Best Gravel Riding in the UK? I visit the New Forest to find out!

It’s mid August 2025. I see the weather report for the week looks near perfect. I decide to take a day off work and have a mini break. But what to do? I know I want to cycle. The north is too far for a single day off mid week. Essex is lovely but I have done a lot of milage there over the summer and I want the day off to feel like a holiday, so needs to be something different. I have heard a lot of good things about the gravel riding in the New Forest. I decide to take the gravel bike down there and see for myself what it is like! I get a route from a friend that visits often and knows gravel well, load up the car with all my gear and head down the night before, so I get a full day in the Forest. How did I get on? You will have to watch and find out!

Hotel I stayed at: https://www.thepighotel.com/brockenhurst/
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Blog: https://puncheurchronicles.org/blog/
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/puncheurchronicles/
Threads: https://www.threads.com/@puncheurchronicles
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/puncheurchronicles.bsky.social
Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/puncheurchronicles
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Nutrition I Use (not sponsored, I just love these and mention them in the videos)
Voom Bars (Raspberry): https://www.voomnutrition.co.uk/products/pocket-rocket-electro-energy-bar-raspberry
Styrkr Rice Bar (choc chip): https://styrkr.com/products/bar50-high-carb-rice-energy-bar-dark-chocolate-chip
Styrkr Recovery Bar (inc protien salted caramel): https://styrkr.com/products/bar-salted-caramel-recovery-bar
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Tech & Apps (not sponsored just a fan and use daily)
Garmin (Bike computer, watch, power meter pedals and scales) : https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/
Route Planning App: https://www.komoot.com/plan
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#cyclevlogging #vlogging #cycle #lancashire #yorkshire #cycletour

So, I’m somewhere a little bit different today. Uh, I had a long uh couple of weeks at work. Lots of hours, lots of uh getting stuff delivered. And with that passing, I thought I’d have a bit of a short restorative break. So, I took a day off last minute when I saw the weather. Uh, booked myself into a hotel down in the New Forest. And I have a 110 km route that my friend Norbert gave me that he does a lot down here uh that I will try and tackle today. It’s a gravel route. I’ve not ridden off-road in a very long time. I’m not used to it. My gravel bike is my commuter bike typically at the moment, so it’s done a lot of kilometers, but uh it has not done any off-road in quite a while. So, it’s going to be really fun to see how that that pans out today. Um, but yeah, I am looking forward to it. The weather’s supposed to be really good today, like 28° and sunny. We’ll see. It’s been quite changeable of late, so maybe it’ll be like that for 10 minutes and rain for a bit. But you know what? It’s going to be an adventure in a forest on some gravel. So, let’s see how it goes. Let’s see if I stay upright. Let’s see if I’ve got the right bike handling skills. But all in all, looking forward to it. Stayed in a place called The Pig overnight. You should be able to see it behind me. Really nice hotel, really nice breakfast. I would recommend uh really really lovely place. [Music] So, I’m out on the road. I’m in the New Forest. I’m on the gravel bike, which recently has been the commuter bike. It’s done tons and tons of kilometers, but but all on the gnarly roads leading east into London. uh or leading into East London rather. Today in more of its natural territory, the New Forest uh I have 110 km route that at the moment seems to be on road but I am promised takes in a lot of gravel roads. Uh so I am really looking forward to it. Uh it’s uh it kind of crisscrosses all through the New Forest. So I should get to see quite a lot of the New Forest, which is great. Um it’s a route provided by a friend. He’s a he’s a gravel fanatic, so I’m sure this is going to be an excellent route. Uh I love being in the trees. It really is a forest. Like I go to Forest of Boland and it’s not really a forest, whereas New Forest is actually a forest. So, that’s quite cool as well. It’s going to be hot today. Uh, I forgot my suntan lotion, so that was a bit stupid, but I’m hoping with the shade of the trees, I will be okay. Obviously, if it isn’t the case, I’ll figure it out on the way. Uh, I also only have one bottle cage or only had one bottle cage on this bike. So, uh, I stopped at Wood Cycle Reef for a coffee this morning, which was excellent. Really cool gravel shop. They got tons of uh gravel bikes in there for sale. They hire gravel bikes for you to ride on daily. And they have a really cool coffee shop that does actual artisan coffee. Uh really well made. Really, really well made. So 10 out of 10 coffee shop for cyclists. 10 out of 10 gravel shop for cyclists. Um so yeah, good start to the day. And now look where I am. I am riding through the New Forest on my gravel bike. How random and how cool is that? I am looking forward to it. I am enjoying it already. And with that, I’ll get back to the ride. [Music] just completed my first uh proper section of gravel. I was riding through gravel section there. Uh I don’t know 6 or 7 km something like that. Uh maybe a bit longer. Um, what I can say is the fact that I haven’t ridden on off-road for like a year and a half is showing. I feel like a complete new cyclist again. It reminds me of that feeling when I first started riding a road bike and like every small wobble in the bike, your whole body tenses up and you’ve got no confidence. And I I’m exactly like that on this gravel. This gravel is like compacted champagne gravel. There’s families going around on like bicycles with baskets on. And here’s me with a fullyfledged gravel bike tensing up every time I go around a corner. So, yeah, super interesting. Like, you know, I’ve done 200 km a week on my road bike for quite a while now and you know, feel fine, comfortable, obviously, you know, enjoy it. And then you come just to a slightly different discipline and it’s so different. like it’s so different and I know, you know, it’s good. It teaches you riding off-road teaches you balance, which is great. A lot of the Moto GP riders ride off-road motorbikes in the offseason to train and get them better on the on the racetrack. And I can see that if you did this a lot, you’d be probably a better road rider as well because you have to push more power to go slower is one thing. So you get a workout in shorter distances, but also just that that looseness of the surface just forces you to focus a bit more on bike handling. Um, at the moment I am teetering around. I’ve averaged 16 km an hour so far. So I mean 110 k is going to be a long way. I might have to rethink uh how far I cycle today. Um, but at the moment I’m going to keep going. I’ve got plenty of time. It’s only It is only half 10, so I’ve got plenty of time. I’m not on a clock today, so I’m having fun. Like, it’s a kind of stressful fun at the moment where I’m very tense and I’m worried about falling off, but at the same time, I’m in this incredible place surrounded by dense forest. There’s horses just, you know, wildly roaming around. There’s cows. Same same deal. Just wildly roaming around. Just really cool. Doesn’t feel like you’re in southern England. It feels like you’re in a remote forest, which is cool. Apart from there is a background noise of a motorway somewhere that you can hear, but apart from that, you wouldn’t know. You’d think you’re in the wilderness, which is quite cool at the moment. So, yeah, I’m going to have a quick bite of a uh sturka. rice bar and then I’m going to get back on to the route. It looks like it’s tarmac for a little bit. Not sure how long for. Uh that’ll probably help me get the kilometers an hour up a bit and then no doubt there’ll be tons of uh gravel still to come. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Just pulled over at the roadside. I am in the middle of nowhere as you can see. middle of the uh New Forest and I was about to climb up this hill here and basically a massive lorry came towards me. Uh so I thought, you know what, I’m going to pull over. So I pulled over. Uh we had a bit of a chat actually. He stopped as he was passing. He’s looking for some logs to pick up. Uh and actually I did pass some, but I think there were about 10ks uh back that way. So yeah, he’s still got to he’s still got to navigate a bit. And the path is quite gnarly, actually. I’ll be surprised if he uh if he finds them. But good luck to him on his mission. Uh I’m enjoying it. I’m slowly slowly getting a bit more confident. I’m still super slow. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do the full 110ks, but you know what? I’ll worry about that later. I’m enjoying the uh I’m enjoying the weather. I’m enjoying being in the forest. I’m starting to enjoy the gravel a bit. I’m super cautious on bends. Uh you can really feel the front skip when it turns on gravel, so I still haven’t got used to that. But as soon as it flattens out and it’s a bit straight, I can get a bit of speed up again, which is nice. Uh and on the actually on the hills, I’m I’m okay as well. Uh just cuz I’m used to doing quite a lot of seated power on the uh hills of Lancasher. It translates quite well, it seems, to gravel hills. I guess the gradients aren’t as steep, but because you’ve got more rolling resistance with the gravel, you have to put a bit more power down. So, that feels a bit more natural. Uh, but you but you have to be in uh easier gear. I found like you can’t have the sort of big ring on gravel, you just when you when you put a bit too much power through the back just skips. So, that’s another lesson. Um, so yeah, slowly slowly learning. Another thing I’ve realized is when I used to do the motorcycle trap days, one of the things the fast group folks used to tell you is always look where you want to go. Don’t look where don’t look right in front of you. Look where you want to be. So, especially on corners, you look around the corner. You don’t look down. And actually, that seems to help with gravel riding, like keeping your head up and looking where you want to be. Still paying attention to the gravel in front of you, but not looking down. Definitely looking where you want to go seems to help. And it feels a bit like you don’t really steer the bike in the same way. You sort of it sort of goes where it’s going and you’re just trying to guide it more than you are actually steering it. So yeah, slowly slowly learning little bits and pieces and slowly slowly chipping away at it. Still very slow, like very very slow, but enjoying myself. And it’s not a race. I’m here to have fun. I am having fun. So, so far the goal is being achieved. Back to it. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Look where I am. in the middle of nowhere. What an epic view. I am 50 kilometers in. It is 2:00. I started at 10:00. I think from that you should be able to tell I am not very fast on gravel. In fact, I’m a complete noob. uh every like there’s there’s sections where it’s flat and it’s champagne gravel and it’s fairly compact and I get my confidence and I get up to speed and then suddenly you get gnarly sections where it’s a bit steep, the gravel’s a lot deeper which pulls the front wheel around a bit more. Uh there’s even been like a whole ton of uh sections just now where I had to get off and walk the bike around. Not because I don’t have the power, but because I don’t have the confidence to descend. And so then I have to walk it down. And then you have to walk it up because you can’t start on a steep incline. But I’m having a lot of fun. I’m definitely 10 times more confident now than I was when I started. Uh but still very much a newbie. So I will not do the full 110 today. I had a look at the route and around 67ks it will go it will turn and start to go away from where I’m parked the car. So 67ks I’m going to take a slightly different route. So I think it will be about 70 75 in total which is still a decent day out and at this rate will still take me through to 4:00ish I think. So yeah I mean I’m having tons of fun and I am in the most beautiful countryside. Uh, and yeah, uh, it’s it’s enjoyable riding off-road. I mean, it’s like any new thing you try. You go through this like emotional roller coaster where one minute you’re like, wee, I’m having so much fun. This is the best. And then you hit a technical section or you have a little wobble and you sort of think, oh, why am I doing this? Why am I not on the road? And then you have another section in and it’s wee. So, it’s been like that all the way around, actually. But every time I have one of the moments where I’m like, why am I doing this? I then look up and look at the scenery and remember, I love to be outside. And when you’re on a gravel bike, you are in the middle of the countryside, even more so than the road bike. So, I understand why people enjoy this. And uh yeah, if I had gravel like this on my doorstep, I think I’d do a lot more. Um having fun. Got my Stirker. Keeping myself fueled with Sturker chocolate flavor. Basically tastes like cocoa pops. So yeah, have another bite of this and then I’ll get back to it. [Music] So, I’m sat here in the woods, as you can probably see, completely surrounded by trees. Uh, I was riding along the actual tarmac road just through here. Uh, and I spotted the words ice cream on the side of the van and it looked like it was going to be nice ice cream. So, I pulled into the car park. uh and stopped up. I also needed water to be fair. So, I convinced myself that that was the reason I was stopping, but no, it was the it was the ice cream if I’m honest. Uh and they had mint chocolate chips, so that was a win. That’s definitely my favorite flavor. And to be honest, it said artisan. Um I don’t know that I would call it artisan, but it was good. It was good enough. Uh, which given I’m in a car park in the middle of nowhere was a good find. Uh, I bought two bottles of water, so I’ve now rehydrated. I am only 60ks in and it is 300 p.m. So, I’ve been going since 10, so that’s a solid 5 hours. So, that should tell you how slow I am on gravel. Um, yeah, I have had fun. I have had an adventure. Uh but clearly I am not going to do 110ks today. That was ambitious. Uh I think maybe I had my roadie head on and I thought well 110ks 5 hours that’ll be fine. 20ks an hour that’s probably my gravel pace. Uh I was wrong. I was wrong about that. So So there you go. Uh terms of gravel. There’s been bits where I’ve been quite fast actually like hard packed straight gravel towards the end. like uh 50 to 60ks was actually pretty quick. It’s like 40 minutes or something. Uh pretty quick, you know. You can tell I’ve had my uh speed reset there. But I’m definitely getting more comfortable now off road. Uh the first bit I was super uncomfortable. Then I got a bit of confidence. Then the route got gnarly. Uh so I lost confidence again. So, it’s just that roller coaster of um when you’re learning a new skill and you go in and out of feeling like you know what you’re doing. Uh generally had tons of fun. Been in beautiful countryside. Hardly seen anyone all day. Like this car park is full. But I don’t know, maybe people just come to the car park because the actual woods have been empty. Uh there was one guy on a gravel bike with a dog in his backpack with a like a sound system blaring which I thought was seven shades of weird but uh each to their own. Um but apart from that uh I’ve had a blast and I thought that was weird not because of the dog in the backpack by the way. That’s pretty cool. It was more that you would in a serene quiet woods bring a loudspeaker. didn’t really suit the gravel look if I’m honest. Feel like you more want to enjoy the sounds of the birds and the trees. But as I said, each to their own. Uh plan now. I’ve just replanned a route uh 7 km back to Lindhurst where the car is parked. Should make it back to Woods Cycle uh before they close. Maybe have another coffee just to get me through the drive home. Um or if they’ve got something savory, some food, because I am hungry. Um yeah, so it’s going to have been an epic day. It’s been really restorative. I definitely feel recharged. I feel a bit like I’ve been through a washing machine in the sense I’ve been shaking around. Um which is which is different and fun. And I love being in the forest. Absolutely love it. Definitely coming back to the New Forest. It’s beautiful. Um so yeah, all in all, I have had a good day. It was a good use of a day off. It’s been sunny and warm, which is lovely. Uh not too much wind, which for 2025 is outstanding. Um so yeah, different different kind of riding. Really enjoyed it. Uh I feel like the gravel bike has been my commuter bike this year. It’s done tons of KS in and out of London, but I feel like it feels a bit more at home here. So yeah, that was fun. That was fun. It needs a clean now, though. It is filthy. Um, in terms of nutrition, I just brought my sturker with me. I also bought some boom, but for some reason, I just prefer the stirker today. Uh, and yeah, a couple of bottles of water with electrolyte in, which I’ve just topped up. So, yeah, good ride. Good ride. Would recommend. Would recommend. Um, and if you’re a roadie like me who hasn’t ridden gravel in a very long time, and even then only a couple of times before, I would say definitely plan for like a pace of around 15 10 to 15ks an hour. Uh, unless you’re a lot more confident with the slip and slide of being offroad than I am. Uh, it is slower going, especially if like me, you tense up a lot. But yeah, huge amounts of fun. Glad glad I did this today. Glad I did this today. I needed a restorative day and this has delivered. [Music]