the St Mary the virgin Church on the
Longfield to Fawkham road, (Free parking).

Turning left out of the car park you head towards Fawkham on the very nasty
lane, be careful of cars passing as it's a bit narrow, and not quite enough
room for passing traffic.

Approx a mile along the lane take the left on Scudders Hill, this is a cheeky
hill that creeps up the side of the valley and can catch you out early on in
the ride. Stick with it.

Over the apex and just down the other side on the left is the entrance to the
first byway, this is a muddy but well maintained and follows the line of the
ridge southwards. Leading out onto School Lane, turn right here and head downhill
towards Horton Kirby, turning left on Lombard Street towards the A20.

A quick dash down the A20 on the right, and then a left onto Eynsford Road, and
ride into the village, keep riding along this road, until you see Priory Lane
on the left, take this and it becomes a byway, at the time of writing it was
closed to vehicle traffic, but it is a good open ride over the hill to
Beesfield Lane.

Beesfield Lane is back to a single track road, and a pleasant ride, follow this
lane and it becomes Maplescombe Lane, on the right at the junction to Botsom Lane
is the start of the bridleway, this heads up the hill and into the woods, the first
section is full of stones and overgrown, at the gate halfway up it turns sharp left
and up a small slope, be ready for it! Once on this it's back to a single footpath
type trail up into the High Castle woods and out onto Cherry Tree Grove. The track
through the woods is ok, but very muddy in places with diversions into the trees at
the side. Stick with it, it ends, out of the woods over a low (horse) gate, and onto
a tarmac road.

We're then back onto tarmac and following East Hill Road, past the farm on the left
is the entrance to the next bridleway, well signposted, it starts as a farm track and
reduces down to a single trail (well used by horses).
This kinks to the right and starts downhill, be carefull here, the downhill section at
the top is a set of steps (best attacked on the left hand side), once you've takled
these it's aquick run down the hill and through the barrier at the bottom onto
Knatts Valley Road.

Opposite the exit take Knatts Lane, and then the left had entrance to the next
bridleway, this is a strange one, a steep concrete path through overgrown hawthorn,
(I ended up pushing the bike) leads out to a good trail through the woods to over
Kingsingfield Road and into Stacklands wood, finally meeting School Lane at
"the Grove".

Turn right here and follow School Lane. The entrance to the next restricted byway
is on the left and is a bit odd, starts out at a trail along a fence and between
gardens, and then loses it's way a bit over gates and a field, not really a good
route.

It ends when it meets St Clere Hill Road, and we turn left here, and head south.
Knock Mill lane runs across the top of the downs, with great views and we follow
this and take the junction to Exedown Road, this drops down the hill towards the
road to Wrotham, as the lane heads left there is a sharp right hand turn, the entrance
to the bridleway is here and runs back up the hill, its steep and full of large stones.
This makes for a bit of a slog up the hill, but takes you over a bridge across the M20,
then over the field to the A20. (it would be better coming the other way!).

To wrap up the loop, I headed back along the A20 to the Fawkham road and then straight
back to the start.

A good ride out with some surprises, and again more great trails.

Loop out from Challock, and around Kings Wood.

Another great spring day, sunshine, scattered cloud, and showers, brilliant.

So off to Challock in Kent, I parked in the Post Office car park and headed out right along the A252, towards the roundabout. Taking the left hand exit and about 400 yards on the left is the entrance to the first bridleway, muddy in sections and with a dip in the middle it was a good start.

At the end of the trail, following the road to the right and down to the next bridleway on the right, this is a great ride up through a field and through two gates and into a wooded section, paths are covered in brambles to its a bit of a trial to get through (in shorts my legs suffered a bit!). Once out of the woods and through the gate, it becomes a farm track and out onto the road. This is the Faversham road, turn right on this road and head towards Shottenden, before you get to the main road there is a byway on the right, just opposite Oast Lane, (which is the second left).

This trail was "tripletrack" in places like the London Underground, with standard 4x4 ruts and a motorcycle one in the middle. It was firm and flinty and then descended into a muddy mess at the bottom of the hill, keep in the centre of the trail to avoid the huge ruts. The route then climbs up into the woods, this is much better, and a great ride.
At the end it becomes a tarmac road out onto the main Faversham road.

I skipped across here onto Pested Lane and followed it all the way down to the A252, at the junction I'm sure there is an entrance into Kings Wood here, but I bailed and took the slog along the main road to the Dane Street Hill Byway. This is a repeat section of the route from last week, but I needed to do it again to get to the byway that runs the length of Kings Wood south side.

This trail is great, a good steep winding climb through trees with a wooded section at the top, derailleur issues fooked the climb for me so I settled for a walking section to sort it out.

At the junction I took the right hand turn and headed along the outside of the woods, this is a great trail and one I'l be back to do when the bike is better! Long stoney sections and muddy potholes with diversions!. It reminded me of the Boxley top trail but longer and more varied, I can see why the woods are a regular haunt of the SketchyMTB crowd.

At the end we're back on tarmac and the long slow drag up White Hill and back to Challock.

Day Off, great ride, great trails, say no more......

Chilham Kent.

From the free car park, its out on a sunny Friday, to ride some more of the trails in Kent. From here its out to main road (A28) and turn right, about a mile along the road on the left is then entrance to the first bridleway. This is a long incline up through orchards, and a good start.
Then at the road its left towards Shottenden and turn left into the farm (sign posted a dead end), but this leads onto the first byway of the ride, there has been some growth on the sides of the track over the winter forcing motorcycles to dig a rather unpleasant rut in the middle of the trail.
But this does wind its way down to the A28 and is a great descent (there are some handy detours to avoid larger puddles), I wish I rode this way more often as I'd know the right line to take on the trail, but no mishaps and no flint damage.
Once back out on the A28 turn left again and follow the road, on the right is the entrance to the second byway, and this is a great climb up through the woods, (Ridge Wood, and Felborough Wood), when you reach the top the downhill is most welcome, and it ends a the start of Mountain Street, which I follow down into Chilham village.
I followed the road signposted to the station, and took a sneaky foot path over the river Stour, to the restricted byway on the other side of the valley.
This has been treated well by the KCC, hardpacked gravel path, all the way along the Stour valley, alongside the railway. Its marked as a footpath on the map, but is now a cycle/horse route and is good.
At the end I turn right towards Eggerton and up and over the hill on the bridleway, which in one part seems to go through someones front garden. At the end its another left turn and onto Sole Street and follow this up the hill, left corner, right corner, small climb and another Byway on the left. This trail is closed to traffic Oct to Apr so it's in good condition, a short climb up through Barton Wood to Penny Pot Lane.
The next bridleway is on the left a short muddy section through the woods, a gate into a paddock, and another on the exit, then a singletrack between two fields and onto a junction of footpaths, at this point carry straight on but keep to the left of the woods, the next gate is down the trail. Now its through Sprats wood, back towards Chilham, out onto a short section of Mystole Lane and we join the restricted byway back to the Stour (and the footpath).

A great ride, sunshine, drying trails, and a wonderful part of the county.

Saturday, 8th March 2014, after 4 dry days, and 5 months of rain, it was great to get out in the sunshine. My second visit to loop out from Sheldwich Church, to cover some of the trails in the area. Today I set out and turned north from the church and took the bridleway on the right about 3/4 mile up the road, this is a nice grass trail and dryer than last time. At the end of the track I turned left and followed the road up to the next bridleway on the right heading towards Selling. This is a great "two-parter", a run down through the woods then across a valley bottom to the road, and a quick right hand turn to follow the trail on a slow grass hill, this was tedious today, riding along on tractor tyre tread marks, corrugating the trail and making it a rough ride. At the end of the track I turned left to head for Selling, the road to Oversland was blocked with a flood under the railway so i turned back and headed round the lanes to get to Scoggers Hill and the trail up the hill, poor signage and a confused look around the buildings at the top left me on a footpath, and a diversion to the bridleway, it was worth it, the singletrack trail down through Joan Beech Wood is great, still wet and mucky in parts, but it flows nicely and is a bit of a rollercoaster. Out at the end and over the railway (after another map/sign foobar), and down to Ensleigh, then back through the lanes to Sheldwich. All in all a good couple of hours, sunshine relatively dry trails, and another new area explored.

Strava Map

Clear skies, winter sunshine and the chance to get some of the older routes mapped out.
It was still very muddy in places but a good ride, with some great trails.

Starting from the car park at Ranscome Park, I rode over the M2 bridge to the North Downs way that runs parallel to the Euro rail line and the M2, it is a good tarmac and type 2 trail, leading to the Bridleway that climbs up through Monk Wood to Common road on the top of the Downs over Chatham. It is a great and well looked after trail.
From there I dropped down onto the byway on the right, that heads towards Burham, this is now deeply worn and water damaged, chalk, flint and some "interesting" downhill. It stretches out then at the bottom to meet the Rochester Road, and tarmac part of the pilgrims way in Burham. At the junction with Rochester Road, head straight over to meet the off road part of the pilgrims way, byway.
This is obviously a busy section well worn and very muddy, at the end turn left and head under bluebell hill to the trail behind the shell garage.
This is the continuing pilgrims way, slippery, muddy and covered in huge puddles, but a good ride if you can avoid dog walkers! Its a good roller coaster leading to a tarmac trail and out onto the Boxley hairpin. Straight over here towards the pilgrims way on the turning on the left.
At the junction near the Detling sign, is a byway on the left that climbs the Downs up to Hermitage lane, its a great climb long and slow and after the recent rain is worn and muddy, making it more of a challenge, (many of these routes I've done in the poor weather I will be back to do in the summer).

Just before the end of the lane is a bridleway on the left, this is a classic trail from Detling back to the Boxley Road. It's a smooth gravel trail but again the weather and horse traffic have not been kind, my rear cassette here filled with thick mud and slowed me down, but it is still a good ride.

Crossing the Boxley Road onto Harp Farm Road, follow this small country lane, to Bell Lane on the left, this starts as a normal road and is marked as a dead end, it's not.
There is another byway at the end that leads back down towards Blue Bell Hill, its again rain washed and chalky and flinty, with concentration needed to avoid the slippery parts.
At the bottom I turned left onto Warren Road and remember quite soon why I dislike this road, its a steep climb and made harder by the bike being covered in crap and grinding its way
up the hill, there are deceptive corners until you reach the top.

At this point you'll join Mill Lane, and cross the road onto Common Road, and pass the trail you came up earlier, keep on this road to the end (it becomes Hill Road), and there is the final Bridleway on the right at the last left hand corner, this is a great sweeping downhill passing Shoulder of Mutton Wood, great singletrack over roots, and out onto an open trail through the field to the gate near the Euro Rail track.

Here, you're on the downhill to meet the North Downs way that we covered on the way in, back along the road, over the M2 bridge again and its all over, nearly 20 miles and most of it off road.
#bike, #bridleway, #byway, #garmin, #gps, #kent, #map, #mountain #biking, #strava,

after all the rain of the past few weeks there is no hope of an easy route out at the moment. I went out to cover some old ground I hadn't recorded from last year, and add in two new bridleways into the ride.

From Camer park, out onto the road back towards Sole Street, the first bridleway is on the right about 500 yards along the road. It starts as a gravel farm track, nice and easy and then cuts sharp to the left onto a muddy rutted, and heavily used ride. But it is downhill and a good ride down to the road out by "The Cock" pub. Turning left I'm heading back to Sole Street and then over towards Longfield hill via Round St. and left onto Copt Hall Rd.

The next bridleway is on the right, and loops around to join the main Wrotham road, its a great trail, and will be excellent once we have a drought and hose pipe ban, to clear some of the water away.

Turning right and left through Longfield hill down to Nurstead Lane and onto Longfield road, turn right towards Meopham the next bridleway is on the down hill on the right hand side. This promises to be a great trail, but is one of the worst routes in North Kent, its thick clay mud, with loads of horses using it this is almost un-rideable in the wet. My bike was clogged to the point the wheels wouldn't turn!

Once I tried to clean some of the mud off, the rear derrailleur got choked and bent the rear hanger, a quick and dirty bend and pull to get it working was needed. My gears now limited and not wanting to do any more damage I turned back and headed to Camer.