The Ridgeway

[Chicken Legs]

I am looking to ride The Ridgeway in late February,out and back complete with a bivvi.
Would like to know what you chaps think the route would be like to ride at that time of
year and any other helpful info to make the ride more enjoyable.
Thanks
Andy

[jameso]

It's my home trail, starts after 3-4 miles of singletrack from my door. Honest answer from riding the Chiltern end area, many RW e2e trips and bivi weekends is wait till it dries up, or set out for a sloggy longer day ride either direction (10-12hrs, good going to do much less and could easily be more). The Chilterns end around Chinnor will be a chalk-clag mess at the moment and the Vale of the White Horse area gets chalky and wet too. It's not too hilly though and can make a really nice ride I think, I do tend to substitute some of the footpaths at the Chilterns end for more fun and less contentious sections and the Thames footpath is best avoided via a neat diversion due to stiles, adds a few miles but not much.
I could point these bits for you out on mapping software possibly as I've just devised a few detours after riding it over the past couple of years. Posting me a map and a marker pen and me returning it marked up would be faster tho! HTH.

[Chicken Legs]

Thanks James, is their one map covering the entire route ?
Haven't got round to looking at a map yet !
If you could pm me your address I will send you a map as marking up your preferred route
would be a great help.
Looking to ride this with a TD veteran like yourself as part of my training for this years TD

[jameso]

haha my guiding rates are low but may still offer poor vfm : ) Ok great stuff, if you're aiming at the Divide you won't let the RW mud put you off. It's a fairly useful training run I think.
Not sure how many OS maps cover the route, OS 171 and 181 cover most of the alternative sections, the rest is well marked and easy to follow. First couple of trips I just used the walker's route, gates may be the only real faff as it'll be quiet that time of year.

[TheBrownDog]

CL

Sustrans has a map of the route - its 1:40,000 if that's any good to ya. Im sure there were GPX files of it kicking around. Its dead easy to follow thanks to the signs and because its so well used.

http://shop.sustrans.org.uk/products/5292-ridgeway

[Chicken Legs]

Thanks, the Sustran map looks like it will do the job

[mlambonja]

Went out cycling from Goring towards Avebury about 2 weeks ago. Exactly 20km into the ride the rear derailleur hanger snapped off due to mud. No spare hanger. Had to walk back to Goring Train Station. At least the last 6km was downhill. Washed my bike in the Thames . Next time and on every epic trail I will take a spare hanger and a Gusset singlespeed converter. HINT - Don't ride the Ridgeback when it's wet!