Belated Surrey Hills spring equinox/summer solstice ride MTB ride - was Saturday March 21st, now Sunday July 5th

So to mark the official start of spring I'm organising a guided Surrey Hills MTB ride on Saturday March 21st. Technically the equinox is Friday 20th but obviously Saturday will be better for the purposes of a ride.

Plan will be to meet at Peaslake Village Stores at around 11am. This can start later if people wish as I know if you are travelling by train to Gomshall (the nearest train station to Peaslake) getting there by that time might be difficult.

General outline of the ride will be to ride Holmbury Hill and Pitch Hill/Winterfold. All are welcome to join if you have a safe, maintained mountain bike, a helmet and some off-road riding experience. All skill levels welcome (within reason, if you're a complete beginner this might not be the best ride to start on), I won't take you down anything super steep or with unavoidable jumps/gaps (unless you want to). If you haven't ridden the Surrey Hills before and want to see where the good trails are this is a good starting point. Even though I don't ride the area regularly any more I did used to, for a number of years, and I still go there at least twice a year so my familiarity with the trail network is pretty good.

Expect natural, fun, flowy singletrack; punchy climbs; cheese straws and a good few hours of riding.

@dogs @platypus

I've heard that Pedal and Spoke will be offering e-mtb hire soon...

That will really open up the trails to wobblers everywhere! :-D *

• I'd definitely join the wobbling on an e-bike, they are great. Won't buy one till they're less expensive and more reliable though.
  

What's the worst that could happen?

I'd definitely join the wobbling on an e-bike, they are great. Won't buy one till they're less expensive and more reliable though.

Yes! Wobblers aren't smart enough to hire e-mtbs. They'll just buy them, break them, then leave them in the shed.

E-armageddon. ;-)

I edited my post before you replied coz I was doing jks. E-bikes are great, but if you ride off-road in typical British conditions a lot they're not reliable yet. A few of my mates have e-MTBs and they all have the same story: repeated breakdowns, three replacement warranty batteries and motors within a two year warranty period.
Then when you're out of warranty such replacements cost up to £800-£1000.

I'm going to wait till they're more reliable and cheaper. Renting them is a good way to go, however.

"Yes! Wobblers aren't smart enough to hire e-mtbs. They'll just buy them, break them, then leave them in the shed."

Hearty lolz. :-D

Will be coming out of winter MTB hibernation around that time.

Yassss

Indeed a good time to come out of hibernation. :-)

@BareNecessities?

@TvH?!? :-D

Can't believe nobody has tagged me. Outrageous

I would like to, but I'm still rubbish at travelling anywhere

BN, pls

In, although I'll try not to snap my MCL this time

No worries, I'll catch up with you on a Badger's ride soon.

Alrighty (not alrighty for the MCL part though).

I do miss riding around that area, so won't say never :-)

@Aroogah?

Also that guy who only buys budget bikes, @Dammit?

@Landslide?

@Scrabble?

I'm just adding names now for the sake of it.

I could be up for this.

Could maybe bring some polo crew.

Nice one. Yeah, bring people. I'd like to have as many as possible. Riding in a big group and having long trains would be rad.

Will pencil it in.

Nice one.

Riding in a big group and having long trains would be rad.

Until people start getting lost

Maybe that's just me