A Sunday morning Dorset Grit and Gravel group ride across the New Forest, starting from Ferndown Police Station and heading out along the Castleman Trailway towards Ringwood before looping through the forest.
After a few days of rain, it was always going to be a proper UK summer gravel ride: wet trails, puddles, shoe covers, no mudguard, and bike cleaning waiting at the end.
The route took us from Ferndown onto the Castleman Trailway, through Ringwood, then into the New Forest via some excellent gravel sections before looping back through:
Canadian War Memorial
Lyndhurst
Brockenhurst
Burbush
Ringwood
Castleman Trailway back towards home
It was a social ride rather than a smash-fest, with the usual mix of bikes, chatter, tunnel echoes, puddles, dog walkers, cows, coffee, and a few “premium gravel” sections.
The Garmin/Wahoo heart-rate data had a complete moment at one point, briefly claiming 200+ bpm, which was definitely a reading error rather than anything dramatic. No chest tightness, no panic — just dodgy data doing dodgy data things.
Coffee stop in Brockenhurst, homemade flapjack instead of cake, and then a steady ride home. Around 60 miles by the end, a bit mucky, but nothing compared with the winter we’ve just had.
A successful day out:
good company, proper gravel, minimal road, and just enough weather to make it feel British.
🚴♂️ Active Retirement – Ride. REST. Refuel. Repeat.
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6 Comments
Pleasure as always to ride with you guys
That was quite a pacy ride in places there Mike, I was out of breath just watching you all! A good ride in all respects though – company, terrain and scenery, distance, weather etc, and cleaning the bike afterwards just completes the ride, puts a full stop under it as it were. Great stuff!
An excellent ride would be good to look at the route you done are you on komoot or strava maybe I could follow you
Can you post the route please? I know the forest but lots I didn’t recognise so like to ride the route.
I 9:22
I have a polar much more reliable