London to Brighton offroad

Myself and @psg1ben are riding off road from Richmond park to Brighton on Saturday morning if anyone wants to join us.

Not too pacey please 😏
I've still gotta choose a gear

Not too pacey please

That's rich coming from you.

We'll be following the BHF route:
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/1063917

And I'll be on a CX bike

probably too soon/unprepared but...
How off-road is the bit up to Horsham? I've done the Shoreham > Horsham (then to Farnham) on a single speed with 32c Marathons and that was great fun. What tyres will you be using?
Cheers... looks like great fun, but headwind-y for the first 20-odd miles!

Came back to edit this to add a third 'great fun' ffs... bleargh

You're cutting through North Downs. There's one semi technical, rooty decent there. I've done it on a gravel bike before on 38 g ones. Was more fun on a rigid 29er tho.

I should take my mud tyres off and put file treads on. But I'm not sure I can be bothered

Both are 33mm

@pit thanks!

@psg1ben I had to look up "file treads".

The Internet says: "File tread tires are great for dry grass courses and dry dirt. Many file tread tires feature a small shoulder with knobs which assist in cornering traction, have low rolling resistance and work great… until they don't"

I guess that means a 25c Durano Plus isn't gonna cut it!
I have to be in Brighton to do some meaningful fettling work on the family home. So may just A23 it. Or get the train. But, like I say, doing the Downs Link was great, not least because it zips past The Partridge in Partridge Green (Dark Star brewery's home town - they have off-sales of Creme Brulee and other Dark Star ales) and you can do The Wellington in Shoreham too. #beeeeer

Good luck and I would definitely be up for this soon-ish. Just need to rebuild the gaspipe clunker...

most of the route from guilford to brighton follows an old railway line so nice and flat unless you choose an intentional detour over the downs right near the coast, the surface is great and makes for great riding, whatever tyres !
it's a fun ride, have done it twice with ma3k and others from central london, enjoy
would love to have joined in but not around on saturday sadly

A23 it

Are you sure you want to do that to yourself?

I remember doing the L-B road ride once on my BMX after working on it.
It was the end of the day so had no wheels to follow and accidentally ended up on the A23 near Gatwick. For a little stretch before I rejoined the proper route there was actually a lovely bit of singletracky sorta trail just inside the guardrail that was actually beautiful. Well, on the left hand side anyway, it was a bit strange to see bogs and rabbits on my left and the A23 on my right.

I do it all the time I know it's shit : (
The problem is TIME. All that pissing about in country lanes and not pointing my bike south makes me anxious. I know I should stop and smell the roses.

Well... That was long.

And fun, I'd be up for this again with a more sensible tyre choice. I didn't get any really good pictures but here are a few.

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Nice!

(tyre choice: bigger? smaller? smoother? knobblier?)

I went down ‘the bad way’ on Sat. Got stranded in Sussex, Sunday, by a combination of replacement buses (Lewes, Uckfield, East Grinstead...) and bike restrictions (there was a Lon > Btn ride on Sunday so everything south of Gatwich was verboten). Shiiiiiiit.

Wider, the last climb had rocks 3 times the width of my tyres that had me skipping over a longish steep climb.
Which was making it difficult to keep momentum on a single speed.
Some intermediate 29er tyres next time I think. Need to find something nice in 1.7" - 1.9"

Gotcha.
I do the 'road' way (and the Downs Link) on 48:16 and it's okay for most of the way without knee-popping scrambles. Without wanting to kick the arse out of it - what would you say works best for the whole trip?
The skip-worthy gaspipe/27" frame that I was going to offer here for free, suddenly looks like a project : )

We were on the downs link for some of the journey. It was really only the tasty hill (Beeding) at the end that had the troublesome rocks. I did appreciate running my lower gear for it though (44 - 22)

That last hill is hard work, there are rocks everywhere, a big rut in the middle, all making that 15% seem like 150. I had it in 42:42 once it started getting rough and I'd have liked lower. My legs are only just about feeling normal again.

I did Christ's Hospital to Brighton via Shoreham yesterday. On 32-630 Marathons and 52:20. Lots of bouncing chain*, but it was pretty much perrrrfect. Some of the closed sections were a bit of a challenge for the tires I was on. The funny feeling of ultra smooth tarmac when you get to the Adur at Shoreham had me chuckling.
Oh. And stacked it at Croydon, because I'd been too lazy to loosen off the beater M454 pedals† I was using. Proper idiot.

[Building a bike from shed parts the night before you ride out into nowhere, not recommended]

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